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Diane Borchardt, Michael Maldonado: Did Wisconsin Teacher Entice Students To Murder Hubby? Watch ‘Snapped’ On Oxygen

By Traciy Reyes
Published on: 08:19 PST, Oct 22, 2016

Diane Borchardt’s story is coming back to television this Sunday for the crime TV series Snapped. The Inquisitr reported earlier this year that Diane Borchardt was profiled on an episode of Scorned on Investigation Discovery. Borchardt, a teacher’s aide in Wisconsin, had her husband, Ruben Borchardt, shot and killed by her students, according to the authorities. Snapped’s coverage will include interviews with law enforcement officials who will discuss the crime.

Ruben Borchardt was found with a gunshot wound to the chest during the early morning hours of Easter Sunday 1994 at his Bear Hole Road home in Jefferson. What should have been a time to celebrate with family members ended in bloodshed for the 40-year-old carpenter. Ruben’s son told 911 operators that he heard the gunshot and went downstairs to investigate. It was then that he found his father bleeding in his chair.

The circumstances surrounding Ruben Borchardt’s death made it look like a home invasion. But police were able to determine that he was the target in the attack. To find a suspect, police began looking within the household. They learned that Ruben was having problems with his wife, Diane Borchardt, a 45-year-old teacher’s assistant at the high school. Detectives also learned that the couple was going through a bitter divorce.

Within hours of the investigation, the Borchardt children told investigators that their stepmother, Diane Borchardt, mistreated them and abused their father. According to their side of the story, the household was rife with arguments and physical fights.

Police believe that Diane Borchardt asked her student Doug Vest to kill her abusive husband. Authorities say she told her study hall students untrue stories about Ruben Borchardt so the teens could feel sorry for her, according to People.

Wisconsin investigators believe the Jefferson crime was motivated by jealousy of Ruben Borchardt’s new girlfriend and anger regarding Diane Borchardt’s loss of her home and stepchildren in the divorce proceedings.

By all accounts, Diane Borchardt turned out to be a big disappointment to Ruben Borchardt, who believed that he married a good wife and mother to his kids. It was a rude awakening for the hardworking father when he realized that Diane was a manipulative woman with dangerous tendencies.

In his last days, Ruben was downright afraid of Diane Borchardt, believing that she’d eventually kill him. Authorities say that Ruben’s fears came to a reality when 15-year-old Michael Maldonado picked up the shotgun and headed downstairs of the Borchardt home. When he encountered Ruben on the stairs, Michael Maldonado pulled the trigger, mortally wounding Borchardt with a gunshot blast to the chest. Then, he fired a second shot and sped away with 16-year-old Douglas Vest and 16-year-old Joshua Yanke.

Joshua Yanke got cold feet and ran to the car after unplugging the phone, and Douglas Vest had also changed his mind. Prosecutors say if it had not been for Michael Maldonado, who insisted on doing the job, the murder would have never occurred.

What makes the killing especially tragic was that Maldonado didn’t know Diane Borchardt personally and had never met Ruben Borchardt. The motivation for Michael Maldonado was most likely the cash and cars they were promised. He didn’t appear cold in court.

Wisconsin court records document the following.

“Maldonado admitted taking part in Borchardt’s murder. Before the murder, Maldonado told him he had a chance to make a lot of money and asked whether Simmons knew Diane Borchardt; about two weeks after the murder, Maldonado said that he and two others went to Ruben Borchardt’s house and shot him, describing what they were wearing and where they had disposed of the gun. Maldonado also told Simmons that he was supposed to get money and jewelry for killing Borchardt.”

Diane Borchardt may have used her study hall class to teach lessons in murder, but now a prison cell at a Wisconsin prison seems like the perfect place for the former teacher, known as “Mrs. B.”

To find out the sentences of the three teens, take a look at Snapped this Sunday, October 23 at 9/8 p.m. Central on Oxygen. Click here to read about the movie that was made based on the true story of Diane Borchardt.

[Featured Image by Joe Belanger/Shutterstock]

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