Bio

Mark Antonio Profit was born in 1964. Early in his life, he had numerous encounters with the law. By the age of 15, he had already been arrested or charged with around 30 felonies. Many of these were violent offenses, including assault. When he was 15, he agreed to plead guilty to aggravated assault with a weapon, specifically a sawed-off shotgun. As a result, he was sentenced as an adult to two years in prison. During this time, eight counts against him were dropped. This made him the youngest person in Minnesota to be sent to prison.

After serving his time, Profit was released but struggled to stay out of trouble. He had very limited time outside of prison, spending much of his life behind bars due to various crimes, including rapes, robberies, and assaults. After one of his releases, he spent time in a halfway house. He was released from this halfway house on May 6, 1996, and moved in with his wife and her mother in Minneapolis.

Profit's life history of crime continued to escalate after his release. Just 17 days after he left the halfway house, he became involved in a series of violent incidents. These included the murder of Renee Bell, whose body was found in Theodore Wirth Park, an area familiar to Profit.

Murder Story

In May 1996, a series of brutal murders took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota, which would later be linked to Mark Antonio Profit. Profit, known as the "Wirth Park Killer," was eventually convicted for the murder of Renee Bell, whose body was discovered floating in a creek in Theodore Wirth Park. She was found dead on May 23, 1996, and authorities suspected she had been strangled. It was believed that Bell was the first victim in a four-month period where three other women disappeared or were found dead in or near the same park.

Following Bell's murder, on June 3, 1996, the burned body of 43-year-old Deborah LaVoie was found just a block and a half away from where Bell's body was discovered. This was followed by the discovery of 36-year-old Avis Warfield’s body on June 19, also found near the park. Warfield had been stabbed and burned, and her body was situated near a location where Profit had previously lived. Finally, on July 29, 1996, 21-year-old Keooudorn Photisane's body was discovered hidden in bushes by a bike path near the park's golf course. Photisane had also been bludgeoned to death.

Mark Antonio Profit was arrested on October 3, 1996. He faced charges related to the deaths of Bell and another assault on a woman, Phynnice Johnson. During the trial, evidence connected Profit to Bell's murder through threads and fibers found in his vehicle that matched those used to strangle her. On May 8, 1997, a jury found Profit guilty of two counts of first-degree murder, specifically for the murders of Bell and an additional woman, along with one count of sexual assault.

As a result, Judge Peter Lindberg sentenced him to two consecutive life terms in prison. Despite ongoing investigations, he was never charged with the murders of the three other women, although they were believed to be linked to him. Profit's earlier history with violence and sexual crimes contributed to the perception of him as a dangerous individual. He died in prison in 2001, following a series of incidents, including being charged with attempted murder of a correctional officer. The series of murders attributed to him remains a dark chapter in the history of Minneapolis.

On September 27, 2001, Mark Profit was found dead in his cell at Oak Park Heights Prison from a drug overdose. Authorities never conclusively determined whether the death was accidental or suicide, though his wife said he had been depressed and spoke about ending his life. One week earlier, he had been convicted of assaulting a guard and another inmate, exposing him to additional prison time.