February 03 2011
By: James MacPherson ,
Associated Press Grand Forks Herald

Omar Mohamed Kalmio is the father of an infant girl found alive last week in the Minot apartment of 19-year-old Sabrina Zephier, who was found dead Friday, Minot Police Chief Jeff Balentine told The Associated Press Thursday.

BISMARCK — A Somali man who had a child with a North Dakota woman found dead last week has been interviewed as a "person of interest" in her death and the deaths of three others and is being held by U.S. immigration officials, officials said today.

Omar Mohamed Kalmio is the father of an infant girl found alive last week in the Minot apartment of 19-year-old Sabrina Zephier, who was found dead Friday, Minot Police Chief Jeff Balentine told The Associated Press today. Sabrina Zephier's mother, Jolene Zephier, 38; brother, Dillon Zephier, 13; and Jolene Zephier's boyfriend, Jeremy Longie, 22, were found slain in nearby mobile home less than an hour later.

"We have interviewed (Kalmio), and he is a person of interest," Balentine said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman Shawn Neudauer said Kalmio was arrested Tuesday in Minot for failing to abide by the terms of supervised released stemming from an assault charge. He declined to give details, citing privacy issues.

Kalmio, who is being held in the Grand Forks jail, had been ordered to report to immigration officials in Grand Forks last August but failed to do so, Neudauer said.

Balentine said Minot police intend to interview Kalmio again. He said Kalmio had been living in Minot but had been working in the northwest North Dakota city of Williston.

The Zephiers were members of South Dakota's Yankton Sioux Tribe. Officials have said they and Longie died after being shot. Their bodies were sent to Bismarck on Monday for autopsies, and police are waiting for the results, Balentine said.

He would not comment on a possible motive for the slayings.

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