MOOSE LAKE, Minn. – Listeners who tuned in to The Vault podcast’s 7-part series on the disappearance of Belinda Van Lith can now listen to the full hour-long interview with the main suspect in her case, Timothy Crosby.
Forum News Service conducted an exclusive interview in January 2024 with Crosby at the secure Moose Lake Sex Offender Treatment Program facility, where he has been locked up for more than a decade.
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Van Lith was 17 years old when she went missing from a home she was house sitting on Eagle Lake, just outside of Monticello, Minnesota. On June 15, 1974, she didn't show up to her oldest sister's going-away party.
She hasn’t been seen since.
Law enforcement discovered Crosby — who was 18 years old at the time — was staying alone at a cabin 100 yards from where Van Lith had been staying. He was also the last person to see Van Lith alive.
Investigators didn’t think much of it at the time — until six months later when he abducted a young woman and took her to his cabin on Eagle Lake, where he violently sexually assaulted her.
The woman escaped.
Crosby pleaded guilty to aggravated kidnapping while possessing a firearm and was sent to St. Peter Hospital, which at the time was the state’s top treatment facility for sexual aggressiveness.
In the next two decades, two more women went on to escape from Crosby.
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In 1983, he was accused of kidnapping and stabbing a young woman at knife point after offering her a ride. He was charged with aggravated kidnapping, yet the charges were dropped. He was sent to St. Peter Hospital for treatment as a sexually dangerous person.
In 1987, he took a woman to his St. Paul apartment, where he violently assaulted her, tied her up and held her captive. Sixteen hours after her abduction, she broke free and threw herself out his apartment window.
For that crime, he was arrested for false imprisonment and sexual assault. He pleaded guilty to third-degree sexual assault and received a sentence of 41 months in prison. After his sentence, he was transferred back to St. Peter, but voluntarily left treatment.
A series of events led to Crosby’s 2009 arrest were inadvertently tied to the cold case investigation of Van Lith’s disappearance.
A 2009 search warrant for the Van Lith case allowed investigators to collect a DNA sample from him at his St. Paul home. An article published in the Pioneer Press revealed Crosby was a suspect in the Van Lith case — and the slaying of Victoria Morris, whose remains were discovered in Wright County in 1994.
The article caught the attention of a woman who realized her 17 year old daughter had been spending time with Crosby. The 17-year-old went on to tell investigators that Crosby paid her to perform sexual acts with another woman, in his presence. He later pleaded guilty for using a minor in a sexual performance.
Following his arrest, another search warrant was executed at Crosby’s St. Paul home.
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Investigators found a number of items in the basement that were later used to prove Crosby had not stopped his pattern of sexually violent behavior — and that he was likely to reoffend.
Items discovered in that search warrant were included in the state’s argument to civilly commit Crosby.
In 2009, the state of Minnesota successfully argued in court that Crosby is a dangerous sexual offender who poses a risk to society.
Crosby was involuntarily committed, indefinitely, to the secure Moose Lake Sex Offender Treatment Program facility.
Crosby attempted to challenge his commitment, yet the decision was upheld in 2013 by the Minnesota Supreme Court.
You can listen to the bonus episode with Crosby's interview here, on any major podcast platform or clicking the link below.
The Trust Project
