Washington man charged in 1990 N.D. killing

BISMARCK, N.D. — A Washington state man called the Burleigh County Sheriff’s Department from a phone across the street early Thursday. By late afternoon, he was charged with murder and ordered held without bond in a 14-year-old killing.

Sheriff Steve Berg said officers met Edward Reitan, 51, at the service station where he made the call and he accompanied them to the sheriff’s office, where he was arrested around 4:15 a.m.

Berg and State’s Attorney Richard Riha released no other details of the arrest.

Reitan is accused of killing Driscoll farmer Robin Enockson, 34, whose body was found in his mobile home on Dec. 20, 1990.

Authorities said Reitan was living in North Dakota at the time Enockson was shot to death. Most recently, he has been living in the Tri-Cities area.

“It appears that there had been, obviously, a dispute between Mr. Reitan and Mr. Enockson, and it appears that it might have involved Mr. Enockson’s wife,” Riha said.

Enockson’s father, Cliff, who lived across the road from his son, found his body. Authorities said they believe Robin Enockson had been dead one or two days.

An autopsy determined he died of multiple gunshot wounds from a .22-caliber rifle.

Sheriff’s Capt. Les Witkowski, who has worked on the case since the killing, said a blizzard obliterated much of the evidence.

Authorities determined some possible suspects — including Reitan — but never charged anyone, citing a lack of evidence.

During Reitan’s initial court appearance Thursday afternoon, Riha told South Central District Judge Burt Riskedahl that Reitan has a criminal history involving robbery, kidnapping and drug offenses.

Riskedahl listened to Reitan’s request for a public defender and ordered him held without bond until he could talk to an attorney. The judge declined to immediately release an audiotape of a probable cause hearing Thursday afternoon.

Reitan could face a maximum penalty of life in prison if convicted.

Enockson’s family had offered rewards of as much as $20,000 for information in the early 1990s, but eventually withdrew the offer.