Background: The area in Hugo, Minnesota, where authorities say the victim was killed (KSTP/YouTube). Inset left: Trevor Wunderlich (Washington County Sheriff's Office). Inset right: Charlene Wunderlich (Roberts Family Funeral Home).
Minnesota authorities say they responded to a rural home to find a woman badly beaten with her son sitting right next to her — before he raced off while she told them it was her child who hurt her.
Charlene Wunderlich, 68, died that day, and 47-year-old Trevor Wunderlich is accused of killing her. He faces charges including first-degree premeditated murder and second-degree murder.
The defendant's trial began this week.
On the evening of Sept. 16, 2024, deputies with the Washington County Sheriff's Office were called to a home on Ingersoll Avenue in Hugo, Minnneosta. The city is located about 25 miles northeast of Minneapolis.
Someone had called 911, and the call stayed open, with dispatchers hearing "noises on the line consistent with an ongoing assault or struggle," according to a statement of probable cause reviewed by Law&Crime. Deputies arrived at the home and entered to find Charlene Wunderlich "lying on the floor in obvious distress."
Her son, the defendant, was apparently "seated in a chair next to her," police said.
The law enforcement officers tried to detain Trevor Wunderlich, "but he ran into the basement of the home and fled out the back door," the court document states.
The deputies "then immediately" cared for the victim, and they learned that "she had contusions, lacerations, and other injuries on her face and head, her arms and legs, and throughout her torso," authorities said. "She was conscious for a short period of time and was able to tell officers that it was the defendant who had assaulted her."
Charlene Wunderlich "quickly lost consciousness." Though she was brought to a local hospital, she was pronounced dead, with authorities determining her cause of death was "multiple blunt force injuries, including multiple rib fractures, a sternal fracture, chest wall hemorrhage and pulmonary contusions," and the manner was homicide.
Police launched a manhunt for the suspect and asked for the public's help in finding him. The following morning, a neighbor said she "found a male believed to be the defendant in a camper on her property." Though he ran away, officers found him nearby and detained him.
As investigators began to look into what led up to this incident, evidence suggested Charlene Wunderlich was afraid of her son and worried she might meet such a fate as she did.
Roughly four years earlier, she filed for an order of protection against her son, regional ABC affiliate KSTP reported. As part of the application, she wrote that "he wishes I would die" and said at the time that it had been "happening for 3 years" and was "just escalating."
The TV station reviewed hundreds of pages of police reports and court records that showed the defendant was repeatedly arrested and booked in jail. In 2021, a witness reportedly said the defendant gave Charlene Wunderlich "a black eye and was out of control."
After that incident, the victim apparently stated that she "didn't care if she lived or died anymore."
Trevor Wunderlich's trial was set to continue on Tuesday. He faces life in prison.
During opening statements, Assistant Washington County Attorney Richard Podvin said the victim had life insurance policies, some of which had the defendant listed as the beneficiary. "With Charlene out of the way, the defendant stood to gain from property rights and money, a windfall of over 1 million," the prosecutor said, per the Pioneer Press.
Podvin said that Charlene Wunderlich's back was beaten so badly "that her ribcage could not expand and allow her to properly breathe," so she essentially suffocated "on her kitchen floor."
Trevor Wunderlich, however, has maintained his innocence, telling KSTP last year that "the truth will come out."