Dateline: The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm - 5 harrowing details about Ken Juedes’s murder, explored

Dateline's "The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm" tells one of Wisconsin's most frightening murder stories, Ken Juedes' murder in 2006. The 2006 murder in the small town of Unity shadowed the town for decades. Juedes, a 58-year-old pharmacist, was killed in bed with two shotgun blasts.

After more than a decade of suspicion and doubt, his wife, Cindy Schulz-Juedes, was found guilty in 2021 and sent away to prison for life in 2022 for killing him. Dateline unravels the complicated facts, motives, and clues that ultimately spoke for Cindy, detailing how ordinary life on Dill Creek Farm had been secretly harboring a sorrowful secret.

The show uncovers the poisonous undertows of greed, dishonesty, and four decades of seething rage that unravel this horrific saga. The show not only dramatizes what occurred that August night, but also how a community coped with the emotional fallout, how a small community grappled with tragedy and deceit.

Here are 5 harrowing details about Ken Juedes’s murder shown in Dateline: The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm

1. A deadly success in the Dill Creek Farm peace

Dill Creek Farm, in Unity, Wisconsin, was also investigated by police on August 30, 2006, when Cindy Schulz-Juedes reported having discovered her husband dead. Dateline learned that the victim, Ken Juedes, was twice shot while he slept on his back and head.

Police did not find any robbery or breaking and entering. Serene attitude at the scene stunned detectives, and they began at once to suspect that the murderer was someone familiar to the victim.

2. A delayed call for help

It was perhaps the most stressed-out argument presented on Dateline and in trial testimony by witnesses alike: Cindy's timing. She told authorities she'd camped out on the property overnight and found Ken's body in the morning. Her slow 911 call, hours later, after alleging she had made the discovery, however, raised an eyebrow.

The inconsistency would be one of the primary items of evidence prosecutors would subsequently use to challenge her version.

3. Greed motive behind the murder

Dateline and the Wausau Daily Herald said police found that Cindy Schulz-Juedes purchased several life insurance policies on Ken for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Greed was motive number one, prosecutors said.

They also found there were conflicts between the couple regarding property rights and business matters, another twist in the tension.

4. Decades of suspense and a long court battle

The case had remained cold for over a decade without any charges ever being filed. The show recounts how detectives continued to try and retest evidence, conduct additional interviews, and revisit inconsistencies in Cindy's testimonies. It wasn't until 2019 that she was apprehended by the police as forensic advancements and other witness testimony went towards establishing a fresh image in the case.

Cindy Schulz-Juedes had never been innocent, but after a lengthy trial, she was found guilty in 2021 of first-degree intentional homicide.

5. A life sentence and a futile conclusion

Dateline, Oxygen, and Wausau Daily Herald reported in June of 2022 that Cindy Schulz-Juedes was sentenced to life in prison and no parole.

There was another sinister plot twist in 2024, however, as reported by Wisconsin Public Radio, when Cindy was found dead in jail, and the case is under investigation as a possible homicide.

Cindy's death ended a frightening chapter in the soap opera of Dill Creek Farm with no resolution to questions of justice and bitter reminders of duplicity. Dateline "The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm" is a sobering reminder of the way idyllic rural existence can hide inhuman cruelty. By laying bare the emotional, economic, and psychological variables in this classic case through open-ended interviewing and archival data, Dateline takes the veneer off this most notorious of cases.