Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
Wisconsin Widow Gets Life Sentence In 2006 Slaying Of Pharmacist Husband
Cindy Schulz-Juedes, 67, found "the goose that laid the golden egg" when she met pharmacist Kenneth Juedes, prosecutors said. Then, they say, she slaughtered it.
A Wisconsin woman accused of killing her husband with a shotgun nearly 16 years ago will spend the rest of her life behind bars in the man’s murder.
Cindy Schulz-Juedes, 67, was slapped with a life sentence on Wednesday in the 2006 murder of her husband, 58-year-old pharmacist Kenneth Juedes, the Wausau Daily Herald reported, and ordered to pay upwards of $1 million in restitution. She had been convicted of the murder by a jury in October, the Wausau Daily Herald reported.
During her sentencing Wednesday, Schulz-Juedes maintained her innocence, insisting she had nothing to do with her husband’s murder. According to the Wausau Daily Herald, she began many of her sentences with the phrase, “As an innocent person.” The 67-year-old, who also slammed her trial attorney, told the court that the ruling “hurt my soul.”
Investigators found Kenneth Juedes shot dead in his Unity house on Aug. 30, 2006; he’d sustained two blasts from a .20-gauge shotgun — one in the back and another in the chest — officials said. According to charging documents in the case, Schulz-Juedes had shown up at a neighbor’s house, claiming her husband “was bloody all over his chest.”
The Wisconsin widow told detectives that she’d been asleep in a nearby trailer the evening before the killing due to noise-related reasons. Prosecutors say her ex-husband gifted her a shotgun similar to the firearm used to kill Juedes. She claimed it had been stolen prior to the murder, although she never reported the theft to law enforcement.
Investigators later learned Juedes’ life insurance policies totaled more than $950,000. Juedes also owned a four bedroom property valued at nearly $350,000
For years, however, Schulz-Juedes avoided arrest in her husband’s killing. The Chippewa Falls woman was ultimately arrested by county authorities on Nov. 27, 2019 and jailed on a $1 million bond.
"From the onset of this investigation, all evidence led detectives to believe Kenneth was intentionally shot to death while in his home,” Marathon County Sheriff Scott R. Parks said at the time.
Schulz-Juedes married Juedes in Las Vegas in 2004. In under a year, Schulz-Juedes allegedly tallied up a massive credit card debt totaling approximately $75,000, per the Wausau Daily Herald.
During the trial, Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon said that Schulz-Juedes found "the goose that laid the golden egg" when she met her wealthy pharmacist spouse.
Her attorney, Michael Hughes, however, said he plans to appeal the sentencing, arguing his client didn’t pose a high risk of reoffending upon release.
The longstanding case attracted national headlines after Butch Patrick, the former child actor who played boy werewolf Eddie Munster on the 1960s television sitcom the “The Munsters,” had been accused of shooting Juedes by a man who claimed to have driven the getaway car used in the murder over a supposed business deal gone south. Patrick testified before a jury at Schulz-Juedes’ trial in October and has long-denied having any involvement in the killing of Ken Juedes — and no physical evidence ever linked him to the crime scene.
Hughes wasn’t immediately available for comment when contacted by telephone by Oxygen.com on Friday afternoon.
