Police Say Man Again Stalked His Previous Victim

An 18-year-old man who has stalked and harassed a teenaged classmate since he was in seventh grade has been taken to Fairview Riverside Hospital because of worries about his mental state after he contacted the girl again.

Joshua James Arnzen came to officers’ attention most recently when the unidentified girl told police on Wednesday that she’d received a Twitter message purporting to be from a user named “Ashley Velke,” Detective Mark Gustad wrote in a criminal complaint filed Thursday.

The message read, “Is it true that Josh killed himself because of you? Nobodies [sic] seen him in months, that’s what Krystin told me.”

One of the girl’s friends had also received a similar message from an Ashley Velke.

No one in the girl’s family knew an Ashley Velke, and a Google search didn’t turn up anyone by that name. The Twitter account showed that it had been created at 4:52 p.m. that day and that the user sent the two messages two minutes later.

Everyone involved suspected Arnzen because of his lengthy history stalking the girl. Eden Prairie Police started dealing with him in 2008. Since that time, “he has repeatedly harassed, stalked, and sent offensive communications to Victim A,” the complaint stated.

The two were classmates but never involved in a romantic relationship

As a juvenile, Arnzen made “threatening and disturbing statements” to her about murder, suicide and performing humiliating sex acts on her via e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, phone, text message and letters placed in her school locker. 

He continued sending “disturbing unwanted messages via every available means” after he became an adult until officers arrested him Aug. 3 when he showed up at her doorstep with a large knife.

He later claimed that he brought the knife because he planned to commit suicide in front of her.

He was convicted of felony stalking Nov. 19, according to court records.

Arnzen’s father, who owns an Eden Prairie gun store, told police that he and his wife had been out of town for a week but that the 18-year-old seemed fine when they talked to him.

Arnzen initially denied knowing anything about Twitter but then admitted that he created the account, sent the messages to the girl and her friend and then deleted the messages but not the account, according to the complaint.

He said he contacted her because he was mad at her—adding that he knew it was wrong but that “he couldn’t stop.” Arnzen said he couldn’t stop thinking about the girl even though he knew sending her the Twitter messages would scare her.

He has violated restraining orders multiple times in the past and has been adjudicated delinquent in February 2011 and May 2011 for two separate cases of violating a restraining order.

A warrant has been issued for Arnzen’s arrest on suspicion of two counts of felony violation of a restraining order—which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.