Richard Peterson sentenced to nearly 24 years for murder of Amanda Vangrinven
By WCCO Staff
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ISANTI COUNTY, Minnesota (WCCO) — An Isanti man has been sentenced to just short of 24 years in prison in the murder of a woman found buried on his property.
Richard Peterson, 38, was sentenced in Isanti County court Thursday. In February, he entered an Alford plea on his second-degree murder charge. The plea is essentially a guilty plea with the defendant asserting they don’t remember the crime due to some sort of impairment.
On Thursday morning, a judge sentenced Peterson to 285 months, of which he must serve at a minimum 190 months (or nearly 16 years) in prison.
Amanda Vangrinsven, 32, was reported missing after the night of Aug. 5, 2021, when she was last seen out drinking with Peterson.
In the following days, investigators executed multiple search warrants on Peterson’s property after they learned that he was seen digging holes with heavy machinery the morning after he was with Vangrinsven.
On Aug. 11, investigators found Vangrinsven’s body on the southwest end of Peterson’s property, buried so deep that Peterson’s own backhoe tractor attachment needed to be used to retrieve the body, according to the complaint.
According to a medical examiner’s report, Vangrinsven’s cause of death was a single gunshot to the back of the head.
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