Minot Man Charged With Three Counts of Murder | Video

| 7/12/2012

The Minot man accused of killing his daughters has now officially been charged with murder. Prosecutors charged Aaron Schaffhausen, 34, with three counts of first degree intentional homicide today in the deaths of Amara, 11, Sophie, 8, and Cecelia, 5. Each count carries a maximum possible sentence of life in prison.

Schaffhausen, who made his bond appearance via video conferencing, refused to answer the judge when questioned at first. when ordered to, he used only one word responses.

A criminal complaint issued today says police responded to the family home tuesday afternoon after receiving a call from Jessica Schaffhausen, who told them her ex-husband had called and said he had harmed the kids.

When officers entered the home, they found Amara, Sophie and Cecelia dead in separate bedrooms. All three were laying on their beds, dried blood on their faces and blankets covering their bodies up to their necklines. Preliminary autopsies show the girls died of sharp force injuries to the neck, and Cecelia had also been strangled.

Aaron Schaffhausen moved to Minot after divorcing the girls` mother, Jessica Schaffhausen, in January. His visit to the home Tuesday was unexpected, but Jessica agreed to let him see the children as long as he was gone by the time she got home.

Schaffhausen turned himself in at the River Falls police station 30 minutes after the children`s bodies were discovered. Investigators say blood was visible on his clothing.

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