Their accused killer appeared in court earlier on Friday.

Just a few short miles away from the Capitol, Vance Boelter – the alleged gunman accused of killing the Speaker Emerita of the Minnesota House and her husband and seriously injuring another state lawmaker and his wife – faced a federal judge.

Neatly folded American and Minnesota flags were placed on pedestals next to the caskets as Gilbert’s remains sat in a brass-coloured urn with paw prints along the sides.

Boelter briefly appeared in court on Friday wearing a heavy, quilted green garment known as a safety smock typically placed on inmates who are on suicide watch.

His attorney, Manny Atwal, said he’s been wearing the vest since his arrest.

She asked the judge for a continuance, arguing the conditions of the jail – including a neighbouring cellmate spreading faeces on the wall and the lights being on 24 hours a day – have made it difficult for her to communicate with him.

“Your honour, I haven’t really slept in about 12-14 days,” Boelter told Judge Douglas Micko. “I’ve never been suicidal and I’m not suicidal now.”

Prosecutors did not object to the request and the judge granted the continuance. A separate hearing will be scheduled for July 3.

The Sherburne County Sheriff’s Office called Boelter’s complaints about the jail conditions “offensive and disgusting” in a statement on Friday, adding security camera footage showed Boelter “resting peacefully with his eyes closed” on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday following his court appearance.

“He is not in a hotel. He’s in jail, where a person belongs when they commit the heinous crimes he is accused of committing,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that Boelter’s jail cell is “spotless” and the lights are on around the clock “so correctional officers doing welfare checks can see that the inmates are OK.”

“It’s too late now to complain about the conditions in which he has put himself,” the sheriff’s office said.

‘Completely blindsided:’ Boelter’s wife speaks out

In her first public statement since the June 14 attacks, Boelter’s wife, Jenny, offered her “deepest sympathies” to the victims’ families.

Boelter said she and her family are “absolutely shocked, heartbroken and completely blindsided” by the violent incident that killed one couple and seriously injured the other.

“This violence does not at all align with our beliefs as a family,” she said in a statement through her lawyers on Thursday.

“It is a betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of our Christian faith. We are appalled and horrified by what occurred and our hearts are incredibly heavy for the victims of this unfathomable tragedy.”

She said her family has fully cooperated with authorities since the beginning of the investigation and thanked them for apprehending her husband before further harm was done.

Her statement comes as more details emerge from court documents about the investigation into Boelter’s actions that morning and the ensuing manhunt. Vance Boelter’s public defender had no comment on the release of the documents.

Investigators said she later became cooperative, telling law enforcement she had received messages from her husband in the early morning hours after the shooting instructing her to take the children to her parents’ home because “people with guns” might come to their house, the documents state.

Jenny Boelter told authorities her husband had recently bought masks for his security business and still owned the police-like vehicle the suspect used in his alleged attacks.

During their investigation, special agents with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension applied for warrants to track Boelter’s WhatsApp account and review his Amazon purchases, according to the documents.

Boelter was a “prepper,” and had given his wife a “bailout plan” in case of “exigent circumstances,” an FBI agent investigating the case said in another recently unsealed affidavit.

The affidavit does not imply that Boelter’s wife knew about his alleged plans to attack the lawmakers, and she has not been charged with any crime.

After the shootings, investigators found two handguns, passports for Jenny Boelter and her children and about $15,000 ($US10,000) in cash in the vehicle she was in when she met with law enforcement, according to the affidavit.

During an interview, Boelter’s wife said that she received a group text message from Boelter in a thread with their children.

“Dad went to war last night … I don’t wanna say more because I don’t wanna implicate anybody,” one text from Boelter to members of his family read, according to a federal complaint unsealed last week.

Guns, cash, a wig and a ghillie suit

It took less than two days for authorities to identify and locate Boelter.

But in those 43 hours, they obtained numerous search warrants that offer new insight into the massive multi-agency effort to find and locate the alleged gunman.

Authorities found a receipt for a Minneapolis storage unit in the car Boelter allegedly abandoned after the shootout at the Hoffman home, along with a hit list that included the names of abortion providers, pro-abortion advocates and lawmakers in Minnesota and other states.

Authorities searched the storage unit and recovered five body bags, four soft-side gun cases, a grey tarp and gun cleaning supplies, according to a search warrant.

Authorities also scoured the area around the Hoffmans’ home and recovered a light-coloured mask and a brown-haired wig in nearby woods, as well as a thigh holster, a replica Beretta and a conceal and carry badge.

A search of Boelter’s property in Sibley County, in the town of Green Isle, recovered nearly 50 firearms, a ghillie camouflage suit and nearly $27,000 in cash.

He also had at least 12 vehicles registered to him at his home in Sibley County.

Suspect’s iPhone found at Home Depot

Officials were tracking a cell phone they believed belonged to the suspect when they received a call from an unexpected location — a local home improvement store.

Boelter’s cell phone was turned off right after the killings, but it was turned back on the next day, according to court filings.

As law enforcement officers closed in on the cell phone’s location, they received a tip that the phone was at a Home Depot in a Minneapolis suburb, where employees were trying to find its owner. Authorities responded and collected the iPhone 13 as evidence.

Boelter was found at 7.30pm June 15 after a Sibley County resident spotted him on a trail camera.

Authorities were able to zero in on him using infrared technology on a drone.

Once found, Boelter “crawled” to law enforcement and was taken into custody without incident. He remains in custody at the Sherburne County Jail just north of Minneapolis.