Father Of Daughter Killed In Cloquet Hotel Shooting: ‘It’s Just The Randomness Of It’

CLOQUET, Minn. — The father of a young Cloquet hotel clerk, Shellby Trettel, 22, reacted Monday to a final investigative report involving the shooting death of his daughter and a guest at the Super 8 hotel this past January.

Trettel’s father, Tim, spoke with FOX 21 Monday afternoon – not only about the final report, but how his family is coping since the tragic evening.

Shellby Trettle and her father, Tim

“It could happen anywhere. You hear it on the news, but you never think it would really be here, or, you know, close to somebody. It’s just the randomness of it … makes you think,” Tim said.

Tim said his family has been trying as best as possible to talk about Shellby as if she’s still around.

Shellby had been excited to take a second trip Sin City this year, so the family went there with her ashes to visit places she liked or wanted to see.

“We did go to Las Vegas because she was supposed to be going with us. She still did go with us,” Tim said holding back tears. “So, that was that we had fun as far as we could. So she is in a few places in the Vegas area. We went to the Grand Canyon, we went to the Hoover Dam, and she had never seen either one of those, but she sees them now.”

Tim said he’s worked hard over the last few years to better communicate his feelings to Shellby and his other children. And given the personal tragedy he now faces, Tim hopes other parents will do the same.

“I wish I would have had five more minutes. Yeah, when she walked down the stairs and walked out the door for work that day, I mean, that’s the last time I saw her. So you just never know what’s going happen when you walk out the door,” Tim said. “There’s nothing that’s good about it, the whole thing sucks. I wish she was here, but she’s not. So we just have to get used to what we’ve been saying is the new normal. And she’s watching over somewhere and just not here physically.”

The Trettle family also has a memorial set up on a wall in their Cloquet home to honor and remember Shellby.