Cedric Marks Charged With Murder In Connection To 2009 Abduction Of April Pease In Bloomington

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After more than a decade of work there are new developments in a missing person's case following a murder investigation that spanned four states. The Hennepin County Attorney's Office has charged two people with second-degree murder in connection to the 2009 abduction of April Pease.

Fourty-five year-old Cedric Joseph Marks of Texas and 34-year-old Kellee Kristine Sorensen of Washington are currently in police custody in their home states.

According to a briefing released on Monday, in 2019 Bloomington detectives began focusing on Cedric Marks as a person of interest in the disappearance of Pease, following his un-related arrest in Texas for capital murder.

Marks had previously fathered a child with Pease while they were living in Washington State. Then, in 2009 Pease and her then 4-year-old child relocated to a refuge for domestic assault victim's in Bloomington following several alleged domestic assaults by Marks.

Court documents say that Pease was transferred to the Bloomington shelter after being located by Marks at another shelter in Washington. Some time after the transfer, police investigators say Marks and Sorenson traveled from Washington to Minnesota to find Pease in March 2009. Pease was allegedly taken against her will and driven southbound on I-35, before being killed at an unknown location by Marks as Sorenson sat in the vehicle, according to statements obtained by detectives.

Pease's body has never been found. Monday marks the anniversary of her disappearance.