Dill Creek Farm Murder: Motive, Trial, and Prison Death

The Dill Creek Farm murder is the 2006 shotgun killing of Wisconsin pharmacist Kenneth Juedes at his Marathon County farm, a case that stayed cold for more than thirteen years before his widow, Cindy Schulz-Juedes, was charged, convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, and sentenced to life without parole. She was beaten to death by her cellmate less than two years into that sentence.

What Happened at Dill Creek Farm in 2006

Kenneth E. Juedes, 58, was a University of Wisconsin–Madison pharmacy graduate who worked at Memorial Health Care in Medford and had owned the Hull, Wisconsin property since the mid-1970s.¹² He married Cindy Schulz-Juedes in 2004.

On the morning of August 30, 2006, Cindy called 911 to report that she had found her husband dead in their bed at the Maple Road home.³ She said she had slept the night in a camper on the property because of headaches. An autopsy showed Juedes had been shot twice with a 20-gauge shotgun, once in the back and once in the chest. Investigators concluded the shooter fired the first round into his back and, after Juedes rolled over, fired the second into his chest. There were no signs of forced entry. On the bed, a kitchen knife had been driven through a body pillow, pinning a note that read “bitch.”⁴

Several things unsettled officers from the start. Cindy arrived at a neighbor’s house in a clean white robe with no blood on it, despite claiming she had tried to help her fatally wounded husband.⁵ She said the home’s landline had made a “screaming” noise when she tried to use it, but police later determined the phone model she described would not produce that sound under those conditions.⁴ The property’s surveillance cameras had been turned off. The doors were unlocked. The couple’s foster children, who normally lived at the home, were away for the night.³

The Motive Investigators Saw

In the weeks after her husband’s death, Cindy Schulz-Juedes collected roughly $1 million in life insurance proceeds.⁶ She produced a will naming her as Ken’s sole beneficiary, which his family believed was forged. A handwriting examiner later concluded the signature was “probably not genuine,” and a witness listed on the document denied being present at the signing.⁴ Twenty days after Ken’s death, she put roughly 80 acres of Juedes family land in the town of Norrie on the market over the objections of Ken’s mother, Margaret. The land sold for $200,000.⁷ She also prevented Ken’s family from viewing his remains or holding a funeral.²

Why the Case Went Cold

Suspicion did not translate into charges. The murder weapon was never recovered, so no ballistic match was possible. DNA on the note excluded several other suspects but could neither include nor exclude Schulz-Juedes.⁴ The record was almost entirely circumstantial, and prior Marathon County district attorneys declined to charge on it.⁶

How the Case Was Reopened

In 2016, the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office adopted a new action plan and assigned Detective Dennis Blaser to work the case 30 hours a week.² Blaser started from scratch. He uncovered no new physical evidence, but he brought training in 911-call analysis, and he found that Schulz-Juedes’s call focused on establishing an alibi and describing the scene rather than seeking help for her husband, which he characterized as a sign of deception.⁶

In 2017, Blaser drew four separate maps of Schulz-Juedes’s movements based on the different accounts she had given over the years, exposing inconsistencies. A 2019 interview produced further contradictions about surveillance use, her reason for sleeping in the camper, and her medication habits.⁸ Blaser later credited District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon with the “guts to take on the difficult case that past DAs did not.”⁶

Schulz-Juedes was arrested on November 27, 2019.⁵ Charges were formally filed on December 13, 2019: first-degree intentional homicide as a party to the crime and obstructing an officer.² Assistant Attorney General Richard Dufour also cited a specific weapons detail at the probable cause hearing: Schulz-Juedes owned a 20-gauge shotgun, the same gauge as the murder weapon, which she claimed had been stolen but never reported missing.

The Trial

The case went to trial in Marathon County Circuit Court in October 2021, with Judge Michael Moran presiding and District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon leading the prosecution. Earl Gray represented the defense.²⁹

Prosecutors argued that Schulz-Juedes killed her husband to collect an estate that included insurance policies exceeding $950,000 and family land she quickly sold. They walked the jury through the disabled surveillance, the unlocked doors, the absent foster children, the impossible phone claim, and the clean robe, and they presented the questionable will and her shifting accounts. Blaser, the prosecution’s final witness, testified about the four contradictory maps.⁸ Investigators also re-examined the “bitch” note and found that Ken Juedes had written other notes with the same distinctive letter “b,” leading prosecutors to argue Ken had written the note during an earlier argument and that Cindy used it to stage the scene.³

