In the quiet town of Belgrade, Montana, the life of a 35-year-old Caucasian woman, Lauren Walder DeWise, came to a tragic end on January 7, 2018. A kindhearted and driven mother, Lauren was known as a dynamic leader in the business community, managing a banking center in nearby Bozeman. She had recently taken steps to rebuild a life for herself and her young daughter, having left her estranged husband, Joseph "Paul" DeWise, less than two months prior due to his abusive and controlling behavior. She found refuge in a shared home with a roommate, Ashley Van Hemert, hoping for a fresh start.
On that cold January morning, police were dispatched to a home on Idaho Street. They discovered a brutal scene inside; the back door had been forced open, and two women had been shot. Lauren Walder DeWise was found deceased, and her roommate, Ashley Van Hemert, was critically injured but alive.
Suspicion quickly fell upon Joseph DeWise, as friends and family were aware of the tumultuous relationship and his history of abuse. The couple was reportedly scheduled to meet to discuss divorce paperwork on the very day of the murder.
The investigation that followed uncovered a chilling plot orchestrated by Joseph DeWise. Just days after the shooting, he was arrested. The case against him was solidified by the harrowing testimony of his own children. His teenage son, Joe DeWise, told the court that his father had him don a mask and rubber gloves and accompanied him to Lauren's home. He testified that he witnessed his father kick in the door and then shoot both Lauren and Ashley. Afterward, his father instructed him to dispose of the murder weapon, a. 22 caliber pistol, which was later recovered by police from a nearby pond after being found by ice fishermen.
Further condemning testimony came from Joseph's daughter, Natalie. She revealed that her father had woken her on the morning of the murder to confess that he had "done something bad" and had killed Lauren, before taking the family to church. In a further display of manipulation, he later called her from jail, attempting to persuade her to convince her younger brother to take the blame for the shooting. Despite Joseph DeWise's claims of innocence and a "fuzzy" memory of that night, a jury found him guilty of the deliberate homicide of his wife, Lauren, and the attempted deliberate homicide of Ashley Van Hemert.
