By Nancy Huddleston, Correspondent 

Handwritten letters written from jail by Craigslist murder suspect Michael Anderson of Savage detail that he tried to hire someone to take responsibility for killing Katherine Ann Olson.

The letters were the subject of two motions filed by the Scott County Attorney’s office that were discussed Wednesday (May 7) during Anderson’s omnibus hearing. Assistant County Attorney Mike Groh said the letters were intercepted by jail officials and delivered to his parents in Savage.

“The defendant was seeking to hire someone to take responsibility for the killing,” Groh said in his argument that the original letters need to be turned over to police and that a handwriting analysis also be conducted.

Anderson, 19, is accused of luring Olson to his parents’ Kipling Avenue home in downtown Savage on Oct. 25, 2007 with a Craigslist Web advertisement for a babysitter. Police say he killed the 24-year-old woman from Cottage Grove in the bedroom of the home. Olson’s body was found in the trunk of her vehicle on the evening of Oct. 26 in the Rudy Kraemer Park Preserve, just over the Burnsville/Savage border.

Alan Margolis, Anderson’s attorney, said he has the letters and had consulted the Minnesota Lawyers Professional Responsibility Board seeking advice on what to do with the letters.

“I’m more than happy to turn over the letters that I don’t necessarily want in my possession for a long time,” Margolis said.

But he urged Judge Mary Theisen to put the letters under court seal so that they could not be released to the public in order to protect the integrity of the jury pool.

But Theisen refused Margolis’ request and ordered him to turn the letters over to the Savage Police Department and to allow the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) to complete a handwriting analysis.

Anderson is facing first- and second-degree murder charges in connection with Olson’s death. His omnibus hearing was continued until June 26.