An area state representative is pleased with the passing of a bill changing the statutes for someone who hides a corpse.
On Monday, Governor Tony Evers said he signed 34 bills into law, including Senate Bill 423, which is now known as Wisconsin Act 49.
The bill’s original author, 3rd District Representative Ron Tusler, explained to Seehafernews.com that previously, when a person was reported missing, the state had a six-year statute, meaning that if a body was found after six years, a person could not be charged with hiding a corpse.
Now the statute starts when the body is found, not after a person is reported missing. This comes after the Calumet County case of Starkie Swenson.
He and a man named John Andrews fell in love with the same woman.
But the Harrison Republican says when Swenson took a bike ride one day, Andrews hit him with his car and killed Swenson.
“But without a body, prosecutors were slow to charge him,” he explained. “After nine years of hoping a body would show up and hoping evidence would happen, he was eventually charged with murder. But a plea agreement was entered, and he got two years. Two years for killing somebody.”
However, Swenson’s remains were later found in High Cliff State Park in 2021.
But because of the six-year statute, Andrews couldn’t be charged with hiding a corpse like Calumet County District Attorney Nathan Haberman wanted to do.
Rep. Tusler called the whole thing a situation that shouldn’t have happened.
“But you know, with the lack of scientific evidence without finding a body, the prosecutors just weren’t certain,” he noted. “But two years is a ridiculous amount of time for someone who killed somebody.”
During the bill’s creation, Haberman and another person who knew Swenson testified before a Wisconsin Assembly Committee about why the bill should become law.
Rep. Tusler says he wants to keep working to get bills passed as he serves in the Wisconsin Assembly.
