Four people from one family were found dead at two Minnesota locations in incidents that police in Hopkins and Burnsville said were connected. Authorities described the deaths at a home daycare as an apparent double murder-suicide and the fourth death as a related stabbing.
Hopkins officers went to a residential daycare on the 200 block of Tyler Avenue North at about 9 a.m. They found a 41-year-old man dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound and a 41-year-old woman and seven-year-old girl dead from apparent stab wounds, police said. The three were family members.
Six other children were present at the daycare. Police said none was hurt and all were reunited with their families. The source did not identify the adults or children, and investigators had not released a motive.
At about 12:23 p.m., Burnsville officers responded to a home near Maple Island Road and Joplin Avenue. They found a 78-year-old woman dead from an apparent stabbing. Investigators said the man found in Hopkins was a close relative of the older woman and had been living with her.
Both departments said there was no continuing threat to the public. Their description of the case remained preliminary: “apparent” manners of death reflect initial police findings and would ordinarily be subject to further investigative and medical review.
Burnsville Police Chief Matt Smith said such events affect entire communities and encouraged residents to support one another. Hopkins neighbours told local broadcaster WCCO that the large police response and evacuation of nearby homes shocked an area they regarded as quiet. One neighbour said she had not known a daycare operated in the house.
Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty said her office was working with Hopkins police and that its victim-services division was prepared to assist people affected by the incident. The report did not indicate that charges were expected, given that the man whom police connected to the deaths was himself found dead.
A Burnsville neighbour remembered the 78-year-old victim as a soft-spoken and constructive member of a homeowners' association. That account conveyed the local impact but did not add evidence about the sequence of events.
Investigators had established a suspected family connection between the two scenes, but several questions remained unanswered in the initial reporting. Police had not provided a timeline linking the Burnsville death to the Hopkins deaths, publicly identified the victims or explained what preceded the violence. The known facts were four deaths, six unharmed children and two crime scenes about 20 miles apart under a coordinated investigation.
