Teen charged with killing parents, lived with ‘rotting corpses’ for weeks in Wisconsin
A Wisconsin teen has been charged with murdering his mother and stepfather, and is accused of living with their “rotting corpses” for two weeks, according to prosecutors
Casap’s body was found on Feb. 20 after Mayer’s mother called the sheriff’s office and asked for a welfare check. A resource officer from the teen’s school also requested a welfare check after he was absent for two weeks following “perfect” attendance, according to the 14-page criminal complaint.
When officers arrived, Casap’s body was found in a state of decay with gunshot wounds, according to a statement from the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department.
The boy’s mother was found in a hallway covered with blankets and a towel, according to authorities.
“The female was wearing a jacket and had towels over her legs and a blanket over her body. Her face was blackened from decomposition with dried blood on the floor around her,” police stated in the complaint.
On Feb. 28, police executed a search warrant and found Casap’s stepfather in a first-floor office, covered by a pile of clothing.
They needed a search warrant after finding a murder victim?
Casap was found on Feb. 28 after he ran a stop sign while allegedly driving Mayer’s car with the family dog inside. He also had Mayer’s firearm with him, according to the complaint.
“Officers observed in plain view a gun on the passenger side floorboard that was later determined to be a Smith and Wesson .357 Magnum firearm,” the complaint said.
Casap, who does not have a driver’s licence, was also found with jewelry, laptops and other valuable items in the vehicle.
Casap was initially charged March 3 with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent and theft of moveable property.
On March 27, he was charged with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, two counts of hiding a corpse, theft of property over $10,000 and two counts of misappropriating ID to obtain money, the sheriff’s department said in a press release.
“First-degree intentional homicide; the highest counts that we have, quite frankly, in our country,” Waukesha Circuit Court Judge Ralph Ramirez said, according to NBC affiliate KGNS News.
Police said they found a camera memory card containing video of Casap lighting candles in the office where Mayer’s body was found, and they allege that he recorded the corpse about a week after he was killed.
“The camera is turned facing a chair and Detective Seitz heard presumably the defendant state, “So, you can see him there. I can literally see the f—ing rotten body there,'” according to the complaint.
Officers also said that they found messages on Casap’s cellphone to a Russian citizen discussing plans to escape to Ukraine through the Telegram app.
“He has been speaking with someone in Russian about moving to Ukraine after committing these crimes, so the state is concerned that he is a flight risk if he is ever released,” prosecutor Brooke Schultz said during Casap’s hearing.
In the complaint, officers said Casap and the person he was messaging on the app “were planning to overthrow the U.S. government and assassinate President Trump.”
“How long will I need to hide before I will be moved to Ukraine? One to two months?” Casap wrote to the unknown individual, according to the complaint.
“So while in Ukraine, I’ll be able to live a normal life? Even if when it’s found out I did it?” Casap wrote in another message.
Casap could face life in prison if convicted. His bail was set to $1 million. His preliminary hearing is set for April 9.
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A look at notable ‘not criminally responsible’ cases in Canada
A judge has ruled that Pierre Ny St-Amand, 53, was not criminally responsible for the 2023 bus attack on a Laval, Que., daycare that killed two small children and injured six others. Superior Court Justice Éric Downs concluded Ny St-Amand was experiencing psychosis and could not discern right from wrong. He has been ordered detained in a psychiatric hospital.
Here’s a look at some other high-profile Canadian cases in which there was a not criminally responsible finding:
Blair Donnelly stabbed his 16-year-old daughter to death in Kitimat, B.C., in 2006 and was found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder. The decision drew renewed attention in 2023 when Donnelly was charged with aggravated assault after three people were stabbed at a Vancouver Chinatown festival. He was free on day release from a forensic psychiatric hospital at the time.
Matthew Raymond shot and killed four people — two civilians and two police officers — from the window of his Fredericton apartment on Aug. 10, 2018. At his trial, evidence was presented that on the day of the shooting, Raymond believed the end of times had arrived and he was surrounded by demons. Crown prosecutors argued Raymond’s delusions were not intense enough to prevent him from understanding that he was shooting humans, and that it was wrong. A jury found Raymond not criminally responsible in 2020.
Isaac Brouillard Lessard had been found not criminally responsible because of mental illness five times for offences in 2014 and 2018 and was being followed by Quebec’s mental health board. But a coroner’s inquest would later hear he was resistant to treatment and wasn’t following court orders regarding his medication. On March 27, 2023, Brouillard Lessard fatally stabbed provincial police Sgt. Maureen Breau and seriously injured another officer before being shot dead by police in his apartment building in Louiseville, Que.
Rohinie Bisesar fatally stabbed Rosemary Junor, a complete stranger, in a pharmacy in downtown Toronto on Dec. 11, 2015. In 2018, a judge found that Bisesar was in the throes of a psychotic episode due to untreated schizophrenia at the time of the attack. A psychiatrist concluded Bisesar suffered from severe hallucinations and delusions that manifested as a voice commanding her to harm someone.
Matthew de Grood was found not criminally responsible for the killings in April 2014 of Zackariah Rathwell, Jordan Segura, Kaitlin Perras, Josh Hunter and Lawrence Hong in Calgary. It was ruled that he was suffering delusions at the time and did not understand his actions were wrong. The university student, who has schizophrenia, went to a party that marked the end of the school year believing the devil was talking to him and a war was about to begin, signalling the end of the world.
Richard Kachkar stole a snow plow in the early morning of Jan. 12, 2011 and, in the middle of a two-hour rampage with it, hit and killed Toronto police Sgt. Ryan Russell. Witnesses heard him yell about the Taliban, Chinese technology and microchips. He was found not criminally responsible at trial in 2013 and was held in the secure unit of a mental health hospital near Toronto. In 2018, the Ontario Review Board gave Kachkar a conditional discharge.
Kimberly Noyes told police in 2009 that she had killed a 12-year-old autistic boy with a knife. Noyes, from Grand Forks, B.C., was found not criminally responsible for John Fulton’s death. Medical experts testified that she was bipolar and severely depressed, had gone off her medication and was hearing voices.
Vincent Li fatally stabbed and beheaded Tim McLean, the young man sleeping next to him on a Greyhound bus in Manitoba, on July 30, 2008. Li told a mental-health advocate he heard the voice of God telling him McLean was an alien who he needed to destroy. Li was found not criminally responsible and was sent to the Selkirk Mental Health Centre. Li saw his privileges expand slowly after his admission to the facility. In February 2016, Li, now known as Will Baker, won the right to eventually move out of a group home and live on his own. In 2017, he was granted an absolute discharge after the board found he did not pose a significant safety threat.___
Glen Race pleaded guilty to the first-degree murder of Trevor Brewster and second-degree murder of Paul Michael Knott. Race suffered from schizophrenia and was not taking his medication in May 2007 when he lured the Halifax men to their deaths. Court was told Race believed he was a vampire slayer and a godlike entity at the time of the killings. He was found not criminally responsible, based on a joint recommendation from the Crown and the defence.___
Gregory Despres fatally stabbed two elderly neighbours in Minto, N.B., in 2005, decapitating one of them. Despres, a naturalized U.S. citizen, had crossed into the United States after the killings despite guards finding him with a small arsenal including a chainsaw, a sword and brass knuckles. He told them he was an assassin on a military mission. Three psychiatrists diagnosed him with paranoid schizophrenia and he was found not criminally responsible.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 29, 2025.
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