Remembering 30 years of Madison-area cold cases
Over the years, some murder cases remain unsolved, but they are not forgotten.
Here's a look back at some of the Madison area's highest-profile cold case homicides dating from 1968 to 2000, culled from the archives of the Wisconsin State Journal.
Christine Rothschild, 1968
Christine Rothschild, 18
Killed: She was stabbed and strangled May 26, 1968 -- her body hidden in some bushes outside UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall.
The case: The UW-Madison student’s death gripped campus. Rothschild, a former model, was described as a strong, serious student who was well-liked. Her slaying was particularly brutal. She had been stabbed 14 times, her upper and lower jaws were broken, along with four ribs, and she was strangled with part of the lining ripped from her own coat. Her gloves had been shoved down her throat. She had not been sexually assaulted. Rothschild, who liked to walk alone in the mornings on campus, was last seen alive that morning in her dormitory. She was found about 7 p.m., but authorities said she was likely killed before 10 a.m. that day.
In the coming days and weeks, police tracked hundreds of leads that fizzled, leading UW Madison police chief Ralph Hanson to tell the newspaper a month later that there were “baffled.” A psychiatry professor also developed a profile of the killer for police to use, suggesting she was likely a random victim. “We’re leaving no stone unturned and I personally wrote Miss Rothschild’s parents that University, Madison and Dane County investigators will not rest until we find her killer,” Hanson said in a story from June 4, 1968.
Over the years, friends have tried to draw attention to the case in hopes of spurring leads. And her family had hired a private detective that pursued the case for a while. On the 40th anniversary of Rothschild’s death, a college friend organized a short memorial service for her on campus at the carillon bell tower.
Charles N. Mumford, 1969
Charles N. Mumford, 35,
Killed: He was found shot to death April 15, 1969.
The case: Mumford’s body was found in an alley in the 100 block of South Butler Street near the Stop Lite Tavern, 302 E. Wilson St., where he was last seen alive about midnight, according to a story at the time. A woman on her way to work found him just before 7 a.m.
He had been shot three times, including once in the head near his left ear. At the time, he had $114 on him, some change and a watch. Mumford’s last known address was on East Dayton Street with his brother and sister-in-law, although his brother told police he thought Mumford was living in Beloit.
Police had few leads. A woman living near the tavern reported hearing gunshots around 11:55 p.m. April 14 and called police, who investigated that night but did not see a body. They later questioned two suspects from Chicago, including one man who knew Mumford and took a lie detector test. Investigators eventually circulated a composite drawing of a suspect. They also held a man for a while but released him due to lack of evidence.
Thomas Speer, 1971
Dr. Thomas Speer, 42
Killed: July 28, 1971
The case: Speer, a doctor from Merrillville, Ind., who was visiting Madison for a conference, was shot two times outside the Quality Motel, 4916 E. Broadway, where he was staying. He died on arrival at a local hospital. Witnesses said that a man fired the shots at Speer from a parked car. Descriptions of a car and man were circulated at the time but did not produce a viable lead. Police said Speer, a father of three, was well-liked and they could not determine a motive for the slaying. At one point, police pursued a ring of burglars they thought might be connected, but no charges were filed.
Mark Justl, 1972
Mark Justl, 28
Killed: Justl was found strangled to death just before dawn Nov. 22, 1973, in the entrance hallway of the Joyce Funeral Home, 540 W. Washington Ave., where he lived as a resident employee.
An autopsy said he was strangled between 2 and 3:30 a.m. He also had a black eye, bruised mouth, a wound on his head from a fist or object and fingernail scratches on his face and neck indicating a struggle. He was found at about 5:40 a.m. by a newspaper carrier.
Investigators found no real motive, although they speculated he may have come home and surprised a burglary in progress. Two offices and a basement storage room had been “ransacked,” with the only items reported missing being $10 in cash, seven liquor bottles and Justl’s wallet.
Debra Bennett, 1976
Debra Bennett, 20
Killed: Her burned body was found July 21, 1976, in a ditch near Cross Plains.
The case: Bennett’s body, found by two farm surveyors, was so badly burned and decomposed that the coroner could not determine a cause of death. Originally from Ridgeway in Iowa County, she was identified through dental records and the record of a childhood broken collar bone. Authorities didn’t know if she was killed near the ditch or elsewhere.
A newspaper report at the time said she was last seen July 10 “walking barefoot – with painted toenails – and wearing blue jeans, carrying a denim jacket and a brown shoulder-strap purse, on the west sidewalk of Loftsgordon Avenue heading toward Aberg Avenue.” Bennett had been in the process of moving to the Cardinal Hotel after being evicted from an apartment building at 1421 Loftsgordon Ave. She was issued a key July 8 to a room at the Cardinal, but her clothes were found in the Loftsgordon apartment. The same key was later dropped in the mail and returned to the hotel, as it carried a tag asking the finder to drop it in a mailbox, with return postage guaranteed.
She was memorialized in a joint funeral for her and her father, who died from an illness, on July 29, 1976.
