Overview
- Opening statements began Friday as prosecutors told jurors they will argue Collins killed his 16‑year‑old son and discarded the body after investigators recovered remains in a landfill.
- The defendant, 39‑year‑old Jordan DuPree Collins Sr., is representing himself and chose to delay his opening statement until after the state rests.
- Court records show investigators found items with blood in Collins’s Columbia Heights apartment and forensic testing tied that blood to the victim.
- An autopsy recorded homicide findings and the criminal complaint reported evidence consistent with decapitation, while some body parts were never recovered after weeks of searching the Elk River landfill.
- Collins was arrested days after remains were identified; he faces one count of second‑degree murder and prosecutors plan to call forensic scientists, anthropologists, digital investigators, family members and landfill workers as witnesses.