Records show the father had recently finished probation in a domestic assault case linked to the same home where he and his 3-year-old son were later found shot.
HOLMESVILLE TOWNSHIP, Minn. — Days after his probation ended in a misdemeanor domestic assault case, a Becker County man fatally shot his 3-year-old son and then himself, according to authorities and court records.
The dead were identified as Gene Russell Bartnes, 45, and Koltyn Wayne Bartnes, 3, both of Detroit Lakes. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the boy’s death a homicide and the father’s death a suicide after deputies found both in a home on County Road 113 on March 30. While officials have not disclosed a motive, the timing has brought new attention to Bartnes’ earlier assault conviction and to a violent history tied to the same address.
That earlier case dated to 2023, when Bartnes pleaded guilty to misdemeanor domestic assault for punching his fiancée’s 17-year-old son in the residence where the March shootings later occurred. Court records reported by Minnesota media said the woman and eight children were living there at the time. A Becker County sheriff’s sergeant who handled that case gave the woman information about domestic abuse victims’ rights and discussed obtaining an order for protection. Records show no such petition was filed. Bartnes was sentenced to three years of unsupervised probation, and the Minnesota Star Tribune reported that the probation term ended only days before he and Koltyn were found dead. Current investigators have not said whether any warning signs emerged as that probation period closed.
The present case began not with a public report of gunfire but with absence. Bartnes failed to report to work on March 30, according to the Becker County Sheriff’s Office. Concerned, his brother went to the home in Holmesville Township and found him dead from an apparent gunshot wound. Deputies were dispatched at about 12:39 p.m. and later found Koltyn also dead from an apparent gunshot wound. The next day, authorities released the names and the initial manner-of-death findings. The sheriff’s office said the case appeared isolated and that there was no known threat to the public. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension crime lab is helping process evidence as local investigators continue to assemble the timeline inside the home.
Details about the child’s death have come largely from Koltyn’s mother, Kristi Frazier, who told local television station Valley News Live that police said her son was shot in the back while asleep. She said investigators also told her Bartnes then climbed into bed next to the child and shot himself in the chest. Frazier said Bartnes left three suicide notes, including one addressed to her, one to law enforcement and one apologizing for his actions. She told reporters the notes were seized as evidence and that she had not read them. Authorities have not publicly confirmed the content of those notes, released excerpts or described whether any note explained why the child was targeted.
The overlap between the earlier assault case and the homicide has sharpened questions about what was visible before March 30 and what remained hidden. Public records show one confirmed incident of violence inside the home. Frazier said people who had seen Bartnes before his death told her he seemed off, but that she still did not expect a murder-suicide. Investigators have not disclosed whether they found prior emergency calls, recent welfare concerns or any new complaints tied to the property. Nor have they said whether others who once lived in the house were present elsewhere when Bartnes and Koltyn were alone there. Those gaps matter because they define whether this case will remain an isolated act in the public record or become part of a longer documented pattern.
Outside the courtroom and evidence file, the loss quickly became communal. A fundraiser created for Frazier described her as a local day care provider and said the family was reeling. She said the funeral had been delayed, adding another painful pause to a case already slowed by evidence collection and unanswered questions. For Becker County residents, the legal chronology and the family’s grief now sit side by side: a prior assault conviction, the quiet end of probation, a missed workday, a welfare check and a toddler whose death changed the meaning of every earlier record tied to that house.
Authorities have not announced when, or whether, they will release more detail about the notes, the weapon or the final investigative timeline, leaving the case suspended between what the records show and what may never be fully explained.
Author note: Last updated April 21, 2026.