Anders Odegaard: Minnesota lawyer kills ex-wife in front of their horrified children who screamed for help
FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA: A lawyer allegedly beat his ex-wife to death in Minnesota on Tuesday, August 23 as she held on to the youngest of their five children while two others screamed for help, according to the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office.
Carissa Odegaard, 31, died from a severe head injury in front of her horrified children after her husband Anders Odegaard, attacked her. As per court records, the couple had divorced last year. The younger boy, 2, was left so traumatized that he was unable to respond to questions from deputies.
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As per Fox News, the police complaint noted that two of the boys ran outside, informed a stranger and begged him to call 911 "because their mom was bleeding really bad and needed help." The first responding deputy found the 31-year-old Anders in the kitchen in his underwear, with blood on his face and in his hair. The wife Carissa Odegaard was lying unresponsive in a doorway in a pool of her own blood. When the deputy asked him to explain, Anders replied, "I don’t feel right." After talking to the children, the deputies wrote that in the custody dispute, Anders had allegedly refused to let Carissa take their kids to church after which a fight broke out.
According to the authorities, the 9-year-old boy told investigators he saw his father strike his mother with a knife or spatula in the head moments before he ran outside and asked for help. The boy also said that he had seen his father hit his mother before. The complaint states that three boys, aged 9, 8 and 2, were inside during the attack while their other two siblings were in their mom's car outside. The 8-year-old boy, who also witnessed the attack, told investigators that his father "was on top of her (Carrisa) choking her."
Carissa Odegaard was pronounced brain-dead at Sanford Hospital in Fargo, North Dakota, on Thursday, August 24. She was kept on life support so that her organs could be donated. Court records show that the couple married in May 2011 and officially divorced on September 16, 2021. The parents were granted shared legal custody, but the court gave Carissa Odegaard physical custody, which meant that the children would live with her.
As per Fox News, Anders was an attorney at the Mercer County State for three months, from June to September 2021, before being fired. He was a public defender for three months in Stark County, North Dakota, after which he was again fired. Later, he practiced privately before moving back to Minnesota.
Anders, if convicted on the second-degree murder charge, would face 40 years in prison. Prosecutors are also seeking additional charges since "the victim was treated with particular cruelty" and also because there were multiple child witnesses. Anders appeared before the court on Thursday, August 24 and was ordered held on $5 million bond without conditions.