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Haki · Grand Meadow deaths

Grand Meadow house fire deaths ruled murder-suicide, but the fire itself is still unexplained

For three days, a southeastern Minnesota town thought a fire had killed a father and his three sons. On Wednesday the Mower County sheriff said all four died of gunshot wounds. Officials have not said what caused the fire or whether it was set.

Imeandikwa Dakika 4 za kusoma · Vyanzo 13

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From Sunday morning until Wednesday afternoon, the deaths in Grand Meadow, Minnesota, were reported as a house fire. Four people had been found inside a burning home, and the question was what started the fire. On Wednesday, November 11, the Mower County Sheriff's Office changed the story. It said all four died of gunshot wounds, not of the fire, and ruled the deaths a murder-suicide.⁠1⁠2

According to the sheriff's office, Levi David Christenson, 38, shot his three sons and then himself. The boys were 14-year-old twins Oliver James Christenson and Felix Richard Christenson and their brother, 7-year-old Calvin Jones Christenson. The boys' deaths were ruled homicides. Their father's death was ruled a suicide by gunshot wound. Sheriff Steve Sandvik's office issued the release Wednesday afternoon.⁠2⁠3⁠4

KSTP put the change plainly: the update meant "three murders and a suicide, not a deadly fire."⁠6 The ruling says how the four died. It does not explain the fire, which has been the open question since the first call on Sunday.

Grand Meadow, Nov. 8 to 11

  1. Sun Nov 8, about 11:29 a.m.

    Firefighters and paramedics are called to a single-family home on 1st Street NE, near Grand Meadow Lutheran Church. They see smoke and find four bodies inside.

    1211
  2. Mon Nov 9

    The sheriff's office says only that the dead are an adult male and three juvenile males.

    13
  3. Tue Nov 10

    Investigators are still working to determine what caused the fire. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the State Fire Marshal are reported to be part of the investigation.

    7
  4. Wed Nov 11, afternoon

    The sheriff's office identifies the four and rules the deaths three homicides and a suicide, all by gunshot.

    24
  5. Wed Nov 11, 7 p.m.

    A prayer vigil is scheduled at St. Finbarr Catholic Church in Grand Meadow.

    91

What the ruling rests on

Readers should know how thin the public record is. Everything known about the ruling comes from a sheriff's office release as Minnesota outlets have described it. None of the coverage we reviewed reprints the release in full. The outlets paraphrase it, and the wording differs among them. The Austin Daily Herald, for example, wrote that the boys' "manner of death" was a gunshot wound. That phrase mixes up cause of death, meaning the injury, with manner of death, the legal category such as homicide. It is a small error, but it shows the story is being pieced together from summaries rather than an official document anyone can read.⁠2

The coverage also does not say who performed the autopsies or made the formal death rulings. Neither the state crime bureau nor the fire marshal has released any findings. The sheriff's office says its investigation is ongoing and that more forensic analysis is pending. It has not given a date for that analysis.⁠1⁠7

The fire is the clearest gap. As of Tuesday, investigators were still trying to work out its cause.⁠7 None of Wednesday's reports say whether a cause has been found, whether the fire was set on purpose, or how it relates to the shootings. No motive has been released, and no account has been given of what happened inside the house before the smoke was seen. Until investigators say more, the honest position is to wait. Any theory linking the gunfire to the fire would be guesswork, and this account offers none.

Yanayojulikana

  • The sheriff's office ruled the boys' deaths homicides and their father's a suicide, all by gunshot wound. 234
  • The call came at about 11:29 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 8. Crews saw smoke and found four bodies inside the home. 1211
  • The BCA and the State Fire Marshal were reported to be part of the investigation by Tuesday. 7

Yasiyojulikana

  • The cause and origin of the fire, and whether it was deliberately set.
  • Who performed the autopsies, any motive, and whether Levi Christenson had prior contact with law enforcement.
  • The full text of the sheriff's release and where in the house the bodies were found.

