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A North Dakota lawyer allegedly beat his ex-wife to dying in Minnesota on Tuesday as she clung to the youngest of their 5 kids and two others screamed for assist, in keeping with the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.
The youthful boy, 2, was so traumatized he didn’t reply to questions from deputies after they’d his father in custody and rushed his mom to the hospital.
Anders Odegaard, 31, and Carissa Odegaard, additionally 31, divorced final 12 months, court docket data present.
In a custody dispute this week, he allegedly refused to let her take their children to church and a combat broke out, deputies wrote within the legal criticism after interviewing the youngsters.
Two of their boys ran exterior, flagged a stranger and begged him to name 911 “as a result of their mother was bleeding actually unhealthy and wanted assist,” in keeping with the criticism.
The first responding deputy discovered Anders Odegaard within the kitchen sporting simply his underwear, with blood on his face and in his hair. Carissa Odegaard was unresponsive mendacity in a doorway — with a pool of blood round her head.
The deputy requested him to clarify the scenario.
“I don’t really feel proper,” Odegaard replied, in keeping with the criticism.
The deputy discovered that Carissa Odegaard was not respiratory. He cuffed the ex-husband and tried CPR on the sufferer. He seen “extreme head trauma” and referred to as for an ambulance.
The 9-year-old boy informed investigators he noticed his father strike his mom with a knife or spatula within the head moments earlier than he ran exterior and located somebody to name 911, in keeping with authorities. He additionally informed deputies he’d seen his father hit is mom earlier than.
Three brothers, ages 9, 8 and a couple of, had been inside in the course of the assault. Two different siblings had been exterior of their mother’s automotive and had been spared the horror, in keeping with the criticism.
The 8-year-old informed investigators that after beating his mom to the ground, his father “was on high of her choking her.”
“There was blood throughout,” he informed deputies, and when he tapped his mom’s foot, she didn’t reply to the contact.
Court data present the Odegaards married in May 2011 and formally divorced on Sept. 16, 2021, on the grounds that their marriage was “irretrievably damaged.” The slaying comes simply days earlier than the ex-couple was due in court docket for a evaluate listening to.
The dad and mom had been granted shared authorized custody, however the court docket gave Carissa Odegaard bodily custody. Legal custody, underneath Minnesota regulation, means the suitable to be concerned in “main selections figuring out the kid’s upbringing.” Physical custody means “routine every day care and management of the residence.”
Anders Odegaard, within the submitting finalizing their divorce final 12 months, was described because the Mercer County State’s Attorney in North Dakota.
Marshall County Attorney Donald Aandal informed Fox News Digital he didn’t need to go into element in regards to the case, citing the lively investigation, however mentioned Odegaard’s full work historical past was not readily clear and that he’d switched careers a number of occasions.
According to the Mercer County State’s Attorney’s Office, Odegaard held the job for 3 months, from June to September 2021, earlier than being fired. He spent three months as a public defender in Stark County, North Dakota, and was fired once more. After one other transient stint at a personal apply, he moved again to Minnesota.
Odegaard faces a most sentence of 40 years in jail if convicted on the second-degree homicide cost. Prosecutors are additionally in search of aggravated expenses as a result of “the sufferer was handled with specific cruelty” and since there have been a number of little one witnesses.
He made his first court docket look Thursday and was ordered held on $5 million bond with out situations, $2,500,000 surety bond or $250,000 money.
Carissa Odegaard was pronounced brain-dead at Sanford Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, on Aug. 24. She was being stored on life help till her organs might be donated.
