Man imprisoned for brutal home invasion, sexual assault found dead

2-13-2016 Wisconsin:

A Milwaukee man imprisoned for a terrorizing home invasion and sexual assault on the city's south side was found hanging in a cell at the Columbia Correctional Institution, authorities said Friday.

Prison staff brought down and unsuccessfully attempted to revive Julio Quiles-Guzman, 25, when he was found about 5 a.m., Thursday, according to a news release from the Columbia County Sheriff's Office.

Initial results of an autopsy Friday indicate Quiles-Guzman committed suicide, according to the release.

In January, 2014 Quiles-Guzman was convicted of first-degree sexual assault/use of a dangerous weapon and robbery with the of threat of force for the June, 2013 home invasion on S. Muskego Ave., according to court records and a criminal complaint.

He was sentenced to 42 years in prison and 18 years of extended supervision, according to the records.

According to the complaint, he and two other men forced their way into a couple's home and bound them at gunpoint in front of their 4-year-old son.

Man accused of sex offense commits suicide

12-30-2015 Wisconsin:

Police say the body of David J. Knoble was found Dec. 30 at his residence in the 400 block of South Park Street in Reedsburg.

Knoble was wanted by authorities for allegedly sexually assaulting an underage parishioner while serving as the music director at a Reedsburg church. The charges were filed Dec. 29 in Sauk County Circuit Court.

According to a press release from the Reedsburg Police Department, the 48-year-old Reedsburg man fatally shot himself as police approached the residence after 8:30 a.m. Wednesday, as they followed up on a welfare check request. Police said a friend reported that Knoble had expressed suicidal thoughts.

“Officers forced entry into the home and found Knoble dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound,” Reedsburg Police Chief Tim Becker said in a news release.

According to the criminal complaint filed in the case, Knoble worked as the director of music ministry at the St. John Evangelical Lutheran Church in Reedsburg. While serving in that role, he allegedly had a sexual relationship with a girl from the church choir when she was 16 and 17 years old. Knoble denied the charges to investigators, and declined to comment when questioned by the Baraboo News Republic on Dec. 29.

Eau Claire swim coach drowned himself after child porn arrest

8-27-2013 Wisconsin:

A man who drowned Friday in Lake Wissota apparently committed suicide just hours after law enforcement officers arrested him and found photos of nude girls during a search of his house, according to the Eau Claire Leader-Telegram.

Daniel P. Weggel, 32, of Washington was an assistant high school boys swimming coach in the Eau Claire school district.

Eau Claire County sheriff's deputies seized computers and other electronics, which authorities say show Weggel hid cameras in his home, the girls' homes and other locations to secretly record them.

Weggel, found with cinder blocks tied to his legs, left a suicide note, officials said. ..Source.. by Ashley Luthern

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Nude girls’ images found on drowning victim’s computer

In the confiscated computer files belonging to a 32-year-old town of Washington man who drowned Friday in Lake Wissota, authorities found images of nude underage girls among the numerous photos that appeared to have been captured without the girls’ knowledge.

Man on trial in teen sex-abuse case kills himself in Coquille

5-23-2012 Wisconsin:

COQUILLE — The Coos Bay man who was standing trial for sex abuse against a 14-year-old committed suicide early Wednesday.

The Coos County Sheriff’s office confirmed that Reuben E. Downs, 29, died of a gunshot wound to the head around 10 a.m. near a creek behind a property on the 50 block of West Fifth Street.

The sheriff’s office said Downs shot himself with a 12-gauge shotgun, and his body was found up against a tree. Police said Down’s mother and brother in-law were in the house near the creek at the time of the suicide and that no suicide note was found.

Downs was on trial for nine counts of second-degree sex abuse and was suspected of having an alleged sexual relationship with a 14-year-old girl. ..Source.. by Tyler Richardson

Police Close in Quickly on Tosa Woman's Vicious Rapist — Only to Find Him Dead

4-24-2012 Wisconsin:

A Wauwatosa woman is brutally assaulted at the point of a knife, and not waiting for DNA evidence to be returned, detectives develop a lead. They were on the right track, but it turned out their quarry was already beyond justice.

Police were on the right track when they went to question a suspect in the vicious knifepoint rape of a Wauwatosa woman in early March.

They didn’t know it for sure, but they did have the right man after less than a week of investigation. DNA test results returned a month later supported their belief, but couldn't help police make an arrest.

The rapist was already dead.

Just days after a stranger brutally assaulted a woman in her home on North 68th Street on March 3, police zeroed in on a possible suspect. They didn’t have much to go on except his victim’s description, somewhat matching one man out of a handful of contacts gleaned from her daughter’s memory and cell phone.

