John Stevenson, a 48-year-old White/Caucasian man from the Merrill, Wisconsin area, was killed on March 17, 2025, inside his home in the Town of Corning in Lincoln County. His death was discovered the following evening after concern grew when he failed to show up for work and could not be reached. Shortly after 6 p.m. on March 18, the Lincoln County Dispatch Center received a request for a missing-person welfare check, sending deputies to Stevenson’s residence.
There they found him dead inside the home.
Investigators quickly focused on Stevenson’s son, Austin Stevenson, who was at the residence when deputies arrived. According to the criminal complaint, deputies asked Austin where his father was, and he directed them toward the hallway. When they asked whether John was alive, Austin allegedly told them that he was not and said that he had shot him. Austin, who was 25 at the time, was taken into custody in connection with his father’s death and booked into the Lincoln County Jail.
Court records later provided a disturbing account of what investigators said happened on March 17. Austin allegedly told authorities that he entered his father’s house through an unlocked window sometime between approximately 1:30 and 2:30 that afternoon. According to the complaint, he entered the residence already intending to kill his father and initially contemplated using rocks or his elbow. Once inside, however, he reportedly found a. 22-caliber rifle. The firearm was unloaded, so Austin allegedly loaded it himself and waited inside the house for John to return.
Investigators said Austin described waiting in a stairwell until his father came home. When John entered the residence, Austin allegedly shot him. According to the account contained in court documents, Austin then left the house but later returned and shot his father again. The Lincoln County coroner observed two visible gunshot wounds to John’s head. Authorities did not publicly disclose a motive for the killing, and the early court filings and hearings did not explain what may have led to the violence between father and son.
Austin Stevenson was formally charged with first-degree intentional homicide and burglary. At his initial court proceedings, Judge Galen Bayne-Allison set his cash bond at $250,000. Austin subsequently entered a plea of not guilty. The case initially appeared headed toward further pretrial proceedings, but questions about his mental competency eventually interrupted the prosecution.
By October 2025, a judge had determined that Austin Stevenson was not mentally competent to proceed to trial. The finding did not dismiss the homicide charge or determine whether he was legally responsible for the killing; instead, the criminal proceedings were suspended while officials attempted to restore his competency. The court expressed hope that he could eventually become competent enough to understand the proceedings and assist in his defense.
That competency issue remained unresolved into 2026. In May 2026, court records indicated that Austin was still considered incompetent to stand trial. A Lincoln County judge approved the involuntary administration of medication as part of efforts to restore his competency. The first-degree intentional homicide and burglary charges remained pending, and the intentional-homicide charge carried the possibility of a life sentence if he were eventually convicted. No trial had taken place and no conviction had been entered in the most recent publicly available reporting located for the case.
