In the quiet community of Fairhaven Township, Minnesota, the life of Sharon Kathleen Nyren, a 67-year-old Caucasian female, came to a tragic and unexpected end on February 24, 2009. On that Tuesday afternoon, her husband of 51 years, Dale Nyren, then 70, placed a call to the Stearns County Sheriff's Office and calmly informed the dispatcher that he had just shot his wife.
When deputies arrived at their home on Bayberry Road, they found Sharon with gunshot wounds to her head and knee.
She was airlifted to the Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, but her injuries proved fatal. Dale was taken into custody at the scene. He told investigators that he and his wife had been arguing before he shot her with a. 22 caliber revolver. According to his account, he first shot her in the knee and then, a couple of minutes later, in the head.
Neighbors of the couple expressed their shock at the violent turn of events, describing the Nyrens as good and nice people. They were aware that both Sharon and Dale had been dealing with health issues. Sharon had recently been hospitalized and had lost a significant amount of weight. Dale suffered from bad knees, which limited his mobility and made him reliant on his wife for transportation. Friends and neighbors were left struggling to comprehend how a long-standing marriage could end in such a devastating manner.
Dale Nyren was initially charged with second-degree murder. In August of that year, he pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of second-degree unintentional murder. His defense attorney argued that Dale suffered from alcohol-induced dementia. In September 2009, he was sentenced to 135 months in prison. The tragic event left their family, including three sons, five grandchildren, and a great-grandchild, to grapple with the profound loss of their beloved matriarch at the hands of their patriarch.
