Prayer vigil held for Spirit Lake Dakota homicide victim

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) - About 100 people gathered for a prayer circle outside the Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office in St. Paul where the body of a slain North Dakota woman was taken for an autopsy.

Police say 22-year-old Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind died from homicidal violence this month at an apartment she shared with her parents in Fargo. A couple who lived upstairs is charged with conspiring to kidnap and murder LaFontaine-Greywind, who was eight months pregnant, and steal her baby, who remains in protective custody.

The Star Tribune  reports that many in the group that gathered in St. Paul Tuesday night were dressed in green, the victim's favorite color. LaFontaine-Greywind was a member of the Spirit Lake Dakota tribe. Fargo's cultural planner, Willard Yellow Bird Jr. says her death has devastated the broader American Indian community.