Boston Police are on the hunt for the
alleged killer of 20-year-old Daniel Yakovleff, a gay hair stylist
that was found dead from a brutal knife attack 11 months ago.
Police say members of their Fugitive
and Apprehension Unit made a forced entry into the Dorchester Ave.
residence of Steven Odegard on December 15, but their suspect was not
home and has not been located.
Odegard, 41, made the January 17 911
call that brought police to the third-floor Tuttle Street apartment
where he was living at the time claiming that he had found Yakovleff
in his bed dead.
In the intervening 11 months, Odegard
has remained silent, his attorney proclaimed his innocence and the
Boston Police would not even say he was a suspect.
But on December 14, a Suffolk Country
Grand Jury returned an indictment charging Odegard with the
first-degree murder of Yakovleff.
“The tragedy of David's death was
felt throughout the community and it is vitally important that the
person responsible be held accountable,” Boston Police Commissioner
Edward F. Davis said. “The Boston Police and the Suffolk County
District Attorney's office have worked tirelessly on this
investigation and will continue to be relentless in our efforts to
locate and apprehend Steven Odegard.”
“Investigators never gave up on
bringing Mr. Yakovleff's killer to justice and we won't give up now,”
Suffolk County District Attorney Daniel F. Conley said.
Yakovleff was pronounced dead on the
scene on the morning of January 17 after suffering multiple and
severe stab wounds. Investigators now believe Odegard inflicted
those wounds; the lack of a forced entry leads them to conclude that
the pair knew each other.
The hair stylist was popular with his
clients at the South End's Liquid Hair Studios where he worked and in
the gay community as evidenced by the overflowing crowd that attended
a January 22 memorial in Ashford, Connecticut, Yakovleff's hometown,
reports the Boston-based gay weekly Bay Windows.