By Kim McDarison
Elizabeth Durkee, A 37-year-old Fort Atkinson resident, was sentenced Thursday to life in prison after being found guilty on charges of 1st degree intentional homicide and arson of a building without the owner’s consent.
Charges stem from crimes that took place in June of 2021 at 415 Foster St., Fort Atkinson. The residence served as home to Durkee and Durkee’s 72-year-old grandmother. At least one of Durkee’s two children, then 2, was also in the home on June 11, 2021, when it erupted in fire.
Fort Atkinson police officers and firefighters found the body of Durkee’s grandmother inside the building after the fire was extinguished.
According to court documentation, Durkee was found guilty of both charges due to entering a guilty plea.
Two other felony charges, strangulation and suffocation, and mutilating a corpse, were dismissed, according to the Wisconsin Circuit Count Access website.
Charges were dismissed as a part of a plea agreement, but “read in,” court documents noted, adding that when a charge is read in as part of a plea agreement, the defendant agrees to have the court consider the charges when sentencing for another crime and the defendant cannot be prosecuted for the charges in the future.
During the sentencing hearing, the court noted that Durkee “may request supervision after 22 years of initial confinement.” After allowing a credit of 537 days for time served, the court set a date when such a request could be made of June 13, 2043.
Durkee received a sentence of life imprisonment in response to the first count against her of 1st degree intentional homicide. On the second charge, arson of a building without the owner’s consent, she was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, consisting of 20 years of initial confinement and 15 years of extended supervision. The court ordered that the two sentences would be served concurrently.
Additionally, the court found that Durkee was not eligible for the state’s Challenge Incarceration Program, otherwise known as “Boot Camp,” or the Substance Abuse Program.
As conditions of extended supervision, the court ordered a mental health assessment and follow through with recommended treatment; that Durkee, undergo any assessment, treatment or counseling; that she attempt to obtain/maintain an employment and/or education program; that she comply with DNA sample provision upon demand, and that she pay costs, fees, assessments and surcharges, including the DNA surcharge.
Durkee is prohibited from owning firearms and voting.
Judge Robert Dehring, Jr., presided over the sentencing hearing. Durkee appeared in court with her attorney Amber K. Rumpf.
Jefferson County District Attorney Monica Hall representing the state.
Five-day event
Information included within the criminal complaint filed with Hall’s office on June 15, 2021, outlines a five-day event, beginning June 7, 2021.
According to the document, Durkee, after being taken into custody and made aware of her rights, agreed to make a statement.
In her statement, Durkee said she had been living at the residence at 415 Foster St. with her 2-year-old daughter and grandmother. Durkee described her grandmother as being in poor health, with advanced Parkinson’s disease and diabetes. She had also suffered a debilitating stroke in March and was blind, according to the complaint.
Within her statement, as described within the complaint, Durkee noted that her grandmother was bedridden and required assistance with daily functions. Care Wisconsin aided on a weekly basis with showering.
According to Durkee, her grandmother enjoyed listening to music, watching television and telling stories about family members including her late husband.
According to the complaint: “The defendant said the victim’s health was declining and she was suffering from anxiety and diarrhea. She said she was sick of feeling bad all the time and feared going back to a nursing home. She also said she did not want to live anymore and wanted to be with her late husband.”
On the evening of June 7, according to Durkee’s statement as recounted in the complaint, as Durkee prepared dinner, her grandmother asked her to help her end her life.
Later that evening, according to the statement within the criminal complaint, Durkee said “she would help her, but didn’t know how.”
According to Durkee, after the two said they loved one another, Durkee “covered the victim’s nose and mouth with flower-colored duct tape. The defendant said she remained in the room while the victim gasped for air.”
Durkee said it took about two minutes before her grandmother’s body stopped moving.
“The defendant said the victim was calm at first, but started to panic when she could no longer breathe,” according to the complaint.
After she was motionless, Durkee said she covered the body with a blanket and removed the duct tape.
“The defendant said she and her daughter did not leave the house until Wednesday (June 9) when they got groceries. She spent most of the week deciding what to do. She thought about calling an ambulance, but decided not to,” the complaint stated.
By the next day, according to the complaint, Durkee said she noticed a darkening in color of the body’s skin and an odor of decay.
“She then decided to start the house on fire and have her and her 2-year-old die in the fire,” the complaint continued.
With gas obtained from a can in the garage, the defendant poured the liquid on “random pieces of furniture and objects throughout the first floor of the home.”
She also poured gas on the blanket covering the victims’ body, the complaint noted.
Then, according to the complaint, she “decided she could not kill herself and her daughter and put the gas can back in the garage.”
On Friday, June 11, according to the complaint, Durkee woke up around 9 a.m., packed some of her daughter’s belongings, placed her daughter in the kitchen of the home, entered the victim’s bedroom and lit the gas-covered blanket with a lighter. She and her daughter then left the residence in her car.
The Fort Atkinson Fire Department, after being alerted to the fire through 911, arrived on the scene around 11:40 a.m. to discover the house being consumed by flames. A body was discovered in the building.
According to the complaint, the victim’s identity was established during the autopsy through a name that was printed on an item of clothing and on her dentures that were still in her mouth. The autopsy also established that the victim died before the fire.
The Fort Atkinson Police Department also responded to the fire.
According to the complaint, Officer Ryan Walters, who had previous professional contacts at the home, was informed by a neighbor that a “heavy set female and young child” had left the home, but the neighbor was unaware of the whereabouts of the home’s older occupant.
Fort Atkinson Police Officer Kevin Miller, who also was reported to have had previous professional contacts at the home, was described in the complaint as being aware that the older occupant had medical issues and was “mainly bed bound.” While an effort was made to get inside the building, the heat and smoke made those attempts unsuccessful. As firefighters suppressed the fire, the complaint noted, the officer was able to see the body inside.
After the fire, officers looked at camera footage produced by the Hoard Historical Museum, which is located across the street from where the fire took place, to determine when individuals described by neighbors may have left the house.
According to the complaint, the individuals described by neighbors left the house at 10:44 a.m. and smoke became visible at 10:46.
At approximately 9:38 p.m., agents from the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation talked by phone with Durkee’s 17-year-old daughter who did not live at the Foster Street residence.
According to the complaint, she said: “the defendant told her the defendant wanted to put the victim our of her misery.” She further stated that the defendant said “she would burn the house down after the victim died … (and) she would then drive her and her 2-year-old daughter into either the Rock River or Lake Michigan.”
“In the early morning hours of Saturday June 12, 2021, law enforcement developed information that the defendant was staying at the Super 8 Motel in the city of Delavan,” the complaint stated.
Law enforcement officers arrived to find Durkee and her daughter staying at the motel.
The 2-year-old was turned over to family members at the defendant’s request and the defendant was taken into custody.
Charred remains stand on Foster Street last summer after the home shared by Elizabeth M. Durkee, her grandmother and 2-year-old daughter succumbed to fire. After battling the blaze, Fort Atkinson Fire Department officials reported that they had found a body inside the building. File photo/Kim McDarison.
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