Police identify suspect and victim in Prairie du Chien murder

Jessie J. Slaughter, 39, allegedly killed Daniel Welsch, 65, of Prairie du Chien. Police previously said the men knew each other without providing further details.

Police said in a statement that they had referred charges against Slaughter of first-degree reckless homicide and bail jumping to the Crawford County District Attorney’s Office.

At the time of the incident in Prairie du Chien, Slaughter was out on bail from Oneida County for disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property.

No further details have been released; an autopsy is scheduled for later Monday in Madison.

On Friday around 10:15 p.m., police were called to a home in the 1000 block of East Wisconsin Street in Prairie du Chien to check on the welfare of a person, Chief Kyle Teynor said in a statement Saturday.

Officers found a dead man – identified Monday as Welsch – in the home with wounds “consistent with trauma caused by a sharp object.”

Based on the evidence gathered and statements from witnesses, a search warrant was obtained and executed at a residence in the Grant County town of Platteville on Saturday and a man later identified as Slaughter was arrested and taken to the Crawford County Jail.

Teynor said Saturday that the men knew each other and “all indications indicate that this act of violence was not random.”