On December 15, 2008, Vernon C. Seitz, 62 yr old white male is found Dead on Entry appearing to be of natural causes.  On December 12, 2008, Dr. Victoria Fetter, Seitz’s licensed psychiatrist contacted MPD to discuss her patients intent to confess to a homicide he was forced to participate in,  following an alleged abduction, sexual assault  and torture by unknown subjects.  Mr. Seitz states he and another victim were abducted while on a family outing to Racine Zoo on June 19, 1959. There is no report of this incident or any remotely similar incident on file and It is the opinion of MPD this never occurred .  Upon reading initial press on this incident, I prepared my own investigative article provided below.

• Part I: Shave, Haircut and Child Porn … The Barber of St. Francis, Vernon C. Seitz
• Part II: No Connection to Other Pending Cases, MPD Closing the Case. Nothing to See Here; The Barber of St. Francis, Vernon C. Seitz
• Search Warrants and MPD Inventory Report to Date

Upon further research I note the article where the psychiatrist references the date for the first time, of Seitz’s alleged account, as June 19, 1959. This date immediately sparks my interest as I had been profiling possible links to this case by cross referencing missing children cases of boys, of which Seitz appeared to posses an alarming interest.  I reviewed the data regarding the missing person’s case for Daniel Barter:

Daniel Barter has been missing from Alabama since June 18, 1959. Daniel was last seen playing near the banks of Perdido Bay where he had gone camping with his parents, siblings and other relatives. Daniel reportedly disappeared from the campsite while his parents were preparing some fishing equipment. Daniel did not like water; therefore it is believed that he would not have gone into the bay voluntarily. An extensive search for Daniel ensued immediately, but he has not been seen or heard from since that time.

From several various online sources, the following supplemental information from the Barter family should be considered:

Daniel was holding a bottle of Nehi; the bottle was never recovered at the scene. In any scenario other than abduction, based on the exhaustive search, this would have been recovered.

Mrs. Barter recalled a man sitting outside their home in Mobile on separate occasions. One incidence his footprints were located outside of Danny’s window. Both incidents were based on eyewitness accounts.
While at the store in Lillian the morning of the abduction, Danny and his brother were in the car while Mrs. Barter ran into the store. A man pulled up next to them, appeared to do nothing but watch them, did not exit to go to the store, and then left. The older Barter sibling remarked to Mrs. Barter upon her return to the vehicle that the man was just looking at them, but obviously made him uncomfortable.

Daniel was dressed in only gray Boxer shorts which he wore to bed the previous evening, when he disappeared.

Bloodhounds repeatedly followed his scent to the road.

From Seitz On Scene Recovery

In addition to referencing to Mr. Seitz account and date-specific statements regarding abduction and homicide, the following items were recovered from the scene that may be relative to the Barnet case. Although PIO Anne Schwartz has stated publicly that Seitz’s property in Racine, inherited from his deceased Mother Mildred in 2006, has been searched, there is no public record of a warrant for same. Additionally, there is no indication of a warrant for any vehicle owned by Mr. Seitz :

There were 4 freshly dug dirt piles, or evidence of apparent ground disturbance, on Mr. Seitz’s property. According to weather analysis on December 10, the last known witness account of Seitz being alive, there was 13” of snow on the ground already, therefore the ground would have been very frozen:

A cassette tape and cassette video marked “kidnapping of a 4 ½ year old boy”.

A black and white photo of a boy, white male, holding a fish, with “July 1959” handwritten on the back.

A letter from the White House. The Barter’s had strong Washington contacts and received a letter from J.Edgar Hoover at the time of the abduction.  Did Seitz have a copy?

Significant amounts of Child Pornography, hand drawn maps and missing children’s cases posters and maps with circles indicating various locations.

Additional Seitz Data:

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We recently posted a story on the bizarre and twisted tale of Vernon C. Seitz, Part I. The question should be asked as to why Seitz is not being further looked into as potentially being involved in other missing person cases in the area? Police seized over 500 pieces of evidence including male child porn, bondage equipment, a book titled “Eat Thy Neighbor: A History of Cannibalism and children’s shoes. Are we really supposed to believe that there is no connection and that Vernon C. Seitz’s twisted actions were harmless?

“We have no information to substantiate any allegation that the deceased [suspect] was involved in any missing children cases or homicides of children,” police spokeswoman Anne E. Schwartz said in a statement released Wednesday morning.

Let’s take that statement for dissection, if you will. Aren’t there at least three corroborating accounts this man drove 7+ hours to meet Wetterlings parents and participate in the search, twice?  Evidence and corroboration by his therapist that he traveled and participated in searches for missing young boys across the Midwest drew and painted pictures of naked male children does not a call to the FBI warrant, apparently. Pun intended.

“We have exhausted all possible angles in this case. If we receive credible information that warrants investigation, we will pursue it.” A search of Seitz’s late-mother’s home in Racine also turned up nothing, Schwartz said.

Notably, they have not searched the residence of Vernon Seitz, Sr. It is located 147mi North East of Jr’s homes and exactly 37 miles from the farm of  Edward Lanphear. Mr. Lanphear is currently incarcerated facing 400 years in the Big house for forcible rape and kidnapping of 2 young men simultaneously. There was also bondage devices in Lanphear’s basement and garage, as well as other similar items to those found in the Seitz home. His plea deal is pending a psych evaluation, and most experts do not think Lanphear acted alone, or that this was his first offense.

