Byron Dorgan: “last December, there were news reports around the country about the disappearance of a young student at the University…”

“last December, there were news reports around the country about the disappearance of a young student at the University of North Dakota whose name was Dru Sjodin. I am sorry to tell you that Dru Sjodin has never been found. It is likely that she has been murdered. The person who allegedly committed that murder is now under lock and key in a North Dakota jail, awaiting a trial. And, as is too often the case, the man that apparently committed this crime had earlier been released from prison for committing similar offenses. Let me talk for a moment about this case and about some legislation I have introduced in the Senate--bipartisan legislation--to respond to it. Dru Sjodin was a student at the University of North Dakota. On a December afternoon, she was abducted in a parking lot at the shopping center in Grand Forks, ND. The suspect who was arrested for that disappearance was a man named Alfonso Rodriguez, Jr. Law enforcement has released some details, saying that a knife with blood of the type of Dru Sjodin's blood was found in the automobile of Mr. Alfonso Rodriguez. Mr. Rodriguez had only been released 6 months earlier from a 23-year sentence that he served in a prison for a previous rape and sexual assault in Minnesota. In fact, the Minnesota Department of Corrections had rated Mr. Rodriguez a ``type 3'' sexual offender, meaning that he was at the highest risk for reoffending.”