Holly MatkinBrainerd, MN – A Minnesota man accused of executing his daughter’s boyfriend after he allegedly discovered he had been beating her has been arrested for murder.
Bryce Brogle, 23, disappeared on Oct. 26 after meeting up with his girlfriend’s father, 45-year-old Michael Lee Laflex, at Laflex’s storage unit, WPDE reported.
Laflex’s daughter called police on Oct. 28 and reported Brogle as missing after he failed to return home from the meet-up, according to police.
According to court documents, officers obtained a search warrant for the storage unit on Oct. 29, WPDE reported.
They said they subsequently detected the presence of bleach and blood on the concrete floor and that they also located drag marks, according to FOX News.
Investigators conducted a foot search in an area of public land in Crow Wing County the following day and came upon a shallow gravesite, WPDE reported.
They found Brogle’s body inside, according to court documents.
An autopsy confirmed the 23-year-old died from a “distant gunshot wound to the back of the head,” police said.
According to court documents, the landlord of the building where Laflex’s daughter and Brogle resided contacted investigators and told them that Laflex had previously reached out to him to ask him if he knew anything about Brogle abusing his daughter, WPDE reported.
The landlord allegedly told Laflex he had seen his daughter with two black eyes.
According to the landlord, Laflex responded that he was going to kill Brogle and noted that he already had a hole dug for his body, police said.
Investigators said they also received a call from an anonymous “concerned citizen” who claimed Laflex told one of the citizen’s relatives that he believed Brogle was abusing his daughter and that he confessed to having shot Brogle at his storage unit, FOX News reported.
Laflex also allegedly told the source’s family member that he buried Brogle’s body in a location where it “would not be found,” according to court documents.
Laflex has been arrested on a single count of second-degree intentional homicide.
He was booked into the Crow Wing County Jail on a $2 million bond, FOX News reported.
According to court records, Laflex was sentenced to five years of probation after being convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct in Cass County in June of 1999, the Brainerd Dispatch reported.
BPD records indicate Laflex pleaded guilty to another count of criminal sexual conduct in September of 2018, the New York Post reported.
That incident stemmed from allegations he had sexual intercourse with a “mentally impaired” individual who initially refused to have sex with him, but who later consented “at [his] insistence,” according to court records.
The judge ultimately issued a stay of sentence, contingent on the successful completion of two years of probation, the Brainerd Dispatch reported.
The case was dismissed in September of 2020 after he completed the probation term.
