Murder charge filed against Charles Foss in death of Minneapolis woman Allison Lussier

Charles Foss, boyfriend of Indigenous woman Allison Lussier, has been charged with second-degree murder after two and a half years of family pressure on authorities.

Boyfriend charged with murder of Allison Lussier after family's two-year campaign for justice

Charles Foss, the boyfriend of 47-year-old Indigenous woman Allison Lussier, has been charged with second-degree murder and stalking in connection with her death, Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty announced Thursday at a news conference at the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, mprnews.org reports.

Lussier was found dead in her Minneapolis apartment in February 2024. Foss, 36, is already serving a prison sentence in an unrelated case and is expected to appear in court early next week to hear the charges and enter a plea.

Family pressure credited with breaking open the case

Lussier's family had maintained from the outset that Foss bore responsibility for her death and that the Minneapolis Police Department had mishandled the investigation. They pointed to the couple's violent three-year relationship and to the multiple occasions Lussier had called police to report abuse — as many as seven domestic violence reports, beginning in August 2022. Because Lussier also lived with substance use disorder, the family feared officers had dismissed the role domestic violence played in her death.

Moriarty said police first brought the case to her office in June 2024, but at that point there was insufficient evidence to file charges. Her office assigned its own investigators and credited the family and community members with connecting them to witnesses who had been reluctant to speak to police.

"Your demand for accountability kept Allison in the spotlight and directly assisted us in conducting additional investigation," Moriarty told the family. She added that investigators would not have reached some critical witnesses "but for the family."

Lussier's aunt, Jana Williams, who has been the family's most public voice since the death, addressed reporters after the announcement.

"I didn't know that this day would ever come, and I appreciate every single one of you that has stood by me," Williams said. "This never would have happened if we didn't have everybody standing together."

Medical examiner findings and the role of drugs

The Hennepin County Medical Examiner determined that Lussier died of an acute subdural hematoma — bleeding between the brain and the skull. Because her body was not discovered until several days after her death, the medical examiner was unable to determine whether the manner of death was homicide or accident. Toxicology results showed fentanyl and methamphetamine in her system.

Moriarty was explicit that the drugs played no role in her death. The injury she sustained would have caused death quickly, making the timeline of Lussier's final hours central to building the case against Foss.

"Many people struggle with drugs. Many people take drugs. Allison Lussier did not cause her own death," Moriarty said.

A documented history of abuse

According to the criminal complaint, Lussier and Foss had dated on and off for roughly three years. In March 2021, Lussier obtained an order for protection against him. On 13 February 2024, the caretaker of her building called 911 after Lussier appeared at her door without a shirt, visibly shaken, saying Foss had physically assaulted her. Foss had left before officers arrived.

Lussier called police again overnight on 17 February to report that Foss was inside her apartment and refused to leave. Officers escorted him out and instructed him not to return. Police later acknowledged that call fell outside the 72-hour window state law allows for an arrest without a warrant following a misdemeanor domestic assault.

Lussier's body was discovered in the days that followed.

Police department under scrutiny

The investigation became a flashpoint for the Minneapolis Police Department. A city audit released in April found officers had not treated Lussier's apartment as a crime scene and that the department had not requested the medical examiner's report until auditors asked for it. The report described messaging from police leadership as at times "premature, underinformed, and inaccurate."

Former police chief Brian O'Hara had said in a statement that Lussier had a "massive" amount of drugs in her system — a comment for which he later apologised to the family, just before the audit was made public.

Deputy Chief of Investigations Charlie Adams stood alongside Moriarty at Thursday's news conference. Adams said the department has since overhauled how it handles domestic violence incidents. MPD now deploys an apprehension team to quickly arrest suspects in the most serious cases, and community navigators have been retrained as domestic violence navigators who work directly with victims.

Asked about O'Hara's earlier remarks, Adams separated the current leadership from that statement.

"That was the past administration that made that comment. This is a new administration," Adams said.

Moriarty, for her part, was unambiguous about the strength of the case proceeding to court.

"We were not going to go ahead if we did not have proof beyond a reasonable doubt. We're here. We're confident about that, and we're ready to move forward," she said.

For Lussier's family and the broader Native community that rallied around them throughout the two-and-a-half-year campaign, Thursday's charges represented a long-awaited moment of accountability.

Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)