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    • Agencies solve case of 65-year-old cold residue found in Mequon
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    Agencies solve case of 65-year-old cold residue found in Mequon

    Harry Posted on

    In 1966, law enforcement dropped a case involving the death of a 7-year-old Michigan boy whose remains were found in Mequon, dismissing charges against the boy’s adoptive parents, who admitted to killing their son but were not linked to the murder. skeleton at that time.

    Now, nearly 65 years later, Wisconsin investigators and law enforcement have solved the cold case of Markku Jutila, born Chester Breiney, through genetic genealogy, according to a Nov. 8 statement from the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s office.

    Human remains found in Mequon on October 4, 1959

    On October 4, 1959, a Milwaukee woman picking wildflowers happened upon what was then thought to be a young girl in a culvert on Davis Road, north of Bonniwell Road and south of Pioneer Road in Mequon City. Report from the Milwaukee Journal published March 28, 1966.

    The next morning, police found further remains in a partially burned cardboard box and launched an initial investigation pursuing more than 200 clues.

    Meanwhile, law enforcement in Houghton County, Michigan, were conducting their own investigation into possible missing child Markku Jutila.

    Family members of William and Hilja Jutila became suspicious of the whereabouts of the couple’s adopted child, Markku, and filed a complaint with Michigan police, according to the Milwaukee Journal.

    Hilja’s brothers had visited William and Hilja several times in Chicago, where the couple had recently moved, and each time they asked where the child was.

    According to a 1966 report, the couple confessed to killing their son, escaping and throwing him in a culvert.

    William and Hilja were questioned by Chicago police. Police said the couple spoke Finnish to each other during questioning in order to coordinate their stories, unaware that the officer spoke Finnish, according to the Milwaukee Journal.

    William eventually admitted that the child died in his arms after being beaten by his wife while at Houghton.

    When confronted, Hilja began to cry and admitted, “Yes. He’s dead. We put him in a culvert,” according to the Milwaukee Journal.

    During an interview with police, the couple also admitted to dumping the child’s body in a ditch in Mequon while fleeing Houghton in Upper Michigan for Chicago. The couple left Houghton in such a hurry that clothes were left hanging in the backyard and food was left cooking on the stove, the Chicago Tribune reported.

    During further psychiatric evaluation, the couple claimed Markku had been sick for several days before he was found dead in his room, according to a Nov. 8 statement from the Sheriff’s Office. They claimed they drove to Chicago and dumped the boy’s body on the side of the road along the way because they were afraid of what was happening.

    Law enforcement determined that human remains found in the culvert had characteristics similar to Markku’s.

    Seven years after Markku’s remains were found, the Jutilas were arrested and extradited to Houghton County for prosecution, according to the Nov. 8 release.

    Charges against the couple were dismissed in November 1966

    The charges were dismissed on November 10, 1966, due to “the absence of corpus delicti and the prosecution’s inability to connect the skeleton of the child found in Mequon to the defendants,” according to the statement. (In Latin, Corpus delicti, or “the whole of the crime,” refers to the legal standard of evidence required to prove that a crime has been committed before a person can be convicted.)

    The case has been postponed until October 2023.

    That’s when University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, Global Religions and Cultures, Dr. Jordan Karsten, along with Madison State Crime Laboratory Analyst Hannah Moos-Classon, conducted tests on the skeletal remains determined to be related. Death in Mequon in 1959.

    Karsten and Moos-Classon contacted Wisconsin Department of Justice’s Criminal Investigation Division special agent Neil McGrath and Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office detective Scott Heller.

    Karsten explained how a radiographic comparison of the skull for Case 6426 matched cranial and mandibular radiographs that Moos-Classon provided regarding Ozaukee County’s records for the case, which matched the details of Markku’s death.

    Investigators and researchers attempted to further identify the remains using DNA taken from the skull and conducting investigative genealogy.

    An analysis by Bode Technology Labs in May 2024 determined that the remains belonged to a man, but the DNA profile yielded no matching results when entered into the system. CODISor the Unified DNA Index System, is a national database of DNA profiles used to solve crimes and identify missing persons.

    In July, researchers asked Othram Laboratories for further DNA analysis assistance.

    Investigators used court records and newspaper articles to gather information

    While awaiting those results, investigators reviewed court records and newspaper articles from the 1960s, including several from the Milwaukee Journal, according to the Sheriff’s Office. Many of the original investigation reports from that period could not be recovered due to the passage of time.

    Based on these reports, McGrath sought records from the Houghton County Probate Court and the Houghton Good Will Farm orphanage, now called UP Kids, maintained by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

    Records reveal that Markku Jutila’s birth name is Chester Alfred Breiney, born on February 26, 1952. Chester’s biological mother was listed as Josephine Breiney of Houghton, Michigan, and his father was also listed as “unknown.”

    Adoption records also show that Chester was adopted into the Good Will Farm orphanage and was later adopted by Jutilas on March 24, 1955.

    Further examination of the remains revealed that they likely belonged to an individual whose dental health had suffered significant neglect and was subject to new bone formation resulting from infection, trauma or bleeding, according to the Nov. 8 statement.

    “The individual may be suffering from rickets and may also have a healed fracture in one of the left ribs,” according to the Sheriff’s Office.

    Researchers used DNA to discover matches with family members

    In September 2024, researchers entered the skull DNA into a publicly sourced DNA database, which yielded several matches to members of the Breiney family, specifically Chester’s mother, Josephine Breiney. Josephine Breiney died in 2001 and had no living relatives.

    According to the Sheriff’s Office, Chester’s adoptive parents, William and Hilja Jutila, who were involved in the boy’s death, both died in 1988, meaning there will be no future prosecution in this case.

    “Child abuse is real. Many children are affected by the trauma they experience at the hands of those who are supposed to love and nurture them,” the Sheriff’s Office said in a statement. he said.

    Chester Breiney’s funeral will be held in Port Washington on November 15

    For Chester Breiney, on Friday, November 15 at 13.00 in St. Parish of John XXIII – St. A funeral service will be held at Peter of Alcantara Church, 1800 N. Wisconsin St., Port Washington. Located off West Beutel Road in Port Washington, west of Holden Street, St. There will be a procession to St. Mary’s Parish Cemetery.

    Donations in memory of Chester can be sent to: Lakeshore Regional Child Advocacy CenterAn advocate for children and an integral partner to law enforcement, Ozaukee County and surrounding communities.

    “Although no one will be prosecuted for the death of Chester Alfred Breiney, Chester can now rest in peace as the truth of his death is known. No child should leave this world the way Chester did,” the Sheriff’s Office said. he said.

    “It has been 65 years since Chester was killed, but he has never been forgotten.”

    Contact Claudia Levens at [email protected]. Follow him on X @levensc13.

    Harry
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