In the late hours of a Saturday in September 2008, the quiet parking lot of the St. Croix County Government Center in Hudson, Wisconsin, held a grim secret. Inside a black sedan, 19-year-old Kelly Lynn Dahm, a White female from Maplewood, Minnesota, was found deceased. An autopsy would later reveal she had been shot multiple times, with a gunshot wound to the head being the cause of death.
The discovery of her body on September 20th was the tragic end to a tumultuous on-again, off-again relationship.
The investigation quickly centered on her 29-year-old boyfriend, Christopher S. Ledesma of Woodbury, Minnesota. Earlier that evening, Woodbury police had responded to a disturbance call at the home of Ledesma's relatives, where he was reportedly acting erratically. He was taken into custody, and a handgun was found near him. Information gathered during his arrest led investigators to the government center parking lot in Hudson, where Dahm's body was discovered in the passenger seat of his car.
Subsequent investigation revealed a chilling sequence of events. Ledesma, who had a prior felony conviction and was on parole, had called his wife after the shooting and confessed to killing Dahm. He reportedly told her, "She is dead. I put three bullets in her head." Authorities believed the motive was related to Dahm's attempts to end their relationship. At the time of his arrest, police found spent bullet casings in his pocket that matched the revolver found at the scene.
Christopher Ledesma was charged with first-degree intentional homicide. He initially faced charges in Minnesota for unlawful possession of a firearm before being prosecuted for the homicide in Wisconsin. In a plea agreement, Ledesma pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of second-degree intentional homicide. He was subsequently sentenced to 35 years in prison, followed by 25 years of extended supervision, bringing a close to the case but leaving behind the senseless loss of a young woman's life.
