A Wisconsin man is accused of fixating for years on a woman he briefly dated, allegedly preserving strands of her hair inside a residence where authorities say skulls and other human remains were also found.
Benjamin C. Larson is facing one count of stalking, according to a Dane County criminal complaint reviewed by Oxygen. Court records cited in the complaint show he has not yet entered a plea, and his lawyer did not immediately return a request for comment.
The woman, whose name has not been released, told investigators that she and Larson went on a few dates in 2013. During that time, she said, he spoke openly about his fascination with notorious killer Ed Gein, as well as death and graphic violence. She ended the relationship, according to the complaint, after Larson allegedly called her saying he was suicidal and had a gun to his head.
Afterward, the woman relocated to Canada and did not give Larson her new address, but police say that did not stop his attempts to contact her.
Larson allegedly continued sending letters and gifts through her mother’s address. Then, in August 2015, roughly two years after they dated, he allegedly sent the woman a 15-page email.
“Even if you do decide to leave my life and never look back on me again for the rest of your days, you will still be with me,” Larson allegedly wrote. “As much a part of me as my own flesh and bones now. It simply is. There is nothing that will, or could, change this.”
In the same message, Larson allegedly described keepsakes he had saved from their brief relationship, including an earring tangled with strands of her hair, a pressed blue flower, a 1984 coin and a voicemail he claimed proved her love and devotion. He also allegedly wrote that he had tattooed her initials on himself, saying they were “now, a part of my living body.”
The woman, who works as a therapist, later told police that Larson sent her a card in November 2025 containing another unsettling message: “I am not one who gives up easily.”
Larson also allegedly sent her A Nightmare Before Christmas-style holiday card in December that read “Season’s Creeping” and described wandering around her hometown and the possibility of running into her.
“That would be a memorable encounter,” he wrote. “I’ll keep my eyes open.”
His preoccupation eventually drew attention from a female trauma therapist, who the woman said reached out to her a few times about Larson’s therapy. As the therapist allegedly said in a voicemail, “Frankly, there are some things that concern me about him.”
The final straw came when Larson filed a complaint against the alleged victim with the Wisconsin Department of Safety and Professional Services, accusing her of lying about how long she had been a therapist, according to the complaint.
The woman tearfully told authorities that she feared for her and her child’s safety and that “she just wanted to disappear.”
When police asked Larson for his side of the story, he confirmed that he sent a “very civil” card to the woman in December and to filing complaints with professional licensing boards in several states, according to the complaint. He said that after receiving a stalking warning letter from the Madison Police Department that he didn’t want to cause trouble for the woman, the complaint read.
On Aug. 14, 2026, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Larson’s Fond Du Lac home, where a macabre scene awaited them in the basement, according to the complaint.
Several shelves contained bottles labeled “arsenic poison” and “Cyanide” along with serial killer artifacts: 10 binders labeled “Edward Gein Book” with supposed items from his grave and home, authorities wrote in the complaint. There were also .22-caliber cartridges, with signs suggesting they were the same type used by the Zodiac Killer and a jar that indicated it held a piece of John Wayne Gacy’s brain.
Authorities also found a mummy, human skulls, and other skeletal remains, including what appeared to be a jawbone. Other areas, which were sectioned off with curtains, held a life-size mannequin of Jason Voorhees from Friday the 13th.
A padlocked room contained a lifelike silicone doll wearing a spiked choker necklace surrounded by papers bearing the woman’s name and a painting of a nude woman who investigators said resembled her.
Larson had allegedly kept a 25-page document in which he wrote he was “furious” by the woman being in a relationship with another man. “That he experiences her wonderfully erotic mind,” he wrote according to police. “And I sit in my basement corner and rot and seethe.”
He added, “I really ache to take their skulls, all of them.”
In the document, Larson admitted to “hunting” the woman by driving to her home with a machete in his car. “I felt like a shark,” he wrote, “investigating his unknown prey.”
Larson was arrested and released on a $15,000 bond. His arraignment date is scheduled for Sept. 11, court records show.
If convicted, he faces a maximum prison sentence of three years and six months, and a $10,000 fine.
