Andersen admits to affair with murder victim

HENNEPIN – Clifford A. Andersen Jr. and the sister-in-law he’s accused of killing were having an affair, according to phone conversations he had with his wife, Diane, after his arrest.

“There’s two or three things they got on me,” Andersen told her.

Thursday was the final day of testimony in Andersen’s first-degree murder trial in Putnam County Court. Closing arguments are set for this morning.

Andersen, 68, of Standard, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder and the concealment of the homicidal death of Deborah Dewey, 62, of Ladd. He faces 20 to 60 years or more in prison, with no possibility of parole.

Assistant Attorney General Bill Elward played two phone calls for the jury. They were recorded June 14, and July 21, 2017, while Andersen was in Putnam County Jail.

In them, Andersen mentions the manure he bought, Dewey’s car, the truck stops where it was left, and the blood-stained carpet cleaner that investigators say has DNA from both Dewey and Andersen.

His wife warns him not to take the stand because he “talks too much,” and tells him he may have been seen entering the home where her sister’s body was found.

“Did you go in with the cleaner?” Diane Andersen asks him.

“Yeah,” he replies.

“We’ve got to come up with answers for some of this stuff. If you’re covering up for someone, tell me who it is,” she responds.

She says that she knew if he did do it, he’d have “found a less messy way, without the blood.”

He tells her that he was “shacking up” with Dewey, and that he’d been worrying about what she’d think if she found out.

“None of that bothers me; I’m worried about the serious stuff,” his wife replies. “Pray for a miracle.”

Dewey was reported missing Aug. 23, 2016; her body was found that Sept. 12 buried in the yard of a home Andersen cared for, only blocks away from his home.

Also Thursday, forensic pathologist Dr. Scott Denton of McLean County testified that Dewey had no defensive wounds, that two of the four blows to her head were powerful enough to drive large skull fragments into her brain, and that they “would have been instantly fatal.”

The wounds were consistent with a hard metal object with an edge, such as an ax, shovel, tire iron or crow bar, he added.

Diane Andersen was the last person to testify.

She said although she knew about multiple high-interest loans he had taken out, she was unaware that her husband gambled.

“I wanted to ignore it. I didn’t want to know,” she said.

The prosecution has presented testimony that Andersen had financial problems, and that Dewey may have given him a large amount of money over the past several years.

She said Andersen regularly withdrew about $5,000 a month, and added that although she knew he liked to pay for things in cash, she didn’t know what he did with the money.

Andersen declined to testify.