Beltrami County case revisits unsolved killing of farmer Terry McCoy

Terry McCoy was last seen alive at his Wheaton farm on June 17, 2020, and 19 days later investigators found his body in the Mustinka River northeast of town, about seven miles from home. The 68-year-old farmer had been preparing to move into assisted living, but the case that followed left one of rural Minnesota’s most unsettling questions unanswered: who killed him, and why?

That question has never gone away in the region, where a farmstead, a missing man and a river recovery pulled volunteers, family members, friends and law enforcement into a search that stretched for nearly three weeks. For older residents who followed the case, McCoy’s name still carries the force of a local warning, the kind that lingers because it happened close to home and never fully resolved.

Investigators knew early on that something was wrong. Prospective buyers arrived at McCoy’s house on June 18, 2020, and saw possible signs of a struggle. McCoy’s wallet, cell phone and other personal property were still at the home, and no vehicles were missing. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension still lists the case as an unsolved homicide. McCoy’s daughter, Carrie McCoy, raised a $3,000 reward for information that leads to an arrest and conviction, and the BCA continues to ask anyone with knowledge of the killing to call its tip line at 1-877-996-6222.

More than the disappearance itself, the details of the recovery have kept the case in public memory. KARE 11 reported that search warrants referenced about 150 pounds of chains weighing down McCoy’s body, a detail that pointed to a deliberate effort to hide what had happened. Authorities recovered him from the Mustinka River after the 19-day search, closing the physical search but not the criminal investigation.

McCoy’s son, Brock McCoy, summed up the family’s suspicion plainly: “It had to be somebody that knew him.” In a case built around a quiet farm, a sudden disappearance and a body hidden in a river, that remains the question that has never been answered.