Suspect hospitalized after car fire
UPDATE (2/26): MADISON, Wis. — Family members of Madison, Wis., resident Christina Hatcher have identified the suspect who is in custody in connection with her death, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
The Fairbanks High School graduate and former Milford Center resident was found dead in her apartment at 2501 Calypso Road on Wednesday after a concerned family member asked police to check on her around 9 a.m.
Hatcher’s boyfriend, 39-year-old Jose Vasquez, is the suspect in custody, according to Hatcher’s mother.
Hatcher’s daughters, 5-year-old Aubree and 3-year-old Brooklyn Pool, had been living in Sun Prairie, Wis., with her parents, Angela and Brad Hatcher. Hatcher moved to Wisconsin from her native Ohio 2½ years ago — when her father got a job in the area — so that her parents could help her with the girls.
“She loved her girls,” Hatcher’s mother said.
Hatcher’s coworkers set up a GoFundMe page to cover her funeral expenses and raise money for her daughters: www.gofundme.com/5gr2bv9w. As of Friday morning, the page had received more than $2,700 in donations.
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Christina Hatcher with her daughters, Brooklyn Pool and Aubree. (PHOTO | GoFundMe.com) |
UPDATE (2/25): MADISON, Wis. — The 24-year-old woman killed on Madison’s North Side earlier this week has been identified by the victim’s grandparents as Christina Hatcher, formerly of Milford Center.
Police have not publicly identified the woman yet pending the results of an autopsy by the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office, the Wisconsin State Journal reports.
But the woman’s grandparents, Kathleen and Roger Hatcher, on Thursday confirmed with the Journal that the victim was their granddaughter, Christina Hatcher, originally from Milford Center. She graduated from Fairbanks High School and has two children, the elder Hatchers said.
Previous story: MADISON, Wis. — A former Milford Center resident reportedly was found dead in her apartment Wednesday from what police said appears to be domestic homicide.
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Madison, Wis., police are investigating a homicide in an apartment building at 2501 Calypso Road on the city’s North Side. Christina Hatcher, 24, formerly of Milford Center, was found dead, and her boyfriend is in custody. (PHOTO | JOHN HART, WISCONSIN STATE JOURNAL) |
A relative of the 24-year-old woman called the Madison Police Department around 9 a.m. concerned about the victim’s welfare. She was found dead in the north side apartment.
Police Public Information Officer Joel DeSpain said today police are not releasing the name of the victim nor her boyfriend’s name, the prime suspect in the case.
Police report the 39-year-old man is currently hospitalized after suffering burns in a car fire around 4:20 p.m. Tuesday. He was pulled from a vehicle engulfed in flames near a soccer field at a city park.
“We are looking into the possibility of an attempted suicide,” said Officer DeSpain.
The car belonged to the victim.
He remains in the hospital under guard and no charges have been be filed as of this morning.
An autopsy was set for today, Mr. DeSpain said, with the Dane County Medical Examiner’s Office. That office handles the release of victim’s names and the manner of death after the initial autopsy.
According to the Wisconsin State Journal, Madison Police Chief Mike Koval said, “This is not an instance, by any means, of a random homicide committed by a complete stranger.”
He said detectives were still trying to determine when the homicide occurred.
The Journal interviewed James White, the groundskeeper at the apartment building where the woman’s body was discovered.
He said police asked him Wednesday morning if they could be let into the apartment.
“I called my father, who’s the owner, and he got the keys and let them into the apartment, and I saw the body in there,” he said.
Chief Koval said the woman worked in the food service or restaurant industry.
Mr. White said he heard the woman, who had two children who have been living with her parents, recently got a promotion at her job.
He said other tenants told him the couple, who moved into the apartment three weeks ago, would fight loudly. Mr. White also said people told him she had not been heard from in a couple of days.
Chief Koval said the couple had been dating for a couple of months. He said the man did not resist when taken into custody.
“We just followed some logical leads, and that’s what ultimately led to us finding him,” the chief said.
Detectives are checking to see if there had been previous reports of domestic issues between the couple.
Editor’s Note: An earlier version of this story stated Christina Hatcher, who was originally from Milford Center, was a former East Liberty area resident. Her Facebook profile lists her hometown as East Liberty.