Norman Leroy Limesand was 82 years old when he disappeared from Marion, North Dakota, on November 12, 1999. NamUs lists him as missing from Marion in LaMoure County, with his last contact recorded that afternoon, and identifies the LaMoure County Sheriff Department as the investigating agency. He was described as a White male, about 5 feet 6 inches tall and 175 pounds, with gray or partially gray balding hair and blue eyes.
He wore glasses, though his glasses were later found, and he had a distinctive physical feature: missing fingers on his right hand.
At the time he vanished, Limesand was reportedly driving a red 1995 Ford club cab pickup truck with North Dakota license plate EIP-754. The Charley Project reports that he was on his way to his son’s farm and never arrived. This made his disappearance especially alarming to his family, because the trip appeared to be part of an ordinary routine and there was no indication that he intended to leave or cut off contact.
A possible sighting was reported after he disappeared: witnesses said they saw a man resembling Limesand at a church in Waubay, South Dakota. According to the case summary, the man appeared upset, but Limesand’s family said that behavior would have been out of character for him. That sighting was never confirmed, leaving investigators and his loved ones without a reliable explanation for where he may have gone after leaving Marion.
Four days after he was last seen, Limesand’s pickup truck was found abandoned in the Romkey Park neighborhood of Moorhead, Minnesota. Traces of his blood were discovered in the truck’s toolbox, but Limesand himself was not found there. A Wrangler tire that was normally kept in the truck bed was missing and has reportedly never been recovered. The discovery of the truck shifted the situation from a missing-person search into a much more troubling investigation.
Investigators later focused on Steve Allen Thomas, who lived with his mother, Bonnie Rosland, about two and a half miles from Limesand’s home. Before Limesand disappeared, he and Thomas had reportedly argued over a water drainage problem. AP reported that Limesand had farmed in the area for decades and that his family connected the dispute to his township responsibilities involving culverts and drainage. Limesand’s eyeglasses and traces of his blood were later found near the approach to Rosland’s farm, adding to the evidence that something had happened near that property.
Rosland was accused of lying to authorities about Thomas’s whereabouts on the day Limesand disappeared. She initially claimed that she and Thomas had gone to Fargo that day, but phone records showed they had been at home. She later pleaded guilty to perjury and was sentenced to five months in jail. Her false statement became one of the important developments in the investigation because it undermined an attempted alibi connected to the day Limesand vanished.
In 2005, authorities charged Thomas with Limesand’s murder. In 2006, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in Limesand’s death. AP reported that Thomas said at sentencing that he accidentally shot Limesand while hunting rabbits, while Limesand’s family believed the killing was connected to the drainage dispute. In 2007, Thomas was sentenced to the maximum term of 10 years in prison.
A painful part of the case is that Limesand’s remains have never been recovered. AP reported that Thomas was expected under his plea agreement to help locate the body, and that he took part in searches, including air and land searches and even hypnosis, but said he could not remember where he had left Limesand. He told the court he had placed Limesand’s body in the pickup and later disposed of it in a dry slough, but the exact location was never identified.
Although a conviction was obtained in connection with Limesand’s death, the lack of recovery has left his family without the full measure of answers and peace that families often need after such a loss. Public records and case summaries continue to describe him through the details of the life he was living when he disappeared: an elderly farmer from Marion, a husband and father, and a longtime local resident whose final whereabouts remain unknown despite years of investigation and searching.Last Seen: Nov 12, 1999
