After police found blood stains on the walls and floor of his apartment, a Columbia Heights man was charged with second-degree murder Wednesday in connection with the death of his 16-year-old son, Jordan “Manny” Collins Jr. His son’s body was found last month in a landfill.
The Anoka County attorney’s office charged Jordan Dupree Collins Sr., 38, with second-degree attempted murder with intent but not premeditated.
Jordan “Manny” Collins Jr. (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)
According to the criminal complaint, Collins Jr.’s mother filed a missing person report with the Columbia Heights Police Department on May 12. She told police that her son lived with his father in an apartment in Columbia Heights. She last heard from Collins Jr. about 4 a.m. May 8 when he reacted to a text message she sent him.
When police talked to Collins Sr. about the missing person report, he told law enforcement that his son left the apartment the afternoon of May 8 to take a bus to St. Paul to visit his grandmother and girlfriend.
Police learned later that Collins Jr. never arrived at his grandmother’s or girlfriend’s home.
Collins Jr.’s girlfriend told police she was on a video call with Collins Jr. until she fell asleep about 2:30 a.m. May 8. Collins Jr. was in his father’s apartment during the call. She said he didn’t seem upset and he didn’t tell her he was planning on visiting her.
Search finds blood, knives
Law enforcement executed a search warrant at Collins Sr.’s apartment May 15, according to the complaint. Police found items stained by blood in garbage bags in the living room closet. They also located butcher-style knives in a bedroom closet and a mattress on the bedroom floor with a piece of its underside missing. A piece of carpet and carpet padding were also missing underneath the mattress. None of these pieces were found in the apartment, according to police.
On May 17, analysis showed that the DNA from the blood stains in Collins Sr.’s apartment matched DNA taken from Collins Jr.’s personal items. Law enforcement conducted more tests in the apartment and found blood from Collins Jr. on the bedroom wall.
According to the complaint, video footage from May 13 showed a garbage truck emptying the contents of a large dumpster behind Collins Sr.’s apartment. This led police to believe the body of Collins Jr. went from the dumpster in Columbia Heights to the Elk River landfill.
Body found, father arrested
Law enforcement began searching the landfill June 4. Police used GPS data from the facility to find the area where contents from the Columbia Heights dumpster would be located.
The FBI brought in its Laboratory Evidence Response Team Unit and the Technical Hazardous Response Unit from Virginia to help in the investigation. A member of the search team discovered Collins Jr.’s body on June 28.
Jordan Dupree Collins Sr. (Courtesy of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office)
Collins Sr. gave a voluntary statement to police Monday. He told them he cut the mattress and carpet sections to clean up his own blood. The blood near the mattress and carpet cuttings matched the DNA of Collins Jr., and no blood from Collins Sr. was found in the apartment.
Collins Sr. said he owned the knives found in the apartment and that he used them to butcher goats and sheep.
Investigators received preliminary autopsy results Monday. Result showed evidence of decapitation by knife and suggested the manner of death as homicide.
Collins Sr. was arrested Monday and made his first court appearance Wednesday.
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