A 36-year-old man allegedly stabbed his wife 50 times, bit her face, and then claimed she committed suicide, according to Wisconsin authorities. According to a criminal complaint filed in La Crosse County Circuit Court and obtained by various local media sources, officials arrived at a Shelby residence after receiving a call regarding a deceased person. When cops came, Zachary Fritz was covered in blood and shouting “She’s upstairs,” according to the complaint. They walked upstairs to find Fritz’s wife dead in the main bedroom, holding a knife in her left hand and surrounded by blood.
Fritz later told police that he fell asleep, woke up to use the restroom, and discovered her body, according to the affidavit. He stated that his wife’s stab wounds were self-inflicted. According to police, there appeared to be a struggle in the bedroom. Medical examiners reportedly found 50 stab wounds on her torso, including the back and hamstring. She also allegedly received three bites to the face and severe force injuries. A medical examiner allegedly ruled that the death was a homicide caused by several sharp and blunt force injuries.
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According to cops, the couple’s 4-year-old child was sleeping in the house when the murder occurred. When Fritz’s father arrived to take up the child and learned of his daughter-in-law’s death, he allegedly remarked something like “he killed her.”
According to records, officers transported Fritz to the La Crosse County Jail on a charge of first-degree criminal homicide.
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Prosecutors requested a $1 million cash bond after his arraignment, according to lawandcrime.com
“This is a case in which the defendant was discovered in the home covered in his wife’s blood and stated that she had killed herself,” Assistant District Attorney Andrew Burdick said. “The stab wounds, the bite marks on her face, the blunt force trauma was not consistent with the self-inflicted injury.”
Prosecutors disclosed at the arraignment that Fritz had previously been found not guilty due to mental illness in a 2009 domestic abuse incident. The judge placed the bond at $1 million. Fritz’s next court date is set for June 19.