Loved ones share tributes as leaders, including former President Joe Biden, attend funeral for slain Minnesota House Speaker and her husband

By Alaa Elassar, Chelsea Bailey, Cindy Von Quednow, Alicia Wallace, CNN
(CNN) — On a warm, humid Saturday morning, grieving loved ones gathered at The Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis to honor Minnesota’s former House Speaker and her husband, whose shocking killings in an attack earlier this month stunned the nation.
The private funeral for Melissa and Mark Hortman was attended by leaders including former President Joe Biden and former Vice President Kamala Harris. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, served as a pallbearer and delivered a eulogy.
“Melissa Hortman will be remembered as the most consequential speaker in Minnesota history. I get to remember (her) as a close friend, a mentor and the most talented legislator I’ve ever known,” Walz said.
Hortman, a Minnesota state representative with the Democratic–Farmer–Labor Party, and her husband were shot and killed on June 14 in what Walz called an apparent “politically motivated assassination.” Vance Boelter – the alleged gunman accused of killing the couple and seriously injuring another state lawmaker and his wife – was arrested following a 43-hour manhunt.
“It seems as if we are living in the dystopian reality,” Father Daniel Griffith, pastor of The Basilica of Saint Mary said during his remarks. “Here in Minnesota, we have been the Ground Zero place, sadly, for racial injustice … and now we are the Ground Zero place for political violence and extremism. But friends … this can be a Ground Zero place for restoration and justice and healing, but we must work together.”
Mark was described by his children as a hobbyist with a big smile and curious mind, who loved mountain biking, making furniture and telling cheesy dad jokes, Griffith said.
Walz remembered the Hortmans for their “kitchen filled with laughter,” where Melissa could be found mixing margaritas and baking cakes while her husband fed his sourdough starter as their golden retriever Gilbert waited for scraps of food.
Robin Ann Williams, a close friend of the Hortmans, delivered a eulogy in which she described the couple as lighthearted, “colorful” people, and a loving pair who always supported each other.
Mark was always proud of Melissa, Williams said, and was never intimidated by her “formidable political talents and achievements;” when he wasn’t accompanying her on political trips, he patiently waited for her to come home and join him and their friends for drinks.
“We are buried in sorrow right now,” Williams said, her voice breaking with emotion.“But I do believe that we will experience joy again and Mark and Melissa would not want it any other way.”
The couple leaves behind two children, Colin and Sophie, who held each other before gently draping funeral palls over their parents’ caskets, which were then brought to the altar.
The governor said Hortman always led with humanity, championing legislation that put more kids in pre-K and lifted others out of poverty, brought more resources to schools, planted more trees and expanded clean energy, and helped many people find safe, secure housing.
“Politics is just people. It is just a bunch of human beings trying to do the best they can,” Walz said. “Melissa understood that better than anybody I knew. She saw the humanity in every single person she worked with … her mission was to get as much good done for as many people as possible.”
Following the funeral, attendees took part in a ceremony while wearing pins adorned with tree or shrub symbols, a tribute to Hortman’s love of nature. A private family burial will be held at a later time.
Suspect appears in court as victims lie in state at Minnesota State Capitol
Biden joined scores of visitors on Friday in paying tribute to the Hortmans and their golden retriever, Gilbert, who also died after being shot during the attack, as they lie in state beneath the rotunda of the Minnesota State Capitol.
The former president also visited Sen. John Hoffman and his wife at the hospital, where Hoffman is recovering from injuries sustained in the same attack that killed Hortman, CNN affiliate KARE reported.
Just a few miles away from the Capitol where a long line of mourners stretched down the statehouse grounds, Boelter faced a federal judge on Friday.
Boelter, who was arrested June 15 following the largest manhunt in Minnesota state history, faces state and federal charges including murder, firearms offenses and stalking. If found guilty, he could face the death penalty.
Boelter briefly appeared in court Friday wearing a heavy, quilted green garment known as a safety smock typically placed on inmates who are on suicide watch.
His attorney, Manny Atwal, said he’s been wearing the vest since his arrest. She asked the judge for a continuance, arguing the conditions of the jail – including a neighboring cellmate spreading feces on the wall and the lights being on 24 hours a day – have made it difficult for her to communicate with him.
“Your honor, I haven’t really slept in about 12-14 days,” Boelter told Judge Douglas Micko. “I’ve never been suicidal and I’m not suicidal now.”
