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A
It never happens at a good time.
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The pipe bursts at midnight.
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A
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B
In the marshes of northeastern Wisconsin, a game warden stepped out of his truck one September evening and never came back. What investigators found the next day was a crime scene so brutal it would haunt the state of Wisconsin for decades to come. But catching the killer would require a brand new investigative technique, a hidden rifle, and a manhunt that stretched from the north woods to the state Capitol. That's next on blood trails. On September 24, 1971, Wisconsin State Game Warden Neil Lefebvre had every reason to be hopeful. The 32 year old was married with two kids, a house, a small farm, and a strong community of family and friends. He was also working a job he loved. He'd grown up hunting and fishing, and he wanted to protect the wild places and creatures that make Wisconsin great.
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C
But he was there that day to post in the Wet Areas Wildlife Sanctuary.
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B
That's Donald Ziedmulder, who was at the time the district attorney for Brown County, Wisconsin. He told me that Neil was working that day at the Sensiba Wildlife area A about 8 miles north of Green Bay. He'd been busy posting no hunting signs, but he was in a hurry to wrap it up.
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C
It was his birthday, so he wanted to get home. He came back to his truck. He took his waders off, he put his hunting boots on. He got in his truck and he actually lit a cigar. And then he heard something.
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B
We don't know exactly what that something was, but we do know that Neil put his cigar in the ashtray and got out of his truck because he
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C
assumed he would be back to finish it.
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B
But Neil never returned to finish that cigar. He never got a chance to kiss his wife and hug his kids or attend the surprise birthday party that was being organized in his honor.
- [03:07]
D
As a family, we had all gathered there to have a birthday party for him and just kept getting later and later, and he didn't come home. It was at some point we realized that something wasn't right.
- [03:20]
B
The family at first thought Neil might have gone out with friends to celebrate his birthday. But as the minutes ticked by and more guests arrived, they realized that all his friends were already there. Darkness fell, and Peggy Lefebvre, Neil's wife, drove out to the wildlife area where she found Neil's empty truck. But there was no sign of the game warden. After Peggy called law enforcement and the search began, it didn't take long for reporters to catch wind of what was happening. Here's the Green Bay Press Gazette.
- [03:51]
E
Along with police officials, friends and neighbors converged on the scene to search for the missing man. Search planes from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources were enlisted. Bloodhounds were brought in to comb a wooded marsh area early Saturday.
- [04:05]
B
Reporters were struck by how many of Neil's friends had joined the search efforts. Peggy was there, too, but it wasn't easy for the young wife to watch and wait.
- [04:15]
E
At one time, Mrs. Lefebvre was standing near a squad car when the message blurted from the plane above that if a man had run into foul play, this would be an ideal place to dump the body. Tears welled in her eyes, and I could see how tense she was.
- [04:30]
B
She had reason to be. It wasn't like Neil to disappear without telling anyone, and he wouldn't have abandoned his truck without. Without reason. Friends were overheard saying that he knew those woods like a rabbit, and they doubted he'd had some kind of accident. They also said he wasn't the kind of guy to leave a cigar unfinished. The search continued throughout the night until the next morning, when a local hunter stumbled on what they were looking for but hoping not to find.
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E
Lefave's body was finally discovered by a man who did not know him and had not originally come to the preserve to participate in the search. Bob Dhoni went to Sensiba Saturday morning, bowhunting, but joined the search when police told him of the situation.
- [05:13]
B
Bob told reporters that he'd noticed a mound of fresh earth with ferns and a log on top of it. As he walked closer, he spied a belt and an elbow partially hidden by the dirt. He also noticed blood on the ground, as well as a path where it looked like someone had been dragged. Bob called the sheriff's deputies, but they quickly realized the situation was even worse than they had feared.
- [05:36]
C
PHONE RINGS I'd heard on the radio and TV news the night before that there was a game warden missing in Sensiba. And it was the sheriff's department. They said to me, you've got to come out to the Sensiba right away. We found the game warden. He's in the sand.
- [05:56]
B
Donald was only 28 years old at the time, and he'd been elected the year before. He'd been hoping to spend that Saturday with his newborn baby boy, but duty called, so he hopped in the car.
- [06:07]
C
So I approached an area, that sandy loam, you know, swamp kind of stuff. It was sort of the higher part. And I walked over and here was area of like, of sand that had been pushed aside and now you can see the hip and a pocket green Kake overalls. So there was his body.
- [06:33]
B
Donald called the state crime lab to help process the scene, but they didn't get there until after the sun had set.
- [06:39]
C
So then they start digging with their hands, the sand away from, from Neil's body. So I grabbed those two big lights and I'm holding him up like this, illuminating the scene. And I'm watching him as they, you know, they get his legs and then they start working up to his upper body. And all of a sudden the guy from the crime lab says, oh, my God, he doesn't have a head.
- [07:05]
B
The details of this gruesome discovery were not made public immediately, but they didn't have to be for Peggy's world to come crashing down.
- [07:14]
E
As we walked to my car, another car pulled up. Three youths got out and I could see that at least two of them had been crying. She asked, what's wrong? Are they coming back here? One of them said her husband had been found and was dead. Her arms and legs went limp and she said something like, I want to go see him. I told the boys to take her home and they left.
- [07:36]
B
The murder of Neil Lefebvre remains one of Wisconsin's darkest moments. Moments. The brutality of the crime perpetrated on a well liked young father and husband devastated Neil's family, friends and colleagues in the warden service. Donald knew that justice must be served. But as he stood beside Neil's shallow grave on that cool September evening, he had no idea where that effort would lead. To catch Neil's killer, the district attorney would have to find A hidden rifle, prosecute a contentious trial, survive a brazen jailbreak, and employ a new investigative technique that catapulted this case from the swamps of Sensiba to the history books. I'm Jordan Sillers, and this is Blood. Catching the Killer of Neil Lefebvre Part 1.
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D
Neil.