Julie Ann Hall, 1978
Julie Ann Hall, 18
Killed: She was killed June 16 or 17, 1978, after a night out in Madison, and her body left in a shallow grave west of Waunakee.
The case: A farmer found her nude body June 21, 1978, in a remote wooded area along Woodland Road, just off Highway 12. Because of weather conditions at the time, which caused her body to partially decompose, the cause of her death was not entirely clear, and investigators could not say for certain she had been sexually assaulted. Police first reported that she died from blows to the head with a blunt instrument. But they later said they could determine only one mark to her head – it looked like someone had hit her hard just beneath her jaw – as well as scratches and bruises on her body. Some detectives speculated that she died from exposure after being left for dead.
Hall had been out with a male friend the night of June 16 and was seen in the Main King Tap just off of Capitol Square. She had also eaten a late night meal. That was the last night she was seen alive.
Originally from Fennimore, Hall had been living in Madison for only two months, working as a library assistant at the State Historical Society. Before moving here, she also lived in the North Freedom area. She was living in Madison with a brother who had recently been released from prison. Police questioned her friends, and one person took at least two lie detector tests. A 1981 newspaper story quoted an investigator saying they were confident they had a strong suspect in her case. But no arrests were made.
Authorities also investigated whether Hall's slaying was related to other unsolved murders of young women in the Madison area. A group of detectives interviewed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas in Texas in 1984 after he said that he and his partner, Otis Toole, had passed through Madison several times and had committed some of the murders. But Lucas, a one-eyed drifter, made false confessions to hundreds of killings across the country and later withdrew nearly all of his confessions.
Susan LeMahieu, 1980
Susan LeMahieu, 24
Killed: Date of death is uncertain. Her body was discovered in the Arboretum on April 16, 1980, four months after being reported missing.
The case: LeMahieu was mildly developmentally disabled and physically disabled on the left side of her body. She had been reported missing from her room at Allen Hall, a residential facility at State and Frances street for people with disabilities, on Dec. 15, 1979.
Authorities could not determine a cause of death, when she died or how long her body had been hidden away in the dense brush. A 1974 graduate of Madison East High School, LeMahieu was known to hang out on State and Williamson streets, as well as the area around King and Main streets Downtown.
Julie Speerschneider, 1981
Julie Speerschneider, 20
Killed: It’s not known when she died. She was last seen leaving a bar in Madison in March 1979, and her skeleton was found two years later in the town of Dunn.
The case: Speerschneider was last seen on a Tuesday night, March 27, 1979, after leaving the 602 Club on University Avenue to go to a friend’s house. Friends said she would often hitchhike on Johnson Street and she may have that night, as well. She was reported missing, and notices ran in the newspaper seeking leads as to where she might be. The State Journal ran her photo, along with descriptions of her and her clothing. A reward was also offered, and her family and friends circulated posters with her photo.
But it wasn’t until April 18, 1981, that a 16-year-old who was hiking spotted Speerschneider’s body covered in brush, in a wooded area in the town of Dunn, near the Yahara River. Her body was too decomposed to determine a cause or time of death. No clothes, shoes or jewelry were found with her. She had two jobs at the time, one as a day-care worker and another in a restaurant.
Authorities investigated whether Speerschneider's slaying was related to other unsolved murders of young women in the Madison area. A group of detectives interviewed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas in Texas in 1984 after he said that he and his partner, Otis Toole, had passed through Madison several times and had committed some of the murders. But Lucas, a one-eyed drifter, made false confessions to hundreds of killings across the country and later withdrew nearly all of his confessions.
Shirley Stewart, 1980
Shirley Stewart, 17
Killed: The Middleton girl disappeared Jan. 2, 1980, and her body was found July 16, 1981 in the town of Westport.
The case: She was reported missing when she didn’t come home after finishing work as a maid at Dean Clinic. Four archaeology students mapping a state park found her body concealed by brush in a remote area north of Madison. An autopsy could not determine a cause of death and found “no trauma to the skeletal remains.” They couldn’t rule out that she had been stabbed or strangled because of decomposition.
Barbara Nelson, 1982
Barbara Nelson, 34
Killed: She was abducted Aug. 5, 1982, and found dead five days later.
The case: Nelson was taken from the Mini Stop and Shop in the town of Albion, north of Edgerton, where she worked as a clerk. Her semi-clothed body was found Aug. 10 in a cornfield near Elkhorn. She had been shot twice and brutally beaten on her face and head. Her body was decomposed and her face disfigured by the beating. They identified her remains by comparing fingerprints she left on her 3-year-old daughter’s birth certificate. Nelson was also wearing her wedding ring.
Authorities at the time pursued many leads but never named a suspect. The cash register was missing an estimated $355, but investigators said they didn’t know whether the motive was robbery or sexual assault. Authorities said at the time they believed she was killed near the area she was found in Walworth County, likely on the night she was abducted. Witnesses saw what may have been Nelson and her captors in a pickup along Bray Road near Elkhorn. Police released composite sketches of people they thought may be involved, as well as descriptions of the truck seen in the area. They also pursued connections to similar crimes done elsewhere. None of those avenues ever led to charges.
