Associated Press
Oct 7 2004
Family will travel to Armenia in search of answers in killing of
Minnesotan
Five months after Joshua Haglund was stabbed to death in Armenia, his
family plans to travel there in search of answers.
No one has been arrested in the killing of Haglund, 33, who graduated
from high school in Mounds View and had traveled the world after
graduating from the University of Minnesota. His landlady found him
May 17 on the street outside his apartment in the Armenian capital,
Yerevan.
“We haven’t seen a police report, autopsy – basic information,” said
Haglund’s brother, James, who planned to leave for Armenia on
Thursday along with his mother and two other siblings. “We’re told
this is a highest priority to the Armenian officials, but we’ve had
no direct contact with them. I think it’s a lack of closure and
that’s a very important part of our healing process.”
Haglund was gay, and his family has wondered if his killing was a
hate crime.
The family plans to spend 10 days in Yerevan meeting with local court
officials and Joshua’s friends and colleagues.
Haglund was fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Hindi and taught English
courses in several countries. He moved to Yerevan last year to take a
job at the state-run Linguistics University through an exchange
program overseen by the U.S. State Department.
State Department spokeswoman Kelly Shannon said officials have issued
weekly reports to the family including all information available.
They also paid for the return of Haglund’s body and personal effects,
and helped arrange the family’s trip to Armenia. She stressed that
local police are handling the case.
“We can’t make the outcome of the investigation different,” Shannon
said. “Just like in the United States, some crimes remain unsolved
when police cannot go past a certain point.”