MUSKEGO, WI — On Feb. 15, 2019, investigators with the Muskego Police Department say they arrested John Bayerl at his Fort Myers, Florida home on suspicion that he was the man responsible for the murder of his ex-wife, Dona Bayerl in 1979.
Over the course of a 40-year investigation, Muskego police never gave up on the case, visiting the Bayerl home to collect evidence and to question citizens time and time again in order to obtain any shred of evidence that could break open the case.
Authorities say they now believe they have the evidence they need to convict John Bayerl, who is now being held in the Waukesha County Jail on a $500,000 cash bond. If convicted, he faces life in prison with no possibility of parole.
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“This is a homicide. It’s a rather unique homicide in that there is no body that has been recovered,” said the court commissioner during John’s initial court appearance this week according to media reports. “The state has detailed that there has been no evidence the alleged victim here has been known of through financial records. She has not turned up anywhere.”
When Wisconsin Patch reached out to local authorities about the key evidence that led investigators to a critical break in this case, they politely declined on the merits that it would jeopardize their ability to prosecute the case.
“We do not want to do anything that will jeopardize the district attorney’s ability to prosecute this case, nor do we want to do anything to interfere with Mr. Bayerl’s ability to receive a fair trial.” Muskego Police Captain David Constantineu told Patch.
Yet there are riveting details to share about the intense police investigation conducted in the spring of 1979.
A criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County Circuit Court this week outlined many of those details.
Here they are as they unfolded:
May 9, 1979: According to a criminal complaint filed in Waukesha County, John reported to the Muskego Police Department, saying that he had an argument with his wife, Dona on the night of May 6, that she left and hadn’t been seen home since.
Police noted that John and Dona lived in their Muskego home with daughters Jodie and Jackie.
May 11, 1979: According to the criminal complaint, police began the early stages of their investigation by questioning Dona’s sister Joan Bourgeois.
Police said Bourgeois felt it was highly unlikely that Dona would leave the home for an extended period of time, and that the marriage between John and Dona had not been going well for quite some time.
Officers questioned John, who, according to police records, told officers that there was no evidence that Dona left the house with the family checkbook.
Officers canvased the neighborhood around the Bayerl family home and find that no fighting was heard by any of the neighbors.
May 13, 1979: Muskego police question John about his missing wife. According to the criminal complaint, John said over the past few years, the communication and the marriage had deteriorated greatly, and that things had been getting worse over the past few months.
According to the criminal complaint, John told police that he and Dona had an argument on May 6, 1979, in which John claimed Dona said “I can’t live like this anymore, or I will go crazy,” and that Dona said she’d be “better off with a boyfriend.”
May 16, 1979: According to police, Dona’s sister Joan Bourgeois said something strange happened on May 7. She told police that John did all of the laundry that day including rugs and a quilt – and that John typically never does the wash, the criminal complaint stated.
May 16, 1979: According to the criminal complaint, Muskego police searched the Bayerl residence again, this time finding what appeared to be spattered blood on the rear service door to the garage. More blood appeared to be located on a child’s seat mounted on the rear of a three-speed bike parked inside the garage.
According to police, when officers told John about the spattered blood, officers on the scene noted that his heart began to beat through his chest as he explained that “he needed clothes.” The rug and quilt were taken to the local crime lab for processing, according to the criminal complaint.
Later that day, police reported questioning John at the police department. During questioning, police said that John admitted that his marriage was “a bad one,” and that he fought with his wife several times.
According to the criminal complaint, John admitted to physically injuring Dona at least six times. The criminal complaint also stated that John admitted to having a girlfriend at the time – a bartender named Diane – that he visited on a weekly basis.
May 17, 1979: Police search the garage of the Bayerl house again, this time collecting blood samples, according to police records.
May 18, 1979: Police question 7-year-old Jodie Bayerl about her parents, according to police documents. She told police that her mother and father fought most of the day on May 6, 1979, according to the criminal complaint.
May 25, 1979: According to police records, officers question Agnes Pascavis, who was John’s first wife from 1962 to 1966.
