Former Army medic’s ex-boyfriend kills her just days after being freed from jail for attacking her: prosecutors

A former US Army medic from Minnesota was allegedly killed and wrapped up in blankets by her boyfriend — just days after he was released from jail for previously assaulting her.

Police responded to 33-year-old Danicka Bergeson’s Hopkins home on July 8 after her building manager reported hearing groaning, yelling and banging coming from her apartment, according to the Star Tribune reported.

Her body was found on her bed – tightly wrapped in blankets and a thick comforter, the paper reported, citing court documents filed last Wednesday.

Cops also heard noises and detected “an overwhelming odor of bleach” from the bathroom — where they found Bergeson’s 39-year-old ex, Matthew Brenneman, who had drunk bleach, the documents state.

He also had scrape marks across his face, arms and legs, as well as “distinctive scratches to his back consistent with fingernail scrapes,” according to the filing.

Police also found bloody men’s clothes in another room as well as a note in the kitchen in which Brenneman professed his love for the victim — and said he meant no disrespect about how he wrapped her body, according to the documents.

“I’m very sad and remorseful about all of this, but it is what it is. … I blacked out and lost control and sadly hurt a woman for the first time in my life,” he wrote in an earlier draft found in the trash, according to the report.

Brenneman had only been released from jail on June 27 after pleading guilty to attacking Bergeson in April and May, when he punched, bit and choked her in their home – and threatened to kill her, according to the Star Tribune.

Under his guilty plea, prosecutors agreed​ “to no additional time” in the slammer if Brenneman did not violate a no-contact order – but two days later, he was near their apartment, the Star Tribune reported, citing cell phone records.

Bergeson appears to have been killed some time between that day, June 29, and the day her body was found, July 8, according to the report.

Brenneman was initially held for violating the no-contact order — but on Wednesday was slapped with two counts of second-degree murder.

Bergeson’s dad, David, ripped authorities for not making the accused killer face any “binding consequence” from his earlier attacks.

“This guy was just a danger. There was a history there,” Bergeson told the paper.

Her dad said she stayed with Brenneman despite the repeated abuse because “she had a very kind heart.

“One of her big issues was that she was going to fix people. Then he ends up being kind of a taker, getting into her credit cards, getting into her life,” David Bergeson told the paper.

He said he adopted Danicka when she was 9 after she joined the family at age 6 as a foster child.

“She had been through a lot, in and out of foster care for most of her life, and had a traumatic upbringing, some scary stuff,” Bergeson said.

“She succeeded in academics, and was a fantastic tennis player and part of a state champion swim team,” he told the paper, adding that she studied at the University of Minnesota.

Danicka took a break to join the US Army and became a medic before returning to complete her degree in animal science and taking a job at a veterinary clinic, her dad said.

She eventually had to quit because of a back injury suffered during her service, he added.

“She had a real zest for life. She had all the gifts that you’re proud of as a parent,” Bergeson said.

Court records cited by the Tribune show that Brenneman was the subject of an order for protection in 2021 for allegedly pinning a woman to a bed during a drunken rage.

A judge set his bail at $1.5 million on the murder charges but he remains held without bail pending the sentencing on the domestic abuse cases, KARE 11 reported.

Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty told the Star Tribune that domestic violence cases can be among the most difficult to prove “due to ongoing romantic relationships between victims and defendants, and because victims often fear participating in the process.”

But she noted that “our office was able to secure two convictions for his prior conduct. With no criminal history prior to that, probation was the presumptive outcome based on the sentencing guidelines.”