Gray pointed at five other men. He argued that Ken Juedes’s business partners at the Monster Hall Raceway and Campground, which he co-owned in Unity, had conspired to kill him to stop him from pursuing fraud charges. Juedes had already won a $300,000 fraud lawsuit in 2006 against associate Randall Landwehr, wiping out Landwehr’s investors, and was seeking criminal charges at the time of his death.⁴ Among the named men were Landwehr and actor Butch Patrick Lilley, known for playing Eddie Munster, whose mother had invested $10,000 in Landwehr’s brewery venture.¹⁰

Lilley testified and denied any involvement. Another named man, Brian Demler, had previously told people he was the getaway driver for three men on the night of the killing. On the stand he recanted, saying he had made up the story while facing a drunk-driving charge and expected police to disprove it once they checked his Green Bay alibi.¹¹ Crime lab witnesses testified that no physical evidence linked any of the five men to the home.¹⁰ Prosecutors had granted the business associates immunity in exchange for testimony that they were not involved.⁶

Schulz-Juedes took the stand. She testified that she managed the household finances and sometimes signed documents in Ken’s name with his permission, and she said she cooperated with years of police interviews “[b]ecause I didn’t kill my husband and I wanted to find out, I guess, who did.”¹²

The jury found her guilty of both counts in October 2021.² On June 8, 2022, Judge Moran sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Wisconsin law would have allowed him to set a term of extended supervision after 20 years, but he declined, ruling that Schulz-Juedes “will remain behind bars for the remainder of her life.”⁴ He also ordered more than $1 million in restitution.

Killed in Prison

Schulz-Juedes maintained her innocence and filed an appeal in June 2023, and the court granted her attorneys an extension of the filing deadlines. She did not live to see it resolved.¹³ On July 19, 2023, she was found unresponsive on the floor of her cell at Taycheedah Correctional Institution in Fond du Lac County, surrounded by a pool of blood. She had been beaten to death by her 29-year-old cellmate, Taylor Sanchez.¹⁴

Sanchez was serving a two-year sentence for battery. According to a criminal complaint, she had stopped taking her psychiatric medication and told officers she was hearing voices, and in a recorded call with her mother she accused Schulz-Juedes of using her toothbrush to scrub the toilet. Witnesses reported hearing consecutive strikes for up to two minutes. An autopsy documented 34 rib fractures and head injuries described as too numerous to count.¹⁵

Sanchez initially pleaded not guilty by reason of mental defect. In June 2025 she withdrew that plea and entered a no-contest plea to first-degree intentional homicide.¹⁶ On July 28, 2025, Fond du Lac County Circuit Judge Tricia Walker sentenced her to life in prison without the possibility of parole, calling the attack “wholly vicious.”¹⁵

1
WI Clark County History. Kenneth E. Juedes Obituary
2
Wausau Daily Herald. Cindy Schulz-Juedes Sentenced to Life in Prison
3
Oxygen. Cindy Schulz-Juedes Killed Husband Ken Juedes in Wisconsin
4
Wausau Pilot and Review. Life Without Parole for Woman Convicted in Husband’s 2006 Slaying
5
Wisconsin Public Radio. Widow Arrested 13 Years After Husband’s Homicide in Central Wisconsin
6
The Wausonian. The Backstory on How the Juedes Case Was Solved
7
Wausau Pilot and Review. Jury Deliberates in Cold Case Homicide Trial
8
WSAW. Prosecution Focuses on Schulz-Juedes Inconsistencies Over Time With Its Final Witness
9
Wausau Pilot and Review. Schulz-Juedes Trial Opening Statements Outline Prosecution’s Case
10
Law and Crime. Child Actor Known for Playing Eddie Munster Testifies in Murder Trial
11
WAOW. Witness for the Defense Says He Made Up Story About Aiding and Abetting Juedes Murder
12
WSAW. Woman on Trial for Husband’s 2006 Murder Takes Stand in Own Defense
13
FDL Reporter. Taycheedah Inmate Charged With Killing Cellmate Cindy Schulz-Juedes
14
Spectrum News 1. Taylor Sanchez Beats Cellmate to Death Cindy Schulz-Juedes
15
WBAY. Sanchez to Be Sentenced Monday for Killing Cellmate at Taycheedah
16
CBS News Minnesota. Wisconsin Women’s Prison Inmate Taylor Sanchez Life Sentence Cellmate Murder