Murder of Julie Jensen | |
---|---|
Location | Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, U.S. |
Date | December 3, 1998 |
Attack type | Murder, uxoricide |
Weapon | Antifreeze poisoning |
Victim | Julie Carol Jensen, aged 40 |
Perpetrator | Mark Jensen |
Motive | Infidelity |
Trial | First trial in 2008, retrial in 2023 |
Verdict | Guilty at both trials |
Convictions | First-degree intentional homicide
|
Sentence | Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole |
Judge | Bruce Schroeder (2008) Anthony Milisauskas (2023) |
On December 3, 1998, Mark Jensen, an American man, murdered his wife, Julie Carol (née Griffin) Jensen in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, by poisoning her with antifreeze. The case is notable for the eventual admission into evidence of a letter written by the deceased prior to her death expressing suspicion of her husband's intentions.
Julie Jensen investigated her husband, checked his planner, photographed a note, and documented her suspicions.[1] She gave the letter to a neighbor with instructions to hand it to police if anything should happen to her. She wrote that she would never commit suicide and that if she died, police should consider her husband a suspect. "I pray that I am wrong and nothing happens, but I am suspicious of Mark's suspicious behaviors and fear for my early demise."[2]
In 2008, Mark Jensen was convicted of first-degree intentional homicide and sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole,[3] a verdict which was overturned in 2015.[4] After multiple appeals, a second trial convicted Mark Jensen in February 2023.