Six children survived the attack at Brown Bear Childcare, leaving families to confront grief, disrupted routines and the loss of a trusted caregiver.
HOPKINS, Minn. — After police vehicles left and the Hopkins home that housed Brown Bear Childcare stopped functioning as a daycare, six families faced a problem larger than finding somewhere new for their children to spend the day. The caregiver they trusted was dead, her young daughter was gone, and their children had been inside the home when the violence occurred.
Police say Brown Bear owner Kristen Ann Brown, 41, and her 7-year-old daughter, Evie Ann Brown, were killed Aug. 12 by Kristen’s husband and Evie’s father, Nathan Matthew Brown, 41. Nathan died by suicide inside the Hopkins residence, authorities said. Investigators also say he killed his 78-year-old mother, Alice Anne Brown, earlier at the Burnsville home where he had recently been living. Six children other than Evie were inside Brown Bear during the Hopkins attack. None was reported physically injured.
In the aftermath, the daycare families issued a statement describing Brown Bear as a second home rather than simply a child-care arrangement. They said Kristen’s warmth and skill were the reason they had trusted the program with their children. The statement also described Evie as part of the daycare’s daily life, someone the younger children knew well. For families whose children spent many hours each week at the residence, the deaths removed two people closely tied to their children’s earliest memories while also eliminating the familiar setting where those relationships had formed.
Brown Bear had operated since 2019, when Kristen opened the licensed family daycare shortly after Evie’s birth. The arrangement allowed her to continue a career working with children while raising her daughter at home. State records cited after the deaths showed that Brown Bear was licensed for as many as 10 children. Kristen’s public descriptions of the program emphasized activities including music, cooking, outings and individualized learning. Parents later said that approach was consistent with the caregiver they had come to know.
Evie effectively grew up with the daycare. While Brown Bear’s youngest children arrived as infants or toddlers and later moved on, she remained a constant presence. Families recalled her as playful, affectionate and comfortable around the younger children. That made her death particularly difficult for parents trying to explain the loss to children who did not know her only as an adult caregiver’s daughter but as a friend and familiar part of each day.
The surviving children had been at Brown Bear on the morning the attack occurred. A father arrived shortly after 9 a.m. to drop off two children and went to the rear entrance used by daycare families. According to a Hennepin County search warrant, he heard children screaming before entering. Investigators said he encountered Nathan attacking Kristen and Evie. The father quickly gathered his two children and two others and moved them outside before calling 911.
Hopkins police arrived and removed the remaining children. Police Chief Brent Johnson said all six surviving youngsters were very young. Their identities have not been publicly released, and officials have provided few details about what each child saw. Families later asked for privacy as they concentrated on their children’s emotional well-being. The absence of reported physical injuries did not lessen concern about the effect of being present during a violent emergency at a place they had understood as safe and predictable.
Kristen’s sister, Amanda Paulson, later thanked the father who encountered the attack. She said his decision to move children from the home made him a hero to the families involved. The parent had arrived expecting nothing more unusual than a morning handoff, yet became a direct witness and the person who first brought several children out of the residence. Authorities have not publicly identified him, allowing the focus to remain on his actions rather than his identity.
Police found Kristen and Evie dead inside the home. Nathan was found dead elsewhere in the residence from what authorities described as a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Investigators recovered a screwdriver associated with the killings, according to a search warrant. Hopkins police have released limited details beyond those necessary to establish the sequence of events, avoiding extended descriptions of the attack because young children were present and the basic facts could be reported without graphic detail.
The Brown Bear families then learned the violence extended beyond the daycare. Later that day, Burnsville police were called to a residence near Maple Island Road and Joplin Avenue, where they found Alice Brown dead. Investigators connected her death to the Hopkins case and concluded she had been killed first. Nathan had recently been staying at his mother’s home after separating from Kristen, according to relatives and reporting based on investigative records.
Alice’s death complicated an already difficult family story. Relatives later emphasized that she should be remembered alongside Kristen and Evie even though her death occurred away from the daycare scene that drew the largest response. An obituary described Alice as creative and known for work that included floral arrangements and decorative projects. Family members were left mourning three homicide victims while also confronting police findings that Nathan, another member of the same family, was responsible.
Investigators also learned that Brown Bear had been scheduled to close. According to a search warrant, a daycare parent told detectives Kristen had recently informed families that relationship problems with Nathan meant the program would end. Friends and relatives said the couple had separated. Police have not identified those circumstances as a confirmed motive for the killings. Authorities have not publicly established why Nathan killed his mother, wife and daughter, and the planned daycare closure remains part of the background rather than an official explanation.
For Brown Bear parents, the planned closure had originally presented an ordinary problem: they would need to find another provider. The attack changed the nature of that transition completely. Instead of saying goodbye to a caregiver as the business ended, families lost Kristen without warning. Their children also lost Evie and the home itself as a place associated with play, meals, learning and friendships. Parents who spoke publicly focused more on those relationships than on the practical challenge of arranging new care.
Former daycare families joined current Brown Bear parents in remembering Kristen as someone deeply committed to children. They described her as patient and attentive and said she stayed involved in children’s growth rather than treating the work as simple supervision. Those recollections were echoed at a community vigil held after the deaths. Friends, relatives and residents gathered to honor Kristen, Evie and Alice, placing emphasis on their lives instead of allowing the circumstances of the killings to become the only public account of who they were.
Local officials also acknowledged that the effect extended beyond the immediate family. Johnson said officers who entered the Hopkins home were visibly affected by what they encountered. Hopkins Mayor Patrick Hanlon spoke about the loss to the community, including the daycare families and children. The home had occupied an ordinary place in the neighborhood before the attack: parents arrived in the mornings, children played there during the day and families returned in the evenings. Its sudden transformation into a crime scene made the deaths difficult to separate from the community’s everyday routines.
The children’s families have largely stayed out of public view since their joint statement. That statement asked for privacy and emphasized the need to care for the youngsters who survived. Authorities likewise have not turned the children into public figures simply because they were present. The approach has left much of their recovery outside public reporting, while still establishing the essential fact that six young children survived an attack in the home where they were receiving care.
Nathan Brown’s death means there will be no criminal trial where prosecutors could present a detailed theory of what caused the killings. Investigators can reconstruct the sequence through witness statements, physical evidence and records, but they cannot question the person they identified as responsible. Police have not announced a definitive motive, and no public evidence has established that the family’s separation or Brown Bear’s planned closure alone explains what happened.
For the Brown Bear families, the official investigation and the personal aftermath now follow different paths. Police can complete reports and document how Alice, Kristen and Evie died. Parents must address a different set of consequences: children who lost people they saw almost every day, families who lost a provider they trusted and a daycare community that ended without the goodbye everyone had expected. Brown Bear had already been approaching its final weeks. What no family anticipated was that its closing would become inseparable from the deaths of the woman who created it and the daughter who grew up inside it.
Author note: Last updated September 22, 2026.