Murder of Lisa Ann French

Lisa Ann French was a 9-year-old fourth grader at Chegwin Elementary School and a member of the Girl Scouts, living in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, with her mother Maryann Borkovich Gehring, her baby brother, and their soon-to-be stepfather Bruce DePauw. She lived a half-block from Gerald Miles Turner Jr., a neighbor who had previously shared a rented duplex with her family; French and Turner knew each other, and French sometimes spent time with Turner and his girlfriend Arlene Penn's infant child.

On the evening of October 31, 1973, French left home around 5:45 p.m. dressed as a hobo for Halloween, intending to trick-or-treat with a friend before heading to a neighborhood party. Her friend was unable to join her, so French went out alone, stopping at a classmate's house and a teacher's house before arriving at Turner's residence. According to Turner's later confession, French rang his doorbell and walked into his home with her candy bag open; he lured her into his bedroom, where he sexually assaulted and killed her. Turner said French stopped breathing during the assault; his attempt to revive her was interrupted when Penn returned home around 7 p.m. After Penn left again around 8 p.m., Turner placed French's body and clothing into separate bags and drove to Taycheedah, Wisconsin, discarding her corpse in a farm field off McCabe Road, taking steps to avoid leaving fingerprint evidence.

When French did not return home by her 7:00 p.m. curfew, her mother grew concerned, and a search party formed by 10:00 p.m. A three-day search involving over 5,000 volunteers, 700 block parents, auxiliary police, the National Guard, and Girl Scouts followed. On November 3, 1973, a farmer discovered two plastic bags containing French's body and her Halloween costume in a field near a barbed wire fence in Taycheedah. An autopsy found she died of asphyxiation, with a pathologist also citing circulatory shock from sexual trauma. Her funeral was held November 6, 1973, and a $10,000 reward was posted by the Fond du Lac chamber of commerce.

Turner was identified as a suspect early in the investigation but was not charged until he confessed on August 8, 1974, after nine months of police scrutiny, including an inconclusive polygraph and forensic hair and fiber matches. He was taken into custody on August 9, 1974, and convicted by a jury on February 4, 1975, of second-degree murder, enticing a child for immoral purposes, and acts of sexual perversion, receiving a sentence of 38 years and 6 months.

Turner was paroled in 1992 after roughly 17 years and 8 months served, prompting community protests and the 1994 enactment of Wisconsin Chapter 980 ("Turner's Law"), permitting continued civil detention of sexually violent persons. He was returned to prison in 1993 due to a miscalculated parole date, paroled again in 1998, and returned to prison in 2003 for 15 years and 6 months after a parole violation involving pornographic material. Ahead of a scheduled 2018 mandatory release, the Wisconsin Department of Justice petitioned to civilly commit Turner under Chapter 980; after years of jurisdictional appeals and pandemic-related delays, Judge Paul Czisny denied Turner's release on February 23, 2022, ordering his continued residency at a secure mental health facility.