Duluth man pleads guilty in 2024 stabbing death and fire case

Tyler Walter Edwards admitted in St. Louis County District Court that he killed Maxton Keith Gudowski, a plea that resolves the murder charge in one of Duluth’s most closely watched violent-crime cases and sets sentencing for June 15. Edwards pleaded guilty on April 21, 2026, to second-degree unintentional murder, a conviction that carries a possible prison term of up to 40 years under Minnesota law.

The killing began with a heated argument in a residence near North 47th Avenue East in Duluth’s Lakeside neighborhood. Investigators said firefighters and police were called to a structure fire in the 600 block of North 47th Avenue East on July 25, 2024, and found Gudowski’s body inside. Authorities later determined that Gudowski had been stabbed more than 30 times, that the apartment and body had been set on fire, and that accelerants were present at the scene.

The Duluth Police Department said it worked with the St. Louis County Attorney’s Office, the Duluth Fire Department and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on the investigation. Edwards was arrested on Sept. 1, 2024, but was not formally charged until April 23, 2025, after investigators said DNA evidence, surveillance footage and other evidence tied him to the scene. Court filings also alleged that Edwards bought 20 bottles of 99 Fruit Punch liquor before the fire and gave police a false name, while he was also wanted on a Hennepin County warrant tied to a criminal-sexual-conduct allegation.

Gudowski, who graduated from Superior High School in 2018, lived alone in a first-floor efficiency apartment and was remembered for bird-watching, hiking, fishing, camping in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness and drives along the North Shore. For his family, the plea moves the case toward a final judgment after more than a year of investigation, arrest and charging, and it gives Duluth a clearer legal accounting of a killing that combined domestic-style violence, arson and an apparent effort to conceal the death by fire.