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Associated Press
Minneapolis

Head of FBI for Minnesota, Dakotas to retire

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FBI Special Agent Rick Thornton
FBI Special Agent Rick Thornton speaking at a press conference in 2016.
Peter Cox | MPR News 2016

The head of the FBI for Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota is retiring.

Special Agent in Charge Rick Thornton plans to leave the FBI's Minneapolis division at the end of February.

He has led the division since 2014 and oversaw several major cases, including a 2016 stabbing at a St. Cloud mall that left 10 people injured, and the case of nine young men who were convicted of conspiring to join the Islamic State group.

Thornton also oversaw the FBI's work in solving the decades-old abduction and killing of 11-year-old Jacob Wetterling. Thornton, then-U.S. Attorney Andy Luger and others worked out a deal to get a confession from Danny Heinrich, who pleaded guilty to child pornography.

Jacob's remains were discovered in September 2016, nearly 27 years after he was kidnapped.