Minot Police work daily on cases and sometimes witnesses are involved.

Most recently the murder case of Anita Knutson has come back into the spotlight when an eyewitness produced a composite sketch with the help of a sketch artist. Jen Dame sat down with the Minot Police to find what it is like to be an eye witness and give a description of someone we all know.

More than one year after Anita Knutson has been murdered police turned to a sketch artist to help them out.

(Capt. Al Hanson, Minot Police Department) "The case doesn't hinge on that it is just the fact that we did have a witness that saw that individual running away and we got the sketch artist to work with that witness and try to provide some direction and see if that will break the case for us."

While it hasn't lead to anything substantial yet, police are keeping their hopes up.

(Capt. Al Hanson, Minot Police Department) "There hasn't been any real good phone calls or leads or anything that have developed from it, no, but that doesn't mean we don't try."

Curious as to how sketch artists work, I decided to give it a try and sat down with Minot Police Captain Al Hanson.

"you wanna build a good one so you will take as much time as it takes."(21:55:04)


We only took about 30 minutes but I can tell you it is much harder than one would think. In the past you would sit down with a pad of paper and draw and erase until it look right. Now, with computers there is the potential for over five billion combinations. From hair to eye brows, noses and wrinkles, the ability to alter them is mind boggling.

"I like number 10"


"That's the one I want, I think"

"You think so?"

"For now"


"Man, there are so many options"


Hanson recommends witnesses look for a unique feature that may help the suspect stand out, items like hair color, tattoos or piercings. This particular program can hold up to six different sketches and help create your own line up.

"But really there are so many aspects that make such an impact on what the person looks like you don't realize until you sit down to so it how difficult it really is" "And it's, not to be critical from a police standpoint, but to get a witness to come up with a sketch that is a 100% correct is unique."


And difficult.

"just a couple of clicks makes a huge difference."


....can you tell who it is?

Jen Dame, KXNews.

Hanson says that although they have the new technology they do still use a sketch artist as needed and sometimes in addition to the technology. watch the video | save this article / add to your favorites list