On December 18, 2006, Shannon L. Fischer, a 23-year-old woman from Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, was last seen at about 4:00 p.m. in the area of Blackhawk Avenue in Prairie du Chien, in Crawford County. Official Wisconsin missing-persons information describes her as a white female with brown hair and brown eyes, 5 feet 3 inches tall and about 135 pounds, and asks anyone with information to contact the Prairie du Chien Police Department or the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited
Children & Adults. NamUs lists her case as MP295 and gives the same date of last contact, identifying Prairie du Chien as the place where Shannon disappeared. Some public sources describe the location as a friend’s residence near the 200 block of West Blackhawk Avenue, while the Wisconsin Department of Justice and other summaries describe the area as the 200 block of East Blackhawk Avenue; despite that discrepancy, the consistent public account is that Shannon vanished from Prairie du Chien late that afternoon and was not seen again.
At the time she disappeared, Shannon may have been wearing a black coat, may have worn glasses, and may have had a black suitcase with her. The Charley Project lists her case as endangered missing and gives additional identifying details, including her date of birth as March 4, 1983, her height and weight as 5 feet 3 inches and about 140 pounds, and her possible clothing and belongings. Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy similarly describes Shannon as 5 feet 3 inches tall, 135 to 140 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes, possibly wearing glasses and carrying a black suitcase. These details are the small, human pieces of the case that remained after Shannon disappeared: what she looked like, what she might have been carrying, and the clothing that may have marked the last time anyone saw her in public.
The circumstances later became more painful and more serious. According to The Charley Project, Shannon was last seen at her boyfriend Michael John Burroughs’s residence in the vicinity of the 200 block of East Blackhawk Avenue; Burroughs reportedly said they had argued, that he wanted to end the relationship, and that he told her to leave the apartment. The same source says Shannon had told her mother in late November 2006 that she was pregnant, though that information was not confirmed. For Shannon’s family, the disappearance meant the sudden absence of a daughter whose last known movements were tied to an argument and a residence in Prairie du Chien; for investigators, it became a case in which foul play was suspected.
A major break came years later, in October 2010, when Michael John Burroughs went to law enforcement and confessed to killing Shannon. The Waukon Standard reported that Burroughs walked into the Crawford County Law Enforcement Center on October 10, 2010, and confessed that he had killed Shannon in December 2006. In that confession, according to the report, he said he choked her during an argument over missing methamphetamine, kept her body in a closet in his apartment for several days, and then placed her body in a dumpster behind the apartment building. The Charley Project’s summary similarly states that Burroughs said he had strangled Shannon, kept her body in a closet for several days, and then discarded her body in a garbage bin behind the building.
The legal case moved forward after that confession. Burroughs was charged with first-degree reckless homicide in connection with Shannon’s disappearance. The Charley Project states that in January 2011 he was found incompetent to stand trial because of a delusional disorder and was held in a state psychiatric hospital until his competency was restored. In January 2012, he pleaded no contest to first-degree reckless homicide, and he was sentenced to 31 years in prison. The Waukon Standard also reported that on January 24, 2012, Burroughs pleaded no contest in Crawford County Circuit Court and was found guilty of first-degree reckless homicide, a Class B felony, in the 2006 disappearance of Shannon Fischer.
Even with a confession and conviction, Shannon’s public missing-person records remain deeply important because they preserve the fact that she was a person, not only a case file. Wisconsin’s official clearinghouse still lists Shannon L. Fischer among missing persons and continues to direct information to the Prairie du Chien Police Department, the Wisconsin Clearinghouse, and Crime Stoppers, with a request for information that could lead to Shannon’s location. Publicly available official missing-person sources reviewed here do not state that Shannon has been found, and the exact date of any recovery is not provided in those records. The case therefore stands as a tragic and compassionate account of a 23-year-old woman last seen on December 18, 2006, in Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin; a search that began with uncertainty along Blackhawk Avenue; a later confession and homicide conviction; and an enduring need to remember Shannon Fischer with dignity while recognizing the unresolved pain left for those who loved her.Last Seen: Dec 18, 2006
