Rita D. Scott was a 32-year-old White/Caucasian woman and a mother of three whose life was taken in Milwaukee in September 1989. Official Milwaukee police and court records place her killing on September 15, 1989, rather than September 1. Shortly before 6:50 that morning, Milwaukee police were called to the area of 1501 W. Cherry Street and 1513 N. 13th Street, where Rita was found near a loading dock.
Paramedics were already at the scene, and she was pronounced dead there by Milwaukee County Medical Examiner Dr. Jeffrey Jentzen.
The scene showed evidence of an exceptionally violent attack. Investigators found Rita partially clothed near the rear of 1513 N. 13th Street, lying in a large pool of blood. A trail of blood stretched roughly 102 feet from the driveway area near 1501 N. 13th Street to where she was found, leading investigators to conclude that she had been dragged from the place where the assault began. Blood was splattered on the sidewalk, and officers recovered blood-stained pieces of concrete, a set of keys, shoes, pantyhose and other clothing scattered around the scene. One of the bloodied pieces of concrete was found beneath the loading dock.
An autopsy performed later that morning documented devastating injuries. Rita's upper jaw had been completely fractured away from the surrounding bones, the left side of her skull was fractured, and she had suffered additional injuries to her head along with substantial blood loss. Dr. Jentzen determined that the cause of death was trauma to the head and face. As part of the examination, a sexual-assault evidence kit was collected. Laboratory testing performed in 1989 detected semen on vaginal swabs, but the technology available at the time did not identify the person responsible, and the homicide remained unsolved for two decades.
The break in the case came through the Milwaukee Police Department's Homicide Cold Case Unit. In January 2009, Detective Gilbert Hernandez resubmitted the preserved sexual-assault evidence to the Wisconsin crime laboratory for modern DNA testing. Analysts developed an STR DNA profile from the sperm fraction of the preserved sample. On May 6, 2009, a search through CODIS, the national DNA database containing profiles of convicted offenders, produced a match to Lorenzo Fayne, who was already imprisoned in Illinois for multiple murders. Milwaukee police subsequently announced that the DNA evidence had cleared Rita's long-unsolved homicide.
Detectives Katherine Hein and Gilbert Hernandez traveled to Menard Correctional Center in Illinois in October 2009 to question Fayne. According to the criminal complaint, after being advised of his rights, Fayne admitted his involvement and supplied details that corresponded with the physical evidence. He said he had been leaving a residence near Galena Street when he saw Rita walking near 13th and Cherry. He described approaching her from behind and striking her in the head with a rock so forcefully that the rock broke into two pieces. He said he dragged her through a gangway between a factory and a house and struck her several more times with the remaining piece of the rock. Fayne also admitted sexually assaulting Rita after killing her and said he discarded part of the rock beneath the nearby loading dock before leaving. When detectives showed him photographs of the crime scene, he identified the location where the attack began and the loading dock where he said he had thrown the weapon.
On October 27, 2009, prosecutors charged Lorenzo Fayne with first-degree intentional homicide in connection with Rita's killing. The charge carried a mandatory life sentence upon conviction under the Wisconsin law cited in the complaint. At the time, Fayne was already serving life sentences in Illinois for the murders of five children, including Aree Hunt, whose killing had occurred only months before Rita's death. Milwaukee police records from 2009 stated that Fayne was awaiting extradition to Milwaukee following the filing of the charge.
Rita's family had waited approximately 20 years for an answer. Her mother, Mozella Scott, and her uncle, Mike Mitchell, told reporters that the identification of Fayne brought relief after years of uncertainty, although her uncle emphasized that nothing could truly erase the family's loss. Rita had left behind three sons, who were still children when she was killed. The DNA match, Fayne's confession and the first-degree intentional-homicide charge transformed a case that had remained dormant for decades into one that Milwaukee police considered solved. Available online records reviewed for the case document the Wisconsin charge and the effort to extradite Fayne, but do not show that the Milwaukee prosecution ultimately resulted in a separate Wisconsin trial or conviction. Illinois corrections records continue to list Fayne in custody at Menard Correctional Center, serving life sentences and ineligible for release.
