Mysticalmom
06-08-2008, 12:26 PM
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/articles/2008/06/08/news/00lead.txt
After 20 years, mother still waits for answers in daughter's BRF murder
By ANNE JUNGEN | La Crosse Tribune
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/content/articles/2008/06/08/news/00lead.jpg
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Jennifer Leigh Wesho is buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery about two miles from where her lifeless body was discovered in 1989.
The 9-year-old’s homicide was rooted in evil, and Jennifer’s mother doesn’t want her attackers to know where to find her daughter again.
Jennifer Wesho
“I don’t know who did this. I can’t even fathom,” Sadie Wesho said.
Local and state investigators are refocusing their efforts to solve the slaying of the brown-haired, brown-eyed third-grader after a complicated and — until recently — stagnant homicide investigation.
“We’re really the only ones who can give her family justice … that is our sole motivation,” said Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox. “There’s a 9-year-old girl who was brutally tortured, raped and murdered, and I want her killers held accountable.”
After 19 years, investigators are inching toward an arrest, thanks in part to advancements in forensic testing. They have the physical evidence and are looking for people of interest.
Now investigators need the public’s help in finding the vital pieces that will close the cold case.
‘Why did God let a devil do that to her?’
Jennifer’s near-nude body was found about 7:30 a.m. Aug. 6, 1989, in a wooded area about a quarter-mile east of her house in the Sand Pillow Village of the Ho-Chunk housing development, about five miles east of Black River Falls.
She had been sexually assaulted, beaten, burned with lit cigarettes and strangled to death.
“I thought, ‘What kind of devil is walking around here?’ ” her grandmother, Anna Snake, said after identifying Jennifer’s body at the morgue. “Why did God let a devil do that to her?’”
It was Clifford Wesho who discovered his daughter’s body after an hourlong search and 18 hours after she was last seen.
A damp sleeping bag and pillow found near the body were taken into evidence. A forensic pathologist estimated Jennifer was killed seven to 18 hours before her body was discovered.
Moving forward
Investigators have concluded more than one person is responsible for killing Jennifer, based on interviews and a review of the case and its physical evidence, said John Christophersen, a special agent with the state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.
Investigators said that in order to protect the integrity of the case, they won’t elaborate on the physical evidence collected at the scene or found on Jennifer’s body or divulge the results of forensic examination. Earlier news reports indicated foreign hair was found on Jennifer’s body and the sleeping bag.
Investigators are working closely with a DNA analyst at the state Crime Lab in Madison and using advanced methods of forensic testing to re-examine physical evidence recovered after the crime.
“We now know things from the physical evidence that was saved at the time that we could not have known in 1989,” Fox said. “That evidence that was preserved … has now yielded very, very good evidence that has re-directed the investigation.”
Authorities are looking for people of interest in the case who have information about the crime or who watched or participated in the killing. Publicly identifying the people of interest could taint the investigation, Fox said.
“We have some people we need to investigate further, either to rule them out as being involved or to gather enough evidence to hold them accountable,” he said.
But investigators are confident people — not forensics — hold the missing pieces of information.
“Physical evidence all by itself doesn’t tell the entire story,” Fox said. “What we need is information that puts that evidence into context.”
Investigators think fear of retaliation from Jennifer’s killers or a negative stigma attached to being an informant has prevented potential witnesses from coming forward. Officials vowed to protect their confidentiality.
“We want people to believe they can come forward and help us without worrying about reprisals,” Fox said.
Arrests depend on the public, Christophersen said.
“With the right information, they (arrests) could be in the very near future,” he said. “We know that certain people within the public have the answers we are looking for.”
Investigators say they won’t stop until the case is closed. Christophersen and Jackson County sheriff’s detective Scott Bowe took over the case together about a year ago, while Fox is the fifth district attorney to review the file.
“We’re going to be active on the case until we solve it,” Bowe said.
Charges dismissed
Authorities declined to say whether a man previously charged in Jennifer’s death and later released remains a suspect or whether he’s been eliminated as one.
About eight months after her death, Jennifer’s distant relative, Dion Funmaker, then 19, of Minneapolis and formerly of Black River Falls, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault of a child and physical abuse of a child.
Funmaker’s cousin, Carl McKee, then 21, told authorities Funmaker began to sob and mumble about Jennifer after a drunken discussion of her death in mid-February 1990, according to the criminal complaint.
Funmaker removed a knife from his key chain and told McKee, “I could kill you. It is easy. I could do it again,” McKee told investigators.
“McKee … indicated that in his mind there was no doubt that the defendant was referring to the Wesho murder,” the complaint stated.