But, said Capt. Jeff Sutter, they decided to go knock on his door anyway.

Tosa detectives went to an address on North 15th Street in Milwaukee and spoke to a woman who said she was the suspect's stepdaughter. She told them the man they were looking for had died four days earlier of a heroin overdose.

Police paid a visit to the county morgue. Sure enough, the body was still there, and it matched the description of the rapist, right down to the distinctive tattoo the victim had seen on his chest.

The case would have been closed right then, except that when officers showed his victim a photo lineup including a mug shot of him, she couldn't pick him out.

That left detectives only 99 percent sure they had the right man, and they had to wait for the State Crime Lab to respond to DNA evidence left at the scene to match their suspect.

It did, and now they are 100 percent sure the woman’s rapist is not still roaming the streets. William J. Keys, 37, was declared dead on March 5.

Victim tells of horrifying ordeal

That's a great relief to his victim, who had been living in fear that Keys might return — as he had threatened to do — to subject her again to what happened March 3. Police reports paint a detailed picture of the crime and subsequent pursuit of the rapist.

About 11 a.m. that day, the 55-year-old was relaxing at home, where she lived with a daughter, when her doorbell rang.

She had never seen the man at her door. But he asked for her daughter by name, wanting to know if she was home. Told that she wasn’t there, Keys then asked if he could use the woman's bathroom.

She let him in and said he was in her bathroom for more than five minutes. When he came out, she said, she asked his name. He said, "Just call me Daddy."

At that point, she asked him to leave. Instead, he pulled out a knife, held it to her throat and threatened to kill her. Then he raped her repeatedly, in her living room and then her bedroom, for two hours.

During his attack, she said, Keys dropped his knife, and she saw it between the cushions of her couch. She grabbed it and threw it across the floor, where it skidded into her dining room.

Before the attacker left, he looked for his knife but never found it, and the victim hid it after he was gone.

She waited more than two hours to call police, by which time her assailant’s track was cold.

Police begin the only place they can – with the daughter

Knowing that Crime Lab reports would take six to eight weeks to return a match, Wauwatosa police detectives went to work with what they had: a description from the victim and the knowledge that the perpetrator at least knew the name of the victim’s daughter – he had referred to her by name not only at the door but again during the crime.

The daughter was questioned and turned over her cell phone, and detectives began a list of potential suspects. Then followed the painstaking task of matching numbers and recollections of casual acquaintanceship to names, connecting them to criminal records and photos, looking for someone who might match a description or have a motive.

Detectives found one man — Keys — who stood out somewhat from the rest. The daughter's description was strongly similar to her mother's of her attacker. He had a criminal record, including a felony conviction for battery to a police officer. He had at least an idea of where the victim lived.

The victim's daughter had met Keys when they worked together briefly in December for the same temporary employment service. She said that he had flirted with her and asked her out, but she brushed him off.

On at least one occasion, she said, she remembered they had ridden the bus together and he would have seen her getting off near her home.

Police had a hunch that Keys either that day or at another time stalked her and saw her enter her home, then came back looking for her — and instead found her mother.

Feeling that with a rapist was on the streets, they should act rather than wait for Crime Lab reports, police went looking for Keys on March 9 and learned of his death.

It wasn't until April 20 that the DNA evidence came back with a positive identification of Keys.

Capt. Sutter said that officers visited the victim again April 21 and told her they knew the man who had assaulted her, and that he was dead.

Then they showed her morgue photos of Keys, including his tattoo. That's him, she told them this time — that's definitely the man who raped me. ..Source.. by WauwatosaPatch

Report clears Fond du Lac officers

Posted in Related Deaths

3-20-2011 Wisconsin:

Fond du Lac - The Fond du Lac County prosecutor says Officers were justified in defending themselves and firing at a gunman who had shot and killed a police officer in March, the Fond du Lac County district attorney's office ruled Monday.

A report issued by the DA's office says the gunman, James Cruckson, 30, sexually assaulted his girlfriend and refused to return her 6-year-old daughter. Several police officers responded. The report says Cruckson shot and wounded one officer who entered the home, and he riddled another officer's squad car with bullets.

As a third officer ran to investigate the sounds of gunfire, Cruckson shot him twice and killed him. One shot hit Officer Craig Birkholz, 28, in the abdomen below his bulletproof vest, and the second hit the top of the vest with fragments entering his torso.

Cruckson later killed himself. ..Source.. by DINESH RAMDE

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DOJ releases FdL shooting report

10-5-2011 Wisconsin:

MADISON - The Wisconsin Department of Justice has released more than one thousand pages of documents related to its investigation of the March shooting that killed a Fond du Lac police officer.

