Charles Gary Red Willow, 26, a Native American man from Rapid City, South Dakota, was found shot to death on the night of August 24, 2020, slumped in the passenger seat of a parked Chevrolet Tahoe at Thompson Park. A nearby resident had reported hearing several gunshots, and when officers arrived they discovered the Tahoe sitting quietly in the dark, its stillness broken only by the grim urgency of a fresh crime scene.
In the driver's seat was Ashley Nagy, critically wounded with a catastrophic gunshot injury; responders could not save her.
At first, there were no obvious witnesses and no immediate suspect. Detectives worked outward from the park, gathering surveillance footage from surrounding homes and businesses until a picture began to form: a dark Chevrolet Malibu moving near the park, two men stepping out and heading toward the Tahoe, and then sprinting back moments later. One was described in the footage as an African American male wearing white shoes; the other appeared to be a Caucasian male in a red shirt. From there, investigators traced a thread through the local drug trade, learning that Red Willow was known as a heroin dealer and that a man from New York, Arnson Absolu, had come to Rapid City to sell fentanyl-laced heroin sometimes referred to as “China White” using local dealers. Interviews suggested Red Willow owed Absolu a substantial debt, and that threats had been made over the money.
The investigation tightened when detectives discovered Absolu had rented a Malibu from a local business the morning of the shootings, and that the rental vehicle was equipped with GPS tracking. As the case unfolded, the GPS data indicated the Malibu traveling away from Rapid City and back toward the East Coast. Detectives monitored the vehicle's movements, and with assistance from the New York City Police Department, Absolu was arrested in New York on September 9, 2020, then transported back to South Dakota. Police said officers found a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, heroin, and Absolu's phone in the rented Malibu, and later pointed to messages on the phone that they said showed negotiations for firearms—details that investigators argued fit the violence that had erupted in the park.
As authorities dug deeper, the killings at Thompson Park were publicly linked to a third death in the Rapid City area: Dakota Zaiser, who had been missing since the night of the park shootings and was later found dead in a wooded area near Sheridan Lake. Detectives believed the second man seen in the park video resembled Zaiser, noting he had been released from jail wearing a red Nike shirt just hours before the shooting and had placed multiple calls to Red Willow before the gunfire. Investigators also interviewed Shamar Bennett, who initially denied knowing what happened, but later admitted he knew where Zaiser's body was and led detectives to a shallow grave near Sheridan Lake, telling them he had helped Absolu conceal the remains.
In January 2021, a grand jury indicted Absolu on three counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Red Willow, Nagy, and Zaiser. The case proceeded to trial, where prosecutors relied on surveillance footage, phone-location evidence placing Absolu in the area of Thompson Park around the time of the shootings, and additional evidence they said traced movements to Sheridan Lake days later. A jury convicted Absolu of all three counts, and the court imposed three consecutive mandatory life sentences.
