UPDATE: Account of Rochester murder-suicide discovery

By KAALTV

Rochester Police

(ABC 6 News) – A Rochester police report reveals details of an Iowa couple’s last days before an apparent murder-suicide.

Dale Nelson, 67, and Alberta Nelson, 65, were found dead at 510 16th Street NE on Sept. 5, after Rochester police conducted a welfare check.

According to the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiners’ Office, Alberta Nelson was stabbed to death — her cause of death was ruled a homicide, and caused by “homicidal violence, including sharp force injuries.”

Dale Nelson, her husband, cut his own neck with a steak knife, according to the Examiners’ Office.

According to the Rochester Police incident report, the Nelsons’ daughter called RPD on on the afternoon of Monday, Sept. 5, saying she had not been able to reach her her parents by phone since Saturday, Sept. 3.

The Nelsons’ daughter told police that Alberta Nelson was undergoing cancer treatment in Rochester, but “overall they are pretty able.”

She was not sure why her parents weren’t answering her calls.

According to the incident report, a police officer arrived at the 16th Street NE home and looked through outside windows.

When the officer looked through the SW bedroom window, they saw what appeared to be a person’s body through a crack in the blinds.

Officers entered the home and found the couple dead in the southwest bedroom.

While officers set up a crime scene and notified the Nelsons’ daughter, one officer spoke to Alberta Nelson’s hematologist/oncologist, who said he last saw the couple on Friday, Sept. 2.

The landowner told police he “checked them in” Thursday or Friday.