Overview

Last seen: November 12, 1999, at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Location: Marion, LaMoure County, North Dakota
Age: 82
Status: Remains missing; Limesand was legally declared dead in 2002.
NamUs: MP17931
Doe Network: 4010DMND

Limesand disappeared while traveling in his red 1995 Ford club-cab pickup. Evidence later linked his disappearance to property near neighbor Steve Allen Thomas. Thomas eventually admitted shooting Limesand, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and said he disposed of the body in a dry slough but could not identify its location. Despite searches, Limesand’s remains have never been recovered.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Norman Limesand: The 1999 North Dakota Disappearance and Homicide Case

Norman Leroy Limesand was an 82-year-old farmer and longtime township officer from Marion, North Dakota, when he disappeared on November 12, 1999. What initially began as a missing-person investigation eventually became a homicide case involving blood evidence, an abandoned pickup truck, a dispute over rural drainage, a murder charge, and ultimately a manslaughter conviction. More than 26 years later, Limesand’s remains have never been recovered.

Very Brief Case Summary

Last seen: November 12, 1999, at approximately 3:30 p.m.
Location: Marion, LaMoure County, North Dakota
Age: 82
Status: Remains missing; Limesand was legally declared dead in 2002.
NamUs: MP17931
Doe Network: 4010DMND

Limesand disappeared while traveling in his red 1995 Ford club-cab pickup. Evidence later linked his disappearance to property near neighbor Steve Allen Thomas. Thomas eventually admitted shooting Limesand, pleaded guilty to manslaughter, and said he disposed of the body in a dry slough but could not identify its location. Despite searches, Limesand’s remains have never been recovered.

Norman Limesand Disappears Near Marion, North Dakota

Norman Limesand had farmed in the Marion area since 1947 and had also served as a township officer for more than three decades. Among his responsibilities was dealing with culverts and drainage problems along township roads.

On November 12, 1999, Limesand was last seen at approximately 3:30 p.m. in Marion. Accounts of the case state that he was driving a red 1995 Ford club-cab pickup with North Dakota license plate EIP-754 and was headed toward his son’s farm. He never arrived.

One account from his wife, Marjorie Limesand, said the last thing he told her was that he was going to check the cattle. Family members later came to believe he may also have gone to property occupied by Steve Allen Thomas and Thomas’s mother, Bonnie Rosland.

There were reports that someone resembling Limesand was seen at a church in Waubay, South Dakota, after his disappearance. The reported behavior of the man was considered unusual for Limesand, however, and the sighting was never confirmed.

His Bloodstained Pickup Is Found in Minnesota

Four days after Limesand disappeared, on November 16, 1999, his pickup was discovered abandoned in the Romkey Park area of Moorhead, Minnesota, roughly 65 miles from Marion. Blood found with the truck was subsequently identified as Limesand’s.

A tire normally carried in the truck bed was also reportedly missing and has never been recovered. The discovery of the vehicle and blood shifted the investigation away from the possibility that Limesand had simply disappeared voluntarily.

Investigators also found Limesand’s eyeglasses and blood evidence near the approach to the rural property where Thomas and Rosland were living. According to prosecutors, Thomas had burned portions of the ditch near the entrance to the property the day after Limesand vanished.

A Drainage Dispute Preceded the Disappearance

The events leading to Limesand’s death appear to have involved a drainage or culvert problem near Rosland’s property.

Limesand’s son Milton said that he and his father visited Thomas on November 11, one day before Norman disappeared. They reportedly offered to help clear a clogged culvert, but Thomas declined.

Because Limesand was a township officer responsible for issues including culverts and drainage, the matter was connected to his public duties as well as neighboring farmland.

The Limesand family came to believe Norman returned to the area the following day. Thomas later admitted that Limesand died there, although Thomas maintained that the shooting was accidental. Limesand’s family rejected that explanation and maintained that the killing was intentional.

