Minnesotans killed last year during domestic violence incidents were honored during an annual event to highlight the grim accounting and offer solutions to save lives in the future.
On Friday, Violence Free Minnesota, the statewide coalition of programs working to end relationship abuse, held the Intimate Partner Homicide Memorial, which included singing, speeches and a reading of the victims’ names.
Katie Kramer, co-executive director of Violence Free Minnesota, said 31 Minnesotans were killed last year in intimate partner homicides and two others died suspicious deaths that were possible cases of intimate partner homicide.
The people killed were “mothers, daughters, sisters, brothers, sons, cousins, friends and beloved members of our communities; and they all possessed and shared so many gifts and love with those around them,” Kramer said at the St. Paul College Club on Summit Avenue. “We ask that the victims we honor today be seen as more than the sum of their abuse or the moments of their deaths. While the impact of their loss is unfathomable, so too is the immense and infinite joy that every person we honor today brought to our world.”
Several of the victims were from the St. Paul area.
Shaniya D. Thompson (Courtesy of GoFundMe)
Kramer mentioned a few by name, including Shaniya Thompson, 29, of St. Paul, who was “a devoted mother of five beautiful children, and a beloved daughter and sister,” Kramer said.
The father of her children is charged with shooting her in her apartment on Broadway Street after coming to a party for one of the children’s birthday.
“Loved ones shared that she was ‘the glue that held their family together’ and that her love was ‘real, selfless, and unconditional,’” Kramer said.
A 55-year-old Maplewood woman, Amy Doverspike, was described as “a talented chef who loved her two dogs. She had degrees in culinary arts and criminal justice, and previously worked as a correctional officer,” Kramer said.
Investigators say Doverspike’s ex shot and killed her, then shot himself and went live on social media to apologize, according to charges.
Christine “Chrissy” Morris of St. Paul was described as “’a beautiful soul who touched many lives with her love, strength, and smile.” She ran her own catering business for Jamaican food, and also worked as a Realtor. Multiple people described her as their best friend. She leaves behind a 2-year-old daughter, Kramer said.
The man accused in her slaying is the father of her child.
A list of the victims can be found at vfmn.org/we-remember-2025.
Sam Nordquist ‘wasn’t a headline’
Sam Nordquist was a 2020 graduate of Face to Face Academy, a charter school on St. Paul’s East Side. School officials, in conjunction with Nordquist’s family, announced Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025, the establishment of the “Stand with Sam Scholarship Fund” at the school and the creation of a memorial garden. (Courtesy of Face to Face Academy)
Kayla Nordquist spoke to honor her brother Sam Nordquist, who was killed in New York in February 2025. Seven people have been charged in connection with the transgender man’s death. Nordquist was a former student at Red Wing High School and previously lived in Oakdale. He was a 2020 graduate of Face to Face Academy in St. Paul.
“Sam wasn’t a statistic. He wasn’t a headline. He wasn’t a cautionary tale. He was a human being. He was love, laughter and a heart that trusted deeply in a world that doesn’t always deserve that kind of softness,” she said. “Sam wanted connection. He wanted safety. He wanted to belong. And that was used against him.”
Police said Sam arrived in New York in late September and was expected to return home about two weeks later, but he never boarded his return flight and later lost contact with loved ones.
Police began investigating his disappearance on Feb. 9 after receiving a request for a welfare check from his family, who told the authorities that they had lost contact with him at the end of January, the New York Times reported.
His body was found in a New York upstate field not long after.
Maj. Kevin Sucher, commander of the New York State Police troop that includes the Finger Lakes region, said the facts and circumstances of the case were “beyond depraved” and “by far the worst” homicide investigation the office has ever been part of.
Seven people indicted on first-degree murder charges in his death subjected him to weeks of torture that included sexual assault, forcing him to eat feces and pouring bleach on him, prosecutors said.
His sister, Kayla Nordquist, said that violence rarely “starts with fists.”
“It starts quietly. It starts with control disguised as care. With isolation that looks like protection. With fear slowly replacing love,” she said.
People need to know that emotional and psychological abuse are often the doorways to physical violence and should not be considered “less serious.”
“We don’t talk enough about how vulnerable people — especially those who love openly, trust deeply, or fear being alone — are targeted,” she said. “Sam deserved safety. He deserved protection. He deserved to come home.”
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While Nordquist will never stop demanding justice for Sam, she said she spoke Friday because she wanted people to know that prevention matters.
“Because education saves lives. Because if someone had named the danger sooner — if someone had intervened earlier — my brother might still be alive,” she said. “Violence Free Minnesota exists because silence kills. Because believing people matters. Because noticing patterns matters.”
Nordquist told the audience that if they take anything from her brother’s story, it should be to “take your gut seriously. Pay attention to sudden isolation. Don’t ignore controlling behavior just because it doesn’t leave bruises. And when someone tells you they’re scared, believe them. Silence protects abusers. Not victims.”
