GUILTY WI - DonaMae Bourgeois Bayerl, 38, Muskego, 6 May 1979 Arrest in 2019

Niner · Apr 17, 2021

@JerseyGirl - you can put this in the "Sentencing & Beyond" forum - his motion for new trial was denied - back to prison for him....

LooAnn30 · Feb 22, 2023

Niner said:
@JerseyGirl - you can put this in the "Sentencing & Beyond" forum - his motion for new trial was denied - back to prison for him....

Does anyone know if DNA from Jane Doe, Caledonia, WI (found 5/1982) has been compared to Dona? Caledonia JD was found near to Ms. Bayerl's home.

Niner · Feb 22, 2023

LooAnn30 said:
Does anyone know if DNA from Jane Doe, Caledonia, WI (found 5/1982) has been compared to Dona? Caledonia JD was found near to Ms. Bayerl's home.

Sorry - if you are asking me - I have no idea...

Maybe someone else reading here - might be able to help.

spartanx · Mar 10, 2023

poor abused woman was a good mother and wife who had the bad luck of running into that abusive bestian. He feels they are his children who grew up without their mother...
rest in peace

Niner · Jun 22, 2023

Appeal denied in Muskego cold case killing

WAUKESHA — A former Muskego man who was charged in 2019 with killing his wife there 40 years ago had his request for a new trial rejected by an appellate

www.gmtoday.com

June 22, 2023

WAUKESHA — A former Muskego man who was charged in 2019 with killing his wife there 40 years ago had his request for a new trial rejected by an appellate court Wednesday.

John Bayerl, now 83, was convicted at trial in 2019 of a count of first-degree murder for the death of his wife Dona May. He is serving a life sentence.
[.....]
Bayerl maintained his innocence. He appealed, claiming Circuit Court Judge Brad Schimel wrongly allowed "other acts evidence" — testimony from former wives about Bayerl’s drinking and verbal and physical abuse of them — into the trial, and that his lawyer was ineffective in several ways. Bayerl previously raised a claim of ineffective counsel in a post-conviction motion, but Schimel ruled that Bayerl was convicted on "admissible and ultimately strong evidence" against him.

Given the similarities of physical abuse of Bayerl’s later wives and the alleged homicide of Dona Mae, the District II Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday such evidence was admissible for establishing identity, absence of mistake or accident, and intent and was therefore relevant.
[.....]
"Bayerl has not demonstrated that the circuit court’s decision to admit the expert testimony regarding blood testing was erroneous, nor has he demonstrated that his attorney was constitutionally ineffective for failing to call his expert at trial," the three-judge panel wrote in its decision. "The State’s circumstantial case was sufficient to allow the jury to fairly adjudicate whether Dona was deceased and whether Bayerl was the killer, which was the real controversy."

Keiri · Oct 15, 2024

DonaMae is now in NaMus The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
her Charley Project: DonaMae Bourgeois Bayerl – The Charley Project
her Doe Network: 2148DFWI - Dona Mae Bourgeois Bayerl

25 exclusions: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)