David Scott Pabst, a 64-year-old White/Caucasian man from Middleton, Wisconsin, was fatally shot inside his home on the night of July 7, 2025, in a double homicide that also claimed the life of his wife, Teresa “Teri” Pabst. Investigators with the Dane County Sheriff’s Office concluded that the couple’s son, 25-year-old James Pabst, shot both of his parents sometime after approximately 9:30 p.m. in the Stonebrook Circle residence the family shared.
Authorities said the handgun believed to have been used in the killings had been lawfully purchased by James.
The violence was not discovered until the following afternoon. David and Teri had failed to arrive at places where family members expected them to be on the morning of July 8. Concerned, a relative went to their home at 8580 Stonebrook Circle to check on them. After entering the residence and discovering both of them dead, the family member called 911. Dane County sheriff’s deputies were dispatched at approximately 2:21 p.m., and detectives and crime-scene investigators began treating the deaths as a double homicide. The Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office later confirmed the identities of David and Teri and conducted autopsies on July 9. Its initial public release said additional testing was still underway to formally establish the medical causes and manners of death, although sheriff’s investigators determined that both had been shot and killed.
Investigators quickly focused on James Pabst. Deputies learned that he had left the Middleton residence before officers arrived and was traveling in a white Honda Accord. Authorities believed he was armed and began attempting to locate him. Evidence recovered during the investigation, combined with interviews of relatives and friends and evidence connected with both the Middleton residence and James, ultimately led the Dane County Sheriff’s Office to publicly identify him as the person who killed David and Teri.
Additional information emerged about James’s behavior surrounding the killings. Wisconsin Public Radio, citing reporting by the Wisconsin State Journal, reported that James’s girlfriend said he had become unusually agitated earlier that day and made a disturbing statement indicating that people needed to die. She further reported that James contacted her afterward and told her that he had killed his parents, prompting her to contact authorities. The Pabst family later publicly described James as having struggled with a debilitating mental illness. Those statements provided additional context surrounding the tragedy, although authorities did not publicly establish a specific legal motive for why he killed his parents.
At about 4:19 p.m. on July 8, a Wisconsin State Patrol trooper located James’s Honda traveling west on U.S. Highway 14 in Vernon County, roughly 80 miles from the Middleton crime scene. Vernon County sheriff’s deputies coordinated with State Patrol and other officers to stop the vehicle south of Viroqua. James initially pulled onto the shoulder without incident, but when officers attempted to communicate with him, he closed the window and refused commands to leave the car. Officers maintained a high-risk standoff for approximately an hour while repeatedly attempting to obtain a response.
When James stopped responding and officers could detect no movement inside the Honda, a tactical team approached. At approximately 5:21 p.m., officers reached the vehicle and found James alone and unresponsive with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Paramedics were called, and he was ultimately pronounced dead at the scene by the Vernon County coroner at 6:15 p.m. His death meant there would be no arrest, prosecution, trial, or conviction in connection with David and Teri’s killings. Dane County Sheriff Kalvin Barrett subsequently said the case was no longer an active criminal investigation, although investigators would continue working to provide surviving relatives with as many answers as possible.
David’s death was especially jarring within Wisconsin’s public-safety community because he had devoted nearly four decades to transportation safety and law enforcement. He graduated from the Wisconsin State Patrol’s 35th recruit class in 1986 and spent approximately 25 years as a sworn law-enforcement officer, serving as a trooper and inspector before advancing through the ranks of sergeant, lieutenant and captain. In 2013, he became director of the Wisconsin State Patrol Bureau of Transportation Safety and Technical Services, overseeing programs intended to make Wisconsin roads safer. State officials remembered him as a longtime public servant known for integrity, compassion and dedication to protecting others.
The deaths left the Pabst family grieving not only David and Teri but also the son authorities determined was responsible. David and Teri’s daughters described their parents as loving, generous and empathetic people devoted to their children and seven grandchildren. Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers later ordered United States and Wisconsin flags flown at half-staff on July 19, the day of David and Teri’s funeral services, honoring their years of service to their community. With James dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, investigators closed the criminal aspect of the case without charges, leaving the July 7 shootings classified by authorities as a double homicide followed by the suspected killer’s suicide.
