Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Minnesota Father Convicted in 16-Year-Old Son's Murder After Body Found in Landfill

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Minnesota Father Convicted in 16-Year-Old Son's Murder After Body Found in Landfill

Q: How did investigators use garbage truck GPS data to uncover a decapitated teen's remains hidden deep inside a Minnesota landfill?

Investigators found Manny Collins’ remains by pairing surveillance footage with Waste Management’s truck-tracking data to reconstruct exactly where trash from his father’s apartment complex ended up inside the Elk River landfill. Police first obtained video showing a garbage truck emptying the dumpster behind Jordan Collins Sr.’s Columbia Heights apartment on May 13, days after Manny was last heard from. That footage let investigators identify the specific pickup and connect the apartment’s dumpster to a particular garbage truck route. They then used GPS records kept on the truck, along with landfill and weigh-station records, to follow that load from the apartment to the Elk River landfill. The data showed where the truck traveled, when it arrived, and where that load was dumped. That allowed searchers to narrow the target area inside a landfill covering hundreds of acres to a much smaller section where the apartment trash had been deposited. With that location identified, authorities mounted a weeks-long search beginning in early June 2025, using local law enforcement, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the FBI, and specialized response teams from Quantico. Searchers worked through the designated debris field until human remains were recovered on June 28. DNA testing confirmed the remains were Manny’s. Prosecutors said the GPS-based landfill tracing was critical because, without it, finding his body in a massive landfill would have been far more difficult.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 8

Jordan Dupree Collins Sr. was found guilty Wednesday of second-degree murder in the 2025 killing of his 16-year-old son, Jordan "Manny" Collins, and is set to be sentenced on Dec. 2.
Manny disappeared after visiting his father's Columbia Heights apartment in May 2025, and prosecutors said he was never heard from again after early May 8 despite his father's claim he had left for St. Paul.
A May 15 search of the apartment found apparent bloodstains in garbage bags, and DNA testing later confirmed the blood belonged to Manny.
Surveillance footage then led investigators to an Elk River landfill, where Manny's remains were recovered on June 28, 2025 after a multi-agency search involving local police, the FBI and state agents.
An autopsy found the teen was likely decapitated with a knife, and Collins has remained in custody since his July 7, 2025 arrest.