Father Convicted Of Killing His Daughters Sentenced To Life In Prison

A father convicted of killing his three daughters in their River Falls home was sentenced to life in prison today in St. Croix County Court.

St. Croix County Judge Howard Cameron sentenced Aaron Schaffhausen to three consecutive life sentences with no possibility of parole for killing his three daughter: 11-year-old Amara, eight-year-old Sophie and five-year-old Cecilia.

Schaffhausen admitted that he drove last July from Minot, North Dakota to River Falls and asked his ex-wife to see his children. Schaffhausen then sent a babysitter who was watching the girls’ home, cut the girl’s throats, called their mother and told her “You can come home now, I killed the kids.”

A jury convicted Schaffhausen on three counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of attempted arson in April. Even though the jury found that he had a mental defect at the time, they determined that he still knew what he did was wrong.