Meet Kolin Raynes

Kolin Raynes grew up in the northeastern Minnesota town of Hibbing.

So much of popular culture shaped his world.  At a young age, he wanted to be a boxer after watching Sylvester Stallone's Rocky movies.  Immediately, he started training by running around their small suburban house one Saturday morning.  After a few laps, however, he was exhausted.

His boxing career was officially over.

Next, he watched the Indiana Jones movies and wanted so much to be an archaeologist.  The only problem with this plan was that virtually none of them lived the kind of life Indy did.

Scratch that plan.

Just after high school graduation, he got accepted to Bemidji State University.  He had an undeclared major, until one night he watched America's Most Wanted, and spiraling that thought in with the classic movie Silence of the Lambs, he declared a major of Criminal Justice.

Even though his career goal was to work for the FBI, he took a job as a part-time deputy for Glade County, in Glade, Minnesota--a small farming community roughly fifty miles north of the Twin Cities.  His first shift also turned out to be the most memorable of his career so far, as he was called upon to investigate the case of a missing teenage girl who lived out in the rural county.  Six days later, after a massive search, the body of Trisha Sandberg was found brutally murdered.

The case to this day remains unsolved.

A few months after the Sandberg case, Kolin got a job as a street cop for the Minneapolis PD.  He worked there for over a decade before finally landing an investigator position for the PD's Violent Crime Unit.

What is the Minneapolis VCU?

As I start blogging about various high-level crimes right here in the Twin Cities, one of my information resources is the Minneapolis VCU.  This is no secret and don't think that everything is all hush-hush like they do in the movies.  I have other contacts too, but it got me wondering: what does VCU stand for?

VCU stands for Violent Crime Unit. The head honcho is Captain Lewis Mack and he has several investigators working in his division.  Their primary focus are violent crimes, typically felony level and on occasion they investigate gross misdemeanors too.

New investigators spend eight weeks at the FBI Academy in Quantico, VA, learning the latest innovations in crime scene analysis, offender profiling, and advances in investigation technology.  VCU is housed on the third floor of the Central Division Building, where they share office space with three other investigation units: PT (Property and Theft), TGTF (Terrorism and Gang Task Force), and SCI (Sex Crimes Investigations).

Since VCU will probably gain more of my attention, I will focus primarily on them.

That's all for now.  Stay tuned for more shortly.

Signed,
Dexter L. Grant - AKA the Twin Cities Crime Blogger

Hello, welcome to my blog

My name is Dexter.  I'm from Chicago.

I'm a student at the U of M here in Minneapolis, and I'm starting this blog as a way to get me into the routine of writing.

As of yet, my major is undeclared, but I am either leaning towards Journalism or Creative Writing.  I figure with this blog, I can explore both.

When I was in my late teens, I was the victim of an unfortunate incident--okay, it was completely my fault, but I've owned up to it and want to help put right the many wrongs that I see.

I'll share more later.  My roommate just came in with a Domino's Pizza.  Pepperoni with extra cheese.  My favorite!

Signed,
Dexter L. Grant - AKA the Twin Cities Crime Blogger