Lee Urness was destined to follow his father, Douglas County Sheriff Howard Urness, and his grandfather and great-grandfathers before him, into a law enforcement career.
With the sheriff's house connected to the jail, Lee Urness practically grew up in the Douglas County jail.
Urness, who died May 19 from a heart attack, became the fourth generation of his family in law enforcement with a distinguished 31-year career. He was 71.
A Hamline University basketball player and graduate, he joined the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension as an undercover narcotics agent in 1972.
In 1977 he was promoted to team leader, and during the course of his BCA career he tracked thousands of cases, probably none that attracted as much attention from the public and the press as the case of Andrew Cunanan.
For 79 days in 1997, Cunanan crisscrossed the country eluding law enforcement and a growing pool of reporters.
Urness was an agent on the Minnesota FBI fugitive task force investigating the case that began with the murders of Jeffrey Trail in Bloomington and architect David Madson in Minneapolis, and ended in Florida after Cunanan killed international fashion designer Gianni Versace before ultimately taking his own life.
In his retirement, Urness and author Dave Racer collaborated on a book about Cunanan, "Death by Design."
Chris Graves, a former reporter with the Star Tribune who covered the Cunanan case, said she saw Urness shortly before he died when both were interviewed by CNN surrounding the 20th anniversary of the manhunt. The two grew to have a mutual respect.
"Lee was the foremost authority on Andrew Cunanan," Graves said, speculating that he wrote the book so his version of events was recorded. "Lee struck me as a guy who always had his head down and was true to the work."
In the book, Urness recalls his start in law enforcement assisting his father in searching for the bodies of some fishermen whose boat had sunk on Lake Ida.
Deputized by his father for nearly a month in 1966, Urness dove the depths of Lake Ida daily searching for the boat and any signs of the victims.
On the 29th day, near the end of his daily dive, he located the boat and a body.
At the surface, his father said it would help ease the family's suffering if they could make a recovery. Though his tanks were nearly empty, Urness made one final dive to bring the body to the surface.
Bob Bushman, a retired BCA agent and deer hunting buddy of Urness, said it was that tenacity and commitment that served Urness well in his career.
As an agent, Bushman said it was always encouraging to know that Urness would bring all of his skills, experience and toolset to any case.
"Lee Urness worked as hard on the smaller cases as he did on the larger cases," Bushman said.
"Lee was one of those guys who always had his bag packed and was ready to go," Bushman said. "And if there was something that was happening around the state or around town, Lee Urness would be one of the first to go and wouldn't leave until it was done."
Big and athletic, Bushman said, Urness commanded attention but cared little about who got credit for cases, only that fugitives were captured and cases closed as soon as possible.
While working as an undercover narcotics agent in Grand Forks, N.D., he met his future wife, Kathy Taylor. They married in 1978 and had three children. Urness had another child from a previous relationship.
A legal assistant in the Scott County Attorney's Office, daughter Lisa Sitzmann said tagging along with her dad and listening to his stories inspired her own career.
"He sparked me and got me interested in criminal justice," she said.
Sitzmann said her father coached her and her siblings in various sports despite his demanding job commitments.
She said he also enjoyed spending time at and improving the family's rustic cabin near the Ash River.
Urness was dedicated to his wife, who shouldered the family stresses of his law enforcement career. When she died in 2008, Urness built a pond and surrounded it with flowers to honor her memory.
Urness is survived by his four children, Tom Walker, Sitzmann, Matt Urness and Kari Urness; two grandchildren, and special friend Kathy Sletten.