Prosecutors did not object to the request and the judge granted the continuance. A separate hearing will be scheduled for July 3.
The Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office called Boelter’s complaints about the jail conditions “offensive and disgusting” in a statement on Friday, adding security camera footage showed Boelter “resting peacefully with his eyes closed” on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday following his court appearance.
“He is not in a hotel. He’s in jail, where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that Boelter’s jail cell is “spotless” and the lights are on around the clock “so correctional officers doing welfare checks can see that the inmates are OK.”
“It’s too late now to complain about the conditions in which he has put himself,” the sheriff’s office said.
‘Completely blindsided:’ Boelter’s wife speaks out
In her first public statement since the June 14 attacks, Boelter’s wife, Jenny, offered her “deepest sympathies” to the victims’ families.
Boelter said she and her family are “absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided” by the violent incident that killed one couple and seriously injured the other.
“This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family,” she said in a statement through her lawyers on Thursday. “It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”
She said her family has fully cooperated with authorities since the beginning of the investigation and thanked them for apprehending her husband before further harm was done.
Her statement comes as more details emerge from court documents about the investigation into Boelter’s actions that morning and the ensuing manhunt. Vance Boelter’s public defender had no comment on the release of the documents.
According to a search warrant affidavit obtained by CNN affiliate KARE and reviewed by CNN, Jenny Boelter was initially “not forthcoming with knowledge of her husband being involved in something serious.”
Investigators said she later became cooperative, telling law enforcement she had received messages from her husband in the early morning hours after the shooting instructing her to take the children to her parents’ home because “people with guns” might come to their house, the documents state.
Jenny Boelter told authorities her husband had recently bought masks for his security business and still owned the police-like vehicle the suspect used in his alleged attacks.
During their investigation, special agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension applied for warrants to track Boelter’s WhatsApp account and review his Amazon purchases, according to the documents.
Boelter was a “prepper,” and had given his wife a “bailout plan” in case of “exigent circumstances,” an FBI agent investigating the case said in another recently unsealed affidavit.
The affidavit does not imply that Boelter’s wife knew about his alleged plans to attack the lawmakers, and she has not been charged with any crime.
After the shootings, investigators found two handguns, passports for Jenny Boelter and her children and about $10,000 in cash in the vehicle she was in when she met with law enforcement, according to the affidavit.
During an interview, Boelter’s wife said that she received a group text message from Boelter in a thread with their children.
“Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody,” one text from Boelter to members of his family read, according to a federal complaint unsealed last week.
Guns, cash, a wig and a ghillie suit
It took less than two days for authorities to identify and locate Boelter. But in those 43 hours, they obtained numerous search warrants that offer new insight into the massive multi-agency effort to find and locate the alleged gunman.
Authorities found a receipt for a Minneapolis storage unit in the car Boelter allegedly abandoned after the shootout at the Hoffman home, along with a hit list that included the names of abortion providers, pro-abortion advocates and lawmakers in Minnesota and other states.
Authorities searched the storage unit and recovered five body bags, four soft-side gun cases, a gray tarp and gun cleaning supplies, according to a search warrant.
Authorities also scoured the area around the Hoffmans’ home and recovered a light-colored mask and a brown-haired wig in nearby woods, as well as a thigh holster, a replica Beretta and a conceal and carry badge.
A search of Boelter’s property in Sibley County, in the town of Green Isle, recovered nearly 50 firearms, a ghillie camouflage suit and nearly $18,000 in cash. He also had at least 12 vehicles registered to him at his home in Sibley County.
Suspect’s iPhone found at Home Depot
Officials were tracking a cell phone they believed belonged to the suspect when they received a call from an unexpected location — a local home improvement store.
Boelter’s cell phone was turned off right after the killings, but it was turned back on the next day, according to court filings.
As law enforcement officers closed in on the cell phone’s location, they received a tip that the phone was at a Home Depot in a Minneapolis suburb, where employees were trying to find its owner. Authorities responded and collected the iPhone 13 as evidence.
Boelter was found at 7:30 p.m. June 15 after a Sibley County resident spotted him on a trail camera. Authorities were able to zero in on him using infrared technology on a drone.
Once found, Boelter “crawled” to law enforcement and was taken into custody without incident. He remains in custody at the Sherburne County Jail just north of Minneapolis.
CNN’s Jada Furlow, Whitney Wild, Hanna Park and Jennifer Feldman contributed to this story.
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