Recent death does not erase pain of 2004 tragedy
The death of Cindy Schulz is a tragedy. I know a little about tragedies. Cindy was in prison as a party to the murder of my brother, Ken Juedes.
To provide some background, from my first conversation with Cindy in 2004, I worried about her relationship with my brother. Those fears only increased as I watched the train wreck that finally led to Ken’s death in 2006. Since Ken’s death, I have talked with many people as well as collected bank, court and newspaper documents. I did this only because law enforcement was not providing me with the answers I so desperately needed that would help me to understand why someone killed my brother.
In my research, I found many, many examples of her actions that should have raised red flags with law enforcements prior to Ken’s death. Yet, even though she committed many financial and, potentially, criminal offenses during her life, she was never arrested for anything until Ken’s murder.
After her arrest in 2019, the Marathon County District Attorney’s office had ample time to investigate Ken’s murder more fully. Remember that she was convicted of being a party to Ken’s murder. This is because there was not enough evidence to prove that it was her finger on the trigger of the gun that fired the fatal shotgun shell into my brother’s back.
The irony is that after almost two decades of investigation, the Marathon County Sheriff’s Department did not discover the holder of that gun that fired the shotgun shell into my brother’s back. Cindy claimed that she did not fire that shot and a lie detector test administered by a trained police officer confirmed her claim. This means that Ken’s murderer may still be free. Could it be that someone had a motivation to make sure that new information in her pending appeal was never made public?
Cindy’s death is a sad end to a sad life. I think we should all pause to wonder if it could have been otherwise. What would have happened if law enforcement had incarcerated her, and provided her with help, before she had the chance to participate in Ken’s murder? What if the detectives investigating Ken’s murder had arrested all the parties involved in Ken’s murder, not just Cindy? What if she had been safely incarcerated so that her appeal could be made public, possibly providing new information? We will, now, never know. Everyone should be saddened by the unnecessary death of a person at the violent hands of another – no matter how that person might have chosen to live. Her death does nothing to alleviate the pain of the loss of my brother. Two deaths do not cancel each other out. They only double the pain.
My condolences to Cindy’s family and friends for their loss.
Laurie Juedes
Lake Stevens, Wash.
