Shoreview teacher found stabbed to death in Armenia
BY LENORA CHU, Pioneer Press

Pioneer Press, MN
May 20 2004

A 33-year-old Shoreview native was stabbed to death Monday in the
Armenian capital of Yerevan.

Joshua Haglund’s body was found in a downtown area Monday night. He
was stabbed three times and apparently had been beaten, according to
a report by the Associated Press.

“We got a phone call from the U.S. Embassy in Armenia, and they
said he had gotten killed outside his apartment,” said Dan Blommer,
Haglund’s stepfather. “They said it did not appear to be a robbery.”

Haglund was several weeks away from completing a 10-month
English-teaching contract at a Yerevan university under the U.S.
State Department’s English Language Fellow program.

His sister Barbara MacKenzie, who kept in constant communication
with him via e-mail, said she wasn’t aware of any trouble he was in
or any enemies he had.

U.S. authorities were still waiting for details about the killing,
according to Stuart Patt, a spokesman with the State Department’s
Bureau of Consular Affairs.

“We’re doing everything we can to assist (the family) and make
arrangements,” Patt said.

Haglund graduated from Mounds View High School, earned a bachelor’s
in political science and English from the University of Minnesota and
later received a master’s in education from the University of Toronto.

Fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Hindi, he had taught elementary school
in Minneapolis and also spent a number of years teaching English in
Japan and Puerto Rico and working in India.

“He just felt he needed to make the world a better place by helping
people learn English,” MacKenzie said.

Haglund had two nieces and a new nephew and was “very family-focused
even though he was abroad for a good part of his adult life,”
MacKenzie said. “He made intentional purposeful visits back home to
see his family in Minnesota. It’s just a great loss for our family.”

Haglund last visited Minnesota in March. In June, he was scheduled
to return for a month before starting a new teaching assignment in
Saudi Arabia.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress