The nine-year Department veteran had gone to the game preserve to post
signs that afternoon but failed to return home in the evening, his
32nd birthday. His shot and decapitated body was found the next day,
partially buried in a swampy area. A three-month investigation
followed, and through questioning of all LaFave's acquaintances and
hunters he had arrested for game violations, authorities became
suspicious of one young hunter. The first-time use of Wisconsin's new
Electronic Surveillance Law for a murder case helped convict a
21-year-old that LaFave had cited for hunting pheasants out of season
earlier that fall in the Sensiba area. (After ten years in prison,
the assailant escaped and was shot to death by a posse attempting to
recapture him.) LaFave was survived by his wife Peggy and children,
Nicole, 2 and Lonny, 4.
A large boulder cenotaph with an inscription was placed at the
entrance to the Sensiba Wildlife Area in 1972 as a memorial to Neil
LaFave. His name is engraved on the Wisconsin Law Enforcement
Memorial on the State Capitol grounds in Madison.
Source: Wisconsin DNR |
