Early Life
David Spanbauer was born in January of 1941 in to a German catholic family. His parents were Frank and Evelyn Spanbauer and he was the oldest of three children. He had two younger sisters, Judy and Mary. David had a tough relationship with his father who passed away when David was 14. Throughout his teenage years he was in trouble with the law. He attended high school in Oshkosh and dropped out after his seventh birthday and joined the Navy. He didn’t do any better in the navy then he did at home. He received three Court Martials for being absent without leave and spent seven months in the brig.
Naval Doctors thought David needed psychiatric care and sent letter to his mother but nothing was done about this area. He was dishonorably discharged in 1959 and returned to Wisconsin in November.
After he returned he tried to go back to the Oshkosh High School but soon dropped out again. His psychological problem led him to committing his irst crime. On January 3, 1960, he broke into a home in Appleton. He stole two diamond rings, a hunting knife, a bottle of booze, cash and .22 handgun. A night later he robbed another house Neenah with his .22 pistol he had stoled the night before.
Naval Doctors thought David needed psychiatric care and sent letter to his mother but nothing was done about this area. He was dishonorably discharged in 1959 and returned to Wisconsin in November.
After he returned he tried to go back to the Oshkosh High School but soon dropped out again. His psychological problem led him to committing his irst crime. On January 3, 1960, he broke into a home in Appleton. He stole two diamond rings, a hunting knife, a bottle of booze, cash and .22 handgun. A night later he robbed another house Neenah with his .22 pistol he had stoled the night before.
rAPIST
On February 16th, 1960 he was arrested during an attempted robbery in Milwaukee. When questioned by police he broke down and told the police everything; about the girls he had raped. A week after the robbery in Appleton he broke in to the house of a 13 year-old girl and raped her out behind the garage of her home. The night of January 12, 1960 he raped Carol Grady while she was babysitting her cousins. He also committed his first murder that day. He shot the girls uncle in the face when he returned home. At the age of 19 Spanbauer was tried in a Wisconsin court. The judge labeled him a“sexual deviate” and sentenced him to seventy years in prison.
First Time out of Prision
After spending 13 years in prison David Spanbauer was released in May of 1972 on parole and was making some fresh steps with his life. He went to school at a Madison Area Technical college and maintained a B average and was living at the YMCA at the University of Wisconsin Campus. But his days of being good didn’t last long. He got himself very close on ride back to prison when he let and escaped prisoner borrow his car. The fugitive was arrested after a robbery near Middleton - Spanbauer got lucky.
During the summer of 1972 Spanbauer worked parks and city beaches. Summer brought the college students from the university flocking to the beaches. All the attractive college girls were too much for Spanbauer. He told a psychiatrist that he was having sexual frustration and the psychiatrist told him he must have been born retarded. His cry for help with his sexual urges and frustration was ignored; the worst was about to come.
During the summer of 1972 Spanbauer worked parks and city beaches. Summer brought the college students from the university flocking to the beaches. All the attractive college girls were too much for Spanbauer. He told a psychiatrist that he was having sexual frustration and the psychiatrist told him he must have been born retarded. His cry for help with his sexual urges and frustration was ignored; the worst was about to come.
Victims
Laura Depies
Twenty year old Luara Depies lived in Winneconne, Wisconsin. She worked at the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute. On August 19, 1992 after finishing her shift at the mall she went to go visit a friend in Menasha, but she never showed up. Her car was found by her friends in their apartment parking lot. She is still missing.
Ronelle Eichstedt
On August 23, 1992, ten year old Ronelle Eichstedt went missing. Her bicycle was found near her rural home in Ripon in Fond du Lac County. Her body was found six weeks later about miles away from her home. Ronelle's body was found in a cornfield ditch near Tower Hill State Park, close to the Wisconsin River.
Cora Jones
On Labor Day, September 5th, a 12-year-old Cora Jones was riding her bike on Sanders Road near her grandma's house in Daytown township. He got Cora into his car and molested her. He drove 75 miles north up to Langlade County near Kempster. Five or six hours later he finally decided to end it. He strangled and stabbed her and threw her body into a steep ditch. Police organized a search for the missing girl and hundreds of volunteers helped canvass the surrounding woods in a ten mile perimeter. The FBI also joined the case. Her body was found body five days later.
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