Background: News footage of the scene in Milwaukee, Wis., after Amanda Varisco was found dead (WITI). Inset (left): Amanda Varisco (GoFundMe). Inset (right): Mile Dukic (Milwaukee County Sheriff”s Office).
A Wisconsin man has been accused of fatally stabbing a woman he lived with after she attempted to leave their shared apartment.
Mile Dukic, 39, was taken into custody on Thursday following an incident at the Milwaukee residence he occupied with 44-year-old Amanda Varisco. Upon arrival, officers from the Milwaukee Police Department were granted entry by Dukic and discovered Varisco lying on the floor, unresponsive and not breathing. Although an officer attempted CPR, it was too late to save her life, as confirmed by a criminal complaint reported by Law&Crime.
Authorities reported that Dukic confessed to an officer, saying, “I didn’t want to do it.”
The complaint revealed that Varisco’s daughter and her boyfriend were the first to attempt entry into the apartment. Varisco’s daughter informed police that Dukic had texted her, admitting to killing her mother. In these messages, Dukic allegedly claimed that Varisco was “disrespectful and mean” and had been speaking to another man on the phone, during which she supposedly told Dukic to “shut the f— up.”
In a chilling admission, Dukic texted the daughter, “I think she [is] dead.”
The daughter and her boyfriend, alarmed by the texts they received on Thursday night, promptly contacted 911 and rushed to Varisco’s apartment. The boyfriend recounted to police that when he demanded Dukic open the door, Dukic replied, “I already told you she’s gone. I’m not letting you in.”
When police detectives interviewed Dukic, he told them his relationship with Varisco was not romantic, but occasionally sexual. On the night of the alleged stabbing, Dukic saw that Varisco was on the phone with another man and wanted to leave to see him. Police said Dukic told her that he did not want her to go, and the two got into an argument.
As the argument escalated, Dukic told police that he punched Varisco “with a closed fist” and knocked her to the ground. He kept punching her until she “appeared to be unconscious.” He then allegedly got a knife and started stabbing Varisco several times in the chest and torso.
The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner determined that Varisco was stabbed 22 times in the chest and abdomen in addition to defensive wounds on her hands and arms.
Police said Dukic was previously charged with felonies including stalking and had been released from custody on the condition that he not commit additional crimes. Those cases are still open.
Dukic was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and two counts of bail jumping. He remains in custody at the Milwaukee County Jail. Dukic made his first court appearance on Tuesday. He was scheduled to appear in court in connection with the previous charges on March 10.
A GoFundMe page said Varisco was a mother of four children and a grandmother to five. Her family started the page to raise money for funeral expenses.
