Heather A. Stewart, a 28-year-old Caucasian female from Clyman, Wisconsin, was found deceased in her car on the morning of May 30, 2014. A mother of four, she was discovered in the parking lot of a former Pick 'n Save on South Church Street in Watertown. Her employer, Rogers Memorial Hospital in Oconomowoc, where she worked as a certified nursing assistant, grew concerned when she didn't arrive for her 11:00 p.m. shift on May 28th.
Stewart had called to say she would be about ten minutes late, but she never made it to work and was reported missing the following day. When authorities found her, the vehicle's keys were in the ignition and the car was still in gear. An autopsy later confirmed that Heather Stewart had died from a gunshot wound to the head, and her death was officially ruled a homicide.
The subsequent investigation quickly focused on a single suspect: 32-year-old Michael Henderson of Waterloo, the father of one of Stewart's children. Police learned that on the night she was last seen, Stewart had contacted Henderson to ask him for money. Henderson initially denied meeting with her, claiming to have been home with his girlfriend. However, his cell phone records told a different story, placing him in the area where Stewart's body was later found. This was further substantiated by surveillance footage from a nearby restaurant that captured his vehicle in the vicinity. A baseball cap discovered a short distance from Stewart's car also became a piece of evidence in the case.
Based on the evidence gathered, Michael Henderson was arrested in June 2014 and charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide. He was held at the Jefferson County Jail as the legal proceedings began. In August of 2015, a jury convicted Henderson for the murder of Heather Stewart. The Watertown Police Department, along with the sheriff's departments of Dodge and Jefferson counties and the Jefferson County District Attorney's Office, all collaborated on the investigation to bring the case to a close. In the wake of their tragic loss, Heather Stewart's family initiated efforts to establish a memorial garden at the location where she was found, on a parcel of land donated by the property owner.
