Actor, famous for playing ‘Eddie Munster’, called to testify in Schulz-Juedes trial

WAUSAU, Wis. (WSAW) - A witness that likely surprised jurors was called to the stand Monday to testify in what is likely the final days of the trial for Cindy Schulz-Juedes.

Schulz-Juedes is the 66-year-old widow accused of killing her husband in 2006. She was arrested and charged in December 2019.

Ken Juedes, 58, was found dead Aug. 30, 2006 by his wife, Schulz-Juedes. Investigators said he died of two shotgun wounds. Schulz-Juedes was long considered a person of interest.

The defense is also trying to establish that five other people killed Ken Juedes. The defense says the motive is that the Juedeses had sued a man for fraud on the land where the Monster Hall Raceway was that the Juedeses owned. The financial suit closed in the spring of 2006, but the Juedeses had tried to file for criminal charges, involving the Clark County Sheriff’s Office to investigate the same fraud claim and that investigation was active through Juedes’ death.

One of the people the defense is accusing of the murder is best known for his role as the child-werewolf, Eddie Munster, on the CBS comedy television series The Munsters. The show ran from 1964 to 1966.

Investigators said Butch Patrick Lilley met Ken Juedes at Monster Hall Raceway in Unity. Juedes was part owner.

“I was in the process of booking an event when someone says, ‘Have you seen the National Inquirer today?’ I said, ‘No,’ and when I looked it up I noticed I was on the cover with the headline that says ‘Munster Murder Bombshell at Monster Hall’ and that’s how I found out about my invol-- supposedly my involvement in it,” Lilley said Monday.

That was the first he said he had heard that he was at all part of the investigation into Juedes’ death. His attorney asked that the 2012 article be retracted and it was. Lilley noted that after that article was published he lost appearance contracts.

He said he was not involved in Juedes’ murder. He does know the other people who the defense is accusing.

Lilley’s mother had invested $10,000 in Randall Landwehr’s brewery business. The Juedes’ had sued Randall Landwehr for $300,000 worth of fraud relating to the Monster Hall Raceway. Landwehr had lost that suit and Lilley and other investors also lost their investment because of it. The financial suit closed in the spring of 2006, but the Juedes had tried to file for criminal charges and that investigation was active through Juedes’ death. The defense said Lilley, Landwehr, and three others who had invested in the brewery business are the ones who killed Juedes.

Lilley said he does not know where he was for sure on the day before and after Juedes’ death, saying he travels a lot. He said recently, a friend showed him at an event in Atlanta the weekend following Juedes’ death. When asked if he had done any work to find out where he was the day of Juedes’ death, he said he had not. The defense also asked whether alcohol or drug use would have impaired his memory. He said no. The defense asked if he would drink or do cocaine while with the other people accused and he said they would drink and admitted to occasionally using cocaine.

The crime lab witnesses did not find evidence of any of the five people the defense is accusing of Ken Juedes’ murder in the Juedes home, specifically on three pieces of evidence where useable fingerprints and DNA were found. Those items were two pieces of paper found at the scene and a knife that was stabbed into a pillow and into one of the pieces of those papers. The analysts also ruled out Juedes as a potential person who could have had DNA or fingerprints on those items. They could not determine whether the DNA or fingerprints belonged to Schulz-Juedes.

“The main reason was because of the creasing of the fingers, which happens as we age, it’s a natural process; the older we get the more creases your fingers have and so that deterred me from making an identification,” Madelyne Weismantel, who specializes in fingerprinting analysis said.

“YSDR DNA profiles can only be generated for males. We target locations specifically on the Y chromosome, which only males have,” Aric Reilly stated relating to the DNA found on the knife.

The prosecution also brought Capt. Sean McCarthy back to the stand to address a few points mentioned during Schulz-Juedes’ testimony. That included a discrepancy as to whether the Juedes were expecting any foster children to come to the home the night of Juedes’ death.

Schulz-Juedes testified Friday that she was not expecting any new foster children to come to the home and had asked her boss to not assign them any new placements because she had not been feeling well. However, she said they were potentially expecting one foster child they had cared for previously the night of Juedes’ death on Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2006.

Capt. McCarthy stated that in his interview with Schulz-Juedes the day Juedes was found dead that she had noted she told her boss not to have foster children come that week because of her illness. He testified that she also said they were potentially expecting a foster child, but it would not have been until that Friday, Sept. 1, 2006. The name of the foster child Schulz-Juedes gave in her testimony last week was also different from the one Capt. McCarthy had taken down in his initial interview with her.

The prosecution and defense will take the rest of the day Monday to prepare their closing statements.

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