The Fond du Lac County district attorney ruled last month police acted appropriately during the shooting.

FOX 11 filed an open records request with the state to obtain the records from that incident. The DOJ handed them over Tuesday.

The department has since posted the report on its website. Click here to read it.

Authorities say James Cruckson shot and killed 28-year-old officer Craig Birkholz as he ran towards the scene. Cruckson also shot Officer Ryan Williams and his K9 officer Grendel, both recovered. Cruckson later took his own life.

As Fond du Lac officers battled his shots March 20, frantic calls poured into to 911.

"I believe I'm hearing gunshots," one caller said. "Yes, stay in your house, stay away from windows," the dispatcher responded.

"I'm on Division and Lincoln," another said.

"You need to stay in your house, we have an incident going on on Lincoln," a dispatcher responded.

The recordings are part of more than 1,000 pages of investigative documents, photos and video, released to FOX 11 by the Department of Justice, Division of Criminal Investigation.

Some information has been removed to protect the victims, Officer Ryan Williams, James Cruckson's former girlfriend and Officer Craig Birkholz.

Dash cam video shows Birkholz racing to the scene. Other officers were already there, including Williams. Bullets were flying.

"Shots fired, shots fired, we got a sniper," officers say over radio.

The video goes black when Birkholz leaves the car. DOJ removed the video, because it captures Birkholz' death.

According to the autopsy report, Birkholz was shot twice.

Newly-released video from the Department is giving us a first look inside the duplex where it all began. Video shows the second floor where police say Cruckson fired nearly 50 rounds through a window.

Hundreds of pages of interviews confirm Cruckson was driven by a crumbling relationship. He spoke with a negotiator ten times during the standoff.

In the report, the negotiator describes Cruckson as having flat emotions. He said Cruckson never yelled during the conversations, but did admit killing an officer and raping his former girlfriend.

However, in audio previously released by Fond du Lac authorities, Cruckson blamed her for everything.

"You lied, that's why those cops got killed, so pretty much you killed those cops," Cruckson said on her voicemail.

Hundreds of photos show the aftermath of Cruckson's attack, Williams' vest pierced in several places, squad cars riddled with bullets and a community and department forever changed.

The report, like the Fond du Lac County district attorney, also concluded that officers acted appropriately to protect the community. ..Source.. by Lindsay Veremis, FOX 11 News

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SPECIAL REPORT - In Their Own Words: FdL Officer Shooting One Year Later

3-21-2012 Wisconsin:

Concerns about 6-year-old prompted police to enter Lincoln Avenue duplex

Jon Gutzmann

Capt. Jon Gutzmann has no regrets about his decisions and actions the morning of March 20, 2011.

He was one of three officers to first enter James Cruckson’s home at 24 S. Lincoln Ave. on the city’s west side after Cruckson’s ex-girlfriend, Josephine Warner, reported a sexual assault and that her 6-year-old daughter was still in the house.

That morning, he saw a bloody Officer Ryan Williams tumble into Officer Zach Schultz on the stairwell leading up to where the armed and suicidal Cruckson was situated.

Gutzmann later heard calls about Officer Craig Birkholz being shot by Cruckson and killed.

During the shootout, Gutzmann left the house in an armored vehicle only to return again with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office SWAT team to find Cruckson dead on the first floor of his residence from a single self-inflicted gunshot wound.

“Obviously, I have thought about this a great deal over the last year,” said Gutzmann, who continues to read reports and listen to dispatch tapes. “… Given the information I had that day, no, I would have not made any other decision. In speaking with other (officers) that were in that house, we all agreed that was the best method, given the information we had.

“I said all along that I don’t know if I could go back and sit in my house and look at my children if, in fact, the little girl would’ve have been in that home and harmed. … I took an oath to not let that happen.” ..This is a multi-page article, more in the original.. by Russell Plummer

Inmate with suicide history poisons self and dies

8-11-2009 Wisconsin:

A 41-year-old Milwaukee man who had a history of trying to commit suicide by drinking cleaning fluids died last month, two days after he drank rubbing alcohol at the Milwaukee Secure Detention Facility, where he was incarcerated and worked as a janitor.

Officials at the detention facility were aware of Myron Christopher Weston's suicidal history when he volunteered to work as a janitor, a job he began in April, said John Dipko, spokesman for the state Department of Corrections.

Weston was "showing positive adjustment during his time (at the Secure Detention Facility) and preparing for his release into the community," Dipko wrote in an e-mail.

Weston's death has been ruled a suicide, according to a Milwaukee County medical examiner's report.

