Man who died in Strathcona fire previously charged with murder

STRATHCONA, Minn. (Valley News Live) – The man who died in a house fire in Roseau County last week, Seddrex Gates, was on the run from the alleged murder of Patricia Wright in Brooklyn Center.

“So he had an arrest warrant out for the fire and the arson, and he evaded the law for three years,” said Teicha Tenhoff, Patricia Wright’s sister.

On June 23, 2021, Teicha’s sister Patricia was reportedly shot in the head by her ex-partner Seddrex Gates at her Brooklyn Center home. A house she shared with Gates and their six children. Court documents show he killed Patricia, although he was never convicted.

“So it’s just a lot of anger and it’s just very unfair that he did that to our family and their children when he could have just let her go.”

It was that October Gates was charged with first-degree arson for setting the murder scene on fire.

‘Leading up to the day he set fire to that garage, our family had asked him for my sister’s belongings. He said he would give us her belongings, but then all of my sister’s belongings ended up in the fire, in the garage.

Court documents show there was an agreement between Wright and Gates to sell the house. He later contacted another real estate agent in an attempt to sell the house. He disappeared before any sales could take place. The court then ordered it to go to Teicha. Gates told officers he started the fire because he “had bad feelings.”

“So we never got those things.”

Just a few weeks ago, Gates was set to be sentenced.

“Until recently, in May, they found him in Brainerd, together with his current girlfriend. Then he came down. He was under house arrest from May until last October, when he cut off his house arrest bracelet.”

Teicha says he didn’t want to suffer the consequences.

“He cut off the bracelets because he knew he would be convicted for the arson, but he didn’t want to do that that time. Because we were on our way to trial for that arson, we were there with the arson. He would stand trial and be convicted. Once he knew what time he was looking at, he decided to cut off his house arrest bracelet.”

Court documents show he was on the run. Gates was found near the Canadian border, Strathcona to be precise. He was dead.

‘In the end, prison wasn’t a punishment, I think. Because he could have been released in the end. He could still enjoy life and visits, he could still see his family. He got the ultimate punishment, I think, for killing someone. So yes, we are relieved.”

Patricia and Gates leave behind six children. Teicha says the elders know what is going on and there are no feelings involved.

“They were also quite relieved when I told them. But they also have the same thing: ‘Now we will never know why they did that to our mother.’

A sister and mother whose lives ended tragically.

“My sister was great. She was a mother, she was a friend, she was a sister to everyone. She had more patience with her children than I did at times. Because there are so many and it sometimes gets chaotic here. But she was great.”

Teicha says the detective will likely close the case. Even though Gates had a girlfriend she was seeing, they could face charges of hiding a fugitive.