A former employee of a Stillwater-area funeral home has been charged with stealing the skull of a woman before her body was cremated in 2001.

Benjamin Carl Hanson, 57, of Bayport, was arrested Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025, in connection with a stolen skull discovered by Boy Scouts in 2002 in St. Croix County, Wis. (Courtesy of St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office)

Benjamin Carl Hanson, 57, of Bayport, was arrested on Wednesday on charges of hiding a corpse and felony theft in connection with the crime, which was discovered in October 2002 when Boy Scouts found the skull at the Fred C. Anderson Boy Scout Camp in Somerset Township, Wis.

Authorities say Hanson worked as a funeral director for Simonet Funeral Home in Oak Park Heights in the early 2000s.

In August, DNA and genetic testing confirmed the skull belonged to Alyce C. Peterson, 92, of Stillwater. She died of natural causes on July, 23, 2001 at Regions Hospital in St. Paul, according to the St. Croix County, Wis., Sheriff’s Office.

Peterson was reportedly cremated at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Maplewood, and relatives were given her ashes.

On Oct. 19, 2002, a group of Boy Scouts hiking at the camp stumbled upon garbage bags in a ravine that contained human remains. They notified the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office.

DNA tests were done on the remains, but officials could not identify the person.

Nearly two decades later, in February 2021, the case was brought to the DNA Doe Project, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization headquartered in Sebastopol, Calif., whose mission is to identify John and Jane Does and return them to their families, and a DNA profile was generated. In August, authorities announced it belonged to Peterson.

Related Articles

Division III football: River Falls continues playoff run to semis after beating Wheaton

Mahtomedi woman dies after being struck by vehicle on I-94

New Richmond: 8-year-old dies in crash on icy curve

20-year sentence for New Richmond man, 71, who strangled wife after ‘things got out of hand’

Superior, Wis., officer shot; suspect crashes into middle school

According to the criminal complaint, filed in St. Croix County District Court, Hanson was the only employee at Simonet Funeral Home who had access to Peterson’s body in 2001.

One former Simonet employee told investigators that he believed Hanson was hospitalized in 2001 for “mental-health reasons,” the complaint states.

Another former employee, who was hired to replace Hanson, said Hanson “attempted to swerve at her in the parking lot with his vehicle in 2003,” according to the criminal complaint. Funeral home officials attempted to file a retraining order against him, but that was denied, the complaint states.

Hanson allegedly stole from Simonet Funeral Home by “purchasing school supplies and lawnmower parts on the company credit card, as well as having HVAC work completed at his residence, all paid for by Simonet Funeral Home,” the complaint states. “(She) described Hanson as moody and irate.”

When Simonet Funeral Home officials fired Hanson, law-enforcement officers had to remove him from the premises, the complaint states.

St. Croix County Sheriff Scott Knudson announced the charges and arrest in a press release issued Thursday.

“We wish to express our condolences and appreciation to the family of Alyce Peterson, who respectfully requests privacy as they grieve the renewed attention surrounding their loved one’s death,” he said in a statement.

By STAN CHOE, AP Business Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are jumping on Thursday following an encouraging report on inflation that could help the Federal Reserve keep cutting interest rates next year. A strong profit report from Micron Technology also helped AI stocks halt their sharp slides, at least for now.

Related Articles

US says price increases eased last month but data may be distorted and Americans aren’t feeling it

Experts share their top tips to save money this holiday season

After helium discovery, hunt for Minnesota hydrogen ramps up

More drops for AI stocks drag Wall Street to its worst day in nearly a month

Warner Bros recommends investors reject Paramount’s offer in favor of Netflix’s

The S&P 500 rallied 1.4% and is on track for its best day in three weeks, coming off a four-day losing streak. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 411 points, or 0.9%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the strength for tech stocks had the Nasdaq composite up a market-leading 2%.

Some relief came from a report showing that inflation was less bad last month than economists expected. That could soothe nerves at the Fed, which is responsible for keeping inflation low and for keeping the job market strong.

Inflation is still higher than anyone would like, at 2.7% last month, but if it creeps closer to the Fed’s target of 2%, Fed officials could feel more free to cut interest rates to help a slowing job market. Wall Street loves lower interest rates because they can boost the economy and prices for investments, even if they may also worsen inflation.

To be sure, some along Wall Street said Thursday’s inflation update may not move the needle much at the Fed given how noisy economic reports have been following the U.S. government’s earlier shutdown. Next month’s update on inflation could provide a better gauge of what’s actually happening. But a better-than-expected report on inflation is nevertheless better than the alternative.

Also helping to drive the U.S. stock market was Micron Technology, the seller of memory and storage for computers, which rallied 12.3% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said each of the company’s business units enjoyed stronger revenue and made more in profit off each $1 of that revenue.

Micron also gave encouraging forecasts for upcoming financial results, and Mehrotra credited its position as an “AI enabler,” among other things.

Billions of dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology, which helped superstar stocks like Nvidia lead the market for years.

But questions are rising about whether those stock prices shot too high and whether customers will get a good-enough return on AI investments through bigger profits and productivity. Worries are also weighing on companies that are borrowing lots of money to pay for AI investments.

Oracle and Broadcom have been at the center of such worries recently, and their stock prices have been falling sharply since last week despite both reporting better profits for the latest quarter than analysts expected. On Thursday, Oracle rose 2.1%, and Broadcom added 0.3%.

