Milwaukee Magazine reports that Laurie Bembenek and her new husband found that money was getting tight after their roommate moved out of the home they shared several months after they became man and wife. The news outlet writes that Elfred Schultz was paying his ex-wife’s rent, in addition to paying a monthly amount for child support. All told, the money from Schultz to his ex Christine totaled over $700, a sum that Bembenek was said to be unhappy with. 

Just after midnight on May 28, 1981, it was reported that someone entered Christine Schultz’s apartment. The woman was tied up and then shot once in the back and left for dead. One of Christine’s children reportedly saw the intruder, who they described as a man. She was killed with a gun later identified as the service revolver belonging to Elfred Schultz.

Prosecutors constructed a case against Bembenek, however. Receiving information from witnesses that would later testify that Bembenek talked of killing Christine, the state pieced together enough circumstantial evidence to charge her with murder. Though Christine’s son stated it wasn’t Bembenek who murdered his mother, the state argued that she had a motive, access to a key to Christine’s apartment, and wore a disguise (per truTV).

Bembenek was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison. But this wasn’t the end of her story by a long shot. Even after losing three post-conviction appeals, Bembenek wasn’t done with the world.