Community answers grieving mother’s plea

Once the plea went out to help beautify a crime scene where a woman was shot to death, Eva Balzer stepped forward immediately to help.

As manager of the Sherwin Williams Paint Store in Owatonna, Balzer supplied paint and equipment to paint over graffiti under a bridge overpass next to where Sabrina Schnoor was murdered last week. Sherwin Williams donated about $500 in paint.

But that wasn’t all Balzer did. She also offered her time to help others paint. The volunteers put down an extreme stain blocking premier before putting a final coat of paint.

“Anything to make the community a little better,” said Balzer. “I wanted a place for her friends and family to come to remember her that doesn’t look like this,” she said, holding a paint brush and pointing to graffiti with profanity and anti-police messages.

Balzer said it was “very depressing” to come upon the scene. “I can see how upsetting it would be to people,” she said. “It’s a neglected part of town… off the beaten path.”

The area is located just beyond the west parking lot of the Steele County Administration Building on Florence Avenue next to Interstate 35.

Balzer said she was inspired to help out after seeing that Brad Kubat and another man had come out the previous day to clean up extensive debris and garbage in the area. She learned about it on Facebook from the Concerned Citizens for Steele County, a site administered by Kubat.

“It makes me feel better to come out and do stuff like this for people,” Balzer said. “It helps to give back to the community. It doesn’t cost anything to be a nice person.”

More than a dozen people showed up Sunday afternoon to transform what had been a crime scene just days earlier. By the end of the day, the graffiti was long gone and replaced with butterfly and cross painting, along with a stone with the message: “A heart of gold stopped beating two shining eyes at rest… God broke our hearts to prove he only takes the best.”

Much of the area was painted purple, a color often used to designate domestic violence. It’s suspected that Schnoor was allegedly killed by her ex-boyfriend.

Sabrina’s grieving mother, Stacia Schnoor, brought some roses and a bear to lay as a makeshift memorial. Bears became a theme because Sabrina’s nickname was Beanie.

Charlie Stoltz of Waterville showed up with his wife Anna to help out. Sabrina was their niece.

“For us she was like a daughter,” said Stolz. “Our oldest daughter was really close to Beanie,” he said fighting back tears.

Stoltz said he never imagined something so horrifying would happen to their family. “The hardest part for me is being so close to where it happened,” he said standing just feet from where Sabrina had been gunned down. “She had a heart of gold.”

Sabrina was also a niece to Kristy Denn of Lake Crystal. “She was more like a sister to us than just a niece,” Denn said of Sabrina.   

Denn helped pick up trash around the area and painted the bridge overpass.

“I think it’s wonderful for people to step up and show there are still good things in the world even though there are shitty things as well,” said Denn.

Denn, along with her sister Stacia, came to the scene the morning after Sabrina’s body was discovered with a police investigator to learn what happened. “I just looked around and said what a dump,” Denn said. “I can’t imagine somebody you love and that’s the last thing you see. It’s horrible. There are no words to describe it.”

The victim’s mother had initially put out a plea through the Steele County Times imploring the community to do something. “Clean that ugly place up and leave something beautiful for her. This was the last thing she saw. Remove the ugly there and make it beautiful for her,” she wrote in the statement released Saturday morning on Facebook and the Times website.

By Saturday afternoon, Kubat joined Ivan Knopik in cleaning up the place.

“Beautiful,” Stacia Schnoor said Sunday afternoon of the spot where her daughter’s body had been discovered. “It shows goodness can come from tragedy. It sucks that it takes something horrible for so many people to come together,” she said.

When Stacia initially came out to the scene with police, she said, “it was like a punch in the gut. I thought I was going to throw up. I could still see the blood on the rocks.”

Stacia expressed anger with the suspect in the shooting. “He left her there like she was trash,” she said. “The only thing that keeps me going is the rage. Pure rage fuels me.”

Asked what thoughts she had about the suspect, Stacia responded: “He’s not even human. He has no remorse. He cares for nobody but himself.”