Questions in Rudy case linger

By Matt Ollwerther- Marshfield News-Herald

NEILLSVILLE -- The legal case against Shaun W. Rudy is moving quickly along after he pleaded no contest to homicide charges, but the forensic evidence has been on pause for more than a month.

A DNA confirmation on the torso recovered from the Chippewa River on March 28 is still pending. A forensic dentist examined a portion of a lower left jaw and said it's his opinion that the remains were Christine Rudy's.

Prosecutors and investigators have been waiting for that DNA test to definitely say the remains are Christine's, but they are quietly saying the odds are astronomical against it being anyone else.

The torso also has an identifying tattoo Christine was known to have, according to Clark County Sheriff's Department Chief Deputy Jim Backus.

Another unanswered question in the case involves human remains investigators recovered from a burn pit at a rural Stanley home in early December.

A forensic anthropologist wrote in the criminal complaint against Rudy:

"I think it is important to consider the mechanism(s) by which the fetal remains, yet very few adult remains, made their way to the 'burn' pile.

"It is possible that the fetus was deliberately removed and burned independently of the majority of the adult remains. ... (G)iven the shallow depth of the 'burn' pile and the bigger representation of adult human bone from that context, I believe that another (or other) dump/deposition location(s) may yield additional adult human bone/human remains."

However, an autopsy at the Madison crime lab of the torso found in the river revealed a fetus, said Clark County District Attorney Darwin Zwieg. The results of the autopsy have not been sent to his office.

Zwieg said it's his opinion there is only one fetus involved in the case, although that does raise a number of possibilities.

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