This is a list of homicides in Wisconsin. This list includes notable homicides committed in the U.S. state of Wisconsin that have a Wikipedia article on the killing, the killer, or the victim. It is divided into three subject areas as follows:
Among the works dealing with homicides in Wisconsin are Wisconsin Murders by August Derleth and Got Murder? The Shocking Story of Wisconsin's Notorious Killers by Martin Hintz.[1][2]
Listed in chronological order
Incident | Location | Date | Deaths | Description | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Taliesin murders | Spring Green | August 14, 1914 | 7 | Murder of Frank Lloyd Wright's mistress, Mamah Borthwick, and six others by a chef working at the site | [3] |
Christopher Scarver | Portage | November 28, 1994 | 3 | Killed Jeffrey Dahmer while in prison, also killed another prisoner at the same time; previously killed a Wisconsin Conservation Corps supervisor in 1990 | [4] |
Chai Vang | Meteor | November 21, 2004 | 6 | Deer hunting dispute turned into mass shooting | [5] |
Terry Ratzmann | Brookfield | March 12, 2005 | 8 | Mass shooting at Living Church of God | [6] |
Crandon shooting | Crandon | October 7, 2007 | 7 | Off-duty sheriff's deputy fatally shot six persons, including his ex-girlfriend, at a post-homecoming party and then committed suicide | [7] |
Yolanda Brown | Milwaukee | October 16, 2007 | 2 | R&B singer and record producer fatally shot at recording studio | [8] |
Wisconsin Sikh temple shooting | Oak Creek | August 5, 2012 | 8 | Mass shooting at Sikh temple | [9] |
Azana Spa shooting | Brookfield | October 21, 2012 | 4 | Estranged husband of worker entered spa in suburban Milwaukee, four killed including the wife and shooter | [10] |
Aaron Schaffhausen | River Falls | July 10, 2012 | 3 | Father slit throats of his three daughters (ages 5, 8, and 11) the year after divorce from their mother | [11] |
Steven Zelich | West Allis | 2012–2013 | 2 | Former police officer known as the "Wisconsin Suitcase Murderer" | [12] |
Ashlee Martinson | Piehl | March 7, 2015 | 2 | Convicted of murdering her mother and stepfather on the day after her 17th birthday | |
Kidnapping of Jayme Closs | Barron | October 15, 2018 | 2 | 21-year-old broke into house, fatally shot parents, and kidnapped 13-year-old girl for 88 days | [13] |
Milwaukee brewery shooting | Milwaukee | February 26, 2020 | 6 | A 51-year-old worker at Molson Coors brewery fatally shot five coworkers and then committed suicide | [14] |
Kenosha unrest shooting | Kenosha | August 25, 2020 | 2 | 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two men and wounded another, using an AR-15 rifle; Rittenhouse claimed self-defense and was found not guilty | [15] |
Waukesha Christmas parade attack | Waukesha | November 21, 2021 | 6 | Six killed and 62 injured when the perpetrator deliberately hit participants and observers with his SUV at Christmas parade |
|- |Nelsonville Triple Murders||Nelsonville||April 2009||6||Shane Kettner, 36, killed his girlfriend and her 2 children in their Nelsonville home. He was found by police with a surviving 6-month old child who along with parts of the home, had been dosed in gasoline. || |}
Listed in chronological order by date of earliest homicide
gypIncident | Location | Date | Deaths | Description | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Ed Gein | Plainfield | 1947–1957 | 2–9 | Known as the "Butcher of Plainfield" | [16] |
George Lamar Jones | Wisconsin, Mississippi | 1972–1997 | 3+ | Serial killer who lived for a time in Milwaukee | |
Joseph Paul Franklin | Multiple | 1977–1980 | 8–20+ | White supremacist killer executed 2013 | [16] |
Walter E. Ellis | Milwaukee | 1986–2007 | 8–10+ | Known as "The Milwaukee North Side Strangler" | [16] |
Edward Edwards | Wisconsin, Ohio | 1977–1996 | 5–15+ | Six confirmed victims | [16] |
Jeffrey Dahmer | Ohio, Wisconsin | 1978–1991 | 16 | Known as the "Milwaukee Cannibal" | [16] |
David Van Dyke | Milwaukee | 1979–1980 | 6 | Burglar who murdered people after tricking them into letting him into their homes | [17] |
