Murder of Glenn Kopitske

Glenn Kopitske was born July 24, 1966, and adopted by Shirley and Virgil Kopitske, who had already lost two children. He attended the University of Texas in Dallas, where he tried stand-up comedy, before returning to live near his parents in Winnebago County, Wisconsin. Diagnosed with bipolar disorder as a teenager, Kopitske received a monthly federal disability check and supported himself through work at Wal-Mart and substitute teaching in New London. In 1996 he declared himself a presidential candidate despite being too young to qualify, and he participated in community theater, including a local production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. At 37 he lived alone, unmarried, in a home far from neighbors.

On July 31, 2003, Kopitske was killed in his home. His mother discovered his nude body on August 2 after being unable to reach him by phone; the back door, unusually, was locked, and his car keys were missing from their usual place. Due to summer heat, authorities initially suspected natural causes, but a pathologist examining the body on August 5 found a gunshot wound to the back of the head with liquefied brain matter, and determined that marks on the chest and back were post-mortem stab wounds. A neighbor reported seeing an older car with square headlights and rectangular taillights shining a bright light near the residences on the dead-end street in the nights before the murder.

Gary Hirte, born in 1986, was a Weyauwega, Wisconsin Eagle Scout who worked at Dairy Queen and had won a scholarship to study criminal justice at St. Cloud State University. Two weeks after the murder, Hirte told his friend Eric Wenzelow that he had killed Kopitske, showing him a hunting knife and keys he said were taken from Kopitske's home. In August 2003, Hirte began a relationship with Olivia Thoma, to whom he described the killing in detail, including driving his father's car—matching the neighbor's description—to Kopitske's home, shooting him with a 12-gauge shotgun, and stabbing him. In January 2004, Thoma reported her suspicions to police and, on January 28, 2004, participated in a police-recorded phone call in which Hirte said he killed Kopitske "to see if he could get away with it."

Following interviews with Wenzelow and other schoolmates, Hirte was arrested. A search of his home found Kopitske's keys above a doorsill and a 12-gauge shotgun in the basement. He was charged with first-degree murder on August 30, 2004, and held on $400,000 bond. He pleaded not guilty, then not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect.

At trial, Hirte's attorney argued that Hirte experienced a psychotic depressive reaction after a claimed consensual homosexual encounter with Kopitske, and that rage over the encounter drove the killing. Prosecutors and Kopitske's parents disputed that any such encounter occurred, noting the absence of supporting forensic evidence and that the account only emerged at trial. On February 4, 2005, the jury rejected the insanity defense, and Hirte received a life sentence with the possibility of parole after 32 years.