Authorities in Minnesota made a heartbreaking discovery after finding a woman and her five-year-old son dead from an apparent murder-suicide.
Gina Sommers, 47, and her son, Jude, were found hanged in the basement inside of their home on Bayview Place in Orono after police were called to the home for a second time to conduct a welfare check around 8pm on Monday, WCCO reported.
Police say the child’s father, Jeffry Sandberg, called 911 when he couldn’t reach his son or Sommers when he was supposed to pick the boy up as part of a scheduled custody arrangement around 4pm.
Authorities told Sandberg there was nothing they could do since no one answered the door at the home when they first went to check, but said to call again if the situation remained the same.
Tragic: Gina Sommers, 47, and her son, Jude (above together), were found hanged in the basement inside of their home in Orono, Minnesota on Monday
Police say the child’s father, Jeffry Sandberg (above together, called 911 when he couldn’t reach his son or the mother when he was supposed to pick the boy up as part of a scheduled custody arrangement around 4pm
Police were called to the home (above) for a second time to conduct a welfare check around 8pm and made the tragic discovery inside the basement
Sandberg then called again when he still couldn’t get a hold of Sommers and a relative who lived nearby came to the home with keys to give to police who then discovered the mother and son dead.
‘It wouldn’t have mattered if we would have [entered] at that 4 o’clock time or that 8 o’clock time,’ Police Chief Correy Farniok said. ‘[The deaths] occurred prior to that time.’
Sandberg and Sommers were never married, but began a romantic relationship in 2008.
The next year they discussed having a child together through in vitro fertilization. Their son was born in 2012 after several failed pregnancy attempts.
Sandberg and Sommers were never married, but began a romantic relationship in 2008. The next year they discussed having a child together through in vitro fertilization. Their son was born in 2012 after several failed pregnancy attempts
In July 2015, the relationship soured and the woman filed an order for protection against Sandberg (above) after saying he had been physically abusing. She was suing him to fulfill an alleged agreement to cover 50 per cent of the fertility treatments she underwent
In July 2015, the relationship soured and the woman filed an order for protection against Sandberg after saying he had been physically abusing her since 2009.
Court records show Sommers shared custody of the five-year-old boy with Sandberg and that she also had filed a civil case against him.
She was suing him to fulfill an alleged agreement to cover 50 per cent of their fertility treatments she underwent before having their son, WCCO reported.
Sommers, who worked as a realtor for Fazendin Realty, claimed in one document that Sandberg refused to pay child support for nine months and that she and her son were living in poverty.
They both have previously accused each other of harming the boy.
They filed court motions against one another over which school district Jude should attend, and on Friday, Hennepin County District Judge Edward Wahl ruled in Sandberg’s favor.