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  • Who killed Joshua?

    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.
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