Pioneer Press , MN
Oct 7 2004
Who killed Joshua?
Mother and two brothers going to Armenia to look for answers to
4-month-old crime
BY ALLEN POWELL II
Pioneer Press
Last May, Joshua Haglund was beaten and stabbed to death in front of
his apartment in Armenia after returning from a visit with a friend.
After four months and little new information about how the
33-year-old died, members of his Shoreview family will leave today on
their first visit to Yerevan, Armenia’s capital. They hope to find
answers and closure.
“Even if it’s good news or bad news, we’d like to know,” said his
mother, Maxine Haglund-Blommer. “We’re frustrated, disappointed.
Sometimes we get angry and mad. It’s just sad that my son never came
back.”
James Haglund, Joshua’s brother, said the family feels stymied by
both Armenian and U.S. State Department officials. Neither government
has offered much information about the killing of Haglund, who died
while working as an English teacher at a Yerevan university.
The teaching program was funded by the State Department but run by
the School for International Training.
Haglund was beaten the night of May 17 outside his downtown apartment
and stabbed three times.
Armenian officials have never contacted the family directly, and the
only new information about the case has been gleaned through reports
from Armenian newspapers and rumors from Joshua’s friends in Armenia,
said James Haglund, who will fly to Armenia with his mother and a
brother.
“We haven’t seen a police report, autopsy – basic information,” James
Haglund said from his mother’s home in Shoreview. “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.”
Kelly Shannon, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Consular Affairs in
the State Department, 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 they helped
arrange the family’s trip to Armenia.
The State Department spokeswoman 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.”
Haglund-Blommer said the family simply hopes police will explain to
them how her son died.
The family plans to stay in the country for 10 days. They expect to
meet with the Yerevan prosecutor investigating the case and police.
James Haglund said the family also plans to meet with Joshua’s
co-workers and friends, and they hope their presence will prompt
someone to come forward with new information.
In addition, James Haglund said his family has come to suspect that
the killing could be linked to that fact that Joshua was gay. Haglund
said the family has learned that there is hostility toward gays in
Armenia, something they say Joshua was unaware of when he left for
his fellowship.
As recently as 2002, there was a law banning homosexuality, and in
1999 several people were convicted. Haglund said the State Department
should have alerted his brother to the potential dangers he faced.
Haglund said his brother never expressed fears for his life nor
mentioned any overt anti-gay actions directed at him while he lived
in Armenia.
Joshua Haglund was a graduate of Mounds View High School and earned
bachelor’s degrees in English and political science from the
University of Minnesota. He later received a master’s degree from the
University of Toronto and taught elementary school in Minneapolis.
Haglund was fluent in Japanese, Spanish and Hindi and taught English
courses in several countries. He was planning to travel to a new
assignment in the Middle East when he was killed.
TO HELP
The family of Joshua Haglund has set up a memorial fund to help
continue the education effort he championed. Donations may be made to
Joshua’s Memorial Fund (Joshua Haglund) at Affinity Federal Credit
Union, 3533 N. Lexington Ave., Arden Hills, MN 55126.