By Gintautas Dumcius
Reporter Correspondent

After an 11-month investigation, a Suffolk County grand jury this week indicted a Dorchester man in the fatal stabbing of a young Roxbury hair stylist. Steven Odegard, 41, was charged with the first-degree murder of Daniel Yakovleff, who was found stabbed on Jan. 17 in Odegard's third floor apartment at 56 Tuttle St.

Odegard surrendered himself to Boston Police at the District 11 stationhouse in Fields Corner on Tuesday night, hours after police entered his Dorchester Avenue apartment with a warrant for his arrest. Odegard's attorney John Swomley did not return phone calls seeking comment, but has maintained his client's innocence in the past.

Faced with the first family Christmas without him, Yakovleff's mother, Peggy Rux said she wanted to thank police for sticking with the investigation. The last time she saw Daniel, a Connecticut native, was on Christmas 2007.

"I was beginning to lose hope," she said when reached in Ashford, Connecticut, where she lives with Yakovleff's father, Nord. "They just wanted all the I's dotted and T's crossed," she added.

Yakovleff, whom friends described as having a normal social life, worked at the Liquid Hair Salon on Tremont Street after graduating from Blaine Academy.

Rux added that Odegard is "innocent until proven guilty."

"I want to see that the guy gets a fair trial. I try to keep an open mind," she said. "I'm not saying he didn't do it. I'm just saying he deserves a fair trial."

Odegard had told police he had picked up two men, including Yakovleff, at the Eagle bar in the South End and taken them back to his apartment. He called police the following morning after finding the alleged third man gone and Yakovleff dead.

Rose Tran, who lives on the second-floor of 56 Tuttle St., has previously told the Reporter that Odegard was a "very quiet, very good man." Odegard has lived at the apartment for the two years and a half.

Tran did not answer the door on Tuesday afternoon. An elderly man who lives across the street declined to give his name and said, "I don't know nothing about him. Ever since that episode it's been quiet."

Police allege that Odegard grabbed a knife from his kitchen and stabbed Yakovleff multiple times and killing him.

In a statement, Conley said, "Investigators never gave up on bringing Mr. Yakovleff's killer to justice and we won't give up now. 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."

Odegard was scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday in Dorchester District Court.