David Van Dyke: The Milwaukee Home-Invasion Serial Killer
Background and Early Life
David Allen Van Dyke was born on January 14, 1959. He grew up in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and was one of five children. During his early childhood, he was raised primarily by his grandmother. After she died when he was six years old, Van Dyke returned to the care of his mother, who reportedly had considerable difficulty controlling his increasingly disruptive and violent behavior.
Van Dyke regularly refused to attend school and eventually dropped out after completing the seventh grade. Accounts of his childhood describe repeated thefts, property destruction, bullying and threats against relatives. He reportedly stole money from his mother, threatened his niece with a knife and attacked people who insulted or embarrassed him. He was also accused of deliberately killing a pet bird, an incident later cited as an early indication of his lack of empathy.
As a young adult, Van Dyke never established a stable career. He supported himself primarily through burglary and by gambling as a pool hustler. He sometimes lived in automobiles or abandoned buildings and claimed that he committed approximately 200 burglaries. In April 1979, he was released on parole following a burglary conviction. Within several months, a series of murders began in Milwaukee homes.
Pattern of the Murders
Between July 1979 and April 1980, Van Dyke murdered four women and two men in Milwaukee. Most of the victims were attacked inside their own residences. He frequently approached a home with an apparently harmless request, such as asking to use a telephone or bathroom, and relied on the resident voluntarily allowing him inside.
Once admitted, Van Dyke attacked with whatever weapon was immediately available. The weapons connected to the murders included knives, scissors, a hammer and a tire jack. He often left the weapon at the scene rather than carrying it away. After incapacitating or killing a victim, he searched the residence and stole money, jewelry, televisions, radios or other property.
The victims did not fit a single demographic profile. They included men and women of different races and ranged in age from 30 to 79. The common element was their vulnerability after allowing Van Dyke into a private residence. Several victims were elderly, lived alone or were unable to defend themselves effectively against a sudden attack.
Confirmed Victims
- Della Mae Liggens, 69 — July 19, 1979, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Liggens was stabbed to death inside her Milwaukee residence. Her killing was the earliest murder later attributed to Van Dyke and marked the beginning of his approximately nine-month series of attacks.
- Florence Burkard, 78 — August 10, 1979, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Burkard was attacked in her North Side home and stabbed repeatedly with a pair of scissors. The assault reportedly began in the kitchen, but her body was found at the bottom of the basement stairs. Two volunteers who had arrived to deliver a meal discovered her. Investigators determined that she had suffered 43 stab wounds, including a fatal injury to her heart.
- Helen Wronski, 79 — November 8, 1979, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Wronski was beaten to death in the living room of her East Side residence. Van Dyke covered her body with a sheet and searched drawers in her bedroom. Her son discovered her body on November 9, one day after she was last known to be alive. Partial fingerprints recovered from the residence were preserved but could not initially be matched to a suspect.
- Charles Golston, 63 — May 13, 1980, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Golston was attacked with a claw hammer on January 25, 1980. A friend found him severely injured and unconscious. Golston remained in a coma for more than three months before dying from his injuries on May 13, 1980. Although he survived beyond the date of the assault, his death was attributed to the injuries inflicted by Van Dyke.
- Bernard Fonder, 49 — March 3, 1980, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Fonder was found dead on his bed after suffering multiple blows to the head. Before his murder, Fonder had given neighbors a note identifying a former roommate who had previously beaten him and instructed them to provide it to police if anything happened to him. The former roommate was initially arrested, but fingerprints recovered from the murder scene did not match him. The physical evidence later connected Van Dyke to the killing.
- Helen Louise Bellamy, 30 — April 25, 1980, Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Bellamy was sexually assaulted and beaten to death with a tire jack inside her North Side home. Her 13-year-old son discovered her body in the dining room after returning from school. She had been partially covered with a sheet. Her murder was the final known killing in Van Dyke’s series.
The Surviving Victim
On April 14, 1980, Van Dyke approached a 28-year-old Milwaukee woman after expressing interest in purchasing her automobile. She allowed him into her residence and went upstairs to retrieve something related to the proposed sale. Van Dyke followed her and suddenly grabbed her by the throat.
