Hopkins daycare deaths: Victims, alleged perpetrator ID’d by medical examiner
Hopkins daycare deaths: Court docs reveal chilling details
A search warrant reveals new details about the deadly domestic incident at a Hopkins in-home daycare that left three people dead, including a 7-year-old girl. FOX 9's Karen Scullin has the story.
HOPKINS, Minn. (FOX 9) - The Hennepin County Medical Examiner has identified both the victims and alleged perpetrator involved in a murder-suicide at a Hopkins daycare center.
Hopkins daycare death identifications
What we know:
Authorities have identified Nathan Matthew Brown, 41, as the man allegedly responsible for the deaths of Kristen Ann Brown, 41, and Evie Ann Brown, 7.
The medical examiner has also ID'd Alice Anne Brown, 78, as the woman found dead in a Burnsville home. Authorities have previously said they believe her death to be related to the Hopkins incident.
FOX 9 is working to determine an official cause of death for all involved.
Memorial springs up for Hopkins daycare murder victims
An impromptu memorial has sprung up outside Brown Bear Childcare in Hopkins, Minnesota, where three people were found dead, including a 7-year-old girl, Wednesday morning. Police say the deaths are linked to another homicide in Burnsville.
Police response to Hopkins murder-suicide
The backstory:
Hopkins police responded to a home in the 200 block of Tyler Avenue North around 9 a.m. on Wednesday after a parent arriving for daycare called 911 as the violence was unfolding.
Police found three people dead inside the home: a 41-year-old woman, a 41-year-old man and a 7-year-old girl.
Authorities said the mother and daughter were stabbed to death, while the man died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.
Six other children who were inside the home were not injured and were later reunited with their parents.
RELATED: Hopkins daycare deaths, Burnsville homicide involved the same family, authorities say
Search warrant details attack, evidence at scene
Dig deeper:
According to a search warrant filed in Hennepin County, the parent who called 911 told investigators he walked toward the back of the home and could "hear the sound of children screaming."
He entered through the back door and reported seeing the man on top of the woman, the warrant states. The witness reported seeing the man armed with a screwdriver and was "actively stabbing" the woman. The witness also stated the man stabbed his daughter.
The parent grabbed his two children and two other children who were inside the daycare and left the home before calling 911, according to the warrant.
When officers entered the home, they found the woman and girl dead on the kitchen floor. Investigators recovered a screwdriver at the scene.
Authorities later found the man dead inside a closet on the home’s upper level from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The witness told investigators he had received a newsletter from the daycare owner about two weeks before the deaths saying she would be closing the daycare due to relationship issues with the man, according to the warrant.
Police previously said the two adults were believed to be the daycare owners and lived at the Hopkins home.
However, police noted the suspect may have recently been living with a 78-year-old woman who was found fatally stabbed at a Burnsville home that same day.
Hopkins daycare deaths: Experts on hidden abuse
A Hopkins in-home daycare became the final scene of a tragedy that left four people dead, including a 7-year-old girl, after a man killed his wife, their daughter, and a 78-year-old woman before taking his own life. Investigators found no prior domestic violence record, but experts say that's not uncommon — many victims choose not to report abuse because they fear it could put them or their family in greater danger. FOX 9's Mike Manzoni has more.
Experts say domestic abuse can be hidden
Big picture view:
"Domestic violence isn’t always visible. It isn’t always, you know, the sort of image of a black eye that people go to," Katie Kramer, co-executive director of Violence Free Minnesota, told FOX 9.
Kramer explained that some victims may avoid reporting abuse because they fear it could make things worse.
"If they know that calling – involving law enforcement could put them or their family at risk, that might be a safe choice for them to not report that abuse...." she said.
Violence Free Minnesota has tracked domestic violence-related murder-suicides across the state since the late 1980s.
Over the last four decades, the group counted 231 murder-suicides that left 267 people dead.
In most cases, the suspects were men and the majority used guns.
"It is sort of the ultimate act of power and control. It is the outcome which we don’t want to see, which is murder, right," she said. "That is the last way for a perpetrator to gain that control, and then when we see suicides, that’s also a way for those abusers to not have to be held accountable."
Kramer also emphasized the importance of letting victims decide what is best for them when it comes to reporting domestic violence.
The Source: Previous FOX 9 reporting.