According to the criminal complaint, Pascavis told officers that John struck or pushed her 15 to 20 times during the course of their marriage and that on one occasion, he choked her. Records also stated that following their divorce, John would continue to harass Pascavis.
July 12, 1979: Police search the Bayerl residence again, this time finding blood traces near the east wall of the house, according to police records. When police asked John the source of the blood found on the basement floor, he told officers that he had cut his finger, according to the criminal complaint.
July 13, 1979: According to the criminal complaint, John admitted to police that he and Dona had been arguing about John’s failure to conduct a car repair and also a television repair on May 6, 1979.
According to police records, John told police he took his family to the Hales Corners McDonald’s for supper, and returned home at 6 p.m. when an argument happened again, lasting until 8 p.m. John said that his wife finished putting the children to bed at 9 p.m. He told police that Dona got her purse, coat and then left the house in her car.
According to the criminal complaint, John told police that he was awoken at 11 p.m. by the sound of a door slamming. He told police that he went to check the house and found Dona’s car in the garage, but no sight of her. According to court records, John told this story to police on July 13, 1979.
August 28, 1979: Dona had gone missing for nearly four months, with no trace. Officers reported that she was not staying with her friend Betty McComb in Michigan, according to records.
May 14: 1980: According to police, a cadaver-searching dog was used by local authorities to see if they could find the body of Dona near the Bayerl family home. The search areas included a wooded area and stream northwest of Sacred Heart Monastery located at Highway 100 and Rawson Ave. and an abandoned farm at W137 S72 Woods Road, a wooded area north of the mail pavilion in the County Park and an entire field and wooded area north of Martin Drive. The search turned up empty.
May 20, 1980: John was granted a divorce from Dona during a court hearing.
June 23, 1980: A search of the Milwaukee County Landfill site at Highway 36 and Rawson Ave. turned up empty, according to police records.
Nov. 28, 1980: John marries for the third time.
July 9, 1981: Police question John’s third wife, Linda Bayerl. According to the criminal complaint, officers say Linda told police that John Bayerl had changed in several ways since their wedding date and had subjected her to physical violence.
According to the criminal complaint, Linda Bayerl told police that John Bayerl had been drinking one day in April, started an argument, pushed and struck her before giving up the assault.
July 14, 1981: According to police records, Linda Bayerl told police that she was leaving her husband John Bayerl out of fear of another attack. She also reported that she discovered that John Bayerl had been using three different social security cards, according to reports.
August 6, 1981: According to the criminal complaint, Muskgeo police serve a search warrant on the Bayerl family house and learn that John Bayerl had multiple counterfeit social security cards.
According to records, a special agent assigned to the case noted that John Bayerl was “very guarded” during questioning and explained that a hand injury of his had been “self inflicted” and that he stabbed his hand intentionally with a scissors.
August 15, 1986: Dona Bayerl is declared legally deceased by a Waukesha County Circuit Court judge.
August 5, 2009: According to the criminal complaint, Jackie Kort recorded a conversation she had with her father, John Bayerl, about her mother, Dona Bayerl.
Police records state that investigators obtained a transcript of the conversation, noting that John Bayerl told his daughter that, “Something happened, and, I, it, I, I’m sure that her heart’s not beating. Because if it was, she would have found her way back, whatever. You know what I mean? I don’t think she’s alive.”
According to the criminal complaint, Kort questioned her father on the night of her mother’s disappearance. According to a transcript cited in the criminal complaint, John Bayerl told Kort, “…somehow something happened when she went for that ride that night and I, I, the car came back, I heard … the doors. Whatever it was, I forget now, it was so long ago.”
July 17, 2018: Police question John Bayerl to update him on the status of their investigation into the disappearance of Dona Bayerl. According to the criminal complaint, police said John Bayerl admitted that he “misused” his wife, and that he was “not a good father and husband and that he blames himself for whatever happened because he was a bad husband.”
According to the complaint, John Bayerl said he “wrote it off in his mind a long time ago,” and that he was “not guilty of anything other than being a bad husband.”