We Remember 2025
We Remember is a memorial to Minnesota’s victims of intimate partner homicide. Each of these victims is someone’s child, parent, sibling, family member, intimate partner, friend, neighbor, or co-worker.
Kristi Joy Gardner
Age 57
Lake Crystal
January 9, 2025
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Kristi Joy Gardner, 57, died from multiple gunshot wounds in a home in Lake Crystal on January 9, 2025. Police were alerted by a 911 caller who stated they had found her unresponsive in the home. Police then determined that Kristi had been in a relationship with Gary Rodewald, 64, and went to find Rodewald. They found him unresponsive in his garage in New Ulm as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital in Minneapolis where he died of his injuries on January 11, 2025. Police stated that they were investigating Kristi’s death as a murder-suicide, and the Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined her death was a homicide.
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Rodewald had several convictions for violating Harassment Restraining Orders and Orders for Protection dating as far back as 2000, though it is unclear against whom.
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Kristi was a nurse at the Mankato Clinic for nearly three decades, and was described as “an awesome nurse and kind friend” and “a wonderful person” who enjoyed cooking, gardening, and puzzles. She leaves behind five children.
Sam Nordquist
Age 24
From Oakdale, Minnesota; Sam died in New York
February 13, 2025
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Sam was described as “a friend without limits,” “a giving person, a loving person,” “full of life,” and a “beautiful human being.” Loved ones shared that he loved TikTok, puma sweatshirts, cooking, and trick-or-treating with his sister’s children.
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Sam Nordquist, 24, was killed on or around February 13, 2025 after prolonged physical and psychological abuse and torture from the following seven people. Precious Arzuaga, 38; Jennifer Quijano, 30; Kyle Sage, 33; Patrick Goodwin, 30; Emily Motyka, 19; Kimberly Sochia, 29; and Thomas Eaves, 21, are all charged with first-degree murder.
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Sam, a Black trans man from Minnesota, traveled to New York from Oakdale, MN in September 2024. His family stated he traveled to New York to meet his girlfriend, Precious Arzuaga, whom he had met online. Sam’s family gradually lost contact with him, and the few phone calls they did have often had Arzuaga present. On December 4, 2024, Sam’s family was notified by social services that Sam had gone to their offices and expressed that Arzuaga was controlling his cell phone use, and that he wanted to come home and was trying to come up with an "escape plan.” He never showed up for a December 19 appointment, and his family last heard from him on January 31, 2025. His family’s requests for welfare checks led to the eventual discovery of Sam’s body in a field in New York on February 13, 2025.
We remember Sam Nordquist.
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Sefiya Churiso Datu
Age 29
St. Paul
February 26, 2025
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Sefiya Churiso Datu, 29, was stabbed to death in St. Paul on February 26, 2025. Sefiya’s husband, Kedu Husen Buseri, 34, is charged with second-degree murder. On the afternoon of February 26, Buseri called 911 and said someone had killed his wife. When officers arrived they found Buseri covered in blood and Sefiya wrapped in a blanket with a knife near her head. A baby was found on a nearby bed but was physically unharmed. Another woman was also present but was not injured. Sefiya was taken to the hospital and died shortly afterward.
Buseri told police he and Sefiya had an argument and he slapped her, then began cutting her. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office determined Sefiya died as a result of multiple sharp force injuries, including a large cut across her throat, cuts on her face, and a cut on her bicep.
We remember Sefiya Churiso Datu.