Charges Filed In 30-Year-Old Wisconsin Murder

A man who claimed he found his wife dead nearly 30 years ago has been charged with her murder and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.

Authorities say U.S. Border Patrol Officers arrested 70-year-old Mark Bringe Monday, February 12, at his home in Sahurita, Arizona. He’s been charged in Columbia County, Wisconsin, with first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Lorelei “Lori” Bringe.

Lori Bringe, 33, died on August 19, 1988, from a single gunshot wound to the head outside the city of Poynette. Mark Bringe called police and reported that the wound was self-inflicted. A Columbia County Sheriff’s Office deputy found two Titan semiautomatic.25-caliber pistols, a clip, and a holster near her body. The death was ruled a suicide.

The case, however, was reopened in 2014 and Lori’s body was exhumed last year while the Columbia County investigators asked for the public’s help while they reexamined evidence. Along with witnesses, Mark Bringe was re-interviewed by police in 2017, and he allegedly changed details of his original story.

“Investigators spent thousands of hours needling through the case filed, reviewing and testing evidence, interviewing witnesses, exhuming Lori’s body and investigating this death,” said Columbia County Sheriff Dennis Richards in a statement.

Police say Mark Bringe was at the home of his father-in-law when he reported his wife’s suicide. He initially told police the two went looking for her after Lori’s father asked where she was. In 2017, according to police, Bringe said he sent his father-in-law in the opposite direction of the body so he wouldn’t be the first to find it. That statement indicated that Bringe had prior knowledge of Lori’s death and the location of her body, law enforcement alleges.

Mark Bringe making his initial appearance in Columbia County Courthouse. #NBC15 pic.twitter.com/BmxqOySoAD

— Lou Thao WMTV NBC 15 (@lthaoWMTV) February 16, 2018

Bringe said Lori had not fired a gun before the day she died and that she was “not a gun person.” A pathologist later opined that had Lori, who was right-handed, shot herself as her husband claimed, she would have needed to do so with her left hand. The pathologist found that based on the trajectory of the bullet, it was not likely that she shot herself with her left hand. Women are also less likely than men to commit suicide using guns, the pathologist noted.

Police say they have been in position to arrest Bringe for more than a month, but held off to ensure they had all the evidence in place. Detective Sgt. A.J. Agnew led the investigation for Columbia County. He worked alongside officials from the Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Division of Criminal Investigation.

Bringe waived extradition Tuesday and will be brought to Wisconsin to await trial.