South Dakota man charged in 1974 slaying in Minnesota

WILLMAR, Minn. – A man who was questioned in 1974 about the killing of a woman who was stabbed 38 times in her western Minnesota home has now been charged with murder.

Algene Vossen was questioned shortly after the body of 74-year-old Mae Herman was discovered by her sister in Willmar on Jan. 27, 1974. But it was only after advances in DNA testing and another look at the case that the 79-year-old Vossen was arrested Thursday in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, where he currently lives.

He was being held in the Minnehaha County Jail in South Dakota pending extradition to Kandiyohi County, where he has been charged with second-degree murder.

Investigators interviewed Vossen in February 1974, but he denied knowing anything about the slaying other than what others told him or what he heard on the radio or read in the newspaper, according to a criminal complaint. Vossen did admit to window peeping on two occasions, including once in Willmar, and said he selected the houses at random.

Detectives went to Vossen’s Sioux Falls home with a search warrant to collect his DNA this month. Vossen again denied knowing Herman and said he wasn’t at her house before she was killed because he was at the American Legion, according to the complaint.

He told the detectives he wasn’t concerned about the DNA collection because he wasn’t involved in the slaying, the complaint said.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension completed a lab report on the DNA July 17 matching it to blood found on Herman’s sweater, according to the complaint.