Police arrested Connie Jo Frank after she came back to the Moorhead home where Willard DeGroat had been fatally stabbed.
MOORHEAD, Minn. — Connie Jo Frank left the home where Willard DeGroat had been stabbed, hid nearby and then walked back while police were still investigating. Nearly two years later, that sequence has ended with Frank convicted of second-degree murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Her return to the north Moorhead residence on Aug. 4, 2024, gave police immediate access to the woman investigators said had just admitted stabbing her longtime on-and-off boyfriend. What followed included statements in a police vehicle, an interview with detectives and evidence from a nearby surveillance camera. Those pieces became part of a prosecution that initially accused Frank of intentional second-degree murder. The case ultimately ended through a plea agreement: Frank admitted second-degree murder without intent while committing a felony, the intentional count was dismissed, and Clay County District Judge Tammy L. Merkins imposed the 15-year term in July 2026.
The moments before Frank returned had begun with an emergency inside the home. A man who lived there told investigators that he heard Frank and DeGroat arguing and later saw the confrontation become physical. He went upstairs to get Frank’s adult son, hoping they could step in. When the two came downstairs, the situation had changed. DeGroat had been stabbed in the chest, and Frank was no longer there. Frank’s son called 911, according to the criminal complaint.
Officers arriving shortly after midnight found DeGroat with a wound to his upper chest. Emergency medical personnel took him to Sanford Medical Center, but he died. Investigators recovered a kitchen-style knife at the residence. Contemporary news reports identified DeGroat as 47. A later Moorhead Police Department annual report, which listed the case among the department’s high-profile investigations of 2024, gave his age as 48. The available records agree on the identity of the victim and the Aug. 4 date of the fatal stabbing.
Frank later told detectives that DeGroat had come to the residence where she had been staying with her son and had knocked on windows. The two had been involved in an on-and-off relationship for roughly five years, according to court records. In the version police attributed to her, Frank said she was tired of DeGroat and made a statement that “someone had to end it.” She said she took a knife from the kitchen counter and stabbed him once in the chest.
Instead of waiting for officers after the stabbing, Frank said she went into a neighbor’s yard and hid. Her decision to emerge and go back to the house changed the next phase of the investigation. Police detained her at the scene. On the way to jail, the probable cause affidavit says, Frank volunteered an admission that she had stabbed DeGroat and told officers, “I would kill him again.” Because the statements were described as unsolicited, authorities included them prominently in the charging narrative that followed.
The neighborhood itself also supplied evidence. Police reviewed a surveillance recording from near the residence and said Frank could be heard yelling shortly before DeGroat called out for someone to contact 911 and said he was dying. Investigators therefore had more than the account Frank later gave detectives. They had statements from two men at the house, physical evidence recovered inside, the nearby recording and Frank’s own comments after she came back. Those elements formed the publicly reported backbone of the early murder case.
Within days, Frank appeared in court on the second-degree murder charge. A judge set bail at $2 million without conditions, while also permitting a $100,000 cash option if conditions were imposed. Frank remained in custody as the case moved forward. At the time of sentencing almost two years later, Merkins credited her with 724 days already served. The lengthy period between arrest and final judgment turned a case that initially appeared headed toward an intentional-murder trial into one resolved through negotiation.
That change came in June 2026, when Frank pleaded guilty to second-degree murder without intent while committing a felony. The prosecution dismissed the second-degree murder-with-intent charge under the agreement. The distinction is significant because the original accusation described the state’s allegation at the start of the case, while the later guilty plea defines Frank’s actual conviction. The publicly available reports consulted for this story do not give enough detail to identify the predicate felony with confidence, so it cannot be described more specifically without going beyond the verified record.
The sentencing hearing then looked backward at the case through two sharply different sets of remarks. DeGroat’s relatives spoke about what his death had done to their family and about the words police attributed to Frank after the stabbing. One sister said she remained unable to forgive her. The statement that Frank would kill DeGroat again was especially troubling to the family, according to reports from the hearing, because it remained part of how they understood the aftermath of his death.
Frank, in turn, told the family that she was sorry. She said she missed DeGroat and that she was suffering because of what had happened. “I’m really sorry to the family,” she said, according to reporting from court. Her sentencing remarks presented remorse that was difficult to separate from the very different statements documented immediately after the killing. Merkins had both the guilty plea and the broader record before imposing the prison term.
The defense also sought to place the homicide within the history of Frank and DeGroat’s relationship. Attorney Caroline Field said Frank had experienced abuse and argued that she deeply regretted the killing. Prosecutors objected as allegations concerning DeGroat were raised, pointing out that Frank had waived a self-defense claim when she entered the plea. The allegations presented by the defense should not be treated as established findings about DeGroat. No trial occurred to resolve a self-defense theory because the plea agreement removed that issue from adjudication.
Merkins sentenced Frank to 15 years in a state correctional facility and ordered her to pay $8,940 in restitution. Frank received credit for the 724 days she had already spent in custody. Reports of the judgment also state that she is permanently barred from possessing firearms or ammunition and must provide a DNA sample. After serving the required prison portion of the term, the remaining part of the sentence is governed by Minnesota’s supervised-release structure.
The case now ends far differently from the way the first hours unfolded. In 2024, officers were still inside and around a Moorhead home when Frank came back from hiding and was arrested. Investigators then documented statements that seemed likely to become central evidence if the case reached trial. In 2026, there was no jury hearing those statements or deciding the original intentional-murder charge. Frank’s guilty plea removed that need and fixed her legal responsibility under the lesser second-degree murder count.
What remains is the sentence and the record created along the way: DeGroat’s death after the late-night confrontation, witnesses who tried to intervene, a 911 call, the nearby surveillance recording, Frank’s return and arrest, almost two years in custody, a negotiated plea and a sentencing hearing at which both DeGroat’s family and Frank spoke. With the 15-year term imposed, the investigation that began when officers entered the Third Avenue North home has reached its final criminal judgment.
Author note: Last updated Aug. 30, 2026.