- [08:29]
B
Brad Lefebvre was 17 years younger than his older brother, so Neil was already out of the house by the time Brad was born. But as he grew up, the younger Lefebv found a friend, mentor, and father figure in his adult sibling.
- [08:42]
D
We developed a great relationship because as time went on, he kind of ended up almost like my dad. And not to take anything away from my dad was great, but he was always busy and working, and Neil seemed to always take time for me to come to my sporting events and got interested in hunting and all the stuff that he liked.
- [09:04]
B
Neil had purchased a hobby farm right across the street from the Sensibo wildlife area. He and Peggy lived in a house on that property, and they were happy to host Brad whenever he didn't have school.
- [09:14]
D
A lot of my summers or a lot of time of the summer, I'd spend there and doing chores on the farm, riding horses, helping bail hay, and do all the fun stuff you did back then. There was a good bond between us.
- [09:29]
B
As Brad got older, he joined Neil in the field whenever he could. The older Lefebvre was often busy catching poachers during hunting season, but he still made time to chase birds with Brad.
- [09:40]
D
Well, we hunted there, right on the farm, my geese and ducks, and there were pheasants around then, and he used to reload all his own shells, and he would try and beef them up pretty good. And I remember once accidentally pulling both triggers at the same time on the double barrel, and it chipped out two big pieces of wood on both sides of the stock from doing that. But, yeah, we. We would hunt whenever we could.
- [10:10]
B
One of their favorite pursuits was hound hunting for raccoons and foxes. And Brad remembers enjoying everything about those trips.
- [10:17]
D
He had probably 12 hounds, and evenings that I remember, we, you know, we go coon hunting. And we didn't have all the modern technology they have now for tracking dogs. So if you didn't catch up to them, you just leave your jacket on in the ditch, and in the morning you'd come back and the dogs would be there all around the jacket, laying on the jacket. Some of those late nights, we'd end up going to Chili John's in Green Bay and having chili because they were always open for the bar crowd. And we would just be getting done coon hunting.
- [10:51]
B
Neil obviously had a soft spot for his little brother. Brad said he used to call him kiddo and they'd hold races up and down the quarter mile driveway to the road. But Neil didn't let him win or get away with doing things the wrong way, Especially when it came to the outdoors.
- [11:07]
D
I remember once I forgot my license from up in CR and got down there and forgot my license. He said, well, I guess you're just out this weekend. So I didn't get to hunt but. But yeah, it was. He, he liked the outdoors and he liked wildlife and, and so it all kind of fit together.
- [11:25]
B
Brad was too young to remember how Neil and Peggy began their relationship. But he thinks it was likely at a dance or neighborhood gathering. Peggy and her family lived across the street from where Neil's parents owned a supper club in Oneida. So the families had known each other for a long time. Peggy declined to speak with me for this episode. I was told the memories are just too painful. But Nikki, one of Neil and Peggy's two children, agreed to tell me more about her father.
- [11:53]
F
He was a well respected person. Anybody that knew him just really respected him. He was a down to earth person. I was told that he would take my brother and I to our doctor's appointments 55 years ago. It wasn't common for the father to take their kids to the doctor's office versus nowadays. And he loved to do that because he wanted a family.
- [12:27]
B
Nikki was only two years old when her father was killed. She doesn't have any personal memories of him and you can tell she doesn't want to speak out of turn. But growing up, her mother and other relatives were happy to tell her more about the father she never knew.
- [12:41]
F
He just always had a smile on his face. He, he just was very open with everybody. He was an easygoing guy.
- [12:51]
B
That honest, easygoing personality made him a good game warden. And both Nikki and Brad mentioned how much Neil loved his job.
- [12:59]
F
He loved making sure that the animals were taken care of. He loved being outdoors and hunting so much that he just enjoyed working as a DNR and taking care of the land for future hunters and for the hunters that were around.
- [13:21]
B
When I asked Brad what he hoped his brother would be remembered for, this was one of the things he reiterated.
- [13:27]
D
Just his dedication to the wildlife and to what he loved to do. And having that job was kind of the essence of what he really wanted to do.
- [13:40]
B
The fact that Neil died doing the thing he loved adds an extra Layer of tragedy to this case. Neil's co workers at the DNR couldn't prove it, but they immediately suspected a well known poacher for this brutal crime. If that was true, Neil's love of wildlife, his passion for conservation and his no nonsense approach to hunting and fishing laws had led to indirectly to his death. Neil was the kind of guy you'd want as your local game warden. But it was exactly these traits that deprived a community of an exemplary public servant and a young family of a father and husband.
- [14:19]
F
He was like that with everybody. He was there to help everybody and everybody that knew him just kind of really respected him and trusted him.
- [14:36]
B
Part two the Killer As Peggy and the rest of Neil's family began to grieve, Donald Ziedmulder began his investigation. He wasn't the only one, of course. Conservation warden Dale Morey and Brown County Sergeant Marvin Garlikovsky were two of the lead investigators. Both men have unfortunately passed away. But Donald, who is now Judge Ziedmulder for the Brown County Circuit Court, offered a detailed account of how the investigation unfolded. It was close to midnight by the time they found Neil's body. So they covered the area with plastic, staked it down and stationed two deputies to make sure no one disturbed the crime scene. It rained overnight and Donald was back bright and early the next day.
- [15:20]
C
And I show up and there's these two deputies there who, who'd spent the whole night. And I'd never seen two guys happier to be relieved of duty than those two guys were. I said, how did your night go? How did our night go? What the hell are you talking about? He said, we were petrified the whole damn night. We had our guns out because we didn't know if that guy was going to come back.
- [15:45]
B
It's a humorous interaction in the safety of retrospect. But in the moment, that fear was real and understandable. Most murderers don't decapitate their victims. Brown county had a seriously evil person on their hands. And that fact was made disturbingly real just a few hours later.
- [16:03]
C
So I was there like at dawn and maybe I stayed to like noon or something. I went home to try to get some sleep. It was probably early afternoon. I got a phone call saying that they had found the head.
- [16:16]
B
Neil's head was found buried in a shallow grave about 60 yards to the north of where his body was discovered. From that horrifying revelation, investigators were able to determine a cause of death.
- [16:27]
C
He had been shot multiple times in the face with a.22. Then I surmised that while he was on the ground, the 30 odd six was a headshot right next to the skull because it blew the back of his head off.
- [16:48]
B
Crime scene investigators had done a meticulous grid search of the area. They found.22 shell casings as well as a.30 06 slug buried in the dirt. Donald believed this was the slug that had entered Neil's skull. But whoever had done this wasn't satisfied with shooting an innocent man in the face and then shooting him again in the back of the head. The autopsy suggested that he had then shot Neil an additional six times in the neck and finished the grisly task with the blade of a shovel stolen from Neil's truck. That conclusion was supported by a blood soaked patch of dirt that had been gouged by what appeared to be high powered rifle bullets. It was hard to believe that someone living in the quiet Green Bay suburb could be capable of something so brutal. But it didn't take long for a primary suspect to emerge.
- [17:40]
C
From the very beginning, the warden from Brown county, that his name was Norman Hicks. And he told me that night, he said, well, I think this Brian Husung had something to do with this. I think their contact with him, I don't want to say unnerved them, but had to give them so much anxiety, they thought something like, well, this guy is capable of whatever. So we focused on him from almost the very beginning.
- [18:09]
B
Brian Hussong was a notorious poacher. The 21 year old had clashed with Neil several times over the years, including an incident the previous fall in which he was cited for shooting a pheasant out of season. Peggy also told authorities Hussong could have been involved in her husband's murder, which suggests that those confrontations were significant enough that Neil relayed them to his wife. It was as good a lead as any. So Donald and the other investigators began finding and interviewing Husong's friends and associates.
- [18:40]
C
We ended up having two or three who were pretty cooperative, so they told us that they remember going with him with a.22 and shooting. So our deputies then had these kids take them where they and Brian had used this.22 for pistol shooting. The.22 casings we recovered fired from Brian's gun match the.22 casings at the scene of the crime.
- [19:12]
B
This was the first real indication that Husung might be connected to Neil's murder. According to an evidence sheet I obtained from the Brown County Attorney's Office, investigators were able to match the cases from the two locations because they both contained a distinctive mark likely from the firing pin of Huong's gun. The problem was they couldn't find a witness who could place their suspect at the scene of the crime. And they still hadn't recovered either the.22 or the.30 06 rifle. Without the murder weapons, it would be tough to pin the crime on anyone. And Donald figured that.22 was long gone.
- [19:49]
C
I knew that the key was this 30 odd 6 because I'm a hunter myself, and I was pretty damn sure that this kid was. He pitched that.22 in the river or wherever it would be. But I had some hope or confidence that he wasn't going to give up
- [20:09]
B
his deer rifle.22s are a dime a dozen, which was almost literally true in 1971. Donald knew that they'd never find Husong's rimfire rifle. But no self respecting hunter or even a poacher would willingly depart with the.30 06. Donald knew that rifle was still around somewhere, and a crime lab analysis of the recovered bullets indicated that they were likely looking for a Remington bolt action. But Husang refused to take a polygraph test, and he certainly wasn't about to reveal the location of his firearms.
- [20:41]
C
He never cooperated with the police or ever said anything about anything.
- [20:45]
B
Husong's friends were more forthcoming, but the stories they told about the young poacher sent chills down the spines of investigators. In one incident, Husong dismembered a doll that belonged to his niece while she screamed in terror. In another, he tore the head off a live kitten while partying with friends. I haven't verified these accounts myself. They appear in a book called Protectors of the Outdoors by a former Wisconsin game war morton named Jim Chisik. But everything I've read about Husang indicates he was a deeply disturbed individual.
- [21:20]
C
There were violent incidents in the past. There was this story that I was told that when he was like 12 or 14, he got in a fight with a neighborhood kid, had him down on the sidewalk and was like pounding his head on the sidewalk. And his dad was standing there saying, you know, kill him, kill him or whatever, if you know what I mean. So there were these stories came out about how this environment certainly contributed to what he turned out to be.
- [21:45]
B
Hussong's mindset seemed to fit the crime, but he also had a motive to target Neil specifically. Warden Hicks testified that Hussong had a, quote, score to settle with Neil due to past confrontations. We don't know the details of all of these confrontations, but they were significant enough that Hicks recounted them under oath, and his testimony appears in several subsequent court cases. Husong had motive and means, but he also had opportunity. Husong's grandmother lived just south of the wildlife area, close enough that her grandson could have seen Neil's truck from that property. Behind her house, investigators found what looked like an empty grave about the same depth as the one used to bury Neil. A soil expert determined that that hole had been dug about six months previously. And detectives wondered if Husong had been planning Neil's assassination for months before he carried it out. Everything seemed to be pointing in Hwang's direction, but Donald was still hesitant to bring charges. The evidence they'd collected was circumstantial, and the prosecutor knew they needed more.
- [22:50]
C
It seems probable that he's involved in this some way or the other, but we came to a point where that seemed to be the best we could do because we had nobody could put him at the scene. You know, that was basically what we had.
- [23:07]
B
Search efforts had failed to turn up that.30 06 rifle. But Donald wasn't about to give up. If Husang was too smart to leave it somewhere investigators could find, the young prosecutor decided to let their number one suspect lead them to it. To do that, he'd need to employ a brand new investigative tool. Tool that had only been legalized a few years before. But it turned out to be exactly what they needed to blow this case wide open. That's next after the break.
- [23:39]
A
Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls in building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now, I'm going to tell you I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at phelpsgamecalls.com I think you'll be glad you did. And you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy to use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and
- [24:34]
B
Getting Action Part 3 the tape I
- [24:40]
G
was at the Justice Department and I was in the. In the criminal prosecution unit. And at some point I became head of the criminal prosecution unit. And it was probably overlaps with this story.
- [24:52]
B
That's Peter Pek. He's retired now, but he had a long and successful career in Wisconsin state government.
- [24:58]
G
Donald Zelder. Judge Zelder came down to the Justice Department headquarters and we sat down and talked about the project.
- [25:05]
B
Peter had known Donald for a long time. The two had debated each other in high school and then been a part of the same debate team at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. They shared a mutual respect for each other, so Donald knew his friend would be happy to help and with his novel idea for prosecuting Brian Hussong.
- [25:23]
C
So Peter and I then drafted an application that had to be approved by a senior circuit court judge to allow for a wiretap.
- [25:37]
B
Wiretapping has been around for as long as people have been talking on the telephone. But before this case, it had never been used to investigate a murder in Wisconsin. Congress made wiretapping a federal crime in 1934, and the practice remained an illegal investigative technique until the late 1960s. That's when, in an effort to give law enforcement a leg up on organized crime, Congress reversed course and passed the Omnibus Crime control Act of 1968. This law put guardrails around when the feds could and could not tap someone's phone. And state legislatures quickly passed their own versions of the law that govern state level investigators. Peter and Donald were both part of the team that wrote Wisconsin's wiretapping law, and Peter, who describes himself as a progressive libertarian, was keen to make sure the technique wasn't abused.
- [26:29]
G
The whole idea of electronic surveillance laws is to minimize their use and to use it when it is not the tool of last resort, but certainly one that is not used any more frequently than necessary.
- [26:45]
B
While Peter agreed that tapping Husong's phone might be the only way to find the location of that.30 06 rifle, he knew there were a number of legal hoops they'd have to jump through to execute their plan.
- [26:56]
G
We had to demonstrate that the defendant would in fact use the telephone we were going to wiretap. Either the telephone had to be in the name of the target, or you had to demonstrate that the target would use that telephone on some level of frequency.
- [27:17]
B
In this case, that was easier said than done. Hyung was living with his girlfriend, and her name was on the lease. The law prohibited them from tapping her phone without solid evidence that Hoosung lived at that address. Fortunately, Peter had seen this situation before In a previous case targeting organized crime.
- [27:36]
G
We had had a similar situation in Milwaukee. And what we did there was we attempted to sell life insurance to the target defendant. And in the process, he put a phone number down that we could reach him at. Judge Zeitmiller heard this story as we sat together in Madison at the Department of Justice. And over time he said, I have an idea.
- [28:04]
C
I was so full of piss and vinegar at that time. So I got ahold of a friend who was a florist of mine, and I had him borrow his florist truck and his uniform. I put it on a deputy, and I sent the deputy with a dozen roses to this address. And I had him pound on the door. And when Brian came to the door, he said, oh, I have these roses for Mrs. Sellers. And Brian said, well, she doesn't live here. And he says, well, who are you? And he says, well, I am. I am Brian Hassan. Well, do you live here? Well, yeah, I live here. So I had that deputies affidavit in my search warrant to say that's why I should be able to tap this phone, because that's where he lives.
- [28:47]
B
The second standard they had to meet was to prove that Husong would likely use that telephone to discuss the criminal activity they were were investigating. No one can predict the future, but they thought they knew how to encourage their suspect to pick up the phone and mention that.
- [29:01]
G
30:06What we would do is harass the living daylights out of the target defendant and his family to the point where Brian would be using the telephone in furtherance of his crime. I we said, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think that'll work. I think that will constitute probable cause.
- [29:24]
B
With the affidavit from the deputy and the rest of the plan in place, they went to the judge and applied for the wiretap warrant.
- [29:31]
C
And I was so antsy about this whole thing that I had the circuit judge come to my home and we had the hearing in the basement of my house because I didn't want to do this in the courthouse, because I didn't. It was so sensitive to me that I didn't want anybody to have any idea that something like this was going on.
- [29:50]
B
The cloak and dagger routine worked. They got the warrant without tipping off their suspect, and FBI agents climbed the telephone pole outside Husong's house to install the wiretap device. Then they set their plan into motion.
- [30:03]
C
So once I had the warrant, how do I stimulate him to use that phone? Well, I know. I'll start issuing search warrants for every one of the son of a bitch's relatives places.
- [30:16]
B
One of those locations was the home of Hosong's grandmother, who lived near the scene of the crime. The warrant said they were looking for a rifle and they hoped she would relay this information to her grandson. Sure enough, she did.
- [30:29]
C
So they called me and said, you got to get over here right away. You got to get over here right away. So I come over and they got. Then it was a tape. You had a tape recording. That's how you know that was the technology then. So they said, listen to this, listen to this, listen to this. So it was his phone, and he's dialing, and then the phone rings, and then these voices. Brian? Grandma, is that you? Yeah, yeah, Brian, that's me. Grandma, that gun. Have you got that gun? Oh, Brian, don't you worry. I've got that gun where nobody's ever gonna find it. Don't you worry about that. You don't have to worry about that.
- [31:09]
B
The gun wasn't exactly smoking, but that's about as close as you can get without watching your prime suspect pull the trigger. Donald got another search warrant for the grandmother's house, but this time he had special instructions for investigators.
- [31:21]
C
I get my deputies together and I say, now here's what I want you to do. I want you to get eight pound mauls. I want you to get wrecking cool bars. I want you to bring a blowtorch. I want you to go in there like you're going to take that house apart brick by brick and drop that stuff on this floor. So she hears it all about it.
- [31:43]
B
Donald stayed in his office waiting for news from the sheriff.
- [31:47]
C
You can imagine, you know how tense I am. The phone rings, and it's the deputy sheriff who had it at the time, says, well, I'm here, Don. But she says the. She doesn't have the gun. I said, what the hell are you talking about? I said, put her on the phone. I said, is this you, Mrs. Hasan? Let me tell you right now, this is a district attorney for Brown county, and there are plenty of room in the jail for more than one Hassan. So I'm telling you right now, if you don't turn over that gun, I will tear your house apart brick by brick and stone by stone. There will be nothing standing. I will destroy it. Do you understand? And then she blurts out, but the gun isn't here. And then, as God is my witness and as great as life is, well, where the hell Is it? I said. And she says it's over at Ruth's.
