Wisconsin: Stencil Me In — Dead Sheriff Cold Case Heats Up

Over a decade ago, I acquired a publishing business, and a stenciled letter arrived addressed to me — but delivered to my husband’s business. The lettering was oddly spaced, deliberate in a way that tried too hard to conceal itself, and it gave the names of people involved. The more effort someone made to hide their hand, the more clearly they seemed to reveal it.

That was the first sign this was more than a business transition.

I rebuilt the company into an imprint for my own in-house work, but one book in the original catalog never left me alone. The story behind it stayed with me. It tied back to a dead sheriff, and the case had gone cold. When I got the letter, I reached out to a detective in that county, and then to others in neighboring counties too, following every lead I could find. But only one detective’s name kept getting programmed into the game player on my brand-new iPhone — over and over again, inside a game app I never added.

The game app I couldn’t delete seemed programmed to remain, and in a twist of irony, I’ve decided to turn that same app and name to my advantage now, years later, with multiple network security certificates under my belt.

I kept notes. I kept watching. And I kept following old clues.

I also wonder whether some people believe they can still reach what they once touched, but I’m not afraid. It comes down to this: I’m either following the truth, or I’m not there yet. Either way, I keep going until the truth tells me which.

As an investigative journalist, I’ve learned that unanswered questions rarely disappear. They resurface. They leave traces. They find their way back to the person willing to notice.

That’s what happened here.

I don’t know yet where every thread leads, but I know enough to keep following them. Because sometimes the paragraphs we form after the fact are the ones that can still write a new ending.

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— Lisa Loucks-Christenson