After knocking the woman to the floor, he kicked and stomped on her head. When she attempted to resist, he struck her with an ashtray. The ashtray and a wine bottle were broken during the struggle, and Van Dyke used pieces of glass to cut her. Despite suffering serious injuries, the woman managed to escape from the house.
She first sought help at a neighboring residence but was unable to gain entry. She then ran to a nearby tavern, where people assisted her and contacted authorities. Van Dyke fled after taking approximately $118 from the home. Her survival later proved significant because she was able to describe the attack and testify against him.
The Investigation
Milwaukee investigators gradually recognized similarities among the home murders. The victims had been attacked inside their residences, household objects had been used as weapons and property had often been stolen. Fingerprints found at more than one crime scene suggested that a single offender might be responsible.
Detectives began comparing the unidentified prints with those of known burglars. The connection was difficult to establish because Van Dyke had not initially emerged as a leading murder suspect. The partial fingerprints from Helen Wronski’s home and evidence from other scenes remained crucial as police continued examining burglary suspects.
On May 23, 1980, Van Dyke was arrested following an attempted burglary. Investigators obtained his fingerprints and discovered that they matched prints recovered during the murder investigation. He was questioned about the series of attacks and eventually made statements confessing to the killings. Witnesses later described him as crying at times during the interrogation.
Charges and Trial
Van Dyke was charged with six counts of first-degree murder. He also faced charges of attempted murder and armed robbery for the April 14 attack on the woman who escaped. Prosecutors presented his confessions, fingerprint evidence and the testimony of the surviving victim.
His trial began in February 1981. The surviving woman testified about allowing Van Dyke into her home, the sudden assault and her escape to the tavern. Her testimony provided jurors with a direct account of the method he used to gain access to a residence and attack a person who had trusted him.
Against the advice of his defense attorney, Van Dyke testified on his own behalf. He admitted that he had committed a large number of burglaries but denied being responsible for the murders. He argued that he ordinarily fled whenever a resident interrupted a burglary rather than resorting to violence.
Van Dyke acknowledged striking the surviving woman with an ashtray, but he claimed that he had acted in self-defense after she attacked him with a broken object. He suggested that some of her wounds occurred when she fell near broken glass. He also accused police officers of manufacturing or manipulating his murder confessions.
The jury rejected his explanations. After deliberating for approximately four and a half hours, jurors convicted Van Dyke of all six murders, the attempted murder and the related armed robbery.
Sentencing and Imprisonment
On March 6, 1981, Van Dyke received six life sentences, one for each murder, as well as an additional 40 years for the other offenses. At the time, the combined punishment was described as the longest sentence imposed in Wisconsin history.
The severity of the sentence reflected the number of victims, the prolonged series of crimes and the violence used against people inside their own homes. His convictions also cleared the former roommate who had initially been suspected in Bernard Fonder’s death.
Van Dyke was incarcerated in the Wisconsin prison system and has been held at Waupun Correctional Institution, a maximum-security facility in Waupun. Under the terms associated with his sentences, he is not expected to become eligible for parole until 2048.
Legacy of the Case
David Van Dyke’s murders created fear across Milwaukee because the attacks occurred in places where the victims believed they were safest. He did not need to force doors open in every case. Instead, he exploited ordinary courtesy and gained entry by presenting himself as someone who needed assistance or had a legitimate reason to enter.
The investigation demonstrated the importance of preserving fingerprint evidence even when an immediate match is unavailable. Partial prints collected after the earlier murders remained unidentified for months, but they ultimately connected Van Dyke to the crime scenes after his arrest for attempted burglary.
Van Dyke’s known crime series ended with six murder victims and one woman who narrowly survived. His willingness to use readily available household objects as weapons, combined with his pattern of theft and deception, made the attacks appear unpredictable until investigators recognized the common evidence linking them. His convictions brought an end to one of Milwaukee’s most disturbing sequences of residential murders.
