On the evening of February 8, 2019, Mary Jo Loons Jansen, a 46-year-old Caucasian female from Blaine, Minnesota, was tragically killed in her home. Her death occurred on the very same day she had attended her own mother's funeral. The circumstances of her passing soon became clear as a domestic dispute that ended in violence. Mary Jo was in the process of separating from her husband and had been making plans to move out of their shared residence the following day.
In the late hours of
that Friday night, a 911 call was placed from the Jansen home on 95th Avenue Northeast. The caller was Mary Jo's husband, Matthew Lynn Jansen, who informed the dispatcher that he had just killed his wife with a gun. He also stated that the weapon was now unloaded and located in the foyer of the house. When Blaine police officers arrived at the scene, they found an unloaded. 44 handgun on the steps and discovered Mary Jo deceased in an upstairs bedroom. She had sustained gunshot wounds to her neck and chest, and the Anoka County Medical Examiner later ruled her death a homicide.
Upon his arrest at the scene, Matthew Jansen made several incriminating statements to the officers, including, "I can't believe I did it" and "I guess I don't have to worry about a divorce now." The investigation revealed that Mary Jo had served her husband with divorce papers around Thanksgiving of 2018. Although they had continued to live in the same house, the divorce was pending, and she was preparing to leave permanently. Family members had reportedly been concerned enough about the potential for violence that they had previously removed firearms from the home.
Matthew Jansen was charged with second-degree murder in the death of his wife of 23 years, with whom he shared two children. He later pleaded guilty to the charge. In December 2020, a judge sentenced him to 40 years in prison, citing the particular cruelty of the crime and his lack of remorse. The judge noted that invading the privacy of their home to commit the murder was an aggravating factor in the sentencing.
