Wife of alleged political assassin says she’s ‘absolutely shocked,’ pledges cooperation with police

The wife of the man charged with shooting two Minnesota political leaders and their spouses said she was “blindsided” after learning of her husband’s alleged role, calling the attacks a “betrayal of everything we hold true as tenets of the Christian faith.”

Speaking publicly for the first time, Jenny Boelter issued a statement through a lawyer saying she and her family are fully cooperating with the investigation of her husband, Vance Boelter. The family was “absolutely shocked” and “heartbroken” to learn of the allegations, she said.

“On behalf of my children and myself, I want to express our deepest sympathies to the Hortman and Hoffman families,” she wrote. “Our condolences are with all who are grieving during this unimaginably difficult time, and we are praying daily for them.”

Jenny Boelter, 51, has been married to Vance Boelter for 28 years, making her perhaps the closest person to the man accused of carrying out the most vicious and well-planned attacks on politicians in modern Minnesota history. While distancing the rest of her family from the allegations, her statement offers no clues to what may have radicalized her husband or if she noticed anything wrong in past months. She does not say whether she has been cleared by the investigators.

A representative of Halberg Criminal Defense, which is representing Jenny Boelter, declined an interview.

Vance Boelter, 57, of Green Isle, Minn., stands charged with two counts of second-degree murder and two counts of second-degree attempted murder. He also faces six federal charges, including for stalking and murder, which could carry the death penalty. In an apparent targeted political assassination plot, the charges say he disguised himself as a police officer and shot DFL Sen. John Hoffman and his wife a total of 17 times in their home early June 14. Then Boelter went to the nearby residence of DFL House leader Melissa Hortman and opened fire.

The Hoffmans survived with serious injuries; Melissa Hortman and her husband Mark Hortman were killed.

When authorities arrived, she said, “we voluntarily agreed to meet with them, answer their questions, provide all items they requested, and cooperate with all searches. We are grateful for the diligent and professional efforts of the authorities to fully investigative these crimes.”

“We thank law enforcement for apprehending Vance and protecting others from further harm.”

Jenny Boelter, 51, was born in rural Sawyer County in northern Wisconsin, according to state records.

She graduated from Spooner High School in 1992. Yearbooks show she was deeply involved in student affairs, serving on the student council, drama club and Students Against Drunk Driving. She participated in the school’s gifted and talented program and was named prom queen.

“She was a very nice person — a quiet person,” said Bill Schroeder, a former art teacher at the school who also advised the art club, in which Jenny also participated. “She was a very popular student.”

Jenny married Vance Boelter in 1997 and became an “at home mom” who home-schooled her five children, according to her resume.

Jenny’s mother and five other family members did not respond to interview requests.

In 2019, Jenny and Vance were issued a state license to begin operations at Praetorian Guard Services, a private security firm that provided some of the equipment Vance Boelter is accused of using in the attacks.

Praetorian never landed any clients, according to a letter Jenny submitted in 2023 to the Minnesota Board of Private Detective and Protective Agent Services. She said the pandemic hit the company hard in 2020, noting her family had already invested thousands of dollars by buying vehicles, signs, firearms, uniforms and other gear, but failed to qualify for any pandemic-related assistance.

“That didn’t bother me because I wasn’t looking for a handout,” Jenny Boelter said in the letter. “I just wanted to get my business started. I tried to get small business loans from banks ... but I was told I was not eligible for small business loans. This was very frustrating.”

Still, they appeared to be “nurturing and loving,” said Mary Kavan, who became friends with the Boelters 15 years ago.

“They are the nicest All-American family,” Kavan said.

Law enforcement first contacted Jenny Boelter at 10 a.m. June 14, according to search warrants filed in Hennepin County District Court seeking to tap Vance Boelter’s phone.

One warrant describes her as both “cooperative with law enforcement” and “initially ... not forthcoming with knowledge of her husband being involved in something serious.”

She told the investigator, Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Special Agent Mike Anderson, that she had received a text message from Vance that morning telling her to take the kids to her parents’ house and that “there may be people with guns coming to the house.”

She told police that Boelter had recently purchased masks for his security company resembling the hyper-real one captured on security footage of the shooting at the Hoffmans’. A separate search warrant claims Jenny Boelter told law enforcement Vance still owned a Ford vehicle with “blue and red lights for his security business” — the make of the vehicle used in the attacks — and that the first person Vance contacted that morning was their son.

David Carlson, a childhood friend and recent roommate of Vance Boelter, called Jenny a loving wife who was “real sweet, nice, caring” and said Vance always ran things by her first. Carlson said she called him the night of the shootings in search of answers as to what happened.

At one point, Carlson asked a reporter whether Jenny Boelter had been implicated in her husband’s alleged acts, then wondered aloud whether someone “planted a seed” in Boelter to commit the crimes.

“She doesn’t understand it either,” he said. “He would complain about distrust in the government but she didn’t think it was where you take it this far.”