By Shereen Siewert | Wausau Pilot & Review
Wisconsin’s longest-serving prisoner, a Wausau man who brutally murdered a high school senior in 1964, died Saturday after serving nearly 58 years behind bars, according to state records.
Terry Caspersen, 80, was serving a life sentence in the fatal stabbing death of 18-year-old Eleanor Kaatz.
Kaatz was on her way to school when she was struck down on Barker-Stewart Island and was stabbed more than 50 times, according to media reports. She was found alive and taken to the hospital, but two days later died of her injuries. Six of the stab wounds punctured her liver, doctors said at the time.
Caspersen, 21, was captured after a chase one day after the May 11, 1964 attack and learned of the young woman’s death while listening to the radio in his cell block.
The murder made headlines statewide and shocked residents in Wausau, who struggled to understand why a man would attack a stranger. In interviews, Casperson told police he had gone to Barker-Stewart Island to take his own life when he saw the woman. His family told journalists Caspersen had previously attempted suicide and had been admitted to a state hospital one year before the attack.
Police described Caspersen as a convicted auto thief and former psychiatric patient with “nothing to do,” a man with a record of minor offenses who was on probation at the time of the murder. Then-Marathon County District Attorney Patrick L. Crooks told reporters Caspersen signed a statement admitting the attack and said he “didn’t know why he did it.”
Crooks, according to a May 1964 report in The Capital Times, said he described the attack in detail, telling prosecutors he seized the girl, dragged her in to the brush and then thought Kaatz had recognized him. That, he said, was what prompted him to stab her.
Media reports say Caspersen also admitted to setting hundreds of fires while in Duluth, Minn.
Caspersen, who initially entered an insanity plea, was ultimately convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. The question of mental competence arose due to his past record of emotional struggles, but Caspersen was ruled competent to stand trial. He was defended by Norman Baguhn, a court-appointed attorney.
But in September 1981, Caspersen was paroled. It wasn’t long before he kidnapped and threatened a 22-year-old Rhinelander woman and cut her throat. In April 1982, he was sentenced to 57 years and ordered to register as a sex offender. His life sentence also resumed when he was returned to prison.
Wisconsin Department of Corrections records show Caspersen died while at Dodge Correctional Facility. A cause of death was not given.