Bonnie Rosland’s False Alibi

The investigation also focused on Bonnie Rosland, Thomas’s mother.

Rosland initially provided investigators with an alibi for her son, saying the two had gone to Fargo on November 12, 1999. Investigators determined through telephone records and interviews that both had instead been at the rural property.

Rosland was prosecuted for lying to a grand jury and received a five-month jail sentence in 2005.

The false alibi became another significant piece of the circumstantial case investigators were building surrounding Limesand’s death.

Steve Allen Thomas Is Charged

Authorities eventually filed a murder charge against Steve Allen Thomas in August 2005. Thomas surrendered to authorities several days after the charge was filed.

The lack of Limesand’s body presented prosecutors with a major problem. Investigators had blood and physical evidence connecting Limesand to the property, but prosecutors did not have direct evidence showing precisely what happened during the fatal encounter.

LaMoure County prosecutor Kim Rademacher later explained that the absence of Limesand’s remains and the lack of direct evidence made a murder prosecution difficult.

Thomas Pleads Guilty to Manslaughter

On November 3, 2006, Thomas pleaded guilty to felony manslaughter in LaMoure County District Court. As part of the plea agreement, Thomas was expected to accept responsibility for Limesand’s death and cooperate with authorities attempting to locate his remains.

Thomas’s version of events was that he had been hunting rabbits on his mother’s property when he accidentally shot Limesand. At sentencing, Thomas said the gunshot struck Limesand in the face.

Thomas further acknowledged placing Limesand’s body into the victim’s pickup and driving away with it before disposing of the remains in what he described as a dry slough.

The location remained a critical problem: Thomas said he could no longer remember exactly where the slough was.

Searches Fail to Recover Norman Limesand

Authorities attempted to use the information Thomas supplied to locate Limesand.

By 2007, Thomas had reportedly narrowed the possible disposal location to an area encompassing approximately 80 square miles. Investigators nevertheless could not locate Limesand’s remains.

The search effort eventually included both ground and aerial searches. Thomas even participated in hypnosis in an attempt to recover a more specific memory of where he had left Limesand’s body. None of those efforts produced the remains.

Limesand had already been legally declared dead in 2002. His family placed a grave marker for him near the community where he had lived and farmed, but there were no remains to bury beneath it.

Ten-Year Sentence and 2014 Release

Thomas received the maximum ten-year prison sentence for manslaughter in February 2007. The court continued to require him to cooperate with efforts to recover Limesand’s remains.

Thomas was released from prison on May 24, 2014. By the time of his release, Norman’s body had still not been located. Assistant North Dakota Attorney General Jon Byers, who helped prosecute the case, told the Associated Press that he believed Thomas had made a good-faith effort to assist with searches. Members of Limesand’s family remained unconvinced that Thomas truly could not remember where the body had been left.

That disagreement remains one of the central unresolved issues surrounding the case.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

Norman Limesand has not disappeared from official missing-person records despite the manslaughter conviction. North Dakota’s current Missing Persons database continues to list Norman Limesand, last seen November 12, 1999, with the LaMoure County Sheriff identified as the investigating agency.

NamUs information reproduced by current case databases identifies the case as MP17931, while the Doe Network continues to carry Limesand as 4010DMND. The Doe Network recorded an update to Limesand’s case information on March 16, 2024, and its current North Dakota index continues to list him among the state’s missing men.

No subsequent public announcement located in current reporting or official records indicates that Limesand’s remains have been recovered. The LaMoure County Sheriff’s Office therefore remains the appropriate law-enforcement contact for information concerning the location of his remains. A 2025 North Dakota legislative document confirms the Sheriff’s Office’s current public telephone number as 701-883-5720.

The criminal prosecution established who caused Limesand’s death, but the disappearance itself has never been completely resolved. The unanswered question is no longer principally who killed Norman Limesand—it is where his body was taken after the killing and where his remains are today.