HUDSON (WI)
Minnesota Public Radio
October 3, 2005
Hudson, Wis. — (AP) A deacon testified Monday at an investigative hearing that a priest told him he killed a funeral home director and an intern.
Deacon Russell Lundgren, from St. Mary's Church in Hurley, said he talked to Rev. Ryan Erickson after police interviewed him about the fatal shootings of Dan O'Connell, 39, and intern James Ellison, 22, at the O'Connell Family Funeral Home in Hudson on Feb. 5, 2002.
He said Erickson was angry.
"He tells me that 'I done it and they were going to catch me," Lundgren testified Monday during a so-called John Doe hearing, which is expected to last three days and involve 15 witnesses.
The hearing was closed to the public, but a few reporters were allowed to attend. ...
A Somerset man also testified Monday that Erickson served him alcohol when he was 16 or 17 years old and sexually fondled him in the priest's bed in 2000 and 2001. He said it happened about 10 times after the two met when he was training to become an altar boy.