North Dakota Man Has No Recollection of Stabbing Woman Dead in Tribal Casino Hotel
Posted on: January 20, 2026, 01:36h.
Last updated on: January 20, 2026, 01:53h.
- A North Dakota man says he doesn’t remember stabbing a woman to death
- The homicide allegedly occurred inside a Sky Dancer Casino & Resort hotel room
A North Dakota man who police believe stabbed a woman to death inside a tribal casino hotel room claims to have no memory of the incident.
The Rolette County Sheriff’s Office responded to the Sky Dancer Casino & Resort in Belcourt around 6:07 am local time on January 10 for a reported homicide. Responding law enforcement officers said the call was made by 58-year-old Rigoberto Mendez-Morales, of Mandaree.
Mendez-Morales told police that he awoke to find the woman deceased in his hotel room. She had been stabbed several times, and Mendez-Morales was covered in blood.
The victim, identified in court documents only as a Native woman enrolled with the Three Affiliated Tribes of the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation, with the initials B.T.M, was cold to the touch and had no pulse. The Sky Dancer Casino & Resort is owned and operated by the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa.
Homicide Amnesia
Mendez-Morales told police that he remembered gambling at the tribal casino and consuming three alcoholic drinks. He claimed that he did not remember returning to his hotel room. Mendez-Morales had an injury to his right eye that was swollen and bleeding.
Casino surveillance captured Mendez-Morales and the victim entering the hotel room after midnight. Video footage didn’t show anyone else entering or exiting the room until police knocked on the room’s door hours later.
It appeared B.T.M. had been stabbed several times,” the federal affidavit in support of Mendez-Morales’ arrest read. “Security cameras at Sky Dancer Casino & Resort show the hallway outside of the room. After reviewing the footage, law enforcement determined that Mendez-Morales and B.T.M. were the only two individuals who entered the room from the morning hours of Jan. 10, 2026, until hotel security and law enforcement arrived.”
A pocket knife belonging to Mendez-Morales was found in the hotel room, bloodied with black human hairs, consistent with the victim’s identity.
Mendez-Morales was arrested and charged with second-degree homicide within Indian Country. He’s being held on a $450K bond and is due in court on January 26.
Tribal officials with the SkyDancer Casino called the murder a “senseless act of domestic violence.” Mendez-Morales faces life in prison if convicted.
Tribal Casino Murder
The alleged Sky Dancer Casino murder is the latest tribal casino homicide in recent months.
In November, a 34-year-old Washington woman was arrested on a murder charge after police said she spiked a man’s drink with fentanyl. Her plan to rob the 38-year-old man who had agreed to pay her $1,200 of his casino winnings for sex went south after he became unconscious and later died from fentanyl intoxication.
In late September, police say a Texas man opened fire at the Lucky Eagle Casino Hotel in Eagle Pass. Two people were killed in the shooting. A motive for the 34-year-old man’s actions remains unknown.
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