ROCHESTER, Minn. (KTTC) – His is one of the most infamous crimes in Rochester’s history. David Brom, convicted of axe-murdering four family members in 1988, will get out of prison later this month.
Wednesday, the Minnesota Department of Corrections (DOC) shared new details with KTTC about Brom’s next steps.
A spokesperson for the DOC confirmed Brom, who is now 55, will transition to a Twin Cities halfway house after his anticipated July 29th release where he will be on work release status. That still involves case management and supervision, including with GPS monitoring.
The spokesperson said that usually, when inmates are released from prison, they return to their county of conviction, which is Olmsted in this case.
However, the supervised release board decided Brom would not return to Olmsted for work release or any potential future parole.
Brom’s next supervised release board is scheduled for January 2026.
WHY BROM IS GETTING OUT
Despite being sentenced to three life sentences in 1989, Brom is still being released from prison.
According to the DOC, there was a law change in 2023 that made Brom eligible for parole consideration.
When Brom was convicted, a life sentence required serving a minimum term of confinement of 17 years per life sentence. The 2023 legislation changed the minimum term of imprisonment for individuals who were under 18 years old at the time of their offense.
At the time, Brom was 16.
Based on the change, Brom became eligible for parole release after serving a total 30 years.
Brom killed his parents, Bernard and Paulette, as well as his younger siblings, 14-year-old Diane and 9-year-old Rick.
Brom shared an apology during his most recent board review in January 2025, stating he struggled with depression.
“I thought these things were going to last forever, and I knew I couldn’t live that way forever, and in that clouded depression, I started to believe other people were at fault for the way I felt,” Brom said.
SHERIFF TORGERSON REACTS
Olmsted County Sheriff Kevin Torgerson shared a statement on Wednesday, as he was a deputy who responded to the Brom family home for a welfare check that day.
Sheriff Torgerson’s statement in its entirety is as follows:
“Recently it has come to light that David F. Brom, convicted for the murder of his family on February 18th, 1988, is about to be released. For the last thirty-seven years I have had numerous reminders of the evening when I was sent to a secluded residential area north of the city of Rochester to check the welfare of Bernard Brom due to concerns from the school that his son David attended, as they had heard rumors during the school day that David may have harmed his father.
When Mr. Brom was convicted, Judge Ancy Morse sentenced him to three consecutive life terms, which means he serves 17.5 years each. The difficult thing for many in the community, as well as those of us that worked the case was that Judge Morse made his fourteen-year-old sister Diane’s file a concurrent sentence to little 10-year-old brother Ricky’s. There were a lot of questions at the time why the judge had done that. Questions never answered were surrounded by the idea that Diane’s life was somehow worth less than her younger brother’s. Some argued that it was because Mr. Brom was sixteen at the time and the judge gave him some leniency due to him being a juvenile.
Fast forward to the present time. Our legislature changed the law to where juvenile offenders of serious crimes in our state now do not have to serve their entire sentence(s) before they can be eligible for parole and made it effective immediately including for those previously/currently incarcerated by our state. Thus, making Mr. Brom eligible.
Mr. Brom, as we are now told, has faced a parole board and they have determined he is now eligible to move from a medium-security prison and step down to a halfway house and eventually finish the remainder of his sentence on parole in public.
So, with that, Mr. Brom is benefitting from leniency twice for mutilating four people: his family members, including his two younger siblings. Diane and little Ricky could be parents and very productive members of our society but were never given the chance due to Mr. Brom’s selfish, immature, sixteen-year-old actions. To Mr. Brom’s credit and my understanding he has done remarkedly in the various prison settings and has reached an understanding of the seriousness of his crimes. Mr. Brom has apologized to everyone involved and is remorseful for his actions. I cannot stop what is already in motion, and I, we as the public, must trust the parole board’s decision and must hope Mr. Brom is ready for this transition in his life. I’m very pleased to hear that but it is still hard for me to accept and forget the sights and smells of what I saw that Thursday evening in 1988.”
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