Wisc. Officials Cite Drugs, Domestic Violence
Lisa Sink, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Waukesha, Wisc. -- Murders and murder-suicide cases in Waukesha County jumped from zero in 2001 to seven in 2002, spurred by domestic violence and drugs, law enforcement officials said Thursday.
On a positive note, homicide by drunken driving cases dropped from three in 2001 to one last year. The decrease came amid increased police patrols and initiatives from an anti-drunken-driving task force.
Overall, traffic deaths in Waukesha County remained unchanged at 25 in each of the past two years, even though traffic deaths rose statewide to 796 from 764, according to state Department of Transportation figures.
Waukesha County’s deadliest crash was a triple fatality Dec. 28 in the Town of Oconomowoc in which a pickup collided with a semitrailer truck and sent a third car over a guardrail into the Ashippun River.
Three of the county’s five murders were in the city of Waukesha, where the last murder had been in 1997 when a teenage boy shot his neighbor, Julia Powers, execution-style after she found him burglarizing her house.
“We were almost five years to the day” without a murder when Carla Huebner, 44, was found dead in her home on Jan. 6, Waukesha police Capt. Michael Babe said. Her husband had strangled her with his necktie while his sons were home.
Less than three weeks later, Waukesha detectives were called to the City Hall Annex, where a passer-by had found the body of 15-year-old Nikita Tang. She also had been strangled, by her boyfriend, who is to be sentenced in April.
Babe said crime scene officers racked up overtime investigating those two cases and a third homicide in August.
Captain hopes for better year
“I’m glad 2002 is gone,” Babe said. “Hopefully, this year is going to be little bit better,” he said.
“We just keep getting the message out there to people who are in a bad relationship to seek some help, to come to the police station and we will try to help,” he said.
Most murders in Waukesha County are domestic-related, said sheriff’s Capt. David Beguhn. But drugs may be at the center of an unsolved double-murder in which two men were found dead in a private pond in Ottawa, authorities have indicated.
Beguhn said two sheriff’s detectives are still working full time to interview witnesses and “associates” of the two dead men, Brian Lazzaro and Andy Long, both 25.
“We have some good leads,” Beguhn said.
But testing is not completed on more than 75% of the evidence sent to the FBI and State Crime Laboratory, said Assistant District Attorney Lloyd Carter, who is helping investigate the deaths.
District Attorney Paul Bucher said that if he needs to do it, he will call a John Doe probe to compel witnesses to testify about what they know of that case.
Bucher attributed the increased number of murders to domestic violence, alcohol and drugs.
“I’ve always said that alcohol and domestic violence are the biggest problems in Waukesha County,” he said. “That’s where we put our resources.”
Bucher said he was pleased by a drop in the drunken driving deaths.
The only person killed in 2002 by a drunken driver was Robert Naumann, 26, of East Troy, whose car was rear-ended Jan. 25 by a pickup driven by an intoxicated driver now serving a seven-year prison term.
Increased patrols get credit
Susie Just, coordinator of the Preventing Alcohol-Related Crashes task force that Bucher created, credited moves such as monthly saturation police patrols that began hitting high-traffic areas in November 2001. She also noted a program that pays money to cell phone callers who alert police to possible drunken drivers.
“I do think that the casual drinker is more aware that there is a potential (for harm and) might be getting the message and arranging for alternate transportation,” Just said.
Bucher said, “We’ve done some positive things as a group that may have a long-lasting impact on impaired driving. . . . But alcohol is still the number one killer. We need to have a significant attitude change.”
There were two fatal shootings by police in the county last year.
An inquest jury found that a New Berlin police officer was justified in shooting a suicidal Michael Moreno, 39, of Milwaukee when he advanced from 121 feet away with a knife.
A prosecutor also ruled it was justified when a Waukesha County sheriff’s deputy’s shot Brian Lamb, 40, of the Town of Waukesha after a four-hour standoff near Vernon Marsh.
The county’s murders and murder-suicides in 2002 included:
Jan. 6: Carla Huebner, 44, of Waukesha. Her husband and killer, Dale Huebner, was sentenced to life in prison with no parole and ordered to have no contact with his two sons. He is appealing.
Jan. 8: Carrie Bailey, 36, and her former husband, Michael Bailey, 38, of Muskego. Both were found shot to death in their home in what police said was a murder-suicide. The bodies were found four hours after Michael told relatives that he was going to kill himself and his former wife.
Jan. 13: Nikita Tang, 15, of Waukesha. Strangled by her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Charlie De La Paz, also 15, of Waukesha.
Date unknown: Lazzaro, of Mukwonago, and Long, of Milwaukee, whose bodies were found Sept. 5 and 6. Lazzaro’s body had a cut throat and multiple gunshot wounds. It was found chained and floating in a private lake near a home where Lazzaro was last seen two weeks earlier. Divers found Long’s body in the same pond the next morning.
Sept. 29: Travis Carr, 19, of Waukesha, fatally stabbed. His friend, Daniel Farmer, also 19 and of Waukesha, has pleaded not guilty to charges that include first-degree intentional homicide.
Dec. 24 or 25: Minnie P. Griffin, 42, of Milwaukee. Found dead in the back seat of a car with her estranged boyfriend, William O. Sangster, 56, of Milwaukee. She was shot in the head. He was shot in the chest.
DEATHS DEADLY 2002
In a year that stretched the resources of some law enforcement agencies, homicides and murder-suicide cases in Waukesha County jumped from zero in 2001 to seven in 2002. But homicide by drunken driving cases dropped.
DEATH CATEGORY 2002 2001 Murders 5 0 Murder-suicide cases 2 0 Police shootings 2 1 Drunken driving homicide crashes 1 3 All traffic crashes 25 25
Sources: Wisconsin Department of Transportation, Waukesha County Circuit Court