Trisha L. Bergemann, 22, a white female, was found on the afternoon of March 22, 2006, in an upstairs bedroom at 1623 Sibley Court in Sheboygan, unresponsive but still breathing, with an apparent bullet wound to the right upper portion of her skull. Officers who rushed to the scene encountered family members tending to her as they pieced together what had happened moments earlier. She was taken first to St.
Nicholas Hospital and then transferred to Froedtert Memorial Lutheran Hospital, where she died the following day, March 23, 2006.
Witness accounts and the physical evidence led investigators to focus on her boyfriend, James D. Butler. A family member reported hearing a “bang” and a small shriek, followed by Butler coming downstairs with a black semi-automatic handgun, striking it against a wall and saying it had jammed. In the bedroom, police recovered a. 45-caliber casing and a spent bullet lodged in the wall, details that reinforced the immediacy and violence of the shooting.
Within an hour of the gunshot, officers were alerted to look for a black Chevy Blazer connected to the homicide. When a Jackson Police detective attempted a stop, the Blazer’s rear window shattered and the vehicle pulled over. Butler was found inside with a fatal gunshot wound to the head and a. 45-caliber pistol at his feet; he was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital, ending any prospect of a prosecution against him. The woman driving, Heather A. Markwardt, emerged screaming and was detained. According to subsequent interviews, she said Butler had told her, “Oh, my God, what have I done?” as she drove, just before the traffic stop and the shot that took his life.
As the investigation unfolded, authorities concluded that Butler had shot Trisha before fleeing. Markwardt, who had driven him from the scene, was questioned and later charged in connection with aiding a felon and related offenses arising from her role after the shooting; those charges moved forward in Wisconsin courts. The case entered the appellate record over whether her custodial statements could be used, but the narrative of events remained consistent: a domestic shooting inside the Sibley Court home, the desperate flight, and the abrupt end on the roadside when Butler killed himself.
