'Dateline' to feature case of Marathon County pharmacist killed while he slept
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Two former Marathon County detectives and the district attorney will be featured at 8 p.m. Friday on NBC's "Dateline" as the show focuses on the murder of a rural pharmacist and the conviction years later of his widow.
The weekly news show will feature the homicide case involving the death of Kenneth Juedes , who was shot twice on Aug. 29, 2006 with a 20-gauge shotgun as he slept in his bed, according to court documents. A jury found Juedes' wife, Cindy Schulz-Juedes, 66, guilty on Oct. 26, 2021, of first-degree murder. Marathon County Circuit Judge Michael Moran sentenced Schulz-Juedes to life in prison without the possibility of getting out on extended supervision.
Marathon County Sheriff's Capt. Shawn McCarthy was a detective when Juedes was murdered. He and retired Marathon County Detective Greg Bean both worked on the case. The county changed district attorneys several times during the investigation and that was one of the reasons it took about 15 years to bring it to trial, McCarthy said.
"It was never considered a cold case," McCarthy said.
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He said he isn't sure why the case has captured national attention but that it could have something to do with the connection to one of the actors in the old television series, "The Munsters." A man who "confessed" in 2013 said he drove the getaway car when Butch Patrick, the actor who played Eddie Munster in the TV series, shot Juedes; police said they ruled that theory out pretty quickly.
Juedes was a pharmacist and a farmer. He worked hard and had built a beautiful four-bedroom home worth $347,700, Marathon County District Attorney Theresa Wetzsteon said during opening arguments in the October 2021 trial. Juedes owed only $82,404 on the home, and Schulz-Juedes saw her husband as "the goose that laid the golden egg," Wetzsteon said.
Court records say Juedes was shot in the back, then shot a second time in the front when he rolled over. A piece of paper with an expletive written on it and a knife stuck through it was on the bed with Juedes' body.
Schulz-Juedes said her phone wouldn't work when she discovered her husband had been shot, so she went to a nearby house and told the neighbor Juedes was "bloody all over his chest," according to the criminal complaint. The neighbors said Schulz-Juedes was "hysterical" but not crying.
Schulz-Juedes' attorney, Earl Gray, said during the trial that two of Juedes' partners in the racetrack were involved in illegal activity, and one of them stole from the business. He blamed the partners for the homicide.
McCarthy said the National Enquirer picked up the connection to Patrick, who was one of Juedes' partners in a business with Juedes in a racetrack called Monster Hill Raceway, and ran the story. Other national outlets also began reporting on it. Patrick testified at the Schulz-Juedes trial.
Following the conviction and sentencing of Schulz-Juedes, several national programs contacted the Marathon County Sheriff's Office and asked about producing stories on the case, McCarthy said. After consulting with the family, it was decided "Dateline" was the best choice, he said.
The "Dateline" crew visited Marathon County for about a week and was easy and accommodating to work with, McCarthy said.
"They knew what they were doing," he said.
The crew set up a room at the Sheriff's Office in downtown Wausau to record the interviews with McCarthy and Bean and took the two men to the Monster Hill Raceway and to the home and farm Juedes owned. Someone from the show arranged to rent a barn so the Juedes family didn't have to go to the Sheriff's Office to conduct their interviews and would be more comfortable, McCarthy said.
The Juedes homicide wasn't the only Marathon County case that has caught the attention of national programs in the past year. On Tuesday, Investigation Discovery will tell the story of how Jonathon Bishop stole a squad car after being arrested April 25, 2021, on its show, "Body Cam."
The Oxygen network also is producing a story on a Marathon County couple who were electrocuted while trying a dangerous Tik Tok art trend, McCarthy said.
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This article originally appeared on Wausau Daily Herald: 'Dateline' to feature case of Marathon County pharmacist killed in bed