- [32:50]
B
Ruth was Brian's aunt. But the DA didn't have to apply for another search warrant. Brian's grandmother took the deputies over to Ruth's house and got the gun herself.
- [32:59]
C
Sure as shit, you know, about half an hour later, my deputies call me. Oh, God. We got the gun. What have you got? Well, this is how close? This was all totally disassembled. The stock, the receiver, the firing pin, the barrel. All in plastic, all in different. Wrapped in different plastic bags. So if we had got anywhere near that, all those pieces would have flown. East river, the swamp, if you know what I mean. We'd have. We'd have never been able to do it. We rushed it down to the state crime lab. They assembled it, they fired it. Their firearms expert said that the bullet fired from that gun is identical to the bullet bullet found at the scene of the crime. The 30 odd six had killed Neil the same. I had the guy arrested. Within 12 hours of that report, Brian
- [33:52]
B
Hussong was behind bars and with the deer rifle in hand. Donald was confident in a conviction, but questions still remained. What happened that night in Sensiba? Was Neil killed because he confronted the wrong poacher on the wrong day? Or was he the victim of a premeditated assassination? That question still haunted this investigation, not to mention Neil's family. And finding the answer proved even more difficult than identifying the man who pulled the trigger. Part 4 the trial When Brian Hussong's trial began on April 4, 1972, District Attorney Donald Ziedmulder wasn't leaving anything to chance.
- [34:37]
C
Then we went to trial, and I had the DNR fly an aerial photograph of Sensiba. Then I had that enlarged to show the area of the crime.
- [34:51]
B
He had a model of the crime scene built so the jury could see exactly where Neil's remains were found, along with where investigators believed he was killed.
- [35:00]
C
So part of my trial stuff is I had a big, you know, eight foot by six foot sandbox, for lack of a better term. But it was all done just like you see, you know, in the movies, where it's a total replica of the crime scene. And then I. I had everybody, when they testified, have them get off of the stand and then point to the jury on this thing where these various things were found.
- [35:24]
B
Hussong never testified in his own defense, but his mother took the stand to explain what he was doing the day Neil was killed.
- [35:31]
C
His mother testified at the trial this could not have happened because he was home Canning tomatoes with me. That's it. Nobody else saw him there. You know, I said to the jury, I said, well, as far as that testimony, what mother wouldn't say anything to help their son? That's all I said. And I've tried a lot of cases and I always try to watch jurors. When I talked about mothers saying anything for their sons, all the women on the jury nodded their heads. So I thought, well, that should be, I, I think I got that right.
- [36:10]
B
Usong's alibi was weak, but the most damning piece of evidence was that deer rifle and his frantic attempt to hide it. To drive this point home, Donald called an expert who verified the identities of the voices on that historic telephone call.
- [36:26]
C
I had this Michigan State crime lab involved because in those days they had a thing called voice identification. So then this guy flew over here and he said to his, you know, reasonable certainty, the voice is grandma and the voice is the defendant. Brian.
- [36:43]
B
The final piece Donald wanted to address was how exactly the murder unfolded and why. Donald wasn't required to explain Husseong's actions, only that he carried them out. But he still wanted to give the jury some explanation for why the 21 year old did what he did.
- [37:01]
C
Well, I argued to the jury that what happened here was he had built up all this animosity toward law enforcement.
- [37:12]
B
Neil left his truck on that day because he heard the poacher shooting ducks with the.22.
- [37:17]
C
I believe a reasonable scenario was he went out there, he caught him red handed, he reached to begin writing citation or whatever it is, and then Brian just went berserk. Because I can't explain this other than just uncontrollable rage. Why would you shoot somebody in the face five or six times, they're now down on the ground. Why would you then either have with you or, you know, a 30 odd second and do a contact shot to the back of the head and then cut the head off. I mean, I just told the jury it just demonstrates uncontrolled rage.
- [37:59]
G
Everything he was saying that we were picking up, not necessarily on the telephone, but just people he had been talking to and all that just suggested he was just a volcano to use. I think the judge's words.
- [38:12]
B
Peter thinks who Husng removed the game warden's head not as a rational attempt to hide his crime, but as an
- [38:18]
G
additional punishment, saying, hey, you know, I'm going to punish you and I'm going to cut your head off. It just, it just left me with the feeling that it was spontaneous.
- [38:29]
B
Husong never said why he killed Neil. He never admitted to doing it in the first place. So any theory is speculation. But there was also evidence to suggest that may have been more cold blooded than Donald and Peter believe. As I mentioned earlier, a conservation warden named Dale Mori was one of the lead investigators on this case. He spoke to meat eater's Pat Durkin before he passed away and laid out the scenario he believed was the most plausible. He said, quote, he could have gone into the swamp and started shooting with his.22, knowing Lefebvre was nearby and would investigate. Lefave got shot while walking a game trail heading that way. Given the setup and what we found, it looked premeditated. What Mori is referencing is a site close to where Neil was killed, where the vegetation had been compressed. It looked almost as if someone had lain in wait for the game warden to walk past. As you already heard, investigators also found another potential grave that had been dug several months earlier. Mori believed that Husong had planned to kill Neil after his citation for pheasant poaching the year before, but just never got the chance. Whether he removed Neil's head in a fit of rage or to throw investigators off his scent, we may never know. But as it turned out, his decision to use the deer rifle to commit that monstrous act is precisely what led to his arrest.
- [39:51]
C
And then at the conclusion of the trial, I think they may be deliberated two, three hours. Whatever it was, they found him guilty.
- [40:01]
B
More after the break.
