HOPKINS, Minn. (TCN) — A mother, father, and 7-year-old girl were found dead in an apparent murder-suicide at a home day care center.
According to the Hopkins Police Department, officers responded to a residence on Aug. 12 after receiving a report of a stabbing. Inside the home, which operated as a day care center, two adults and one child were found dead. There were several other children on site at the time, and they were evacuated; none of the other children present were harmed.
People reports that the victims were identified as Kristen Brown, 41, and Evie Brown, 7. Investigators believe Nathan Brown, 41 — Kristen Brown’s husband and Evie Brown’s father — stabbed his wife and daughter to death before fatally shooting himself.
According to People, a father dropping his child off at Brown Bear Childcare on Aug. 12 heard children screaming. He allegedly witnessed Nathan Brown stabbing Kristen Brown and Evie Brown with a screwdriver. The witness reportedly took his own child and two others present and left the residence to call 911.
Investigators later connected the apparent murder-suicide to another homicide 18 miles away, per People. Alice Brown, Nathan Brown’s 78-year-old mother, was found fatally stabbed in a home the same day. CBS reports investigators believe Nathan Brown had been living with his mother.
A few weeks before she was killed, Kristen Brown reportedly gave the day center clients notice that she was going to be closing her business due to “relationship issues,” People reports.
MPR News reports Kristen Brown studied elementary education at the University of Minnesota and opened Brown Bear Childcare in 2018. On the day care center’s Facebook page, she shared photos of art projects and field trips with the children. In one post she shared, she wrote, “In this time when people are so scared and showing so much hatred to each other, I would like to spread the love around. Sometimes we can learn so much from children.”
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