Interview with Sven Sjodin, Chris Lang
KING: Welcome back. Speaking of not deserving to die. 22-year- old college student Dru Sjodin disappeared from a North Dakota shopping mall on November 22 of 2003 generating national headlines and an intensive search. Convicted sex offender Alfonso Rodriguez was arrested for her kidnapping in early December. He has pled not guilty. He had a subsequent arraignment. Her body was found this past weekend near a wooded ravine in Polk county near Crookston, Minnesota. A preliminary autopsy report says that Dru, the lovely Dru was a victim of a homicide. Joining us now in Pequot Lakes, Minnesota is Sven Sjodin, Dru's brother and Chris Lang, Dru's boyfriend. Sven, how did you learn that they had found your sister?</s>SVEN SJODIN, DRU'S BROTHER: I actually got a voice mail from my father, telling me that she was home. She's with us.</s>KING: Did you expect it, Sven?</s>SJODIN: I think we all felt it, the Friday leading up to it, we all just kind of had that deep feeling in our hearts. We were kind of expecting it this weekend.</s>KING: Chris, how did you hear?</s>CHRIS LANG, DRU'S BOYFRIEND: I actually found out in a way that I couldn't have written better if I have to find out the terrible news. I was in the truck with Linda (ph) and Allen (ph) and my Uncle Bob (ph) and Linda's dear friend Lizzie (ph) when we got the phone call to go back to the school. We had been handing out sandwiches to the searchers out there looking. Once that call came, we all knew.</s>KING: And your immediate feeling was what, Chris? You say it was not unexpected. But it still becomes a fact. What went through you?</s>LANG: Yes. Well, you pray for the best the whole time. Unfortunately, we got the worst news. Just emptiness. Just all the efforts had stopped. She was found. She was home. But it literally just empty. There it is.</s>KING: Sven, how has your mother, dad and stepfather, how are they dealing with all of this?</s>SJODIN: You know, I'd say we're all doing well. They're doing well for the circumstances. We have a great strength amongst our families. We've been given strength from above. We just thank God that she's not lost any more. We know where she is now. It's a slight peace but also disturbing in the same...</s>KING: Some of her sorority sisters have visited the site where she was found. Do you plan to go, Sven?</s>SJODIN: Yes, I will go. I will go. I'm not sure what day. I haven't planned it yet. But, yes, I will definitely go.</s>KING: Chris?</s>LANG: Yes.</s>SJODIN: In fact, I believe one of my uncles is taking a field stone and going to be placing it there as a memorial. I'm not sure when that's going happen. More than like I will definitely be there for that.</s>LANG: There will be flowers and cards there.</s>KING: One of the girls told the "Grand Forks Herald" that it was emotional but it gave us a good sense of peace knowing where she was instead of guessing like we had to for so long. Is that why you're going to go, Sven?</s>SJODIN: Yes. yes. I need to know the resting place of my little sister. My best friend, yes.</s>KING: Chris, what's the reason you're going to go?</s>LANG: You know, just -- that's where she was. And, you know, I do -- I would like to say, though, that I have learned a lesson through this horrible experience.</s>KING: Which is?</s>LANG: That lesson is that it really is a good world out there. Everybody -- for every monster there's about 1 million really wonderful people. And I have experienced it through, be it from the National Guard bringing an army to search for Dru all the way down to an e-mail from a stranger in Japan. To a girl giving me a hug in a cafe. All those efforts, they all come from one place, from the heart and they all mean the same. They all weigh the same. Because it is amazing to me what the world has done to support Dru and love Dru. And I truly believe in my heart that it is what brought her home and what is keeping us going along with her smile and this incredible, incredible love that she has coming from her.</s>KING: Funeral will be held...</s>LANG: I want to thank everybody that was involved.</s>KING: Funeral will be held this Saturday. Hundreds are expected to pay respects. The service will be held Saturday afternoon at the Grand View Lodge in Nisswa near her hometown of Pequot Lakes. The funeral home in charge tells us, Sven, that it has received more than 1,200 messages via web link attached to her obituary. The messages have been given to the family? What have you been hearing, Sven?</s>SJODIN: Just love and support from across the world. She was just such a magical person, I never thought that she would affect millions of lives like she did. Actually, I knew she would. I just didn't feel in this way. People just pouring out, you know, "we love you and we're praying for you, you're a tremendous strength for us" and people just pouring themselves out to us.</s>LANG: She's captivated everyone.</s>KING: She sure -- all you have to do is look at her picture. We'll take a break and be back with more of Sven Sjodin and Chris Lang on this edition of LARRY KING LIVE. Bob Woodward returns tomorrow night. Don't go away.