Wife of Minnesota DOC commissioner pleads guilty in attempt to kill their vulnerable adult son
Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 65, was charged with first-degree murder last August. Charges say an investigation began in June last year after the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office learned of an attempted homicide at a Vadnais Heights group home in December 2023.
Myhre-Schnell allegedly told multiple people that she tried to kill her son by putting anxiety medication in his feeding bag "hoping he would go to sleep forever." When investigators spoke to Myhre-Schnell last June, charges say she admitted to putting crushed up Lorazepam pills into a "slurry" of water to bring to her son's facility.
According to the complaint, Myhre-Schnell put the mixture into her son's feeding bag on Dec. 3, 2023. He was taken to the hospital the next day due to "altered mental status, decreased level of responsiveness, and hypotension."
After obtaining a search warrant, authorities confirmed Myhre-Schnell had refilled her Lorazepam prescription two days before the crime, charges say. Investigators also collected screenshots of Myhre-Schnell's messages to family members where she allegedly confessed to the crime.
Court documents show that she texted her son in early August 2024, confessing she tried to kill him. He told investigators, "It was heavy," and "It's a lot to process."
Myhre-Schnell's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7. She faces up to 20 years in prison. Cole Premo
contributed to this report.
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Miami Herald
3 days ago
- Miami Herald
Mom drugs son's feeding bag so he would ‘go to sleep forever,' Minnesota cops say
A mother created a 'slurry' of water mixed with an excess of anxiety medication and put it in her son's feeding bag, 'hoping he would go to sleep forever,' Minnesota deputies said. Julie Myhre-Schnell, 65, has now pleaded guilty to attempted premeditated murder of her adult son in December 2023, court documents say. If a Minnesota judge accepts her July 23 guilty plea, she faces up to 20 years in prison. Myhre-Schnell's attorney did not immediately respond to McClatchy News' request for comment on July 31. At the beginning of December 2023, the woman picked up her Lorazepam prescription, which had 31 pills, deputies said. On Dec. 3, she crushed up the remaining anxiety pills, mixed them with water and smuggled the container into her son's group home in Vadnais Heights, according to a probable cause statement. Before she left for the night, she dumped the mixture into her son's feeding bag, according to deputies. The next day, her son was taken to the hospital and suffered acute hypoxemic respiratory failure, according to the complaint. He survived but told deputies 'it's a lot to process.' 'The whole time, I knew I was gonna try to do this,' Myhre-Schnell told deputies. '... All night, I was like, am I really doing this?' Speaking with deputies in July 2024, Myhre-Schnell said she 'completely regretted he survived,' according to the probable cause statement. She confessed her actions to multiple family members, deputies said, but on Aug. 6, she told her son what she tried to do, the probable cause statement said. Myhre-Schnell, in a text message to her son, said she put the medication in his feeding back so he would 'go to sleep forever,' the probable cause statement said. 'I made it, I'm still here,' the son told deputies. Myhre-Schnell is the ex-wife of Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell, KARE reported. Vadnais Heights is about a 15-mile drive northeast from Minneapolis.
CBS News
5 days ago
- CBS News
Wife of Minnesota DOC commissioner pleads guilty in attempt to kill their vulnerable adult son
Minnesota Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnel's wife, who is accused of trying to kill their vulnerable adult son by drug overdose, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder, court documents reveal. Julie Louise Myhre-Schnell, 65, was charged with first-degree murder last August. Charges say an investigation began in June last year after the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office learned of an attempted homicide at a Vadnais Heights group home in December 2023. Myhre-Schnell allegedly told multiple people that she tried to kill her son by putting anxiety medication in his feeding bag "hoping he would go to sleep forever." When investigators spoke to Myhre-Schnell last June, charges say she admitted to putting crushed up Lorazepam pills into a "slurry" of water to bring to her son's facility. According to the complaint, Myhre-Schnell put the mixture into her son's feeding bag on Dec. 3, 2023. He was taken to the hospital the next day due to "altered mental status, decreased level of responsiveness, and hypotension." After obtaining a search warrant, authorities confirmed Myhre-Schnell had refilled her Lorazepam prescription two days before the crime, charges say. Investigators also collected screenshots of Myhre-Schnell's messages to family members where she allegedly confessed to the crime. Court documents show that she texted her son in early August 2024, confessing she tried to kill him. He told investigators, "It was heavy," and "It's a lot to process." Myhre-Schnell's sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 7. She faces up to 20 years in prison. Cole Premo contributed to this report.
Yahoo
17-07-2025
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Convicted Rochester ax killer set for limited release at end of month
Jul. 16—ROCHESTER — A 53-year-old man who as a teen committed one of the most heinous crimes ever seen in Rochester will be transitioned from a state prison to a halfway house for work release later this month. David Brom, then a 16-year-old high school sophomore, took an ax in the middle of the night and killed his parents, his 13-year-old sister and 11-year-old brother. He will be released July 29, 2025, according to Minnesota Department of Corrections officials. The acts took more than 60 blows from an ax, officials said. Brom was convicted and sentenced to three life sentences in 1989. Under Minnesota guidelines put in place in 2023, Brom is now eligible for monitored release. Later this month, Brom will be moved to a Twin Cities halfway house where he will remain in state custody and be monitored. A case manager will supervise his release. It will include GPS monitoring, according to Aaron Swanum, Minnesota Department of Corrections media information officer. Brom's release date is listed as July 29 on the state DOC website. In most cases, people who are released from prison return to the county of their conviction. The DOC Release Board decided at Brom's most recent release hearing that Brom would not be released to Olmsted County for work release or any other future parole release, Swanum said. Despite a highly publicized trial and decades of speculation, what motivated Brom to take an ax and kill his family members at their home in the early hours of Feb. 18, 1988, remains a public mystery. Brom was convicted of the murders on Oct. 16, 1989, and sentenced to three consecutive life sentences. At the time of his conviction, Minnesota law required anyone convicted of a life sentence to serve a minimum term of 17 years in confinement for each life sentence. He has been at Lino Lakes Correctional Facility since. Initially, Brom would have been in his 70s before being eligible for parole. However, a 2023 Minnesota law gives offenders convicted as juveniles a chance for review. The new law allows for parole or supervised release review for offenders who have served 15 or more years of a sentence after being convicted of crimes committed as juveniles. Olmsted County Sheriff's deputies discovered the bodies of the four Brom family members on Feb. 18, 1988, in the family's Cascade Township home, just north of Rochester's city limits at the time. Deputies went there after Lourdes High School administrators called the sheriff's office regarding rumors circulating in the school where Brom was a student. Deputies found the four family members had been dead for hours and immediately began an investigation and search for Brom. He was taken into custody the next day after he was spotted at a Rochester post office. As Brom headed to trial in 1989, it appeared he might have had a chance for freedom much sooner. In the lead-up to Brom's trial, on April 22, 1989, Judge Gerald Ring decided to try Brom in the juvenile system. That meant Brom would have been released from prison before his 19th birthday in October 1990. The decision to try Brom as a juvenile sparked public outrage and was reversed by the state appeals court and the reversal was upheld later by the state Supreme Court. Brom's next appearance before the Supervised Release Board is scheduled for January 2026.
