Lino Lakes man kills his wife, then himself, police say
By Nancy Ngo
nngo@pioneerpress.com
Updated: 10/02/2009 11:52:29 PM CDT
Pamela Taschuk recently told a Lino Lakes police officer that she feared her abusive husband might kill her and that the next altercation could be the last.
In the past two months, she took steps to protect herself. She reported Allen Taschuk to police, and he was arrested for domestic abuse and false imprisonment. She filed for divorce. She sought and was granted a protection order demanding he stay away.
On Thursday, she stopped by the Anoka County attorney's office to make sure the case against her husband was moving forward. That evening, she attended a support group for domestic-abuse victims. She went home, and within two hours she was dead.
"Allen is like the guys in the stories you (hear) where the wife leaves the husband and then he kills her," Pamela Taschuk told police a few weeks ago, the day she ended the relationship.
Investigators say that after he killed his wife, Allen Taschuk killed himself.
On Friday, police called the events a tragedy, noting that Pamela Taschuk had served as a juvenile officer with area police departments and that her husband was a volunteer firefighter.
Officers were called to their home at 467 Post Road about 10:47 p.m. The caller told a dispatcher that police should pick up a boy — the couple's 16-year-old son — at a nearby gas station, adding that there had been a shooting at the home.
When officers arrived at the house, they found both Pamela Taschuk, 48, and Allen Taschuk, 51, dead from a single gunshot wound each.
Investigators suspect Allen Taschuk dropped their son off at the gas station, promising he would return, and then went to the house and shot his wife before calling 911 and killing himself.
Neighbors in their quiet Lino Lakes subdivision were shocked to learn of the deaths.
"We were probably the closest to them of all the neighbors, and we didn't see this coming," said Abby Frane, who lived next door.
Frane and her husband moved to the neighborhood three years ago and said they never sensed any tension between the Taschuks, though recently police were being called to the home. She also noticed Allen Taschuk had moved out in the past few weeks.
The Taschuks had a stormy relationship, police and court records suggest.
Since 1995, Lino Lakes police were called to the residence 48 times, 22 of those domestic-related. Allen Taschuk was arrested three times — most recently Aug. 26.
That day, Pamela Taschuk told police her husband had hit her across the face, given her a bloody nose and kept her from leaving the house.
Allen Taschuk was agitated because he didn't know her whereabouts when she had gone to a job interview, Pamela Taschuk told an officer.
When she got home, he poked her and slapped her across the face. And when he realized her nose was bleeding, he went to get her ice cubes but became angry again because there were none in the freezer.
At one point, he grabbed her and pulled her back into the house as she tried to flee, the police report said.
"I have been dealing with his behavior for a long time. ... You would think it would be easy to just pack up and leave someone, but it took a lot for me to even come up here," the police report quotes Pamela Taschuk as saying. "I am scared that the next time he gets mad and hits me that it could be the last time."
Officers arrested Allen Taschuk on suspicion of domestic assault and false imprisonment. He was charged two days later and was released from jail after posting $5,000 bail.
The Centennial Fire District, where Allen Taschuk was an on-call volunteer firefighter, put him on administrative leave because of his arrest.
Meanwhile, Pamela Taschuk was granted a restraining order Sept. 10.
In her petition, she accused her husband of hitting, punching and pushing her and holding her captive at least 10 to 20 times during their 23-year marriage. She also said he had threatened to kill her at least four times.
The protection order banned Allen Taschuk, who was on workers' compensation, from coming within a two-block radius of the home. The two were allowed to have e-mail and phone contact with regard to their son.
On Sept. 25 — four days after her birthday — Pamela Taschuk filed for divorce in Anoka County.
Investigators expressed frustration over Thursday's murder-suicide.
Paul Young, division chief for violent crimes in the Anoka County attorney's office, said the fact that Pamela Taschuk had stopped by their office and then the Alexandra House in Blaine, where she attended a support group for victims of domestic abuse, showed she was serious about getting out of her abusive situation.
"The irony is, she was doing everything she could," Young said. "And that night, she was murdered."
After learning police had arrested her husband in August, Alexandra House contacted Pamela Taschuk, helping her file her protection order, said Connie Moore, the agency's executive director.
"When women have made a decision to get out of an abusive relationship, that's the most dangerous time for them," Moore said. "She had the order for protection, but he just chose to violate it."
Lino Lakes police Chief Dave Pecchia worked with Pamela Taschuk at the Fridley Police Department in the mid-1980s when she was a juvenile officer. She then left to work for Richfield police for a time. She was a member of the Lino Lakes park board.
"She will be remembered as an extraordinary person who gave to her community and her family," Pecchia said.
Sheriff Bruce Andersohn said the majority of homicides in Anoka County the past few years have been domestic-related. So far this year, there have been three homicides, two of them domestic-related. Last year, there were eight homicides, six of which were domestics.
Adam Spencer contributed to this report. Nancy Ngo can be reached at 651-228-5172.
A TELLING PLEA
A police report quotes Pamela Taschuk talking to an investigator: "I have been dealing with his behavior for a long time. ... You would think it would be easy to just pack up and leave someone, but it took a lot for me to even come up here. ... I am scared that the next time he gets mad and hits me that it could be the last time. ... Allen is like the guys in the stories you (hear), where the wife leaves the husband and then he kills her."
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