A New Richmond man has been charged with killing his wife and hiding her body in rural Polk County.

Gordon Charles Laakso, 70, was ordered to pay $1 million cash bond March 3 in St. Croix County Circuit Court on felony first-degree intentional homicide, strangulation and suffocation (domestic abuse) and hiding a corpse charges. If convicted, he faces life in prison.

According to the complaint:

New Richmond police were dispatched at 1:44 p.m. March 2 to a possible domestic abuse situation at 1345 Bluff Border Road. The caller said he believed Laakso had just killed his wife by choking her.

When officers were advised Laakso had multiple firearms in the residence, they parked a few houses down and called him. He answered the phone and told officers he was the only one home, that things had gotten out of hand and he didn’t know what else to say. He denied anyone was injured and said he would speak to police outside.

After securing Laakso in a squad, police noticed a small abrasion on the top of his left hand and what appeared to be dried blood on the inside of his right hand. Laakso told the officer his wife, Mary, had “rambled” at him for seven hours straight, became belligerent and hit him.

When asked if she was still inside, Laakso said, "Oh, you didn't find her?" then admitted she was dead. He then told officers he would have to go with them to find her as he couldn’t tell them where she was. Other officers confirmed no one else was inside the house; however, they found gloves with what appeared to be blood on them in the basement. After reading him his rights, Laakso said he wanted to speak to an attorney.

Laakso’s daughter, whose husband had called police, told officers she was on a video chat with her dad at 1:30 p.m., talking about marital issues he was having. During that conversation, Laakso told his daughter he’d choked his wife that morning and that she hadn’t made it.

Laakso continued speaking to officers even though he’d asked for an attorney. He said he’d retired just two days prior and offered to show officers where his wife’s body was. Dispatch pinged his wife’s phone and located it northeast of Star Prairie, just into Polk County.

Officers read Laakso his Miranda rights again and told him they would only ask him questions about the victim’s location. He said he just drove because he was panicking, heading east from the Star Prairie water tower. He said he then turned north on the first or second road.

"I should have brought her right to the hospital, I don't know what the heck happened to me, but I just panicked,” he said.

He told officers he’d left her body at the edge of a cornfield next to a large boulder, covered with some corn stalks. Police found her body at 4:04 p.m., ¼ mile eat of 1449 10^th Ave. Police transported Laakso at 5:21 p.m. to the St. Croix County Jail without incident.

The Ramsey County Medical Center performed an autopsy March 3 and ruled the cause of death as asphyxiation and manner of death to be homicide.

Laakso is scheduled for a preliminary hearing at 1:30 p.m. March 17.