An Anoka County jury on Wednesday found a Columbia Heights father guilty of murdering his 16-year-old son, whose remains were recovered from an Elk River landfill last summer.
Jordan Dupree Collins Sr., 39, was found guilty of second-degree intentional murder in the death of his son, Jordan “Manny” Dupree Collins Jr., according to the verdict filed in Anoka County District Court. The jury deliberated about three and a half hours, FOX 9 reported. Collins was 38 at the time of the killing.
Collins represented himself at trial, with an advisory attorney, court records show. He called four witnesses and did not testify in his own defense, FOX 9 reported.
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According to the criminal complaint, Manny was living with his father at an apartment on the 4900 block of University Avenue Northeast in Columbia Heights when his mother last heard from him in the early morning of May 8, 2025. She reported him missing on May 12. Collins told her, and later police, that his son had left to take a bus to St. Paul, but investigators determined he never arrived.
A search of the apartment on May 15, 2025, turned up blood-stained items in garbage bags and several knives, and sections of a mattress and the carpet beneath it had been cut away, the complaint says. Forensic testing later matched blood in the bedroom to Manny.
Surveillance video showed a garbage truck emptying the dumpster behind the apartment, and investigators used the truck’s GPS data to narrow a weeks-long search of the Elk River landfill. Human remains were found on June 28, 2025, and DNA testing confirmed they were Manny’s. Collins was arrested on July 7, 2025.
In a special verdict, the jury also answered yes to 10 questions that could lengthen his sentence, finding that Collins concealed his son’s body in a dumpster and dismembered him, that the boy’s family suffered anguish as a result, and that Collins abused his position of authority and trust as Manny’s father.
Second-degree intentional murder carries a maximum of 40 years in prison in Minnesota. Anoka County District Judge Dyanna Street ordered Collins held without bail until sentencing, which is set for 1:30 p.m. on Dec. 2.
PREVIOUSLY: Father Charged After 16-Year-Old Son Found Dead in Landfill