An autopsy determined Weston died of acute isopropyl alcohol intoxication.

Weston, who suffered from schizoaffective disorder and was taking six medications, reported on the day he was admitted to the facility in January that he had tried to kill himself about six times by drinking cleaning fluids and taking pills, the report says.

None of the previous suicide attempts occurred at the detention facility or any other state-run prison, Dipko said.

It was not clear Tuesday where or when the other suicide attempts took place. A woman who answered Tuesday at a phone number listed to Weston's mother declined to comment.

The Milwaukee County district attorney's office is investigating Weston's death, which is standard procedure whenever a person dies while in custody, District Attorney John T. Chisholm said.

Investigators have found no signs of foul play and are focusing on whether any procedural or communications changes should be implemented, Chisholm said.

An internal review of Weston's death also is under way, Dipko said.

Weston was admitted to the detention facility on Jan. 7 because of a probation violation and was scheduled to be released Sept. 21, Dipko said.

Weston was unresponsive, in shock and suffering from liver failure when he was rushed to Aurora Sinai Medical Center the morning of July 26, according to the medical examiner's report.

He was placed on a ventilator but died July 28.

Weston may have become depressed after his girlfriend broke up with him over the phone July 18 and blocked her phone number from receiving his calls, according to the report.

According to online court records, Weston's criminal history included convictions for theft and substantial battery, both felonies, and having sex with a child who was between the ages of 16 and 18, a misdemeanor.

Weston's mother told investigators she did not think her son tried to commit suicide because he was looking forward to being released, according to the medical examiner's report. ..Source.. by Ryan Haggerty of the Journal Sentinel

Suicidal inmate gave no sign of intentions, attorney says

5-3-2011 Wisconsin:

Rajib Mitra's lawyer said Monday that if Mitra had intended to kill himself in the Dane County Jail, he showed no signs of it during a meeting to talk about Mitra's appeal just hours before Mitra committed suicide on Friday.

Dane County investigators are trying to determine how Mitra, 33, gained access to a cleaning closet on the fourth floor of the Public Safety Building, where he was being housed in a pod that contained scores of other inmates, Sheriff's spokeswoman Elise Schaffer said.

Mitra was found about 5 p.m. Friday hanging from an overhead mechanical pipe in the cleaning closet. Schaffer said the sheriff's office is not disclosing what he used to hang himself or other details until an investigation is finished.

The Dane County Medical Examiner's Office ruled Mitra's death a suicide.

On Thursday, Mitra was sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison by Dane County Circuit Judge Maryann Sumi for sexual exploitation of a child and possession of child pornography. The sentence was handed down just months after Mitra finished serving an eight-year federal prison sentence for jamming Madison police radios during Halloween weekend in 2003.

Mitra's lawyer, Assistant Public Defender Jon Helland, said the new sentence, which he and Mitra thought to be harsh, was coupled with extended supervision that would have barred Mitra from computers and required that he register as a sex offender.

But Helland said if Mitra felt the penalties were too burdensome, he never showed it.

"He was always the same with me," Helland said. "He didn't reveal much emotionally."

Schaffer said Mitra had been evaluated by jail mental health staff and was placed in an area where he would be around 40 or 50 other people instead of alone in a cell. But he was not on a suicide watch.

Helland said that he was "surprised but not shocked" that Mitra took his own life.

"To be pulled back in (to prison) when you thought you were out, that's harsh," Helland said.

Mitra was a 24-year-old UW-Madison graduate student in 2003 when he was charged in U.S. District Court in Madison with jamming Madison police radios. At the same time, he was dating a 16-year-old girl whom he had met in an Internet chat room.

When Mitra's computer and radios were seized as part of the radio jamming investigation, police found that portions of the computer's hard drive had been heavily encrypted, keeping police from discovering their contents until 2009.

Once decrypted, police found child pornography and sexually-oriented pictures of the girl. Mitra was convicted by a jury of the sexual exploitation and child pornography charges in January. ..Source.. by ED TRELEVEN

Man Who Took Own Life Suspected in Child Sex Assault

11-15-2010 Wisconsin:

GREENFIELD - The man who committed suicide after Brookfield Police pulled him over Friday afternoon was under investigation for the repeated sexual assault of a child, Greenfield Police said Monday.

"Friday he was located by a city of Brookfield police officer," said Lt. Jay Johnson of Greenfield Police. "They performed a traffic stop and the subject took his own life."

A temporary felony arrest warrant had been issued for Brian C. Beardsley, 38, for repeated acts of sexual assault perpetrated on a child.