Funmaker also raised concerns police would find his hair on the sleeping bag found near Jennifer’s body, according to the complaint.
McKee’s girlfriend, Heather Bartlett, then 20, overheard Funmaker say he burned Jennifer with cigarettes, and then choked and killed her, the complaint stated. Prosecutors relied on Bartlett as a credible witness because the cause of death by strangulation was not made public.
Funmaker told police and another person he saw Jennifer’s body late Aug. 5 or early Aug. 6. He was able to describe the condition of her body and its location and did not deny telling McKee he choked the girl, according to the complaint.
The case against Funmaker folded when then-Jackson County District Attorney Alan Moeller, now deceased, dismissed the charges against Funmaker three weeks after they were filed. Information surfaced that attacked Bartlett’s credibility and implicated her as a suspect in Jennifer’s death.
A Jackson County reserve officer reported that Bartlett confessed her involvement with Jennifer’s death in February 1990. A statement was placed into the case file but never forwarded to the district attorney. The detective responsible for the error was later fired for negligence.
“We couldn’t have Ms. Bartlett testify she heard Funmaker say he killed the girl when she was heard to utter the same statement,” Moeller said at the time.
Bartlett was never charged because her statement was made while she was intoxicated and she had a solid alibi. She is not currently considered a person of interest, Christophersen said.
Funmaker could be recharged in the death because the charges were dismissed without prejudice. Investigators said they are unsure of his whereabouts.
Jennifer’s sister, Marylyn, 25, said she saw him at a Minneapolis bar about two years ago. Marylyn described the encounter as “creepy” and left when he approached.
Whether he’s responsible for Jennifer’s death is “hard to say,” Sadie said.
‘She’s in my heart’
Sadie, 50, still lives in Sand Pillow Village not far from where Jennifer was found. She’s patiently awaiting answers and “continues living and hoping.”
Sadie takes off work when the pain or stress is overwhelming. She has held four different jobs since 1989 and warns each manager that someday she’ll need to attend a trial for the people accused of killing Jennifer.
She stays busy to keep her mind off the crime.
“When you do start thinking, then you get emotional and think, ‘Who did this?’ ” Sadie said.
She and Clifford still are together, though he is incarcerated on drunken driving charges and scheduled to be released this September.
Sadie doesn’t visit that unmarked grave. Jennifer is in a more intimate final resting place.
“She’s in my heart and in my mind,” Sadie said.
After 20 years, mother still waits for answers in daughter's BRF murder
By ANNE JUNGEN | La Crosse Tribune
http://www.lacrossetribune.com/content/articles/2008/06/08/news/00lead.jpg
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. — Jennifer Leigh Wesho is buried in an unmarked grave in a cemetery about two miles from where her lifeless body was discovered in 1989.
The 9-year-old’s homicide was rooted in evil, and Jennifer’s mother doesn’t want her attackers to know where to find her daughter again.
Jennifer Wesho
“I don’t know who did this. I can’t even fathom,” Sadie Wesho said.
Local and state investigators are refocusing their efforts to solve the slaying of the brown-haired, brown-eyed third-grader after a complicated and — until recently — stagnant homicide investigation.
“We’re really the only ones who can give her family justice … that is our sole motivation,” said Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox. “There’s a 9-year-old girl who was brutally tortured, raped and murdered, and I want her killers held accountable.”
After 19 years, investigators are inching toward an arrest, thanks in part to advancements in forensic testing. They have the physical evidence and are looking for people of interest.
Now investigators need the public’s help in finding the vital pieces that will close the cold case.
‘Why did God let a devil do that to her?’
Jennifer’s near-nude body was found about 7:30 a.m. Aug. 6, 1989, in a wooded area about a quarter-mile east of her house in the Sand Pillow Village of the Ho-Chunk housing development, about five miles east of Black River Falls.
She had been sexually assaulted, beaten, burned with lit cigarettes and strangled to death.
“I thought, ‘What kind of devil is walking around here?’ ” her grandmother, Anna Snake, said after identifying Jennifer’s body at the morgue. “Why did God let a devil do that to her?’”
It was Clifford Wesho who discovered his daughter’s body after an hourlong search and 18 hours after she was last seen.
A damp sleeping bag and pillow found near the body were taken into evidence. A forensic pathologist estimated Jennifer was killed seven to 18 hours before her body was discovered.
Moving forward
Investigators have concluded more than one person is responsible for killing Jennifer, based on interviews and a review of the case and its physical evidence, said John Christophersen, a special agent with the state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation.
Investigators said that in order to protect the integrity of the case, they won’t elaborate on the physical evidence collected at the scene or found on Jennifer’s body or divulge the results of forensic examination. Earlier news reports indicated foreign hair was found on Jennifer’s body and the sleeping bag.
