Timothy Hayden, a 27-year-old White/Caucasian man, was working as a custodian at the University of Wisconsin–Stout when his life became intertwined with Alvin Taylor, a traveling singer and entertainer who would later be identified as responsible for a series of killings in Wisconsin. Hayden and Taylor met in the fall of 1986 while both were involved with “Peace Child,” a musical production in the Eau Claire area. The two became acquainted, and Taylor eventually stayed with Hayden in Menomonie. What initially appeared to be a friendship ended violently inside Hayden’s home on March 28, 1987.
Taylor shot Hayden to death. Accounts of the investigation describe Hayden as having been shot multiple times in the head, and investigators quickly began focusing on Taylor. According to later accounts of Taylor’s statements and mental-health history, he had developed a paranoid belief involving Hayden and Hayden’s estranged girlfriend. Taylor reportedly saw a woman pictured on a calendar who reminded him of her and became convinced that Hayden intended to harm her with a recently purchased gun. The belief did not appear to be based on an actual threat from Hayden, but rather on the delusional thinking that investigators and mental-health professionals would later document in Taylor.
The investigation into Hayden’s killing began uncovering connections to an earlier homicide. Evidence involving shell casings and firearms drew investigators toward the 1985 shooting death of Robert Williams in Eau Claire. Witness information also indicated Taylor had possessed a dark-colored, small-caliber handgun and had sold a weapon shortly after Hayden was killed. As investigators pieced together Taylor’s movements and associations, Hayden’s death increasingly appeared to be part of a larger series of violent acts rather than an isolated murder.
On April 3, 1987, less than a week after Hayden’s death, authorities arrested Taylor while he was attending Hayden’s funeral in Portage. He was taken to the Dunn County Jail and soon faced a first-degree murder charge for Hayden’s killing. The investigation expanded rapidly. Taylor admitted killing Hayden as well as Robert Williams, James Severson and Daniel Lundgren. Williams had been shot in Eau Claire in 1985, Severson had been stabbed to death in 1986, and Lundgren had been shot in Washington County in 1986. Taylor also admitted attacking another man who survived.
Taylor’s statements following his arrest revealed the extent of his disturbed thinking. He told authorities that he believed he was receiving messages through television and radio and described himself as a “soldier of God” carrying out a mission against people he considered evil. His mental condition became a central issue in the criminal proceedings. In the Dunn County cases involving Hayden and Williams, Taylor entered pleas of not guilty and not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect. He was also prosecuted in other counties for the additional killing and attempted murder connected to the same period of violence.
Taylor was ultimately found not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect on four counts of first-degree murder, including the murder of Hayden. This did not mean the courts concluded that Taylor had not committed the killings; the proceedings established his responsibility for the acts while determining that his mental condition prevented ordinary criminal responsibility under Wisconsin law. He separately entered a guilty or no-contest plea to an attempted-murder charge and received a prison sentence associated with that offense. Because of the murder findings, Taylor was committed for an indeterminate period to the Wisconsin Department of Health Services and was placed at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison.
Taylor has remained confined for decades while repeatedly seeking conditional release. Courts have rejected multiple earlier attempts. In 2026, he again petitioned for conditional release, and a jury proceeding was authorized to consider whether he could safely be released. As of the most recent reporting in 2026, Taylor remained at Mendota Mental Health Institute while those proceedings continued. Hayden’s killing therefore became one of four homicides formally tied to Taylor, and although the case did not end with a conventional murder conviction and prison sentence, the man responsible for Hayden’s death was identified, arrested, subjected to criminal proceedings and committed to a state mental-health institution.