- [40:04]
A
Last spring, Clay Newcomb and I collaborated with Jason Phelps at Phelps Game Calls and Building each of our own favorite turkey diaphragms called prime cuts. Now I'm going to tell you I love mine because it's easy to use. I'm not going to go. I'm not going to win a turkey calling contest. It's just not going to happen. But when I run this call, I get the sounds that gobblers are looking for. I have a great turkey hunting track record. If you go listen to real turkeys out in the woods, they're not going to win calling contests, right? That's who I listen to. I can make those sounds on my cut. I also hunt with Phelps's cut and I hunt with Clay's cut because they're all three great cuts. Check out Prime Cuts at phelpsgamecalls.com I think you'll be glad you did and you'll find out that the Steve Rinella cut is an easy to use cut for beginning callers who just want to start making good turkey noises and getting
- [41:00]
B
action in those days, murderers in Wisconsin found guilty of first degree intentional homicide immediately went to prison on a life sentence. The judge accepted the jury's decision, sentence Husseong to life, and ordered him straight to prison.
- [41:15]
C
I had gotten up from my desk where I was a prosecutor, and I was standing by the door, and they walked him right by me. And as he and he got about three feet from me, he turned around and pointed his finger at me and said, I'll kill you, you little son of a bitch, if it's the last thing I ever do. And so the judge, who was a great jurist, by the way, said to me, don, did you hear what he said? I said, what are you talking about? He said he was going to kill. Oh, no. I said, I thought he was pointing to you. And the judge kind of turned white. I said, no, no, I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding.
- [41:57]
B
It takes a special kind of person to laugh off a death threat from a deranged murderer. But it helps you understand why Judge Ziedmulder is still going strong at 83 years old. It was also easy to joke about it when he knew Husong was headed to prison for the rest of his life. At least it would have been if Husong had stayed in prison. Part 5 Jailbreak On August 29, 1981, officials at a prison in Dodge County, Wisconsin, sent out a troubling warning. According to the newspaper the Daily Citizen,
- [42:34]
E
authorities from the Fox Lake Correctional Institute today issued a statewide alert for a convicted murderer who escaped from the prison Friday night. Authorities are seeking Brian Hassong, 31, who was serving time for the decapitation slaying of Brown County Conservation Warden Neil Lefebvre.
- [42:51]
B
The warning told residents to be on the lookout for a brown haired, blue eyed man wearing a blue shirt, blue jacket and jeans. Hussong was no longer the scrawny kid who had angrily threatened Donald as he was marched off to prison. He stood 5 foot 9 inches tall, and his decade behind bars had had turned him into a sturdy 180 pounds. He'd spent his time working out and reading books on survival. And according to Warden Morey, he'd built himself into a physical specimen. That's partly why the last line of the prison's public service announcement set everyone on edge.
- [43:25]
E
Hassong is extremely dangerous. He threatened witnesses at his trial. Authorities said he may be headed for the Green Bay area.
- [43:33]
B
Donald knew that that if Husang was headed for Green Bay bent on revenge, the former DA and his family would be first on the list.
- [43:41]
C
You know, I'm a pretty self confident person and he's not the only one that's ever threatened to kill me in the discharge of my duties. I didn't really have much fear for my, honestly fear for myself, but. But I was always just gut sick about that anything might happen to my wife and my kids.
- [44:00]
B
Kids. Donald was out of town when he was told about Huong's escape. So he immediately sent his wife and kids to another house they owned in Door county, where the local sheriff agreed to station deputies nearby. The DA wasn't the only one who took precautions. Everyone involved in Huong's prosecution was in danger, including Peter Pek and his family.
- [44:20]
G
The target got away 10 years later from a state prison. And when he did, you know, he, he was going to kill all of us. I'm on the road, was on the road all the time at the Justice Department. And so, you know, we warned my wife that if something goes on, she's called the police department right away. And in fact, there was all kinds of strange noise in the house one evening. She was told to go into one room with the three kids and close the door and wait for officers to arrive.
- [44:52]
B
The noises that night turned out not to be the escaped murderer. But you can imagine how terrifying those days were for the detectives, prosecutors and their families. Nikki Lefebvre, who would have been about 12 years old when Hussong escaped, never mentioned fearing that her father's murderer would go after the Lefebvre family again. She'd had a happy childhood being raised by her mother and stepfather, but Neil's loss remained an absence she couldn't quite articulate.
- [45:18]
F
There was times that, yes, I did wish that Daddy Neal was around because you missed that bond that you have with your mom or your dad that isn't there anymore.
- [45:33]
B
Now the man responsible for that gap in her heart was on the run, and no one seemed to be able to find him. Police get no answer and hunt for who Song Screamed a Green Bay Press Gazette headline from September 3, six days after Husong had escaped.
- [45:49]
E
Law officers converged Wednesday night on a rural Sawyer county telephone booth, hoping to apprehend convicted murderer Brian Hasong. But the booth was vacant when they arrived, and bloodhounds failed to pick up a scent strong enough to lead searchers.
- [46:03]
B
Officials believed Hung had made a phone call to a local jail from that telephone booth. Someone eating at a nearby restaurant had seen a man there matching Huong's table description. But it was the caller's voice and request that tipped off law enforcement.
- [46:17]
E
The Sawyer County Sheriff's Department was acting on a phone call received at the jail from a man described as having a deep, tired sounding voice. The man asked to talk to Mary Conrad.
- [46:29]
B
It's unclear how Mary Conrad met Brian Huong. The 32 year old Sheboygan woman didn't have a criminal record, at least none that was reported in the media. She may have known Husung from before his time in prison or became acquainted as part of some kind of prison ministry. However, they became romantically entangled. Conrad was the key to Husong's escape. Jim Chisik reports that the pair had been planning the jailbreak for 10 months and they ironed out the details during Conrad's last visit to the prison on August 28th. Here's a report from the Green Bay Press Gazette from September of 1981.
- [47:06]
E
Hasong escaped Friday night from the Fox Lake Correctional Institution by cutting through two chain link fences with a wire cutter. A woman is believed to have helped Husong escape.