Investigators are working closely with a DNA analyst at the state Crime Lab in Madison and using advanced methods of forensic testing to re-examine physical evidence recovered after the crime.
“We now know things from the physical evidence that was saved at the time that we could not have known in 1989,” Fox said. “That evidence that was preserved … has now yielded very, very good evidence that has re-directed the investigation.”
Authorities are looking for people of interest in the case who have information about the crime or who watched or participated in the killing. Publicly identifying the people of interest could taint the investigation, Fox said.
“We have some people we need to investigate further, either to rule them out as being involved or to gather enough evidence to hold them accountable,” he said.
But investigators are confident people — not forensics — hold the missing pieces of information.
“Physical evidence all by itself doesn’t tell the entire story,” Fox said. “What we need is information that puts that evidence into context.”
Investigators think fear of retaliation from Jennifer’s killers or a negative stigma attached to being an informant has prevented potential witnesses from coming forward. Officials vowed to protect their confidentiality.
“We want people to believe they can come forward and help us without worrying about reprisals,” Fox said.
Arrests depend on the public, Christophersen said.
“With the right information, they (arrests) could be in the very near future,” he said. “We know that certain people within the public have the answers we are looking for.”
Investigators say they won’t stop until the case is closed. Christophersen and Jackson County sheriff’s detective Scott Bowe took over the case together about a year ago, while Fox is the fifth district attorney to review the file.
“We’re going to be active on the case until we solve it,” Bowe said.
Charges dismissed
Authorities declined to say whether a man previously charged in Jennifer’s death and later released remains a suspect or whether he’s been eliminated as one.
About eight months after her death, Jennifer’s distant relative, Dion Funmaker, then 19, of Minneapolis and formerly of Black River Falls, was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree sexual assault of a child and physical abuse of a child.
Funmaker’s cousin, Carl McKee, then 21, told authorities Funmaker began to sob and mumble about Jennifer after a drunken discussion of her death in mid-February 1990, according to the criminal complaint.
Funmaker removed a knife from his key chain and told McKee, “I could kill you. It is easy. I could do it again,” McKee told investigators.
“McKee … indicated that in his mind there was no doubt that the defendant was referring to the Wesho murder,” the complaint stated.
Funmaker also raised concerns police would find his hair on the sleeping bag found near Jennifer’s body, according to the complaint.
McKee’s girlfriend, Heather Bartlett, then 20, overheard Funmaker say he burned Jennifer with cigarettes, and then choked and killed her, the complaint stated. Prosecutors relied on Bartlett as a credible witness because the cause of death by strangulation was not made public.
Funmaker told police and another person he saw Jennifer’s body late Aug. 5 or early Aug. 6. He was able to describe the condition of her body and its location and did not deny telling McKee he choked the girl, according to the complaint.
The case against Funmaker folded when then-Jackson County District Attorney Alan Moeller, now deceased, dismissed the charges against Funmaker three weeks after they were filed. Information surfaced that attacked Bartlett’s credibility and implicated her as a suspect in Jennifer’s death.
A Jackson County reserve officer reported that Bartlett confessed her involvement with Jennifer’s death in February 1990. A statement was placed into the case file but never forwarded to the district attorney. The detective responsible for the error was later fired for negligence.
“We couldn’t have Ms. Bartlett testify she heard Funmaker say he killed the girl when she was heard to utter the same statement,” Moeller said at the time.
Bartlett was never charged because her statement was made while she was intoxicated and she had a solid alibi. She is not currently considered a person of interest, Christophersen said.
Funmaker could be recharged in the death because the charges were dismissed without prejudice. Investigators said they are unsure of his whereabouts.
Jennifer’s sister, Marylyn, 25, said she saw him at a Minneapolis bar about two years ago. Marylyn described the encounter as “creepy” and left when he approached.
Whether he’s responsible for Jennifer’s death is “hard to say,” Sadie said.
‘She’s in my heart’
Sadie, 50, still lives in Sand Pillow Village not far from where Jennifer was found. She’s patiently awaiting answers and “continues living and hoping.”
Sadie takes off work when the pain or stress is overwhelming. She has held four different jobs since 1989 and warns each manager that someday she’ll need to attend a trial for the people accused of killing Jennifer.
She stays busy to keep her mind off the crime.
“When you do start thinking, then you get emotional and think, ‘Who did this?’ ” Sadie said.
She and Clifford still are together, though he is incarcerated on drunken driving charges and scheduled to be released this September.
Sadie doesn’t visit that unmarked grave. Jennifer is in a more intimate final resting place.
“She’s in my heart and in my mind,” Sadie said.