Kim Brown

Timeline

• Jun 12, 1987 — Angela Fay Hackl disappeared from her hometown of Lone Rock, Wisconsin.
• Jun 15, 1987 — Angela Fay Hackl’s body was found in the woods six miles west of Sauk City.
• Jul 24, 1987 — Police logged reports of burglary and arson at a home in Oxford, Wisconsin.
• Jul 28, 1987 — Linda Nachreiner was reported missing from her home in Dell Prairie.
• Aug 4, 1987 — Barbara Blackstone’s nude and decomposing body was retrieved from Lafayette County.
• Sep 2, 1987 — Police interviewed Kim Brown.
• Sep 4, 1987 — Kim Brown was charged with arson, burglary, and the murder of Linda Nachreiner.
• May 17, 1988 — Kim Brown was sentenced to life in prison.

Background

Kim Brown was suggested as a suspect by nervous residents of the Wisconsin Dells.

Angela Fay Hackl disappeared from her hometown of Lone Rock, Wisconsin, three weeks after graduating from a local high school.

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On 9 July, schoolteacher Barbara Blackstone vanished from her home in nearby Lyndon Station, leaving her purse behind and her keys in the ignition of a car parked just outside.

On July 24, police logged reports of burglary and arson at a home in Oxford, Wisconsin.

Four days later, on July 28, housewife Linda Nachreiner was reported missing from her home in Dell Prairie.

The offence

Angela Fay Hackl’s car was recovered near Sauk City, twenty miles away. Her body was found on June 15, in the woods six miles west of Sauk City. She was chained by her neck to a tree and shot repeatedly at point-blank range, with final identification left to dental records.

At the Oxford, Wisconsin home, no one had been home to greet the prowler, but the family dog was stabbed to death, discarded in a bedroom. A braided rug was draped across the stove. The burners on and liquor were poured around the kitchen to accelerate the blaze. Reported stolen were a .357 magnum revolver, a black holster, and a distinctive “butterfly” knife, so called after its two-piece folding grip.

Barbara Blackstone left her purse behind and her keys in the ignition of a car parked just outside. Her nude and decomposing body was retrieved on August 4 from Lafayette County, sixty miles due south of the Wisconsin Dells.

At Linda Nachreiner’s home in Dell Prairie, a visiting neighbor found Nachreiner’s two small children unattended. The neighbor also found a basket of wet laundry fresh from the washer, and police were summoned. Officers identified fresh stains of semen and saliva on a bedroom comforter, retrieving panties and a single stocking from the floor. The missing woman was found next morning, four miles from her home. She had been stripped by her assailant, with her blue jeans pulled over her head and hands bound behind her back. She had been raped and tortured before a single bullet was fired through her head.

Investigation

Search parties scoured a two-county area after Angela Fay Hackl’s car was recovered near Sauk City.

Tire tracks discovered at the scene matched others found outside Linda Nachreiner’s home. A slug recovered by detectives matched bullets fired by the .357 stolen July 24.

Local homicide investigators were deluged by tips from nervous residents of the Wisconsin Dells.

Detectives learned that Kim Brown knew Linda Nachreiner’s husband from working together on various jobs. Brown lived within half a mile of the burglarized dwelling in Oxford, a short seven miles from the Nachreiner home.

Police interviewed Brown on September 2, observing that tires on his car closely resembled their casts from the Nachreiner home and the scene of her murder.

Searching the trunk of Brown’s car, with the suspect’s permission, police found the stolen revolver and “butterfly” knife, together with a quantity of .357 ammunition and two spent cartridges.

A second knife, found in the glove compartment, bore animal hairs matching those of the dog stabbed to death on July 24.

In custody, Brown first told detectives that the stolen weapons belonged to “a friend,” later changing his story to claim that he “found” them.

Samples of the suspect’s blood and saliva matched those from the Nachreiner home, and casts of his tires provided further confirmation.

Arrest / Charging

On September 4, 1987, Kim Brown was charged with arson, burglary, and the murder of Linda Nachreiner.

Authorities considered him responsible for all three local slayings, and the string of crimes stopped short with Brown’s arrest. No further charges had been filed.

Sentencing / Outcome

Kim Brown was sentenced to life in prison on May 17, 1988.