In 2015, Dane County detectives said that they believed the two men who abducted her were local people and indicated they "had persons of interest" in the case. They also were hoping new DNA techniques might provide new leads. Authorities have never named a suspect publicly.
Donna Mraz, 1982
Donna Mraz, 23
Killed: She was stabbed to death just after midnight July 2, 1982, near Camp Randall Stadium while walking home from her job at a restaurant.
The case: The UW-Madison student from Delavan was on her way back to her Van Hise Avenue apartment from the BitterSweet Restaurant, 117 State St. when she was attacked. A witness looking out of his apartment window saw her fall to the ground, ran out to help her and then called the fire department, but he didn’t see her attacker. She struggled with her attacker, who stabbed her many times. Mraz died at University Hospital.
Police pursued many leads, including asking the witness to undergo hypnosis to try to remember more details about what he saw that night. They also pursued links to other crimes, and could find no definitive motive. A $10,000 reward was also offered. At one point, Mraz' body was exhumed to try to compare her teeth to bite marks on a suspect. The tests were not definitive.
People at the time were fearful because of the seemingly random attack on Mraz, and her slaying led to an increase in safe night transportation options for women.
Andrew Nehmer, 1986
Andrew Nehmer, 20
Killed: April 22, 1986, at the Open Pantry, 2201 S. Park St., in the town of Madison, where he was working the night shift as a clerk.
The case: Nehmer, a UW-Madison student originally from Watertown, was stabbed in the neck during a robbery and bled to death. At the time, the case didn’t lead to any charges. But renewed attention came in April 2013, when town police named a suspect and the Open Pantry offered a $5,000 reward for anyone with information that helps close the case.
Police said in 2013 that Donald Ameche Braxton, a former Madison resident living in Colorado, is the prime suspect, but he has not been arrested or charged. Braxton was convicted of three other armed robberies of stores near the Open Pantry and in the same month that Nehmer was killed. DNA testing in 2011 found that Braxton couldn't be excluded as the source of the DNA on a red bandanna found at the scene.
One of Nehmer’s former teachers described him in an April 23, 1986, story as a “kind, considerate young man who had a lot of promise.” He was majoring in communications arts and interested in pursuing film. Nehmer’s mother, stepfather and brother attended the news conference in April 2013 to announce the reward in hopes of spurring leads in the case. At that time, police said that witnesses hesitating to come forward had said they might be motivated by a reward.
Ronnie Joe Kirk, 1989
Skeleton in the chimney
Killed: In September 1989, police found skeletal remains in a chimney that was part of a music store at 5335 University Ave.
The case: A pile of human bones, clothes, jewelry and shoes lay in the bottom of the chimney that had three ways in or out – all small. Someone either died in the chimney or was killed elsewhere and crammed inside. Police scoured missing persons lists, forensic scientists went to work and the media covered the discovery.
Authorities could not determine a cause or date of death, but noted that the skeleton had belonged to a small man with brown hair and a slight overbite. In 2024, detectives announced that they'd identified the man as Ronnie Joe Kirk, an Oklahoma native with ties to the Madison area. Kirk was last heard from in the late 1960's, and authorities are still unclear on when and how he died.
Mark Genna, 1992
Mark Genna, 32
Killed: He was bludgeoned in his South Park Street apartment Feb. 1, 1992.
The case: Genna, who was disabled, was found with a badly fractured skull and died later at St. Mary’s Hospital. An autopsy found that someone struck him eight to 10 times in the head with a heavy object. His injuries were so extensive that police initially thought he had been shot in the head. Police at the time said they didn’t know why Genna was targeted.
In 2013, police said they were re-evaluating the story of the man who found Genna’s body and took a DNA sample from him. The man had told police he had seen Genna through a window lying on the floor and came in through an unlocked window to reach him. A blood spatter expert called into question that account.
Genna’s apartment building, at 2305 S. Park St., was in the town of Madison at that time but is now in the city of Madison. It’s one of two cold case homicides town police would like to solve; the other is Andrew Nehmer’s slaying.
The Rev. Alfred Kunz, 1998
The Rev. Alfred Kunz, 67
Killed: The priest was found dead, his throat slit, on March 4, 1998.
The case: Kunz, the 32-year pastor of St. Michael Catholic Church in the village of Dane, was found in the adjoining parochial school. Investigators pursued countless potential motives and leads over the years. At one point, investigators said that they had a strong suspect but lacked enough evidence to charge the person.
A Dane County sheriff's detective said in 2012 on the 14th anniversary of the murder that the state Crime Laboratory was doing new testing on old evidence and that "there is a renewed amount of energy on the case.”
After being interviewed by police, the man refused to stay at the scene and left in a vehicle, Madison Police Chief Shon Barnes said.
The DNA Doe Project has identified the person whose bones were found at the bottom of a chimney in a since-demolished building on University Avenue in September 1989.
"We all knew that the decedent was part of a family of someone somewhere," Steve Liethen said.
On the evening of June 12, 1963, gas station operator Wayne Pratt, 24, was stabbed 53 times after leaving home to help a customer.
