Affidavit: Mitchell said he was thinking of slap from Tandoc before he attacked her

Curt Mitchell told police he was thinking about a slap he had received from Tanya Tandoc several days prior to her killing, “the end of their romance, and being told to leave” in the moments before he attacked her without provocation, says a police affidavit released Tuesday.

Mitchell has pleaded guilty to first-degree murder in the June 3 death of Tandoc, 45, the well-known owner of Tanya’s Soup Kitchen. Mitchell, 47, lived in Tandoc’s basement; friends have said she let him live there out of kindness but wanted him out.

Police found her body in the basement of her home on South Minneapolis, just a few blocks from her popular restaurant on Douglas near Hydraulic.

The affidavit, known as a probable cause affidavit, is completed by police and filed with the court to give a legal reason for arresting and charging someone.

Although some of Tandoc’s friends have been adamant that Mitchell was not her boyfriend, he told detectives that “he had been involved in a romantic, intimate relationship with Tanya,” according to the affidavit, signed by long-time homicide Detective Tim Relph.

The affidavit says Mitchell, after being advised of his rights, agreed to talk with Relph and a fellow detective, Christian Cory, at about 3:35 a.m. June 5, hours after police went to Tandoc’s home and found her body. The affidavit gives this narrative:

Several days earlier, the two had argued, and she slapped him. About two weeks earlier, she had told him to “make plans to move out of her residence,” the affidavit says.

On the night of June 3, she came home, and they spoke for a few minutes and went into the house.

Mitchell said he and Tandoc were in the dining room, “and he was thinking about the slap, the end of their romance, and being told to leave,” the affidavit continues.

He told the detectives that “without provocation from her,” he punched her in the head, knocking her to the floor. “He immediately straddled her body and used his hands and choked Tanya for several minutes to make sure she was dead.”

He bound her wrists and legs and dragged her down some stairs and put her in a small storage area in the basement, where she remained for about 24 hours, until officers arrived, the document says.

An autopsy found, based on a preliminary examination, that the cause of death was blunt-force trauma to the head.

The affidavit also details why police went to her home the night they found her body. At about 10:56 p.m. June 4, officers were sent to check on Tandoc at her home in the 200 block of South Minneapolis. Police found Mitchell on the front porch. When they asked about Tandoc, he said she might have gone to Lawrence.

After the officers talked to Mitchell and were ready to leave, a 911 dispatcher got a call from Mitchell saying that “he had murdered his roommate,” the affidavit says.

Two officers returned to the house, Mitchell confirmed that he had killed Tandoc, and the officers took him into custody. He told police that she was in the basement. Officers found Tandoc with her hands and feet bound, and she was pronounced dead at 11:37 p.m.

The last post on her Facebook page was at 9 p.m. June 3. Twenty minutes later, a friend received a text message from her phone number saying that she had arrived home.

This story was originally published June 23, 2015 at 1:48 PM with the headline "Affidavit: Mitchell said he was thinking of slap from Tandoc before he attacked her."