Prosecutors say an overnight fight in a shared Monticello home ended with one man dead and another arrested hours later.

MONTICELLO, Minn. — A 48-year-old Minnesota man faces two counts of second-degree murder after authorities said a dispute involving a household cat escalated into a series of confrontations before his sister’s boyfriend was found fatally shot inside their shared home.

Steven Ralph Stahlberg was arrested Sept. 3 after a statewide search that carried investigators from Monticello, northwest of the Twin Cities, toward Remer in northern Minnesota. The victim, 57-year-old Daniel Lawrence Ferdelman, lived with Stahlberg and Stahlberg’s sister, according to a criminal complaint described in news reports and an update from the Wright County Sheriff’s Office. Authorities have accused Stahlberg in Ferdelman’s death, but the criminal charges remain allegations. Public reports reviewed for this article did not establish a conviction or other final disposition in the case.

The case began for deputies shortly before 7:30 a.m., when Stahlberg’s sister returned from work and called 911. Authorities said she found Ferdelman unresponsive in a bedroom at the residence at 9127 Highway 25 NE in Monticello. Deputies arrived and found him dead. The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office later ruled the death a homicide, and reporting based on the criminal complaint said an examination determined Ferdelman had died from a shotgun wound to the chest. The sheriff’s office said evidence gathered at the home also showed Ferdelman had recently been involved in an altercation with Stahlberg.

Investigators then reconstructed what had happened during the preceding hours largely from statements Stahlberg’s sister said Ferdelman made to her by telephone while she was working. According to the complaint, Ferdelman called her around 12:15 a.m. and described an argument involving the household’s new cat. He said Stahlberg had taken the animal into his bedroom and shut himself inside. After Ferdelman asked that the cat be brought out, Stahlberg eventually emerged, and the two men pushed each other, the complaint alleges. Ferdelman described Stahlberg to his girlfriend as intoxicated and confrontational. Stahlberg then took the cat back into his room, according to the account.

The dispute did not end there, prosecutors allege. Ferdelman later contacted his girlfriend again and said Stahlberg had entered his bedroom and another physical confrontation followed. Reports describing the complaint place that later call between about 2 a.m. and 3 a.m., although nearby surveillance footage was reported to show a man leaving the property in a pickup associated with Stahlberg at 1:18 a.m. The publicly available reports do not explain that apparent timing discrepancy. Ferdelman had told his girlfriend that another physical encounter could end with someone being hurt, according to the complaint. She later told investigators she also feared that continued fighting between the two men would end badly.

By the time she arrived home after work, Ferdelman was dead and Stahlberg was gone, investigators said. Authorities determined that a Toyota Tundra belonging to Stahlberg was no longer at the residence. A surveillance camera at a neighboring property captured a man getting into a pickup consistent with that vehicle and driving away, according to reporting on the charging document. The surveillance footage became one part of a broader effort to locate Stahlberg after deputies began treating the death as a homicide investigation.

The woman also gave investigators information that raised concern about another family member. According to the complaint, she told authorities that if her brother had killed Ferdelman, she believed he might be traveling toward their father’s residence in Remer and intended to harm him as well. The charging account did not provide a reason for why Stahlberg would allegedly want to attack his father, and authorities did not report that the father was injured. That statement nevertheless gave law enforcement a possible destination as officers searched for Stahlberg across a large section of Minnesota.

The Wright County Sheriff’s Office said an extensive statewide search followed. Bring Me The News reported that automated license plate readers were used as investigators tracked Stahlberg’s movements. At about 9:45 a.m., several hours after the Monticello 911 call, Cass County sheriff’s deputies and agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension located Stahlberg’s vehicle. Reports placed the arrest in the Remer area, more than 150 miles from the scene of the killing. Stahlberg was taken into custody without any publicly reported injury to his father.

Investigators recovered a shotgun from Stahlberg’s truck, according to reports based on the complaint. FOX 9 reported that the firearm was on the passenger-side floorboard beneath a windshield sunshade and that ammunition was also found with it. Authorities have not publicly released every forensic step connecting evidence from the truck to Ferdelman’s death, and the existence of a firearm in a vehicle does not by itself establish criminal liability. The complaint, however, combines the recovered gun with the reported altercations, the surveillance footage, the medical examiner’s findings and the statements provided by Stahlberg’s sister as part of the allegations against him.

The medical evidence gave investigators a clearer account of how Ferdelman died than was available when deputies first arrived. The sheriff’s office initially described only an unresponsive man whose death was later ruled a homicide. Subsequent reporting on the complaint said the medical examiner identified a shotgun wound and recovered material consistent with components from a shotgun round. Those findings are significant to the prosecution’s theory because investigators reported finding a loaded shotgun in the vehicle Stahlberg was driving when he was arrested. The available reports do not indicate that investigators have publicly released a complete ballistics analysis or other final laboratory comparison.

Reports on the charging document say Stahlberg faces two counts of second-degree murder, although some early accounts referred more generally to a second-degree murder charge. Minnesota law recognizes more than one form of second-degree murder, including intentional murder without premeditation and certain unintentional killings committed under circumstances defined by statute. The law provides a maximum sentence of 40 years for second-degree murder, but the maximum is not a prediction of any sentence in Stahlberg’s case. The public sources reviewed for this article did not consistently identify the precise statutory theory attached to each count, so the counts should not be characterized beyond what the charging reports establish.

Early reporting also differed on Stahlberg’s age. FOX 9 listed him as 47, while the Wright County Sheriff’s Office, Law&Crime and Bring Me The News identified him as 48. This account uses the age provided by the sheriff’s office. Such discrepancies do not change the core allegation: authorities accuse Stahlberg of killing Ferdelman during an overnight sequence that began with conflict inside the home and ended with Stahlberg’s arrest many miles away later that morning.

Law&Crime reported in September that bail had been set at $1 million with conditions or $2 million without conditions and that Stahlberg was then being held in the Wright County Jail. FOX 9 reported at the time that it was not clear whether he had entered a plea or retained an attorney. Searches of publicly available reporting through Oct. 20 did not locate a reliable later report establishing a plea, trial date or final case outcome. The murder counts therefore remain accusations to be resolved through the court process.

Author note: Last updated October 20, 2026.