3 October 2023
Twenty-four people lost their lives to domestic violence in Minnesota last year, which equates to nearly a victim every other week.
And such violence should not be minimized by blaming it on someone snapping or losing their temper, Violence Free Minnesota leaders said Monday as they released their annual homicide report.
“Power and control is the root cause of all intimate partner violence,” said Joe Shannon, Violence Free Minnesota’s communications program manager. While physical abuse may be the most visible form, he said domestic violence is a pattern of emotionally, sexually, financially and physically abusive behaviors.
At least 24 people in the state were killed by current or former intimate partners in 2022, or they died as bystanders or intervenors, according to Violence Free Minnesota. That matches the average over the preceding five years. So far this year, at least 24 people have already been killed in domestic violence situations.
Violence Free Minnesota has analyzed four risk factors in its annual homicide reports since 2006 and added a fifth this year — previous strangulations. The other factors are attempts to leave the abuser, previous threats to kill the victim, abuser’s access to firearms and abuser’s history of violence.
“Strangulation has long been recognized as a risk factor in intimate partner homicide, but we did not previously include it in our reports because, like threats to kill, it is underreported and often not documented,” Shannon said. “However, in recent years, we have seen an increase in homicides where strangulation was known to have occurred prior to the killing. As relationship abuse escalates, strangulation is often one of the last steps towards the ultimate act of power and control” of homicide.
The statewide coalition of more than 90 member programs working to end relationship abuse highlighted these risk factors and cases in its report released Monday:
Attempts to leave the abuser
Carissa Joy Odegaard (Courtesy of Violence Free Minnesota)
Carissa Joy Odegaard, 31, filed for divorce against her husband in 2021, which was granted six months later. She went to her ex-husband’s home in Warren, in northwestern Minnesota, to pick up her children to attend church on Aug. 23, 2022, but one of their children — they had five under age 10 — told police their father didn’t want their mother taking them. A court hearing in the divorce was scheduled for Aug. 30, 2022.
Police responded to a 911 call after two of Odegaard’s young children flagged down a motorist and said they needed help for their mother. Odegaard’s former husband is accused of attacking her while she was holding their toddler and while their kids were present; he allegedly strangled her and fatally beat her.
Access to firearms
Katie Ann Fredrickson (Courtesy of Violence Free Minnesota)
Katie Ann Fredrickson’s boyfriend was convicted of shooting the 34-year-old in her Brooklyn Center home on July 30, 2022. He fled and, when he was later arrested, police found him with a bag with four guns. Three had been stolen.
His past convictions prohibited him from possessing a gun, and he was convicted of illegally possessing firearms in 2006, 2014 and 2015. He pleaded guilty to murder and an illegal weapons charge for shooting his ex-girlfriend’s dog days before he killed Fredrickson.
History of violence
Shanna Renae Daniels (Courtesy of Violence Free Minnesota)
Shanna Renae Daniels‘ body was found after officers responded to a fire at her North St. Paul apartment on Aug. 25, 2022. She had extensive stab wounds and other injuries, and her boyfriend is charged with first-degree murder.
He previously was convicted of violence against two other women and a child — in 2008, he pleaded guilty to the attempted murder of his then-girlfriend and to sexually assaulting her 12-year-old daughter. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to third-degree assault, causing substantial bodily harm, to another girlfriend.
Threats to kill the victim
Peachu Elfreda Yates (Courtesy of Violence Free Minnesota)
Peachu E. Yates, 35, had recently moved herself and her daughters out of their Champlin home. She reported to child protection workers that her husband was sexually assaulting one of the daughters, after which he allegedly threatened to kill her and the children.
Her husband was indicted for first-degree murder after her stabbing in Champlin on March 28, 2022.
Strangulation
Ariel Christine Sakry (Courtesy of Violence Free Minnesota)
Ariel Christine Sakry’s husband fatally shot the 25-year-old before killing himself in their Wadena home on April 29, 2022. He was previously charged with strangling Sakry when she was pregnant.
Part of his plea deal involved a stay of adjudication. A judge said, “Every marriage goes through ebbs and flows, peaks and valleys,” according to Violence Free Minnesota. Sakry’s husband’s attorney asked that a firearm restriction not be ordered. Just over a year later, he shot Sakry 11 times.
“The homicides and preceding abuse documented in our 2022 report do not represent normal peaks and valleys in relationships,” said Meggie Royer, Violence Free Minnesota’s prevention program manager, on Monday. “They are violent, inexcusable acts of misogyny, power and control. Year after year, we see women criminalized, dismissed, disbelieved and blamed,” along with “sentiments … that treat women as the instigators of their own murders.”
Violence Free Minnesota’s report includes recommendations, including increased funding for community-based advocacy programs to continue to work to provide safety to victim/survivors, ensuring medical assistance is offered to victim/survivors because strangulation and traumatic brain injuries can have long-lasting consequences that aren’t immediately apparent, and having law enforcement develop ongoing relationships with their local community-based advocacy services.
Domestic violence help
Help is available 24/7 through the Day One hotline by calling 866-223-1111 or texting 612-399-9995.
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