Dispute After 'Erotic Massage' Led to Inver Grove Heights Killing; 2 Charged
Fotini Anest West, left, and Logan David Slack
Two people are now both formally charged after a man was found fatally shot inside an Inver Grove Heights home early Saturday morning.
Logan David Slack, 25, and Fotini Anest West, 25, both of Minneapolis, are each charged with 2nd-degree intentional murder and 2nd-degree unintentional murder while committing a felony. According to a criminal complaint, Inver Grove Heights officers were dispatched to a residence on the 2100 block of 78th Ct. E. for a 911 hang-up just after 2 a.m. Sept. 24.
UPDATE: Slack and West were sentenced in May 2023 to more than 30 years in prison
A male voice was heard by the dispatcher yelling “help me” and “they are trying to get into my house,” with silence shortly after. The victim has since been identified as Michael Chang-Beom Lee, 43.
Police found a shattered back door at the home, made entry and saw bloody footprints on the carpet, the complaint said. After searching more of the home, police found Lee in a basement bathroom, “obviously deceased” and surrounded by blood on the floor. Officers at the scene also noted a large hole in the bathroom door. An autopsy would later find that Lee’s cause of death was a single gunshot wound.
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Another officer who was responding to the scene spoke to two people in a parked vehicle who said they had just arrived home and saw an older, dark mid-sized SUV parked in front of Lee’s house and still running. The witnesses told officers the vehicle drove off seconds before the first officer arrived. The officer was able to air a description of the vehicle to dispatchers.
A short time later, another officer spotted the SUV near 80th St. & Barbara Ave. in Inver Grove Heights and made a traffic stop. Police found Slack and West inside, along with a third occupant.
West appeared to have blood on her arms and chest, the complaint said, and she told officers that she had gone to a man’s house and—when she attempted to leave—he had assaulted her. West described the man as being Asian and said that she called Slack after the assault. The next thing she remembered was Slack physically carrying her out of the man’s residence, she said.
After he was detained, Slack told investigators that he had dropped West off at the victim’s house for the purpose of “performing an erotic massage” in exchange for money, the documents said. Slack said that while he was outside of Lee’s home, West came out, said she had been assaulted and that Lee wouldn’t pay for the services that had been agreed upon.
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Slack then allegedly took a revolver from the SUV and forced entry to the home by breaking the glass of the back door, using the butt of the gun. West entered the home with him, the documents said. The victim ran to the downstairs bathroom, locked the door and called 911. Slack allegedly broke a large hole through the door.
Slack told investigators that the victim tried to grab West through the hole in the door and that’s when he raised the revolver and pulled the trigger. Slack told police he shot Lee to stop him from calling 911 and so that he could use the victim’s cell phone to get payment for the massage. After the gunshot, he went in the bathroom, took Lee’s phone and fled with West out of the home.
Police later searched the SUV and found a revolver under the driver’s seat and Lee’s cell phone under the front passenger seat. A third person who was stopped in the SUV along with Slack and West was initially arrested, but has since been released and is not being charged in relation to the murder, authorities said.
Bail for Slack and West was set at $1 million and their next court appearances are scheduled for Oct. 5 in Hastings.
