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Published May 13, 2008 10:43 pm - A homicide victim whose body was discovered May 5 in a field near Granby had been under suspicion in Minnesota for trafficking in opium. Authorities say homicide victim was suspected of trafficking opium Jim Moss 5/13/08 pullout at bottom By Jeff Lehr jlehr@joplinglobe.com A homicide victim whose body was discovered May 5 in a field near Granby had been under suspicion in Minnesota for trafficking in opium. Ger Lee, 40, was arrested and charged in June of last year in St. Paul, Minn., with first-degree possession of narcotics. “They told us it was for distributing opium,” Newton County Sheriff Ken Copeland told the Globe. Copeland acknowledged that investigators with the Newton County Sheriff’s Department are exploring a possible drug-trafficking angle to the murder of Lee, who was of Laotian descent. His skeleton was found with a bullet inside the skull. Lee was known to have been visiting a woman in the Cassville area with whom he has children in common in late December and early January. He is believed to have left Cassville on Jan. 10 to return to Minnesota. He never made it back to St. Paul, according to the sheriff. A male cousin who lives in Barry County reported Lee missing on Feb. 21. The same cousin recognized a gold necklace found around the neck of the skeleton when a photograph of the piece of jewelry was made public last week. The cousin came forward and identified the necklace as belonging to Lee, and dental records confirmed the body was that of Lee. The Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota released a criminal complaint sheet to the Globe on Tuesday that showed Lee was charged with the felony drug offense on June 28, 2007. He had been arrested the previous day in a traffic stop related to a shooting incident in St. Paul. The complaint states that an officer stopped a vehicle Lee was driving at 4 a.m. June 27 as “a possible suspect vehicle in an assault where several people had been shot with a .22-caliber gun.” The officer saw Lee and a passenger making “furtive movements” with their hands after the vehicle was stopped, the complaint states. The corner of a cloth towel was spotted sticking out of the center console of the vehicle once the occupants were removed, the document states. An officer opened the console and saw the towel wrapped around an object the officer thought might be a handgun, the complaint states. It proved instead to contain a package of a little less than a pound of opium, according to the complaint. Lee reportedly told the arresting officer he was from Missouri and listed his address with police as rural Washburn. He also reportedly asked to be given some of his “medicine.” When asked what he meant, he told police: “The stuff in the console.” He said he used it as a painkiller, the complaint states. 
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