September 16, 2022 – Dodge Co., WI – Karin Luttinen, 46, Milwaukee, was sentenced today by Dodge County Circuit Court Judge Kristine Snow to a probation period of three years for Concealing the Death of Child.
The court imposed and stayed one- and one-half years of prison and two years of extended supervision only to be served if she does not successfully complete probation. The court also required that she serve six months of jail as a condition of probation, pay a $5,000 fine and complete 60 hours of community service. Mental health treatment was also ordered as a part of the sentence.
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On April 29, 2009, a property owner made a discovery that shocked the small Town of Theresa. In the woods of the property, Sheriff’s Deputies located a deceased newborn that had been put in a plastic bag and left on the west side of Lone Road. An autopsy was performed and no traumatic injuries, no internal injuries or fractures were discovered. The cause of death was listed as a stillbirth. The Township rallied around the deceased newborn, naming her Baby Theresa, and laying her to rest.
After 11 years of dedication by the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office Detectives and Medical Examiner’s Office, in 2020, Detective Vicki Brugger and ME P.J. Schoebel were able to locate a match using genealogy DNA testing. The investigators were able to obtain DNA from Karin Luttinen that showed Luttinen was in fact Baby Theresa’s mother. Luttinen confessed to Detectives that she was pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl in the bathtub of her Shorewood home. After delivering, the baby was not breathing and Luttinen, in shock, discarded the baby in the woods.
In reviewing the facts and the current Wisconsin law, the District Attorney’s Office determined that the only charge available was Concealing the Death of a Child or the Issue of a Woman, and the penalty available for this offence was a maximum of one-and-one-half years of confinement with two years of extended supervision. Because the child was not born alive, more serious charges of Hiding a Corpse were not available to the prosecution.
The District Attorney’s Office sought a conviction for the charged crime, and the defendant entered a plea of guilty in April of this year. At sentencing, District Attorney Klomberg, while arguing for the incarceration of the defendant, said, “hiding a pregnancy and giving birth at home to a stillborn child are not criminal acts in Wisconsin, but disposing the child’s remains in the woods in a trash bag clearly is a felony. Moreover, going home, acting like nothing happened, and hiding it all from the child’s father for over a decade while the couple built a life together is unconscionable.”
District Attorney Klomberg pointed out the fact that many people were terribly impacted by the defendant’s acts, commenting, “the officers and medical examiner who had to respond to the scene and conduct the investigation live with the emotions and pain of what the defendant did to this day. The child’s father has had his life turned upside down. Our community suffered through the most painful experience in our collective memories. All of that pain was caused by the fact that the defendant would not give Baby Theresa the dignity that she deserved.”
District Attorney Klomberg reached out to Representative Mark Born and Senator John Jagler over the low penalties in the current law. The pair of legislators have authored legislation to bring the penalties for Concealing the Death of a Child in line with the higher penalties of Hiding a Corpse.
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