Woman gets life in prison for killing husband, hiding body
WAUKESHA - A little over two years after her husband was found shot dead underneath a tarp in the basement of their Oconomowoc home, 53-yearold Amy Van Wagner was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison.
Van Wagner, whom a jury found guilty in March of shooting her husband, Stanley Van Wagner, then trying to make it appear as though he had gone missing, maintained her innocence during trial and appealed Wednesday for the opportunity to one day leave prison under supervision for the sake of her children.
“They don’t deserve to not have either one of us with them,” she told the judge, telling him she is not a bad person.
Waukesha County Circuit Judge Ralph Ramirez rejected her appeal.
“Premeditated homicide is not an offense that allows a second chance,” he said.
District Attorney Sue Opper called Van Wagner “deceitful” and “manipulative.”
“She did whatever she could do to cover her tracks immediately after she pulled the trigger,” she said.
Van Wagner was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse in February 2016 — nine months after she reported finding her husband’s body under a tarp in the couple’s basement.
Prosecutors said a fall 2014 financial dispute between the couple led Van Wagner to borrow money from friends and family to consult a divorce lawyer. She later resorted to killing her husband and then spent three days trying to make it seem like he was missing, prosecutors said.
Investigators also said that in the days before the murder, Van Wagner begged friends not to tell her husband about the money they had lent her.
On May 17, 2015, a Sunday, Van Wagner ran to a neighbor’s house and said something bad had happened. The neighbor found the victim’s bulletriddled body beneath a tarp in the Van Wagners’ basement, according to charges. Police also found a laptop computer and a green pillow, each with a bullet hole, in the basement.
Gun never found
Police found bullets, shell casings and blood stains in an upstairs office. The bullets and casings would fit a handgun Amy Van Wagner once owned but was never found. Plastic from the laptop computer and green pillows that matched the damaged one in the basement were also in the office.
Stanley Van Wagner hadn’t been seen since the previous Thursday evening. Amy Van Wagner said the last time she saw him was Friday morning when he called in sick to work. She said it wasn’t unusual for the couple to go days without seeing each other because they often kept separate schedules.
Police said before Amy Van Wagner left work at Halquist Stone that Friday, she did internet searches for a carpet cleaner. After work, she used her husband’s ATM card to take $500 from his bank account. She withdrew another $400 over the next three days.
Before handing down his sentence, Ramirez read a victim impact statement submitted by Stanley Van Wagner’s sister, Linda Van Wagner Griffin.
“Amy has destroyed our chances to be together. Amy has destroyed my family. Amy has destroyed my brother.”
Defense attorney John Schiro said he plans to file an appeal to her conviction.
“We’re disappointed,” he said. “Amy Van Wagner still claims her innocence, and I support her.”
He also said he was disappointed she was denied extended supervision, given her lack of criminal history.
Amy Van Wagner’s sister Lorraine Tuyls told Ramirez that her family and friends still see her as the same person.
Friends and family wrote character statements to Ramirez and shouted “I love you” to her as Van Wagner left the courtroom.