In the quiet farming community of Souris, North Dakota, a workplace dispute culminated in a tragic loss of life. Christopher Rusk Sluder, a 50-year-old Caucasian male, was killed on March 24, 2015, at his place of employment, Turtle Mountain Pork. Sluder, who served as the manager of the facility, had only recently moved to Bottineau, North Dakota, in September 2014 to take the position.
The events leading to the fatal encounter began a day earlier, on Monday, March 23, 2015, when a verbal altercation occurred between Sluder, another employee named Brian Story, and several workers regarding their job performance. One of the employees involved in this dispute was Jeremy Isaac Rodriguez Rios. The following morning, the situation escalated dramatically.
On Tuesday, March 24, at 8:17 a.m., the Bottineau County dispatch center received a 911 call from Turtle Mountain Pork reporting an unconscious employee. Shortly after, a second call came in, indicating another unconscious person had been found. When the Bottineau County Sheriff's Department arrived at the scene, they discovered both Christopher Sluder and Brian Story deceased from gunshot wounds. Sluder was found in one of the barns on a walkway between the pig pens, while Story was located in a hallway connecting the barns. Investigators found a number of 9mm Winchester Luger spent casings near Story's body.
The investigation quickly focused on Jeremy Isaac Rodriguez Rios. An employee informed law enforcement that Rios had posted a picture of a black handgun on his Facebook page just eleven days prior. During questioning, Rios admitted to posting the photo. A subsequent search of his apartment uncovered a case for a 9mm handgun and a partial box of Winchester 9mm ammunition. Confronted with the evidence, Rios confessed to shooting both Sluder and Story that morning at the pork facility. He told investigators that he had disposed of the 9mm pistol by throwing it into the hog sewage pit beneath the barns. Following his confession, Jeremy Isaac Rodriguez Rios was arrested and charged with two counts of murder.
