Routine Daycare Drop Off Turns Into Scene Of Unspeakable Horror

A parent dropping off a child at a home daycare in Hopkins, Minnesota, on Wednesday witnessed a brutal attack that turned into a murder scene. 

Authorities said a 41-year-old woman and her 7-year-old daughter were later found stabbed to death at the home daycare the woman owned after a parent who witnessed the attack in the home’s basement called police. The killer was the woman’s husband and the young girl’s father, according to police.

Authorities said the husband shot himself after killing his wife and daughter. Six other children were at the home daycare at the time of the attack, but none of them were physically harmed. Authorities have not released the names of the victims or the suspect.

The Minnesota Department of Children, Youth, and Families lists Kristen Brown as the owner of the home daycare and shows that she was licensed on February 1, 2019. The Daily Wire also reviewed a Facebook page belonging to Kristen Brown that featured photos of a daycare called Brown Bear Childcare.

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“This is a horrific, tragic situation for any community, especially here in Hopkins, where we don’t see this type of crime,” Hopkins Police Chief Brent Johnson said.

“There’s no worse scenario than this, where you drop off your child somewhere you think is safe, and you get that phone call,” Johnson added. 

He confirmed six children who “were all very, very young children” were removed from the home daycare. Neighbor Amanda Marx witnessed the massive police response unfold from across the street around 9 a.m. CT. 

“Then they came out from the back and said, ‘Get the crime scene tape,” she said. Shortly after, she watched police escort the remaining children out of the house. Marx said she had never met the couple and was unaware there was a daycare. 

At 12:23 p.m., Burnsville police responded to a separate stabbing at a home where they found a 78-year-old woman dead. Burnsville Police Chief Matt Smith said the victim was a “close family relative” of the suspect in the Hopkins incident, and that the suspect had recently lived in the home where the woman was found dead.

Brown’s Facebook shows she opened the daycare center in 2019 so that she could work from home with her firstborn, who was born in October 2018.

“As much as I loved my previous positions, I believe that it is time to return to child care so that I can be home with her,” she said. She described the day-to-day routine in her home daycare as a “well-rounded experience.”