Nvidia, the chip company that’s become Wall Street’s most influential because of its immense size, gained 2.7%.

Another winner was Trump Media & Technology Group, which jumped 34% to carve into some of its steep loss for the year so far, 69.3% coming into the day. The company, which began with President Donald Trump’s Truth Social platform and then moved into cryptocurrencies and various other lines of business, is now moving into nuclear power.

It’s merging with TAE Technologies in an all-stock deal, and each company will own roughy half of the combined business. The companies said the deal would pair TMTG’s ability to raise significant money by attracting investors with TAE’s technology. They hope to get TAE’s nuclear-fusion reactors, which would create power in a similar way as the sun does, running commercially.

Cintas rose 0.9% after the provider of work uniforms and cleaning supplies reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected, while also announcing a program to send up to $1 billion to shareholders by buying back its own stock.

Darden Restaurants, the company behind Olive Garden and LongHorn Steakhouse, rose 0.9% even though its profit for the latest quarter fell short of analysts’ expectations. Its growth in revenue topped forecasts, benefiting from both the opening of new restaurants and increased revenue at its older locations.

CarMax swung sharply between gains and losses and was most recently down 0.7%. The auto retailer reported a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. But it also said it may make less profit from each $1 of revenue in sales of used autos during the current quarter, as it tries to get more competitive in the market. It also plans to increase spending on marketing to drive customers to lots.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose 0.3% in London, 0.5% in France and 0.5% in Germany after the Bank of England cut its key interest rate and the European Central Bank kept its steady.

Asian indexes were mixed, with stocks falling 1.5% in South Korea but adding 0.2% in Shanghai.

In the bond market, Treasury yields sank following the encouraging report on U.S. inflation.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.11% from 4.16% late Wednesday.

AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

By ADITHI RAMAKRISHNAN

NEW YORK (AP) — The last major meteor shower of the year, known as the Ursids, peaks soon, bringing glowing streaks to nighttime and early morning skies. Compared to other meteor showers, it’s more subdued, but experts say it’s still worth a glimpse.

Related Articles

Saturn’s moon Titan may not have a buried ocean as long suspected, new study suggests

Interstellar comet keeps its distance as it makes its closest approach to Earth

Archaeologists find oldest evidence of fire-making

Study finds humans were making fire 400,000 years ago, far earlier than once thought

How to watch one of the year’s best meteor showers, the Geminids

Meteor showers happen when space rocks hit Earth’s atmosphere at extremely high speeds and burn up, gaining fiery tails — the end of a “shooting star.” Random meteors are visible from Earth on any given clear night, but more predictable meteor showers happen yearly when Earth passes through streams of cosmic leftovers from comets or asteroids.

The Ursids peak Sunday night into Monday morning and will be visible until Dec. 26 from the Northern Hemisphere. Skygazers usually see five to 10 meteors per hour during the height and there’s a possibility for outbursts of up to 25 meteors per hour, according to the American Meteor Society.

How active a shower will appear from Earth depends on the amount of debris and the moon’s brightness, which can blot out glowing meteors. The Ursids feature less space debris than other showers like the Geminids, but the narrow crescent moon won’t be much of an obstacle when they peak.

No special equipment is needed to view a meteor shower. To see the Ursids, which hail from a comet called 8P/Tuttle, bundle up and get away from city lights.

“The darker your sky, the better the shower is going to be,” said astronomer Peter Brown with Western University in Canada.

The meteors can be seen over the whole sky, but all the streaks will seem to come from a central point near a constellation for which the shower is named. In this case, that’s the constellation Ursa Minor, also known as the Little Dipper.

Once it gets dark, avoid bright lights from cellphones, which will make it harder for your eyes to adjust.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Tracing social media accounts and a phone number led police to arrest a 16-year-old in Eagan, who was charged Thursday with four counts of threats of violence with intent to terrorize.

Police and prosecutors say the teen’s social media posts that threatened shootings at high schools in Dakota County led eight high schools to close on Tuesday. They reopened on Wednesday.

Though firearms were seen in videos, Apple Valley Police Chief Nick Francis said they did not find weapons in a search of the teen’s family’s home and added “there is no belief that the suspect had access to weapons.”

The Dakota County Attorney’s Office charged him Thursday with four felonies.

When police took the teen into custody on Tuesday, he “initially stated that he did not make the posts” and eventually “said he made the posts because an unknown person had forced him to do it,” according to the juvenile petition’s probable cause statement.

“When asked to provide further details or an identity of this unknown person, (the teen) did not provide further information on this individual, and the tone and demeanor indicated this allegation was not true,” the probable cause statement continued. “… The allegation that another individual was involved in this incident is unfounded.”

The schools closed in Independent School District 196 Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan Tuesday were Eastview, Eagan, Rosemount and Apple Valley high schools, along with the district’s two other high schools, Area Learning Center and School of Environmental Studies.

In neighboring Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191, Burnsville High School and Burnsville Alternative High School were closed Tuesday. The district dismissed all elementary and middle schools early that day.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Related Articles

Brian Walshe is sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife, whose body was never found

Bret Stephens: Good people and good nations do not stomp on the grief of others

St. Paul officers won’t be charged in fatal shooting of man who pointed gun

After encounter with St. Paul school security, 11-year-old found with pellet gun in backpack

Police: ‘No indication’ anyone beyond 16-year-old involved in Dakota County school threats