![]() ![]() Early on, Bembenek said she was framed for the death, saying she was threatened and harassed after filing the discrimination complaint. It was just the beginning of conspiracy theories about the murder and the legal case. One of their children originally described the suspect as a man. She had been tied and gagged in her home, fatally shot with Elfred Schultz's service revolver, according to court testimony. His ex-wife was found murdered May 28, 1981. 29, 1981, less than three months after Schultz divorced his wife, Christine. Months later, she was fired during her probationary period, subsequently filing a sex discrimination complaint against the department with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.Īfter she lost her job with the department, she became involved with police officer Elfred Schultz. In March 1980, she joined the Milwaukee police force. "I was a waitress at the Playboy Club for three weeks, but I'll always be known as the Playboy bunny." "It's always a negative - if not a sexual - image they paint," she said in 1994. She later worked at a Playboy Club, a detail included in countless stories. She grew to be a strikingly beautiful young woman, finding work as a model by her senior year in high school. Depending on who was talking, she was intelligent but aloof, or quiet and shy, or cool and manipulative. ![]() She was a good student, though not scholastically driven. She played "very fine flute" at Bay View High School. Over the years, stories would detail every aspect of Bembenek's life. "Laurie has this bizarre charisma. . . . But. "When Laurie was born, we all danced around and accommodated the baby that lived and survived. "We were just raised differently," Colette Bembenek said in 2003. They did not think that she killed Christine Schultz but felt all the drama had transformed a troubled woman into a folk hero. Many years later, during a family feud over their father's estate, her sisters spoke about those early years and more. She was the child that the family prayed for after a brother was born prematurely and died. Villain or victim? Nearly 30 years after the murder, the jury of public opinion remained out.īembenek grew up on a comfortable block on the south side, the daughter of Joe and Virginia Bembenek. 'Run, Bambi, Run'Īfter Bembenek's 1990 escape, supporters held a rally, many of them wearing Bembenek masks so that "she'll be able to walk around more freely." T-shirts declared, "Run, Bambi, Run." One club held a Lawrencia Bembenek look-alike contest.Įvents were enough to inspire books and two television movies and to make international news. More legal proceedings resulted in her pleading guilty to second-degree murder and being released on parole for time served. ![]() They were captured three months later in Thunder Bay, Ontario. In 1990, with the help of fiancé Dominic Gugliatto, the brother of another inmate, she escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution. She was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to life in prison, but that was far, far from the end of the story. ![]() Laurie Bembenek was the former Milwaukee police officer charged with killing her then-husband's ex-wife, Christine Schultz. According to Martin, Laurie Bembenek was in and out of consciousness, said Colette Bembenek, adding that she last saw and spoke to her sister when their father died in 2003. She said she was told of her sister's death by Martin Carson, Laurie Bembenek's ex-husband. "I knew it was inevitable that she probably would be expiring early in life."Ĭolette Bembenek said she did not have a chance to speak with her sister before she died. I'm glad she didn't linger," Colette Bembenek said. Her health problems included hepatitis C and liver and kidney failure, Colette Bembenek said. Based upon the evidence we gathered, it's clearly a case of wrongful conviction," Woehrer said, adding that she has been advised by the pardon board that death does not preclude the granting of a pardon.īembenek, who later changed her first name to Laurie from Lawrencia, had been admitted to a hospital and then was transferred to a hospice, her sister said. "It's her dying wish that she be pardoned. Woehrer, said Bembenek's death would not stop the effort to win a pardon. That application was not complete, and no immediate review was planned, a spokesman for Gov. In recent developments, Bembenek applied for a pardon from the governor's office. Laurie Bembenek, the former Milwaukee police officer known as "Bambi" who was convicted of killing her then-husband's ex-wife, escaped prison and whose legal saga played out in papers, books and tabloid TV shows, has died, relatives confirmed Sunday.īembenek, 52, died early Saturday evening in Portland, Ore., where she was in hospice care, her sister, Colette Bembenek of South Milwaukee, said Sunday.īembenek continued to maintain her innocence for the rest of her life, repeatedly trying to clear her name. ![]()
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