A decision on whether any charges will be filed in the January death of a Fremont man should be made within the next two weeks, Dodge County Attorney Paul Vaughan said Monday.
After nearly six months of investigation, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office turned in its final report on the death of Peter Venneman, 50, to Vaughan last week. Hair evidence Sheriff Steve Hespen previously said he hoped would link the a pickup truck to Venneman did not, Vaughan said.
"The DNA was not a match to any suspect or the victim," he said. "The investigation is complete except for a few details I asked the sheriff to clear up."
Venneman was found at 7:20 a.m. Jan. 21 face down in a pool of blood about 60 feet from the door to Magnus Metals in the south parking lot, 1300 Morningside Road. He was scheduled to work at 7 a.m. He was found by an employee and employees performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation until an ambulance arrived and transported Venneman to Fremont Area Medical Center where he was pronounced dead.
An autopsy showed Venneman had died from blunt force trauma to the head, chest and abdominal area. Hespen has said tire marks were found on Venneman’s coat and pants. Crime lab reports also showed tire marks were found on Venneman’s body.
Hespen has said investigators considered from the start of the investigation that Venneman’s death was due to his being run over.
A 2004 Nissan pickup truck was impounded on Jan. 25 and processed by the Douglas County Crime Lab. A search warrant affidavit stated the truck belongs to a 69-year-old security guard who works at Magnus Metals. The security guard also was interviewed because he would have been leaving work at about the time Venneman was arriving and because of the relationship of where his vehicle was parked and where tire tracks to Venneman’s body were found. Hair samples and possible clothing samples found on the truck were analyzed by the Douglas County Crime Lab and then nuclear DNA tests were performed at the Nebraska Medical Center.
Those tests proved inconclusive and were sent for further testing to a Pennsylvania laboratory. That lab was able to identify the DNA, but it did not match Venneman’s DNA, Vaughan said.
Hespen has said there is other circumstantial evidence that helps the case, including tire treads leaving the scene that matched those the truck of a security guard who is the main suspect. That truck also had the hair that was tested.
"I think we’ve looked at every possible avenue," Vaughan said. "I’m not aware of anything else that can be done right now."
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