Lorenzo Fayne | Wisconsin, Illinois | 1989–1993 | 6 | Serial killer and rapist who murdered one woman and five children in the states of Wisconsin and Illinois |
Incident | Location | Date | Description | Sources |
---|---|---|---|---|
John McCaffary | Kenosha | July 23, 1850 | Convicted of drowning his wife in a cistern, his execution was botched, leading to the abolition of capital punishment in Wisconsin | |
Little Lord Fauntleroy | Waukesha | 1921 | Unsolved murder of young boy found floating in a pond | |
Arthur "Buddy" Schumacher | Wauwatosa | 1925 | Unsolved murder of 8-year-old boy; later the subject of the 2012 book Murder in Wauwatosa: The Mysterious Death of Buddy Schumacher | |
Jack Zuta | Delafield | August 1, 1930 | Organized crime figure fatally shot at a roadhouse | |
Sterling Hall bombing | Madison | August 24, 1970 | Bombing at University of Wisconsin as protest of connections with military research during Vietnam War, a physics researcher was killed and three others injured | |
Murder of Lisa Ann French | Fond du Lac | October 31, 1973 | 9-year old girl murdered and sexually assaulted by neighbor while trick-or-treating alone | |
Murder of Christine Schultz | Milwaukee | May 28, 1981 | Former Milwaukee police officer convicted for the murder of her husband's ex-wife; she escaped in 1990 in an episode that inspired the slogan "Run, Bambi, Run" | |
Murder of Amber Creek | Burlington | 1997-02 | Teenager who ran away from a youth shelter; suspect convicted of her murder 34 years later | |
Murder of Traci Hammerberg | Grafton | December 15, 1984 | 18-year-old murdered while walking home from a party; murderer identified 35 years later | |
Murder of Susan Poupart | Lac du Flameau | May 20, 1990 | Unsolved murder of 29-year-old Native American woman | |
Jesse Anderson | Milwaukee | April 21, 1992 | Convicted of murdering his wife Barbara Anderson; was then murdered along with Jeffrey Dahmer in prison by Christopher Scarver | |
Murder of Alfred Kunz | Dane | March 4, 1998 | Unsolved murder of a Catholic priest found in church with his throat slit | |
Death of Julie Jensen | Pleasant Prairie | December 3, 1998 | Husband convicted of murdering his wife; conviction later overturned; notable for admission into evidence of a letter written by deceased expressing suspicion of husband's intentions | |
Murder of Glenn Kopitske | Winnebago County | July 21, 2003 | Thrill killing of a bipolar 37-year-old man | |
Murder of Teresa Halbach (Steven Avery, Brendan Dassey) |
Manitowoc County | October 31, 2005 | Photographer murdered by man who hired her to photograph a minivan, later the subject of the Netflix series Making a Murderer | |
2006 Weston High School shooting | Cazenovia | September 29, 2006 | Student fatally shot high school principal | |
Murder of Cha Vang | Green Bay | 2007 | 30-year-old Hmong man shot and stabbed by James Nichols who had expressed racial animus to Hmong people | |
Murder of Erika Hill | Fitchburg | 2007-02 | 15-year-old girl was victim of long term abuse and starvation, then beaten, stabbed and asphyxiated by mother | |
Murder of Amy Yeary | Campbellsport | 2008-08 | 18-year-old woman murdered in 2008, body was unidentified for 13 years, aka "Fond du Lac County Jane Doe" | |
Murder of Hussain Saeed Alnahdi | Menomonie | October 31, 2016 | 24-year-old student from Saudi Arabia beaten to death outside a pizzeria in downtown Menomonie | |
Killing of Ee Lee | Milwaukee | September 19, 2020 | Woman raped and murdered by two teenage boys on video in front of nine other youths | |
Murder of Shad Thyrion | Green Bay | February 21, 2022 | 24-year-old American man killed during sexual intercourse and then dismembered. | |
Killing of Lily Peters | Chippewa Falls | April 22, 2022 | 10-year-old girl raped and murdered, her 14-year-old cousin was arrested and is being tried as an adult | |
John Pier Roemer | New Lisbon | June 3, 2022 | Juneau County judge fatally shot by a man convicted in his court six years earlier | |
Death of Sade Robinson | Milwaukee | April 1, 2024 | 19-year-old woman killed and dismembered. |