On Friday, one day before his third child was born, Ralph Latrez Bell was found dead in a wooded area of Roseville, a little more than a mile from where police found his car on the late December day that he disappeared.
Roseville police have not released details about his death or confirmed that the body found in the vacant lot is that of the missing Stillwater man, but on Sunday his mother, Corhea Taylor, said that police had told her Bell had been stabbed several times in the chest.
UPDATE: Missing Stillwater man Ralph Bell died by suicide, officials say
More than anything, Taylor said, her son will be remembered as a “good man” who worked hard to support his young family and would do anything to help members of his large extended family.
On Friday, a person looking for shed deer antlers near some trees on a lot northeast of Dale Street and Roselawn Avenue alerted police to a body.
After he disappeared, family told police that Bell, 24, left his apartment in the 1600 block of Greeley Street about 10 p.m. Dec. 20 after having an argument with his fiancee.
The blue Chevrolet Impala he was believed to be driving was found an hour later with the engine idling in the 800 block of Cope Avenue West in Roseville, just over a mile north of where his body was found. Witnesses told police that they saw the car speed to the end of the dead-end street and stop, and a man got out and ran off.
Bell was father to two girls, 3, and 5, and a son who was born Saturday. His fiancee, Kaila Holmes, named the baby Ralph Latrez Bell Jr. and posted the following message to Bell on social media:
“Your son is here and not surprised looks just like our first 2 babies,” she posted to Bell just after the delivery at 1:09 a.m. “I love you so much and wish you were here to see your first son be born. … I love you.”
Holmes asked friends not to stop looking for answers in Bell’s death.
“He deserves justice,” she said.
Bell’s mother said that Bell dropped out of high school when Holmes became pregnant so he could support the new baby.
“He was a hard-working young man,” Taylor said, noting that Bell worked at a welding company in Stillwater. “He took care of his family. That was the most important thing to him. He loved his family, loved his kids.”
Every day, after working all day, he would come home and help with the children, cook dinner and do other tasks to give Kaila, who had been home with them all day, a small break, Taylor said.
“That was his daily thing,” she said. “Even after he worked all day.”
Bell was one of four children, his mother said. He moved to Richfield from Mississippi with his family when he was 11, attended school in Richfield and St. Paul and then moved to Stillwater when he met Kaila, his mother said.
Bell liked to play basketball and was a talented artist who could draw anything he saw, his mother said. He was also a deft handyman and spent time on the weekends putting motors on bicycles and then selling them for extra cash, she said.
Her son will also be remembered as a respectful young man who was always first to step forward to help when a family member needed it. Whether it was loaning someone money for food or helping someone fix a flat tire, he would be the first to offer his help, Taylor said. He had a large extended family, since she has 24 siblings, she said.
“Whatever the situation was, if he could help them out, he did,” she said.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call the Roseville Police Department at 651-767-0640.