Monday night TODAY'S TMJ4 visited the Milwaukee home Beardsley shared with his wife and daughter. Nobody was home. Beardsley's aunt was reached by telephone and said the family "is not proud" of what happened. She said all in the family were too distraught to make any on-camera comments.

Although a felony warrant was issued for Beardsley last week, he was never charged. Greenfield Police say the case against him is now closed. ..Source.. by WTMJ NewsRadio

WI- Suspect in Murder of Darlene Darling Found Dead in Wisconsin

Posted in Related Deaths

5-6-2006 Wisconsin:

On Saturday June 3, 2006 a tactical team from the FBI’s fugitive task force searched the home of 35-year-old Jeffery Todd Antone’s mother in Tomah, WI. Antone had become the prime suspect in themurder of Darlene Darling. The tactical team found Antone’s body hanging in the garage with a suicide note nearby. The Monroe County Sheriff’s Office is investigating Antone’s death.

The investigation into the murder of Darling began in the early evening of June 1, 2006 when Saint Paul Police responded to a report of a foul odor coming from a car on the 600 block of Fuller Avenue.

Officers investigated and found the body of Darling in the trunk of her vehicle. The body was badly decomposed and detectives now believe Darling was probably killed on Sunday May 28th or early on Memorial Day, May 29th. Fingerprints obtained by the Ramsey County Medical Examiner were used by the Saint Paul Police Crime Lab to positively identify the victim as 47-year-old Darlene Darling. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner has ruled the death a homicide with a preliminarily determination of strangulation as the cause of death.

Detectives interviewed Darling’s ex-boyfriend and acquaintances to establish the following series of events surrounding Darling’s murder. Darling had been sober for several years before she went back to abusing alcohol and crack cocaine early in 2006. In April, Darling broke up with her boyfriend of eight years and began seeing Antone, a non-compliant sexual offender from Wisconsin. A criminal history check showed Antone was a convicted violent sexual offender with two active felony warrants from Wisconsin. Antoine had been living in a school bus behind an auto body shop in Shakopee for the past eight months.

A witness reported seeing Darling’s body in the trunk of her car on Memorial Day.

Detectives continue to investigate the murder of Darlene Darling and the case may be submitted to the Ramsey County Attorney for a review of charges against others who aided Jeffery Antone after the fact.

In response to this tragic crime Chief John Harrington noted, “Once again we are presented with a case that demonstrates the need to use all necessary resources to monitor sexual offenders and to aggressively track down those who are not compliant.” ..more.. by Police Report

WI- Sex offender found dead at home

1-25-2007 Wisconsin:

NEWARK TOWNSHIP-A convicted sex offender scheduled to be sentenced Friday apparently killed himself in his home Wednesday night.

Indications are that Donald L. Ostenson, 63, of 8102 W. Grove School Road, Beloit, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, said Lt. Bill Harper of the Rock County Sheriff's Department.

An Orfordville ambulance was called to the scene at 7:53 p.m., Harper said. A representative of the coroner's office pronounced Ostenson dead at the scene.

Ostenson was charged in August 2005 with sexual assault of a child younger than 13.

A charge of first-degree sexual assault of a child later was dismissed, but Ostenson pleaded guilty Oct. 26 to a related felony, according to online court records.

Ostenson was scheduled to be sentenced Friday morning in Rock County Court. ..more.. by GazzetteXtra

Man accused of sexual assaults of pre-teen kills self

1-7-2008 Wisconsin:

A 48-year-old man who was scheduled to go on trial today for sexually assaulting a pre-teen girl for several years committed suicide over the weekend at his trailer home outside of Stoughton.

Terry C. Karna faced one count of repeated sexual assault of a child under the age of 13 and the case against him was scheduled for jury selection in front of Dane County Circuit Court Judge Patrick Fiedler, when Assistant District Attorney Doug McLean informed Fiedler that Karna killed himself. The case against Karna was dismissed.

McLean said Karna had written a letter earlier this month to his family in Minnesota, apparently indicating that he was going to kill himself, and when the family received the letter they immediately called the Dane County Sheriff's Department. Sheriff's deputies went to Karna's trailer home on Norman Drive near Lake Kegonsa Friday night and found he had killed himself with a gun, McLean said.

Karna was facing a maximum sentence of 40 years of prison and extended supervision time if he had gone to trial and had been convicted. He had repeatedly turned down offers to settle the case and insisted he was going to trial, McLean said.

According to the criminal complaint, Karna began assaulting the girl when she was in pre-school and continued until the summer between her sixth and seventh grades.

The girl said Karna had been drinking during all of the assaults.

"It made me feel really sick and violated," the girl said during the interview, according to the criminal complaint. ..more.. by Mike Miller