Daniel Yakovleff Memorial Fund throws fundraiser

In memory of Daniel Yakovleff, the 20-year-old gay man who was murdered at knifepoint in January 2008, friends of the popular hairstylist will hold a fundraiser Sunday, January 25 at the South End Buttery to spearhead the Daniel Yakovleff Memorial Fund (DYMF).

"The Daniel Yakovleff Memorial Fund was formed in December 2008 in order to raise awareness and funds in an effort to address important and pressing issues among the LGBTQ community in Boston," writes the group's president, Elle Jarvis, here.

The event will start at 6 p.m. with a cocktail reception and Raw Bar provided by Island Creek Oysters. From 7-9 p.m. there will be a three-course dinner by Chef Chris Henry and beer donated by Harpoon Brewery. Top off the evening with a yummy cupcake from The South End Buttery Cafe.

Tickets are $75. Click here to learn more.

Yakovleff was brutally murdered in the Savin Hill apartment in Dorchester last January and his alleged killer, Steven Odegard, who he met at the Eagle bar in the South End is currently incarcerated awaiting trial.

The triple-decker apartment located at 56 Tuttle St. in Dorchester where Yakovleff was found murdered caught on fire on Dec. 31, 2008 and became completely engulfed in flames. The crime scene is now inhabitable.

Click here for the latest on the Yakovleff investigation.

Daniel Yakovleff murder scene engulfed in flames

The triple-decker apartment located at 56 Tuttle St. in the Savin Hill neighborhood of Dorchester where 20-year-old Daniel Yakovleff was found brutally murdered in the early morning of Jan. 17, 2008 was engulfed in flames yesterday morning.

According to a report here, two residents of the building were trapped while neighbors grabbed a ladder and raised it to the third-floor porch. No one was seriously hurt in the three-alarm blaze. Damage is estimated at $500,000 and 90 firefighters battled the apartment blaze.

The cause of the fire? An electrical short circuit on the first floor fueled the inferno. Click here for video of the fire.

Yakovleff was brutally murdered in the Savin Hill apartment in Dorchester last January and his alleged killer, Steven Odegard, who he met at the Eagle bar in the South End is currently incarcerated awaiting trial scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Click here for the latest on the Yakovleff investigation.

Odegard's attorney claims third-party defense

Although the forensic evidence proves otherwise, Steven Odegard's attorney John Swomley maintains that there was a third party who "wined and dined" Daniel Yakovleff and was at the scene the night of the murder.

“It’s apparent that Boston Homicide cannot walk and chew gum at the same time,” Swomley says here. “There is ample evidence that a third party did this.”

Odegard was held without bail yesterday following his arraignment on first-degree murder charges of the stabbing death of 20-year-old Yakovleff at the 41-year-old's former apartment at 56 Tuttle Street in Dorchester's Savin Hill neighborhood. The next court date is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 5.

A former acquaintance of Odegard, who initially met the Dorchester resident online, describes the 41-year-old alleged murderer as openly gay, timid, mentally stable and not-at-all aggressive.

"He’s such a kind, gentle soul," the anonymous source remarks to Loaded Gun in an earlier report. "I couldn’t imagine him being involved with an attack or murder of another person--gay or straight. There’s no way he would be responsible for a premeditated, pick-up crime. The only possible scenario I could imagine is that he felt threatened or believed that his life was in danger."

The source says it’s plausible that Odegard could have slept through an altercation between Yakovleff and a third party "especially if drugs or alcohol were involved."

Assistant District Attorney Judith Lyons' account based on forensic evidence tells a completely different story.

“The two men went to the defendant’s home,” Lyons says. “DNA and fingerprint evidence place the two men in the apartment and only the two men in the apartment.”

Lyons continues, “The victim had been stabbed 10 times. He was on his back in a pool of his own blood with his arms bent and clenched toward his face.”

Click here for the latest on the Yakovleff investigation.

Details released in Daniel Yakovleff murder

Steven Odegard was held without bail today following his arraignment on first-degree murder charges of the stabbing death of 20-year-old Daniel Yakovleff at the 41-year-old's former apartment at 56 Tuttle Street in Dorchester's Savin Hill neighborhood. The next court date is scheduled for Tuesday, Feb. 5.

Here's the latest news from the District Attorney's office:

Assistant District Attorney Judith Lyons tells the court that evidence developed in the course of an 11-month investigation by Boston Police homicide detectives and Suffolk County homicide prosecutors established that Yakovleff was out with friends on the night of Jan. 16 when he separated with those friends and met up with the defendant, who had been frequenting several bars on Tremont Street.