The former head of Wisconsin’s FBI office, though, thinks Seitz’s confession could be believable.

“I think it would be something to take very seriously and coupled with what was found through the search warrant, I would give it great credibility,” said retired agent Mike Santimauro.

Just prior to press I spoke to Agent Leonard Piece, Media Coordinator, FBI- Milwaukee office; Agent Piece confirmed there has been no request from MPD for assistance in any capacity in this case.

Skeeve From The Hood

Tony Szuta, 28, remembered going to Vern’s Barber Shop for haircuts between the ages of 9 and 12 while he was growing up in Cudahy. “When he talked to you, it was like he was looking through you. There was something up with the guy. We could never figure out what it was,” Szuta said.  Seitz showed Szuta and his friend’s paintings and drawings Seitz had done, but nothing seemed disturbing, Szuta said.

One friend told Szuta that Seitz had asked if he could portray him in a drawing.
Richard Francel was close friends with Seitz. “(He was) just a relaxed, easy going guy. Very knowledgeable. Very intelligent,” Francel said. Richard Francel was close friends with Seitz.

Francel said police interrogated him after Seitz’s death. But, Francel said he never knew about his friend’s collection of child pornography or his alleged confession. “No. he was never like that,” Francel explained.

Near Vern’s Barber Shop in St. Francis, Lynne Bartholomew, owner of Lynne’s Scizzory, a hair salon next door, said she knew Seitz for nine years. “He would come in and ask for a cup of coffee and tell me about his life, which was pretty scary, actually,” Bartholomew said.  She said Seitz told her he was abducted from the Racine zoo as a boy by men who molested him and forced him to shoot and kill another boy.

Bartholomew said Seitz also claimed to have shot and killed a man who robbed him in his home three years ago and that he had killed two men in Chicago some years ago.
Bartholomew said Seitz had a particular interest in boys that made her and some of her customers “uncomfortable.”

“You get an eerie feeling from someone you just say stay away from them,” said neighbor Shannon Crawford. “I’m very glad I didn’t let [my kids] go over there more often.”

Elementary school teacher and Sister-in-law Susan Seitz, though, said Vernon was abducted and abused as a boy and believes his interest in child abductions stemmed from this experience.

“I guess it just goes to show you don’t really know the secrets of your neighbors,” said Jordan Burich, who lives near Seitz’s house. “We really didn’t know what was going on, but when [investigators] brought a jackhammer, we knew there was something more nefarious going on.”

One ponders upon seeing the words “jackhammer” and “nefarious” in the same sentence.

How close is this to Fargo?

This Just got Creepier : A Dahmer Connection?

Jeffrey Dahmer, responsible for 17 known murders and mutilations from 1978, lived in the know demolished Oxford Arms Apartments, less than 6 miles away from Seitz. When he was living with his grandmother in West Allis previously, 13 miles from Seitz.

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Vernon C. Seitz, 62, was found deceased in his home on December 15, 2008 by Milwaukee, WI police following a wellness check request by a friend. While it appeared Mr. Seitz died of natural causes, what police also found in his home was anything but natural.

Male Child Porn Slides, Photos, Videos, Paintings and Children’s Shoes

Milwaukee Police executed a Search warrant the following day, and seized over 500 pieces of evidence, including male child porn, bondage equipment, a book titled “Eat Thy Neighbor: A History of Cannibalism and children’s shoes. According to a search warrant obtained by TODAY’S TMJ4, “during an emergency sweep of Seitz’s residence officers noticed newly poured cement in Seitz’s basement” and “elevated dirt piles in the yard and bondage devices in the basement, hanging from the floor rafters.”

Also found, of unknown origin, were tufts of what appears to be human hair.  Before anyone speculates it would be natural for a barber to have tufts of hair lying around his shop,  Verns’ Barber Shop is located 10 miles away.  At Seitz’s Packard Ave Barber shop he owned for 20 years, Police found a laminated poster of missing Minnesota Child Jacob Wetterling.  Jacob Wetterling, abducted in October 1989 by a masked gunman  while riding his bike to rent a movie with his brother and a friend, has never been found. Apparently that is not due to the fact that Mr. Seitz did not make the effort:

The boy’s mother, Patty Wetterling, told the St. Paul Pioneer Press that Seitz came to visit her twice soon after the abduction. He claimed to be a psychic wanting to help and had even given her a painting of Jacob.

“He seemed to care, and he shared that he had his own personal reason to care,” she said, noting that Seitz had had an abusive incident happen to him in the past, which she declined to speak of further. There were a number of not yet disclosed missing children posters among Mr. Seitz belongings. However, it appears Mr. Seitz’s concerns for missing young boys extends beyond the domestic.  Creepy Barber Guy had a missing person’s poster of Michael Dunhee.

Michael Dunhee, aged 4 ½, disappeared from a park near his home in Victoria, BC in 1991 and has never been found.    Michael’s Mother, Crystal Dunahee,  told CBC News on Wednesday that she’s not sure whether Seitz ever contacted her family after Michael disappeared, but that the name Vernon Seitz does seem “familiar” to her.

Dust off the Rorschach, shrink needs a shrink

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