NEW ROCKFORD (AP) - Eddy County's prosecutor said Tuesday that authorities know the whereabouts of a murder suspect who was seriously injured in a June car crash, but he gave no clues as to why the man has not been taken into custody.

State's Attorney Travis Peterson issued a statement saying "An arrest will be made at an appropriate time." He declined to elaborate in an interview.

Leslie Olafson, 57, of New Rockford, is charged in the June 10 death of Selmer Veen, 83, a retired farmer whose body was found in his New Rockford garage.

Olafson had been hospitalized since the night of Veen's death after he was seriously injured in a rollover accident near Hamar. A nurse at the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minnesota said he and another nurse on Sunday escorted Olafson to Carrington, where he planned to surrender, but the county refused to accept custody because it did not want responsibility for Olafson's medical bills.

Peterson did not address that claim in his statement Tuesday. He said only that law enforcement officers were aware of Olafson's location and believed he was neither a threat to the public nor a flight risk.

"Although officials acknowledge that Olafson is in North Dakota, they are unable to discuss details of his location or physical condition," Peterson said.

Rodney Lindstrom, chairman of the Eddy County Commission, said law enforcement decisions are in the hands of Peterson and Sheriff Larry Schagunn, who referred questions to Peterson. But Lindstrom said taking on a prisoner's steep medical bills might lead to "a dramatic tax increase."

An inmate with medical problems can cost a county hundreds of dollars a day, said Jim Gion of Hettinger County, president of the North Dakota State's Attorneys Association.

"There have been times when we have had an individual arrested, or adjudicated guilty, or pled guilty, and the potential medical risk does have an impact on what you do," he said. "It immediately becomes a county responsibility as soon as you take custody."

While prosecutors do not make medical cost worries the first priority in decisions about cases, "I do know it enters in," Gion said.