Next step for Vossen is decision on possible civil commitment

Now that Willmar murder supsect Algene Vossen has been found not competent to stand trial, his attorney Kent Marshall says the next step will be to see if the 80-year-old Sioux Falls man should be civilly committed to some kind of a treatment facility.

Marshall says the charges against Vossen won’t go away. They will technically still be there in the event he is ever found competent ot stand trial. Vossen is charged with 2nd Degree Murder for the January 1974 killing of Mae Herman in her Willmar home. He was arrested in July 2020 after an investigation by a Willmar Police Cold Case Team matched his DNA with DNA found at the murder scene. Marshall says he has had difficulty preparing a legal defense for Vossen because of his memory loss, as well as communication issues due to having to work with him via video due to COVID-19. After examinations from doctors, Judge Steven Wentzell has ruled Vossen is incompetent to stand trial.

Marshall says he did not view the judge’s ruling as a victory because there is still a family waiting for closure to a decades old murder. Vossen is currently free without bail in the custody of his niece in Des Moines Iowa. He has told both doctors that he is innocent of the murder and wants to clear his name.

(JP Cola, KWLM)