Episode 40: A Mother's Day Murder
Episode description
On Mother’s Day morning of May 13, 1995, the nude, brutally beaten, and almost decapitated body of thirty-one-year-old Nannette Krenzel, a single mom from Chicago, Illinois would be found along a desolate stretch of highway on the Wisconsin/Illinois state border. The night before Nannette’s body was discovered she had a fight at a sports bar in Chicago with her live-in boyfriend of three years, Jacob Stutz. This led to Jacob being the police’s prime suspect, however, there was no evidence to link him to Nannette’s murder. With no other leads, Nannette’s murder case seemed to stall. Almost seven months later, December 27, 1995, Sharon Kilburn walked into a police station in Chicago and told police that her daughter Donna Lee had called and told her that Donna and her husband twenty-five-year-old Michael Lee had fled to Arkansas because her husband had killed a woman in Chicago in a fit of rage. The circumstances that ended Nannette’s life were much more random and disturbing than investigators initially thought. Police would travel to Arkansas to question Michael and Donna about their involvement in the murder of Nannette. Michael would confess to snapping and killing Nannette in a fit of rage after she had rejected his advances and was charged with first degree murder. The Prosecution asserted that Michael was the only person responsible for Nannette's murder, with Donna testifying against her husband for the prosecution. During Donna’s testimony she stated that she had helped Michael in killing Nannette and dumping her body. However, the defense claimed that in fact it was Donna who had killed Nannette in a rage of jealously and that Michael had only helped in dumping Nannette’s body. After a few days of deliberating the jury found Michael Lee guilty of first-degree murder of Nannette Krenzel. Michael Lee was sentenced to life in prison and ordered to serve an extended term of 70 years due to the exceptionally brutal and heinous nature of the murder. Donna Lee was never charged with any crime related to Nannette's death and testified that she had not been offered any leniency in exchange for her testimony. So, was Nanette’s murderer Michael Lee, Donna Lee or both.
References:
Monsters Among Us: Michael Lee beat and stabbed Nanette Krenzel to death; Sentenced to 70 years in prison | Bonnie's Blog of Crime (wordpress.com)
BODY FOUND TO BE CHICAGO WOMAN – Chicago Tribune
ATTACK OF CONSCIENCE BRINGS A BREAK IN SLAYING – Chicago Tribune
Federal investigator arrested Nanette Krentel murder case | wwltv.com
Nannette Krenzel Case: Woman Stabbed, Left In Wisconsin ‘Killing Fields’ | Crime News (oxygen.com)
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