Yanayofuata

  • The results of the pending forensic analysis.
  • Any public finding from the State Fire Marshal or the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

A small town's loss

Grand Meadow is in Mower County, about 20 miles east of Austin in southeastern Minnesota. CBS Minnesota describes it as a close-knit community of just over 1,000 residents. In a town that size, the twins and their younger brother would have been known at school, at church and around the neighborhood.⁠1⁠6

The town had a few days to grieve what it thought was an accident before learning otherwise. A prayer vigil was scheduled for 7 p.m. Wednesday at St. Finbarr Catholic Church. An online fundraiser has been set up for the boys' mother, who survives them.⁠9⁠1

There are simply no words that could ever begin to describe the pain she is facing. The boys were her pride and joy, her happiness, and the center of her universe.

Organizer of the online fundraiser for the boys' mother 1

Five outlets reported the sheriff's ruling within hours on Wednesday, including MPR News, KTTC, ABC 6 News and KARE 11. Their accounts agree on the core facts: the names, the ages and the gunshot findings.⁠5⁠4⁠3⁠10 What none of them can say yet is why a Sunday-morning fire call turned out to be something else, and the sheriff's office has not said when it expects to answer that.

If you or someone you know needs help, CBS Minnesota lists the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE and Minnesota Day One at 1-866-223-1111.⁠1

Vyanzo11

Kati ya vyanzo vilivyonukuliwa hapa, Daily Dispatch ndicho kilichochapisha kwanza, saa 41 kabla ya ripoti hii kupeperushwa. Vyombo 8 zaidi vya habari vilifuata.
  1. Daily Dispatch
  2. Winona Radio
  3. ABC 6 News - kaaltv.com
  4. https://www.kttc.com
  5. Austin Daily Herald
  6. Audacy
  7. KSTP.com 5 Eyewitness News
  8. CBS Minnesota
  9. MPR News
  10. HeyDay News

Vyombo 2 vya habari visivyo na tarehe:kare11.comStar Tribune

Vyanzo vyote, kwa chombo cha habari

vyanzo 13 kutoka vyombo 11 vya habari· Vilivyotajwa zaidi kwanza

Kama ilivyorushwa
  1. A father and three sons found after a house fire all died of gunshot wounds.
  2. The sheriff's office in Mower County, Minnesota, has ruled it a murder-suicide. It says the man shot his three boys and then himself.
  3. Nobody has said what happened inside that house before the fire, or what started it.
  4. Sheriff Steve Sandvik's office issued the ruling Wednesday afternoon. The man was Levi Christenson, thirty-eight, the boys' father. The sheriff's office says he took his own life, and that his three sons died of gunshot wounds. Their deaths were ruled homicides.
  5. Oliver and Felix were fourteen-year-old twins. Their little brother, Calvin, was seven.
  6. Their home was in Grand Meadow, about twenty miles east of Austin in southeastern Minnesota. Just over a thousand people live there, and many of them will have known these three boys.
  7. For three days, Grand Meadow believed a fire had killed this family. The call came just before 11:30 Sunday morning, and crews saw smoke and found four bodies inside. On Monday, the sheriff said only that the dead were a man and three boys. On Tuesday, the fire's cause was still unknown. On Wednesday, it became three killings and a suicide.
  8. We'll keep following this investigation as the fire and forensic findings come out. Subscribe to this channel, and find the story at heyday dot news.
  9. Several agencies answered that first call to a home on 1st Street Northeast, near Grand Meadow Lutheran Church. By Tuesday, the state's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the State Fire Marshal were part of the investigation. No findings from either agency have been made public.
  10. The sheriff's office says its investigation isn't finished, and more forensic analysis is pending. Officials haven't said what caused the fire, or whether it was set. No motive has been released.
  11. A prayer vigil was set for seven o'clock Wednesday evening at St. Finbarr Catholic Church in Grand Meadow. The boys' mother survives them, and an online fundraiser has been set up to support her.
  12. The fundraiser's organizer wrote that there are simply no words that could ever begin to describe the pain she is facing. The boys, the organizer wrote, were her pride and joy, her happiness, and the center of her universe.

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