OkieGranny
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http://wbay.com/2015/02/02/50-years-after-college-students-death-family-looking-for-answers/
According to Kappell’s death certificate, the 18-year old college freshman was brutally beaten, thrown into Lake Winnebago and drowned. His death was ruled a homicide. Newspaper articles from the time reveal details of Kappell being found bound and with a 30-pound rock attached to his naked body. It’s a horrific death his sister says he didn’t deserve.
Martha Kemp is Stephen Kappell’s sister. She says, “He was a good person. He was a very smart and intelligent, athletic man and he deserved to have a full life and that was robbed from him.”
Now, almost 50 years later, Kappell’s family knows it’s a long shot, but they really want to know why he was killed. “It certainly changed our lives forever, from a happy middle class family to something that was just horrific,” says Martha Kemp.
http://wbay.com/2015/02/03/friends-still-looking-for-answers-in-1965-cold-case/
His death certificate said he was brutally beaten and drowned — and listed his death as a homicide.
But, as St. Aubin recalls and a newspaper article from December 9, 1965 confirms, a hearing was held to determine if Kappell was murdered or if he committed suicide. The jury’s verdict was undetermined. St. Aubin said he testified at that hearing and was convinced Kappell was murdered.
According to St. Aubin, “I was attesting to the good person he was. And they wanted to make it sound like he had mental problems and he committed suicide, which didn’t happen, didn’t happen.”
http://wbay.com/2015/01/30/opd-turns-to-facebook-to-solve-50-year-old-cold-case/
Days later the body was identified as Kappell’s with the help of fingerprints. An inquest ruled the exact cause of death as undetermined and the case remained untouched for nearly 50 years.
Oshkosh police today say they weren’t even aware of the Kappell case until recently. We’re told Kappell’s sister asked for the case to be looked into again. “Not sure how it got passed all of these years,” Nichols said, “but when the family members contacted us it was reopened, and we were like, OK, let’s look forward, let’s look into it, see if we have any information, if anyone can remember anything.”
That’s when police took to social media asking for information about the case. Fifty years after the fact, police know Kappell’s acquaintances and classmates would be in their 60’s and 70’s, but authorities are sure someone knows something.