- [47:16]
B
We don't know exactly how Husong got his hands on these wire cutters. Jim Chisik believes that Conrad tossed them over the fences at a spot the guards couldn't observe. But they were never recovered and officials at the time speculated that Hoosong might have crafted them himself. And in the prison workshop, however, he acquired the tool. He waited until around 8.30pm to sneak out into the yard, cut the fences and run. Conrad had parked not far away and she'd pack food for a few days along with a suitcase full of men's clothing and a map showing routes to several northern cities. The pair hit the road for two days until August 30th when an off duty policeman near the town of Hayward observed a car driving erratically around 9pm Hayward is 365 miles northwest of Fox Lake Prison so he didn't immediately assume it was the escaped convict. He thought it was a drunk driver, so he radioed the on duty officers who stopped the suspected drunk. According to local media, the man got
- [48:17]
E
out of the car and was asked to produce his driver's license. He approached the car but wheeled around and struck the policeman in the face. The man got back in the car, ran over another officer's foot and then backed into a Sawyer county squad car before driving away.
- [48:32]
B
Mary was still in the passenger seat and I can only imagine what she was screaming at her would be boyfriend as he pinballed between the squad cars. But whatever she said, Husung didn't wait to hear any more he slid to a stop in front of a roadblock the state troopers had hastily set up on the east side of town, flung open the door and ran into the woods. Mary found herself alone in the car, and it didn't take long for officials to figure out what was going on.
- [48:59]
E
Mary J. Conrad, 32, of Sheboygan pleaded no contest Thursday to a charge of aiding and abetting a felon. Circuit Judge Alvin Kelsey ordered a pre sentence investigation for Ms. Conrad, accused of providing a getaway car for Hasong, who was serving a life term for murder and remains at large.
- [49:19]
B
Mary was in custody, but she wasn't cooperative. She lied about her identity, and even if she had known where Hung was likely to go, she probably wouldn't have said, but I doubt even Brian had much of a plan in mind. He stole a second car the same night he abandoned Mary, but upon being spotted by police, he left that car on the side of the road and fled into the thick brush west of Hayward. Over the next three months, investigators followed up on potential sightings up and down the length of Wisconsin. The Green Bay Press Gazette published a map showing each location along with a description. Here are just a few.
- [49:55]
E
September 2Aman matching Hasong's description stays in a Stevens Point motel. Police go to the motel, but the suspect is already gone. September 3rd a masked gunman robs the Pulaski State Bridge Ranch in Suamico. Brown county police say Hasong is a suspect in the 24 $630 heist. September 12 Acting on a tip that Hasong is staying with an ex convict friend in Madison, police comb the capital city for the killer unsuccessfully. October 2nd Minocqua Police Chief Terry Beslin says he is quite positive. A man seen in a local tavern on September 9th and 20th who calls himself Brian in is Hassan. However, there is no trace of the suspect.
- [50:37]
B
Huang was smart, in good physical condition and an experienced woodsman. He was able to survive a night or two in the woods if he had to, which gave him more options for evasion than a less outdoorsy fugitive. As time wore on, newspapers documented the frustration and concern felt across the state. One report from October 28 claimed that jurors in Husong's trial had started carrying weapons, and a headline from the Green Bay Press Gazette said the manhunt was, quote, fizzling. The Sawyer county sheriff told the same outlet that, quote, anybody who wants to get shot, they better start running around in the woods. Up here in Sawyer county, we're not playing around. In a shockingly honest moment, the Brown County Sheriff told the media, quote, where he's at now, I just don't know. He could be anywhere by now. The good news was that all that public concern continued to generate leads. The Shawanoe county sheriff, whose jurisdiction covered an area northwest of Green Bay, said he'd been getting tips since October that Hoosung might be hiding out on the Stockbridge Munsee Indian Reservation. Those tips started to sound more credible after a pulpwood dealer in the area reported running into an irate man who fired a handgun round between his feet. One of the gunman's companions told the pulp dealer, quote, that's the guy who killed the game warden. Investigators began digging into landowners on the reservation, and they soon found a potential connection to Husong through a man known in news reports as Felix.
- [52:08]
E
Felix has two sons in the Waupun Correctional Institution, where Hsong served part of his sentence. It is possible that this is the connection that led him to the reservation.
- [52:18]
B
Felix agreed to rent part of his property to his son's friend from prison.
- [52:22]
D
Prison.
- [52:23]
B
We don't know whether Felix knew who Huong was or how the fugitive earned money to pay his rent. What we do know is that huong built a 12 foot square shack from cardboard and cedar poles, which he filled with supplies such as venison guns, ammunition and grocery items like soup, bread and detergent. From these supplies, it was clear he'd been living there for several weeks and he planned to wait out in winter. But he didn't get the chance. The Officers arrived around 5am on Thursday, December 10, and split up into several groups. Some of them searched the nearby cottages to make sure Hu Seong wasn't there, while others waited for daylight to approach Husong's hideout from all angles. When they arrived within 150 yards of the shack, one of the officers used a bullhorn to call out for Husong to surrender. But to their surprise, surprise. Rather than being met with a hail of gunfire, they were met with silence. The reason for the unexpected calm became apparent to one of the officers a few minutes later. Dawn Schonhoffen was part of the line of officers approaching the shack, but he'd stopped to take a leak. As he relieved himself in the pre dawn light, he saw a man emerge out of the shadows. He was horrified to realize that it was Hussong holding a rifle in one hand and a milk jug in the other. That day could have ended very poorly for Don, but incredibly, Hoosung didn't recognize him as a police officer. Jim Chisik reports that Husong mistook Don for someone he knew named Dave and asked, how's the hunting? Don said it hadn't been too good and the cold was brutal, and Husong grunted his ascent and walked away. Peter Pek told me the fugitive had arisen before dawn to chop wood.
- [54:07]
G
When they were after Brian, they expected him to be at the cottage. It was six o' clock in the morning when you that's when you want to arrest people, and he was already out in the back chopping wood when they came across him. They did not expect to find him at that pile of firewood at 6 o' clock in the morning.
- [54:26]
B
Huong made it back inside his hut, but soon realized his mistake. Officers spied the man standing in his doorway and ordered him to come out. Instead, he ducked into the shack and emerged with a.30 06 rifle. He ran around the side of the building, spinning and raising the rifle as he fled.
