Before he killed famous fashion designer Versace, he murdered 2 in Minnesota

MINNESOTA — The man who killed fatally shot designer Gianni Versace outside of his Miami Beach home in the summer of 1997 started his five-person killing spree in Minnesota, where he killed two men a few months earlier.

Jeffrey Trail, a 28-year-old from Bloomington, was the first of Andrew Cunanan’s victims. He was found beaten to death and rolled up in a carpet on April 29, 1997, in an apartment belonging to Cunanan’s second victim: David Madson.

Madson’s body was discovered by fishermen days later — on May 3, 1997 — in a farm field near the shores of Rush Lake in Chisago County, roughly one hour north of his Minneapolis home. Gunshot wounds to his head and back would later reveal he was shot with a gun that originally belonged to Trail.

The following day, another murder victim surfaced roughly seven hours away in the Gold Coast district of Chicago. Lee Miglin, a wealthy businessman and husband to Marilyn Miglin, a Home Shopping Network host, was found under a car in his garage. His throat was slit and his feet were bound with masking tape, according to a 2022 CBS News report.

In the days following Miglin’s murder, a Jeep parked nearby began collecting parking tickets. By the third day, investigators ran the plates — and discovered the vehicle belonged to Madson, who had been murdered days earlier.

During a call with Minnesota law enforcement, they discovered Cunanan was the main suspect in the slayings of Madson and Trail.

He then became the prime suspect in Miglin’s death, too.

On May 9, 1997 — five days after Miglin’s body was discovered — another victim surfaced in New Jersey: William Reese, a 45-year-old cemetery caretaker, was found shot in the head with the same pistol used to kill Madson. His vehicle, a red 1995 Chevrolet pickup truck, had been taken from the scene.

Cunanan went under the radar for more than one month. He was placed on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s America’s Most Wanted list — yet he alluded law enforcement by swapping out the license plate on Reese’s truck while he made the drive to Miami Beach.

Roughly one month later, he re-emerged outside of Versace’s Miami Beach mansion, where Cunanan shot the famous fashion designer as he was returning home on July 15, 1997.

Cunanan fled the scene, yet Reese’s truck was identified in a nearby parking ramp — and investigators put the pieces together.

In the midst of a manhunt for Cunanan, his body was found on July 23, 1997, on a houseboat docked in Miami Beach. The gun he used to kill himself was traced back to Trial, his first victim — and law enforcement positively identified it as the weapon used to kill Versace, in addition to Madson and Reese.

It’s unclear why Cunanan flew from San Diego to Minnesota on April 25, 1997.

His acquaintances from California told law enforcement varied stories. Some said he was going to Minnesota to settle business with Trail, a gas company manager, according to a 1997 Star Tribune article.

Others said he went there to visit both men: Trail and Madson, both of whom he had formed romantic relationships with in the past.

Image courtesy of Newspapers.com / Original image appeared in a 1997 Star Tribune article

Cunanan met Trail when the two lived in San Diego. He became acquainted with Madson, a 33-year-old architect and graduate of the University of Minnesota-Duluth during a visit to California.

Photo courtesy of Ancestry.com / Original image appeared in a 1997 edition of the Leader Telegram

Initially, Madson reluctantly allowed Cunanan to stay at his place, according to interviews with his close friends, conducted by the Star Tribune in 1997. However, on the evening of April 26, Cunanan told Madson he was going to spend the following night with Trail.

That never happened.

On April 27 — the next day — Cunanan made plans to meet up with Trail for coffee, followed by dancing, but had no intention of staying with him.

Those plans didn’t last, though. Instead, Cunanan asked Trail to meet him at Madson’s apartment, according to a 1997 Star Tribune article.

Trail told his partner he was going to Madson’s to meet Cunanan, yet he never returned. Calls to Trail’s phone went unanswered — and concerns grew when he didn’t show up to work the following day.

Two days after Trail went unaccounted for, police entered Madson’s apartment, where they discovered Trail’s body rolled up in carpet. He had been bludgeoned to death with a hammer. Investigators determined he was killed on April 27, the night he didn’t return home.

Neighbors told law enforcement they saw Madson and Cunanan walking Madson’s dog without a leash the day after Trail went missing. They took note because Madson always used a leash on his regular dog walks.

As law enforcement attempted to track down Trail and Madson, who at that point were both considered suspects, they got the call that Madson’s body was discovered by fishermen near the shores of Rush Lake in Chisago County.

Madson was shot in the back and between the eyes.

“He knew it was coming,” then-Chisago County Sheriff Randall Schwegman told the Los Angeles Times in 1997.

With two young Minnesota men dead, investigators expanded their search and narrowed down their suspect pool to one man: Cunanan.

Investigators didn’t initially make the connection between Cunanan and the slaying of Miglin, a wealthy Chicago businessman who was beaten to death in his garage on May 3, 1997.

It didn’t take them long to connect the dots, though.

On May 4, 1997, investigators discovered Miglin’s body after his wife called authorities. Miglin had failed to pick her up that day at the airport. When she made it to their house, she found the gate unlocked and the house in disarray. Her husband’s Lexus was missing.

Image courtesy of Newspapers.com / Original image appeared in a 1997 edition of The Los Angeles Times

Law enforcement arrived on the scene and discovered Miglin’s body in the garage. That evening, they noticed a Jeep Cherokee with Minnesota plates had been parked nearby, collecting parking tickets. Investigators ran the plates and learned it belonged to a murder victim out of Minnesota – and that authorities were searching for his likely assailant.

If that wasn’t enough to convince authorities that Cunanan was their guy, their beliefs were all but confirmed when Miglin’s Lexus was discovered at a cemetery in New Jersey, near the body of the cemetery’s caretaker, William Reese.

While the Lexus was abandoned, Reese’s truck was gone.

Image courtesy of Newspapers.com / Original image appeared in a 1997 edition of The Los Angeles Times

The Federal Bureau of Investigations quickly included Cunanan on their America’s Most Wanted list. Nationwide alerts with the make and model of the vehicle, along with the license plate numbers were sent out.

Cunanan evaded authorities, swapping out the license plate on the truck and checking into low-budget hotels.

After roughly two months in hiding, Cunanan struck again.

Gianni Versace was at the height of fame and success in July of 1997. The Italian fashion designer had become a household name, synonymous with luxury and haute couture.

He left his Miami Beach home the morning of July 15, 1997, to walk to a nearby store for a newspaper. While attempting to retrieve his key to unlock his gate on the way home, he was shot.

The killer fled the scene — and just like Cunanan’s prior murders, they found his previous victim’s vehicle in a parking ramp nearby.

The FBI was all but certain Cunanan killed Versace, and they feared his reign of terror wasn’t over. He had established a pattern since the Minnesota murders of Trail and Madson.

“His ego is not allowing him to stop killing,” Bill Hagmire of the FBI told the Los Angeles Times in the wake of Versaci’s slaying. “He seems to have a procedure with his victim selection and what some might call a signature.”

On July 23, 1997, the hunt came to an end when Cunanan’s body was discovered in a Miami Beach houseboat. When investigators arrived, they discovered he shot himself.

Alongside Cunanan was a .40-caliber handgun that once belonged to Trail, his first victim. It was also the same gun used to shoot Madson alongside a lake in Minnesota — and Versaci on the steps of his Miami Beach home.