The first act of the Minnesota mystery has now closed. The New York Times ran the story headlined, “Suspect in Minnesota Attacks Is Arrested, Ending Manhunt.” They called the largest manhunt in state history. The suspect, Vance Boelter—unemployed but mysteriously well-off—was found crawling through a cornfield about an hour from his house, a scene equal parts Coen brothers and classified op-gone-wrong.
They didn’t say if he’d crawled the whole way. But I can tell you this: He wouldn’t have lasted an hour in a field in Florida, not in that getup. It’s too hot. Even if he’d taken off his military-style cargo jacket, the skeeters would have got him. Or gators.
Anyway, the story of how they found Vance Boelter, 57, is as convoluted and difficult to credit as the rest of his bizarre story. It begins with an “alert police officer” (I swear that’s what they said), a conveniently located trail camera, drone surveillance, and— Bob’s Your Uncle, there he was. So far, this story bears many parallels to Trump assassin Ryan Routh’s: weird world travels, loads of inactive small business entities, military-level skills (from a pre-retiree!), and unaccountable funding without any visible source of income, which is the fact I will focus on for today’s post.
Boelter, 57, is a deeply strange figure: married father of five, owner of a sprawling rural estate, former convenience store manager, NGO “director,” freelance preacher, security consultant, business panelist, self-described funeral technician, and now—allegedly—a spree killer. His arrest narrative features the trademark deus ex trail cam, a conveniently alert patrol officer, and some helpful drone surveillance. Bob’s your uncle, Vance is in cuffs.
And just like Trump assassin Ryan Routh, the details get weirder the closer you look.
It first grabbed my attention as it became increasingly obvious the entire corporate media was avoiding saying one word in all the Boelter articles: unemployed. So far as I can tell, Boelter’s been out of work since his government grant ran out four months ago and he returned from Congo as though a man possessed by a demon.
But here’s the question: How did Vance Boelter fund an apparently lavish lifestyle —marked by a large home, five children, weapons, at least $50K in cash, disguises, and multiple vehicles (including a late-model SUV modified to look like a police car)— despite being unemployed? Where’d the money come from? It’s a conundrum, but don’t look to media to quell the curiosity.
Available information provides tantalizing clues without any definitive answers, and the narrative around Boelter’s finances is muddled by conflicting hot takes and unverified claims.
Boelter owned a rural home in Sibley County, Minnesota, 60 miles southwest of Minneapolis. He reportedly purchased it with his wife for around $500,000 just a few years ago. It sits on 11 acres halcyon rural acres, far from neighbors. The property, described by some as a “million-dollar estate,” suggests significant financial resources. And anyone who owns a home can imagine how much it costs to keep up. At least three businesses were registered at his address— none having offices or customers.
Boelter also bizarrely rented a room in North Minneapolis— a detail that screams staging house or cover identity, but is being treated like a quirky footnote.
Reports mention multiple vehicles, including a custom SUV (the one modified into a security/law enforcement vehicle), his wife’s car, and another expensive-looking auto found ‘abandoned’ near his home. The weapons and disguises (like a latex mask and police-style ballistic vest) imply access to specialized, costly equipment.
These days, supporting five children requires not insubstantial funds, though it’s unclear whether they are all still dependent. Here’s Boelter recently describing his bland work history, in his own words, to a group of fellow funeral industry class attendees:
Vance Boelter discussing his work experience at funeral homes and in the DRC.
Hopefully we find out his motive because something obviously made him go off the deep end. pic.twitter.com/355UBa7m9H
— The Researcher (@listen_2learn) June 16, 2025
Nor has any information been released about Jennifer Boelter’s current employment status, or whether she is also unemployed, mirroring the uncertainty around Vance Boelter’s job situation. Nor is there any evident media curiosity about Jennifer.
How did the Boelters fund their upper-middle-class lifestyle? Without any obvious source of income, he traveled internationally, acquired rare equipment, and maintained both his rural estate and a separate urban base of operations.
Like Ryan Routh, Boelter’s security skills —such as planning sophisticated attacks, donning disguises, and coolly navigating police shootouts— are equally inexplicable given his self-reported work history in food service and funeral homes. Like Routh, his “security training” occurred in untrackable third-world countries, without identifiable employers.
How’d they pay for the travel? Were the Boelters trust-fund babies?
His most recent employment history is, shall we say, patchy. Boelter owned ‘Praetorian Guard Security Services,’ where he was listed as ‘director of security patrols.’ But his ‘friend,’ David Carlson (his ‘roommate’ at the house where Boelter rented a room), claimed the company was not operational and had no clients, suggesting it was more of a cover than a reality.
Nor have any customers or clients of the Boelter’s businesses been identified.
Boelter said he’d worked in the food industry for decades, later took jobs in “funeral services” (removing bodies from nursing homes and crime scenes), and pursued ‘agricultural projects’ in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Suddenly, late in life, he’s a world-traveling farmer and crime scene cleanup specialist.
One of his posts on X mentioned a $420,000 Small Business Administration loan to his “Red Lion Group” in Congo (his NGO). I’ll leave it to DataRepublican to figure out what other grants he might’ve benefited from. After returning from Congo four months ago, his “roommate,” David Carlson— the only person apart from his family who seems to have known him— described Boelter as “struggling to find work.”
In other words, just like Ryan Routh, unaccountably unemployed. Swap the names and find the same breadcrumbs: combat skills without a clear source, deep financial resources without visible income, foreign training in sketchy locales, and no documented history of radical ideology— until suddenly, there it is! Right at the crime scene!
For example, though the media is enthusiastically portraying him as a “deeply committed Christian,” there is no evidence that Boelter ever took theological training or even attended church. Nor did he post about religion on his still accessible social media. In 2006, Boelter announced a “forthcoming” religious book (still forthcoming), and the announcement was nothing but feel-good quasi-religious word salad without any theological substance:
Absent any “deep commitment” to actually writing his book, and lacking any apparent theology beyond superficial nods to “our relationship with God,” my working hypothesis is that Boelter put this page up to support a grant application or establish a cover for travel. There are videos online of his Congolese “sermons” and they seem equally calorie-free.
As for his “anti-abortion” status— if he was pro-life, it doesn’t appear in any of his published musings.
The well-worn phrase “follow the money” was famously coined by investigative journalists during the Watergate scandal. It has long been considered the cornerstone of media scrutiny, guiding reporters to uncover hidden motives and corruption by tracing financial trails. Yet, not only are the media failing to follow the money here, they are actively obscuring the Boelters’ employment and financial status.
Media reports obsess over Vance’s alleged anti-abortion extremism and the politically charged shootings, yet they consistently sidestep the glaring financial incongruity of a million-dollar Minnesota home, a custom Praetorian SUV, six figures in cash, and support for five children against his unclear job history and the reported non-operation of Praetorian Guard Security Services.
They are also ignoring his inexplicable combat training and that his isolated home and a nearby rented room are classic hallmarks of secrecy. What would we do without media to tell us what to think?
OK seems these two law makers were wandering off the plantation. What did they have in common, other than being assassinated?
CIA….
If he was on USAID payroll, his gravy train was about to derail.
What do you bet we never see this “manifesto” he left behind? For one thing, we have an example of a dangerous extremist that lived off government stupidity. It’s what the Ministry of Propaganda DOESN’T tell us that gives us the clues.