On this Date in Minnesota History: August 10

August 10, 1980 – David Francis Hoffman choked his wife, Carol Stebbins Hoffman, to death in their bedroom while their 9-month-old daughter was in the room. “His mother, who reportedly knew of her son's plans, kept [their 3-year-old daughter] distracted while he dismembered his wife's body [in the bathroom].

Hoffman first tried to dispose of the body in a garbage disposal but ultimately ended up burning some of the remains in the back yard and then tossing the rest into nearby Weaver Lake.”

In the days immediately following the killing, “a mournful David Hoffman was seen on the [TV] evening news leading efforts to locate his wife, who he told police had inexplicably run off.

The case gained so much notoriety that the subsequent trial was moved from Minneapolis to Rochester because of negative pre-trial publicity.

[Hoffman] claimed that he strangled his wife for a variety of reasons, including that she was going to divorce him and he feared he might not see his daughters again.

[However] Hoffman, who pleaded guilty by reason of insanity, also said he killed Carol Hoffman because he believed she was possessed by the devil.

In testimony, Hoffman and friends testified that he told them, and his mother, that he wanted to kill his wife and might have been planning the killing for months or years.

Eventually a jury convicted Hoffman of first-degree murder. He received a life sentence. His mother was convicted of the same crime, but that conviction was overturned about a year later by the Minnesota Supreme Court.”

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/96767899.html?refer=y

David Francis Hoffman
http://mugshots.com/search.html?q=David+Hoffman%2C+Minnesota&x=16&y=25

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