A man in Minnesota was convicted after he fatally shot his neighbor and abducted his pregnant girlfriend and her four children during a 2024 incident.
Chad Aanerud was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole after 30 years during a court hearing on Tuesday, February 17, according to CBS Minnesota.
Aanerud, 36, was sentenced after he pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, kidnapping, first-degree burglary and two counts of second-degree assault in December 2025.
The Crow Wing County Sheriff’s Office confirmed in a November 2024 press release that deputies responded to a shooting on Loerch Road in Oak Lawn Township around 1:50 a.m. Upon their arrival, deputies found that 62-year-old Lyle Maske had died from an apparent gunshot wound.
An investigation was launched into the situation, and Aanerud was quickly named the suspect. Police claimed that the incident began on October 31, 2024, when Aanerud went to the pregnant woman’s home and sexually assaulted her, as well as threatened to shoot her children.
According to KTSP and FOX 9, the woman was Aanerud’s girlfriend. It is not clear if the baby she was pregnant with was his or if he was the father to any of her four children.
The woman told her children to run to a neighbor’s house. Soon after, the neighbor – identified as Maske – walked over to the woman’s house to find out what was going on.
Aanerud then shot and killed Maske, according to the complaint.
He also set a nearby home on fire, which was ultimately destroyed. The complaint said that Aanerud dumped “buckets” of fuel on the nearby home and stole guns before the woman told her children to run to another house, according to Northern News Now.
After the shooting, Aanerud forced the woman into a van and abducted the four children that ranged from the ages of 14, 11, 7 and 3 at the time.
An AMBER Alert was issued with the suspect and vehicle information, and Aanerud was found at approximately 7:15 a.m. in Morrison County.
He was then taken into custody, and the five individuals were found safe and unharmed.
While speaking to authorities, Aanerud claimed that he accidentally shot Maske when the neighbor “stuck his nose” where it didn’t belong, according to court documents viewed by the outlet.
Aanerud was also originally charged with arson and criminal sexual conduct, though the charges were dismissed as part of a plea agreement, according to KSTP.
Following Aanerud’s arrest, a GoFundMe page was set up to help support the woman and her family after the horrific experience. The fundraiser page explained that the woman was 8 months pregnant at the time of the incident and that she and Aanerud had broken up months earlier. The post went on to claim that Aanerud “refused to accept her decision to end the relationship,” which led to his decision to assault her, kidnap her family and kill Maske.
The post added that while Aanerud was apprehended and the family was safe, “the trauma and emotional damage they have endured is going to last them a lifetime. The family has lost everything in the fire and has no insurance to help them start over.”
