Warrants link homicide suspect to Underwood junkyard, Battle Lake dumpster

Newly unsealed warrants pulled Otter Tail County into the center of the Isadora Wengel homicide case, linking Joshua Alexander Hite’s movements to Underwood and Battle Lake and adding a sharper timeline to the Jan. 4 events investigators say led to Wengel’s death.

Wengel was reported missing Jan. 7, 2026, three days after investigators say she was killed, and police said her father last saw her on Dec. 31, 2025. Authorities said Wengel had been staying with Hite at his apartment before Hite, 21, was arrested Feb. 10 on charges of murder and tampering with evidence. Later filings also cited providing false information to law enforcement.

The warrants added striking detail to the hours before and after Wengel disappeared. Court records say Hite ordered a Sawzall, plastic sheeting, heavy-duty trash bags and duct tape from Home Depot through DoorDash on Jan. 4, the same day investigators believe Wengel was killed. Digital forensics reportedly showed Hite searched “home depot Sawzall” at 7:02 a.m. and deleted photos of Wengel from his phone at 7:50 a.m.

A neighbor later told investigators about loud banging that lasted about 40 minutes in the early morning hours of Jan. 5, then heard what sounded like something being dragged down the stairs. On Jan. 8, detectives recovered a Sawzall blade, plastic sheeting, gauze, a bath mat and latex gloves from dumpsters near Hite’s apartment. Testing by the North Dakota State Crime Laboratory and the University of North Dakota Medical Examiner’s Office reportedly confirmed Wengel’s blood and bone tissue on the recovered items.

The county connection grew stronger as investigators tracked Hite with a GPS device on a borrowed silver 2012 Ford Focus after his Subaru Impreza was seized Jan. 9. That tracker placed him in Otter Tail County repeatedly between Jan. 13 and Feb. 10, including middle-of-the-night trips. Court documents said he frequented Fergus Falls and Battle Lake, and one warrant described a Jan. 21 search of a private scrap yard in Underwood, where investigators looked for Wengel’s remains and found none. Police also sought tower-dump cellphone records from four carriers across 37 towers, including sites in Erhard, Barnesville, Pelican Rapids, Clitherall, Underwood and Battle Lake.

By Feb. 11, Fargo police said they believed Wengel had been “heinously murdered” and said there may have been dismemberment. They identified a black tote with a red lid or cover as potentially important, saying two such totes had been delivered to Hite’s apartment but only one was recovered. Later court documents said Hite wrote to investigators on Feb. 12 and described where he disposed of remains, including an Underwood property and a dumpster at a local bar. As of late March, Wengel’s remains had not been found. Hite’s preliminary hearing is set for June 19, 2026, and his felony dispositional conference for July 16, 2026.