- [54:48]
E
Hosong was hit in the lower face, neck and chest, as well as the arms, hands and right thigh. The latter wound was apparently sustained when he spun from the impact of the bullets to the chest.
- [54:59]
B
Authorities said Hu Song fell but pointed his rifle at an officer holding a shotgun. The fugitive was hit with a load of double OP buckshot and died on the way to the hospital. Investigators traced Husong's.30 06 to a burglary at a hardware store, and a subsequent investigation revealed that while Husong hadn't fired a shot, his rifle had been loaded with one round in the chamber, four in the magazine, and the safety off. As he fell in a hail of bullets. The killer was holding the same kind of rifle he'd used to to decapitate Neil Lefebvre just 10 years earlier. Part 6 Honoring a Hero after the media frenzy died down in early 1982, Neil Lefebvre's story fell out of public consciousness. The wardens remembered what happened, as did the residents of Suamico, the village just to the west of the Sensibo Wildlife Area. But Neil's family worried that the life and service of their brother, husband and father would be forgotten. So they set out to honor the fallen game warden in a way he would love, and so that future generations of hunters and anglers would always know his name.
- [56:11]
C
And whereas it is appropriate that all members of Brown county remember the life of this courageous officer, devoted family man and exceptional human being who gave his life in the furtherance of of public safety and environmental protection, now therefore, be
- [56:27]
B
it resolved that the Brown Coving Board of Supervisors hereby directs that the Swanico
- [56:32]
E
boat launch be renamed to the Neil
- [56:34]
B
L. Lafay Swanico boat launch. That recording is from a 2020 Brown County Board of Supervisors meeting the year before. Nikki had launched a petition campaign to have the Suico boat landing renamed in Neal's honor, and she worked with the Brown County Board of Supervisors to draft a resolution to making it official.
- [56:54]
D
Nikki was so instrumental in getting things going and getting involved to get the boat landing project done, and once she contacted Patty and I about that, then we got involved, too. But she really did so much of the homework on that.
- [57:12]
B
That resolution was introduced on February 19, 2020, and the DNR sent a member of its honor guard to give Neal the recognition he deserved. Here's Suamico resident Kelly Machow, who helped Nikki with the campaign and spoke to Spectrum News after attending the board meeting.
- [57:28]
D
It gave me goosebumps.
- [57:29]
B
He walked in with a warden's hat
- [57:32]
D
and laid it down on a chair and then performed a salute and then
- [57:36]
G
walked out very quiet.
- [57:37]
C
And I mean, you could have heard a pin drop.
- [57:39]
B
In the video, which you can check out in the YouTube version of this episode, the honor guard member stands at attention while the resolution is read. After the members vote unanimously to approve it, he turns around, picks up the empty warden hat, and walks out. Nikki said she didn't know the DNR would do that, but she appreciated the gesture.
- [57:58]
F
I was shocked. I was happy, but I was shocked. It was very nice that the DNR did that.
- [58:06]
B
A few months later, In June of 2021, the DNR, the county, and Neil's family held a ceremony to unveil the new boat launch sign with Neil's name on it. Judge Ziedmalder was there, and Brad told me he had lunch afterwards at Peggy's house and told them more about the investigation.
- [58:23]
C
His wife Peggy, and I were in grade school together. So yeah, that was kind of hard for me. I didn't realize that till I ran into her, but yes, and then we had a big ceremony. You know, that sense about dedicating that memorial to him. So she was there and the family was there.
- [58:42]
B
Judge Ziedmalder explained to reporters afterwards that in 1971, parts of the Sensibo Wildlife area had been made off limits to hunting as part of a larger effort to conserve wildlife in the state. That's why Neil was posting those no hunting signs the day he was murdered. And it may also help explain why Husong harbored such animosity towards the warden. While hunters today are on board with most conservation initiatives, it took some convincing to persuade local outdoorsmen that they could no longer hunt in the place they used to. Here's DNR's Chief Conservation Warden Casey Krueger, speaking to this point at the ceremony,
- [59:19]
A
his last call of duty.
- [59:21]
B
He was actively doing what he was
- [59:23]
A
supposed to be doing to protect our natural resources. Folks like the Neil is why Wisconsin has the resources that it does.
- [59:32]
B
Peggy told reporters that the dedication of the boat ramp made her feel like Neil's story had finally come full circle. It is closure. It is closure. It really is. This is just something that will be remembered by everybody now, which is wonderful, just wonderful. If you ever get the chance to cast off from Neil's boat ramp, you can look across the street and see the Sensibo Wildlife Area. There you can fish, hike, canoe, birdwatch, trap, ski and hunt. The DNR says that though there are still some sections closed to hunting, the property is known for its waterfowl and upland opportunities. That's thanks to men like Neil who didn't shy away from doing their duty so that even 55 years after his death, his kids and grandkids can still enjoy everything that the Wisconsin wilderness has to offer. Thanks for listening to this episode of Blood Trails. Before I tell you about the case file for this episode, I have a request. Judge Ziedmalder tells me his impression of the phone conversation between Brian Hussong and his grandmother is spot on, but I'd love to find a copy of that tape. It's a piece of history and it should be preserved as such. I know that giant reel is sitting in some dusty box somewhere, but the Brown county da, the Wisconsin Historical Society and the Michigan State Police weren't able to find it for me despite their best efforts, which I do appreciate. If you know or think you know where that dusty box might be located, send me an email@bloodtrailsthemeater.com if you'd like to see images from this case, including photos of new Neal, Peggy LeFave, Brian Husung and Neil's boat launch. Head over to themateater.com BloodTrails thanks so much to Judge Sidemolder, Peter Pescic, Nikki Degreef, Brad Lefebvre, Lee Grady, Jacques Brester and Pat Durkin for their help and willingness to speak to me. Pat's article on this case on the Meat Eater website has even more detail than we were able to fit in this episode, so if you want more, that's one place to start. See you next time. Stay safe out there.
- [61:59]
A
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