The Brief Vance Boelter used multiple websites that collect personal information to stalk his victims, according to a federal criminal complaint. Boelter used 11 websites, according to the complaint, that publish names, addresses, relatives and phone numbers of virtually anyone. The websites allow anyone to request that their data be removed from search results, a process that takes seconds; data is removed within 24 to 72 hours.

The FOX 9 Investigators are learning more about a critical piece of evidence that assisted law enforcement in ending the largest manhunt in Minnesota history.

A car abandoned along the side of the road in rural Sibley County led SWAT teams into a Green Isle farm field, where Vance Boelter surrendered Sunday night. According to court filings, Boelter paid $900 for the Buick sedan and an e-bike while on the run that authorities believe was part of a get-away scheme.

$900 for a car & E-bike

What we know:

According to federal court filings, after allegedly shooting two Minnesota DFL lawmakers and their spouses, Vance Boelter paid a man he had never met $900 to purchase a Buick sedan and e-bike. Boelter was forced to flee the home of Speaker Emerita Melissa Hortman when he encountered Brooklyn Park police at the front door early Saturday morning around 3:30 a.m.

At that point, Boelter left behind his replica police SUV with flashing lights and the arsenal of weaponry he allegedly stockpiled in the vehicle. Boelter initially made it out of the three-to-four mile locked down perimeter around the Hortman’s Edinburgh Golf Course home.

Prosecutors say around 7 a.m., Boelter met up with the unidentified man at a bus stop in north Minneapolis. It is alleged the pair then boarded a bus to the man’s home, where they apparently got into the Buick and drove to a bank in Robbinsdale. That is where Boelter was captured on security camera wearing a cowboy hat, and where court documents reveal he drained his bank account of $2200, paying $900 to the man for his e-bike and the car.

What they’re saying: “So, every minute, every hour that went by, we were closing doors of opportunity for him to flee,” explained Brooklyn Park Police Chief Mark Bruley, who took over incident command after the deadly shooting at the Hortman home. “From something as simple as making sure he cannot get on an airplane anywhere, making sure that he cannot go through a checkpoint. Every thought anybody had, it was getting categorized to how we limit his world. Down to, at the end of the day why I think he bought a car and a bike off the street and was going to try to get back to his house. I think the only thing he had left to attempt to do. He had nowhere else to go.”

‘Person of Interest’ radio call

Dig deeper:

Bruley described a moment later Saturday where investigators needed to develop new leads in the hunt for Boelter after he escaped capture for hours. That night, the FOX 9 newsroom heard a radio bulletin dispatched to law enforcement in South Dakota to be on the lookout for a Twin Cities man as a potential “person of interest” in the Minnesota murders that day. While the FOX 9 Investigators are not identifying the individual, he is the registered owner of the black Buick sedan. Bruley would not comment on how law enforcement made the connection.

By early Sunday morning, Boelter had abandoned the car near his rural Sibley County home, according to prosecutors. And authorities said there were reports of an individual riding an e-bike around the area within two miles of Boelter’s home. Bruley knew they were closing in.

“I think that we had made his world so small that that was the last place he probably had some resources hidden that he could get,” Bruley told the FOX 9 Investigators. “He was kind of a prepper. And I think he thought that there were resources, money, maybe a ‘go’ bag, guns, who knows that he can get from that location if he could sneak back in there.”

FOX 9 obtains new photos of arrest

Surrounded by nearly two dozen SWAT teams and other heavily armed personnel with drones and a State Patrol helicopter above, Boelter surrendered peacefully some 43 hours later. FOX 9 drone footage shows the path through the fields where Boelter was eventually taken into custody while crawling along the ground. FOX 9 has obtained additional photos of his arrest.

“My big worry was that he would try to take police out with him when he went. And that’s why I was on pins and needles as those final minutes went by, because I was so scared,” Bruley said. “So once he was in custody, man, I was elated.”

The other side:

The FOX 9 Investigators have made contact with the man who apparently sold Boelter the e-bike and Buick. Police had responded to homes of his family members in search for him over the weekend. But at this point, it appears from the court filings, the two men had truly never met. It is unclear if he had any knowledge of who he did business with in the midst of the state’s largest manhunt.