Coffin Conversations - by dementia

A Wisconsin appeals court has upheld the dismissal of charges against the three men who dug up a woman’s corpse last year to have sex with it because Wisconsin has no law against necrophilia.

In a 3-0 Court of Appeals decision, it was held that a lower court judge was correct in dismissing the charges against twin brothers Nicholas and Alexander Grunke and Dustin Radke, all 21, last September because state lawmakers hadn’t intended to criminalize sex with a corpse.

The trio decided to dig up the body of Laura Tennessen, 20, who had been killed in a motorcycle accident after seeing her picture in an obituary notice in the newspaper. None of the three men knew the woman.


Radke told police that the three had stopped at a Wal-Mart on the way to the cemetery to buy condoms. They were arrested last Sept. 2 at the St. Charles Cemetery in Grant County, southwestern Wisconsin after police received a complaint about suspicious activity. The police report says that they found a vehicle which had been parked near the cemetery and then saw Alexander Grunke walking towards the vehicle, dressed in black. On questioning, Grunke told police that his brother and Radke were digging up a grave. Police found that the grave of a 20-year-old woman who had been killed Aug. 27 in a motorcycle accident had been partially dug up, with only the top of the concrete vault visible. Nicholas Grunke and Radke were arrested the following morning about eight miles from the cemetery.Prosecutors had appealed the dismissal of the charges, saying that there was a provision in the sexual assault law that says criminal penalties apply “whether a victim is dead or alive at the time of the sexual contact or sexual intercourse”. The court decision held that while the law was ambiguous, the most reasonable interpretation was that it does not ban necrophilia.