Investigation into inmate death from 1960s closed, unfounded

Sheriff: DOC records, cemetery searched for evidence

JUNEAU, Wis. — Officials with the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office said the investigation into the alleged 1960s death of a Waupun State Prison inmate has been closed.

Sheriff’s officials said they received a complaint of a possibly suspicious death in June, and initiated a death investigation.

Investigators checked records from the Department of Corrections dating back to the 1960s, and no victim was identified, according to a release.

The person who originally reported the alleged suspicious deaths described a cemetery where the alleged body of an unknown inmate was placed on top of another body that was already in the cemetery, officials said. The cemetery was searched with ground-penetrating radar.

In August, sheriff’s office officials were notified of two separate anomalies identified by the radar, officials said.

Last week, authorities pulled back the topsoil in an area of the cemetery but found no body. Investigators did not open any graves.

The Dodge County Medical Examiner and a sheriff’s detective investigated the anomalies and did not find any evidence that supports the allegations.

Authorities said no evidence was found that supports the allegations, and the death investigation will be closed as unfounded.