David James Torgerson: Minnesota Serial Killer
Background and Early Violence
David James Torgerson was an American serial killer whose crimes occurred in Minnesota during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Born on July 16, 1943, in Austin, Minnesota, Torgerson displayed severe emotional and behavioral problems while still a teenager. His history included repeated psychiatric hospitalization, violent assaults against women, attempted strangulations, burglary, and other offenses that demonstrated an escalating fixation on overpowering and choking female victims.
Torgerson was confined at Rochester State Hospital from August 1959 until July 1961 and again from January 1964 until June 1967. During his institutionalization, he reportedly attacked two female employees in separate attempted strangulations. These assaults were early indications of the method he would later use in his murders. Although the women survived, the attacks established that Torgerson was capable of sudden and potentially lethal violence.
Attacks Following His Release
After leaving the hospital, Torgerson continued committing violent crimes. In one case, he unlawfully entered a woman's apartment and assaulted her. The victim survived, and Torgerson was convicted of breaking and entering and assault. In 1970, he received a prison sentence of approximately five years, with credit for time already served.
Years later, Torgerson admitted that he had already killed two young women in separate incidents during 1969. Both victims were 18 years old, and both were reportedly strangled. The killings demonstrated that his violence was not limited to impulsive assaults. He was selecting vulnerable young women and using the same intimate method of attack that he had previously attempted against hospital employees.
The 1969 Murders
The first two murders attributed to Torgerson involved Julie Mehrman and Linda Wandrus. Publicly available accounts provide limited and sometimes conflicting information concerning the precise day on which each woman died. Their deaths are consistently associated with separate strangulation murders committed in Minnesota during 1969, and Torgerson later confessed to killing both women.
The cases did not immediately expose Torgerson as a serial killer. Without an arrest connecting him to the deaths, he remained capable of committing further violence. His confessions were not obtained until after the 1973 murder of his family and their teenage babysitter.
Escape and the Rochester Family Murders
By June 1973, Torgerson was participating in a work-release program connected to his incarceration. He escaped from the program and returned to the Rochester home occupied by his wife, Lana Alice Torgerson; their young children, Sylvia and John; and the family's 14-year-old live-in babysitter, Rebecca Ann Rathbun.
On June 30, 1973, Torgerson killed all four people inside the residence. Lana was 23 years old. Sylvia was 3, John was 1, and Rebecca was 14. The victims were strangled, continuing the method Torgerson had used or attempted throughout his violent history. The crime combined elements of familicide and mass murder, but when considered with the two separate killings from 1969, it also established Torgerson as a serial murderer.
The presence of Rebecca Rathbun made the crime particularly disturbing. She was a teenage babysitter who had been living with or assisting the family and had no meaningful ability to protect herself or the children from an adult attacker. Torgerson murdered her along with his wife and the two small children, leaving no surviving witness inside the home.
Confirmed Victims
- Julie Mehrman, 18 — Killed during 1969 in Minnesota. She was strangled in a separate attack later confessed to by Torgerson. Available accounts conflict concerning the exact day of her death.
- Linda Claire Wandrus, 18 — Killed during 1969 in Minnesota. Torgerson later confessed that he strangled her. Available accounts conflict concerning the exact day and month of the killing.
- Lana Alice Torgerson, 23 — Murdered on June 30, 1973, inside the Torgerson family residence in Rochester, Minnesota. She was Torgerson's wife and was strangled.
- Sylvia Ann Torgerson, 3 — Murdered on June 30, 1973, inside the family home in Rochester, Minnesota. She was strangled by her father.
- John David Torgerson, 1 — Murdered on June 30, 1973, inside the family home in Rochester, Minnesota. He was strangled during the same attack.
- Rebecca Ann Rathbun, 14 — Murdered on June 30, 1973, at the Torgerson residence in Rochester, Minnesota. She was the family's teenage babysitter and was strangled along with Lana and the children.
Arrest and Confessions
Torgerson was apprehended after the Rochester killings and confined in the Olmsted County jail. During the investigation, authorities examined his earlier history of violence, including the attempted strangulations at Rochester State Hospital and the assault committed after his release.
While in custody, Torgerson confessed to additional killings. Two of those admissions were connected to the previously unresolved deaths of Julie Mehrman and Linda Wandrus. The confessions revealed that the June 1973 murders had not been his first homicides. He had begun killing years earlier, stopped while incarcerated, and resumed extreme violence after obtaining greater freedom through the work-release system.
His pattern was unusually consistent. He repeatedly targeted women or girls, approached victims in places where he could control them, and relied on strangulation. His final attack expanded that pattern to include his wife, two children, and a teenage babysitter. The murders reflected both personal rage directed at his family and the same compulsion to dominate victims through choking that had appeared throughout his adult life.
Death in Jail
David James Torgerson never stood trial for the six murders attributed to him. On November 6, 1973, while being held in the Olmsted County jail in Rochester, he died by suicide. He was 30 years old. His death prevented prosecutors from presenting the complete case against him in court and denied the victims' families the possibility of obtaining convictions through a public trial.
Because Torgerson died before trial, many details concerning his earlier murders remained poorly documented. His admissions, the similarities among the attacks, and his extensive record of attempted strangulation nevertheless linked him to six confirmed victims. Questions also remained about whether he had committed additional assaults or killings that were never identified.
Legacy of the Case
Torgerson's case illustrates repeated failures by correctional and mental-health systems to contain a demonstrably dangerous offender. Long before the 1973 murders, he had attacked female hospital employees, entered a woman's residence, committed a serious assault, and served time in prison. Despite this history, he eventually received work-release privileges and escaped.
The killings also show how an offender's earlier violence can foreshadow later homicidal behavior. Torgerson repeatedly used strangulation, beginning with attacks in institutional settings and progressing to separate murders, domestic killings, and the murder of a child caregiver. His victims ranged from an infant to young adult women, but all were placed in circumstances in which he possessed overwhelming physical control.
Although David Torgerson is less widely remembered than many American serial killers, his crimes devastated several Minnesota families. Six people were killed across multiple incidents, including two young women whose cases remained unresolved until his confession and four victims murdered together inside a family home. His suicide ended the legal proceedings, but it did not erase the pattern of warning signs, institutional mistakes, and escalating violence that preceded the murders.
