CROW WING CO., Minnesota (FOX 9) – A murder and kidnapping in west central Minnesota sparked a Amber Alert most Minnesotans got.

What we know

Fires, arson and kidnappings rocked a remote rural road just outside Brainerd Friday morning.

Crow Wing County deputies say they received a call just before 2 a.m. about a shooting and found 62-year-old Lyle Maske dead.

The family reacts

“It was a shock,” said one of Maske’s older brothers. “We’re going to miss him.”

He was the sixth of nine siblings, and family members tell FOX 9 he wasn’t a perfect man, but he was the kind of guy who would help anyone and always made people laugh.

They said Maske wasn’t a violent person, but he appeared to have been caught in a bad situation.

Almost immediately after he was killed, sheriff’s deputies learned the suspect was a 35-year-old neighbor who wasn’t done committing crimes.

“This person ended up shooting the guy and kidnapping these four young children and their mother,” said Crow Wing County Sheriff Eric Klang. “So very, very serious, very scary, I’m sure, for them. And it’s scary for us, too.”

The suspect was a neighbor of Maske and the pregnant woman and children he allegedly abducted half a mile down the road.

On social media, he posted about a relationship with the woman, but investigators say they’re still unclear about the relationship with all of them.

They say there is definitely a connection between the homicide and the kidnapping.

Amber alert successful

The apparent kidnapping prompted the Amber Alert, which Sheriff Eric Klang says worked exactly as it should within about an hour.

“It was a very savvy Morrison County resident who found that vehicle and matched it to the Amber Alert this morning, which he received and was able to call law enforcement,” Sheriff Klang said.

The pregnant woman and her four children were not physically injured.

The suspect has yet to be charged with any crime, so we’re not naming him, but we looked into his criminal history and found a prior conviction for threatening violence against an ex-girlfriend, a string of burglaries, and a sex offense against a minor.

The suspect is now in the Crow Wing County Jail and investigators expect charges to be filed in the coming days, but until then they don’t plan to release more information about what happened in the woods.