“The two men went to the defendant’s home,” Lyons says. “DNA and fingerprint evidence place the two men in the apartment and only the two men in the apartment.”

Early on the morning of Jan. 17, Lyons says, Odegard made an unusual phone call. “At approximately 2:45 a.m., the defendant phoned his employer on his employer’s cell phone,” she tells the court. Odegard allegedly told the employer, who was expected to pick him up later that morning, “Don’t pick me up.”

Odegard called 911 about four hours later to report finding the victim’s body. When Boston Police arrived at the Tuttle Street apartment in which he lived alone, they found Yakovleff in Odegard’s bed with a knife from Odegard’s kitchen “protruding from his chest,” Lyons adds.

The knife had come from Odegard’s kitchen. “The victim had been stabbed 10 times,” she tells the court. “He was on his back in a pool of his own blood with his arms bent and clenched toward his face.”

Click here for the latest on the Yakovleff investigation.

Daniel Yakovleff's alleged murderer arraigned

Here's the press release from Jake Wark, press secretary from the Suffolk County's DA Office:

Steven Odegard, 41, of Dorchester is expected to be arraigned this afternoon in Suffolk Superior Court following his indictment Monday by a Suffolk County grand jury. Odegard surrendered to Boston Police at the District 11 station late last night on a warrant charging him with the Jan. 17 murder of Daniel Yakovleff.

His arraignment is tentatively expected at about 2 p.m. to allow the victim's family, who will be travelling in from out of state, to attend the proceedings. The arraignment will take place in the Magistrate's Session, located on the seventh floor of the Suffolk County Courthouse.

Click here for the backstory on the Yakovleff investigation.

Odegard indicted in Daniel Yakovleff's murder

UPDATE: Steven Odegard turned himself in late last night. Arraignment is scheduled for 2 p.m. today, Dec. 17.

Authorities are on the hunt for Steven Odegard, the Dorchester man a grand jury says murdered 20-year-old Daniel Yakovleff.

According to a release from the Suffolk County District Attorney's office, Odegard is on the run and police are urging anyone with information regarding his wherabouts to contact the Boston Homicide Unit at 617-343-4470 or by texting TIP to 27463.

In the early morning hours of Thursday, Jan. 17, police discovered the body of Yakovleff with fatal stab wounds to the chest. Sources say Yakovleff was last seen leaving the Eagle bar in the South End on Wednesday, Jan. 16 and was found by authorities around 6:10 a.m. the following day.

According to sources familiar with the investigation, the third-floor tenant of the apartment located on 56 Tuttle St. in the Savin Hill area of Dorchester, Odegard, told police he had picked up two men at the Eagle and brought them back to his apartment. When he woke up the following morning, Odegard called police after finding one of them had been stabbed.

Forensic evidence generated by three modes of investigation indicated that the 41-year-old Odegard, who is HIV positive, pulled a knife from his kitchen and stabbed Yakovleff several times.

Authorities stormed Odegard's new apartment located on Dorchester Ave. on Tuesday, Dec. 16 at 6 a.m. and he was not home.

"Investigators never gave up on bringing Mr. Yakovleff’s killer to justice and we won’t give up now," district attorney Daniel F. Conley says. "On the streets of Boston, in the sterile environment of a crime laboratory, and behind the closed doors of the Grand Jury, police and prosecutors worked hand in hand on a quiet, careful, methodical inquiry to build this case. We fully expect to hold him accountable for his actions."

Andrew Light, a former colleague who worked with Yakovleff for two years at the exclusive Liquid Hair Studios in Boston's South End, had reservations about Odegard in the beginning.

"None of us know who he is," Light said in a previous interview with Loaded Gun about Odegard. "The one thing I can say for sure is that Dan was a very good judge of character. I don’t think he would go home with some sketchy guy."

Contrary to initial reports suggesting the fatal stabbing was motivated by hate, Light believed Yakovleff was murdered by a gay man.

"I was so paranoid the first few days after finding out about Dan’s murder," he says. "I live two blocks from the Eagle and I double bolt my door now. It’s scary."

Light continues, "I’m more afraid of gay men now because I believe a gay man killed Dan."

Click here for the backstory on the Yakovleff investigation.

UPDATE: According to a Loaded Gun source who knew Odegard at one point, he has friends in Providence, Rhode Island and would go there often for support.