In a tragic turn of events on November 11, 2018, 19-year-old Elaina Rookard, a White female from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, was fatally shot. The incident unfolded from a heated argument over a man with whom both Rookard and her alleged assailant were involved.
On that Sunday evening, Rookard was in a car with a friend when she saw her boyfriend's vehicle and, suspecting he was with another woman, decided to follow.
When the vehicles stopped near 11th and Keefe, Rookard confronted her boyfriend. This led to an altercation with Misti Kruchten, 37, who was with the man. The argument between the two women quickly escalated into a physical fight.
After the initial physical confrontation was broken up, the situation took a deadly turn. Kruchten reportedly went to her vehicle, retrieved a handgun, and fired a single shot, striking Rookard in the head. When police arrived at the scene around 7:30 p.m., they found Rookard lying unresponsive in the street. Kruchten was present at the scene and allegedly admitted to the shooting, telling officers, "It was me. The gun's right there." She was arrested, and a. 40 caliber semi-automatic pistol was recovered from the porch of a nearby house.
Misti Kruchten was charged with first-degree intentional homicide. However, the legal proceedings took an unexpected turn. In June 2019, the case against Kruchten was dismissed. The dismissal came after the state's essential witness failed to appear in court for the jury trial. Without this key testimony, the prosecution felt they could not proceed, leading the court to grant the defense's motion to dismiss the case without prejudice, which means charges could potentially be refiled in the future. Any bail money that had been posted was returned to Kruchten.
