Background
Ryan Erickson
Erickson was born in"Even Sunday Mass is not safe from the immodest dress of some devils. They come to read, give out Holy Communion, etc....looking like an advertisement. There icimmodest dress says to all present: I'm easy! Please go home and masturbate to my beautiful body. The sad thing is that some do."Erickson's strict, conservative views led to tensions with more liberal Catholics at St. Patrick's church and the resignation of the principal at the school, but the priest also had his share of supporters. According to investigators’ reports conducted after his suicide, there was another side of Erickson's personality. "When Erickson was 6 years old, he had sexual contact with a 4-year-old male cousin; when he was 19, he had sexual contact with a 14-year-old boy; when he was 21, he was investigated for allegedly sexually assaulting a boy at a summer resort." According to
From 2000 to 2002, the victim testified, he spent many weekends at the rectory with Erickson, watching horror movies and playing drinking games. He estimated that Erickson had supplied him more than 1,200 cans of beer and the same amount of liquor shots.The teenager could "remember about ten" sexual incidents with Erickson, but was "frequently so drunk" while spending time with Erickson that he could not remember what happened the night before when he woke up. After police confiscated Erickson's computer they found "a deeply buried file", a My Pictures\folder\holy Mass Prayers\Mass prayers\New Folder, which had been created on August 26, 2004, and last accessed December 12, 2004, shortly before Erickson’s suicide. It contained “more than forty images of gay and prepubescent male pornography in a variety of sex acts and poses,” some "involving bondage".
Daniel "Dan" O'Connell
The intended murder victim, 39-year-old Dan O'Connell, was a member of "one of Hudson's most prominent families" and the manager of O'Connell Funeral Home, married with two elementary school-aged children. He was active in his community, a "gregarious and sociable"Murders
On February 5, 2002, funeral home director Daniel O'Connell and mortuary science intern James Ellison were found shot to death at O'Connell Funeral Home. According to Rubenstein,a county medical examiner discovered the bodies in the early afternoon, while he was visiting the funeral home to pick up a death certificate. The scene of the crime that he found clearly suggested that O'Connell had been the target. He was shot to death where he was sitting, behind his desk. Ellison had risen from his chair and was bolting for the door when he was shot in the back. Investigators theorized that an argument between O'Connell and the perpetrator had erupted into sudden violence. Ellison was murdered because he was a witness.According to Leon Podles
Between 1:08 and 1:22 p.m., February 5, 2002, Erickson entered the funeral home. O’Connell was at his desk. Erickson shot him at point blank range once in the head with a 9mm semiautomatic pistol, killing him instantly. Erickson left the office; Ellison came into the room, saw O’Connell’s body and walked toward it. Erickson returned and fired again but missed. Erickson then shot Ellison through the skull at point blank range. Ellison died instantly and collapsed over the chair, with a bullet casing underneath him. Head shots are effective but difficult, because the head is both a small and a moving target. It takes a practiced shooter who is familiar with his weapon to kill so efficiently.Despite a reward of $100,000 and police interviews of 1,800 people (including Ryan Erickson), for almost two years the case remained unsolved. During this time (on September 16, 2003) Erickson was reassigned to Our Lady of Sorrows in
Investigation, suicide, and ruling
;Investigation Erickson did not become a suspect and was not interviewed by police until November 2004, when detectives Jeffrey Knopps and Shawn Pettee traveled from Hudson to Hurley to interview Erickson about the sexual assaults they had heard about from a male student from North Dakota and former associate of Erickson that Knopps had interviewed. The detectives asked Erickson how Daniel O'Connell and James Ellison were killed. Erickson replied:I think James was going through a door and out a door? And Dan was behind his desk. I think that’s what I, that’s what I, I mean, if I had to say what took place, I would say James was at the door and, and Dan was at the desk.While Erickson claimed he knew this information from the news, these were details that had not been publicly disclosed by police so that they could be used to both "test false confessions and to determine who knows things only the perpetrator would know". After police interviewed Erickson, Russell Lundgren, a Deacon at St. Mary's, was told by the priest, "'I done it and they were going to catch me'. He was staring out the window. Throughout the whole conversation, we never made eye contact." According to other testimony by Lundgren at a 2 October post-suicide judicial inquiry hearing, Erickson was worried about prison, saying "Do you know what they do with young guys in prison, especially priests?" (Lundgren had told other church staff about this remark but "did not tell police until after the suicide".) ;Suicide Because Erickson had revealed information to the detectives "about the crime scene that had not been made public", they interviewed him again the next month. During this December 7, interview they confronted him with "discrepancies in his remarks about the murders". Two days later, investigators "executed a search warrant on his living quarters, looking for evidence that would connect him to the murders." Among the files they discovered was "a deeply buried file My Pictures\folder\holy Mass Prayers\Mass prayers\New Folder, which had been created on August 26, 2004, and last accessed December 12, 2004, shortly before Erickson’s suicide. It contained 'more than forty images of gay and prepubescent male pornography in a variety of sex acts and poses'.” On December 19 Erickson hanged himself in the hallway of St. Mary's. His body was discovered by the church janitor and Richard Reams, a parishioner. ;Hearing A "John Doe" proceeding was held at the request of the family of Daniel O'Connell. On October 3, 2005, St. Croix District Attorney Eric Johnson presented the evidence to St. Croix County Judge Eric Lundell on the murders. Fifteen witnesses testified and other evidence was presented. As the defendant was deceased, the hearing took place without a jury. Judge Lundell stated “I find that and conclude that Ryan Erickson probably committed these crimes in question. On a scale of one to ten as far as strength of evidence I would consider this ten. It is a very strong case for circumstantial evidence”. Erickson's attorney and parents refused to attend the hearing and deny his guilt. D.A. Eric Johnson explained that even though "the evidence was not cross-examined and was not heard by a jury", the judge's ruling "can be construed as a finding of guilt."
Aftermath
In notes left to family and friends, Erickson denied that he had killed "anyone", but also wrote, "my ego, my pride, my lust, my envy have always stopped me from being the best person I could be. I am tired." In reply to written questions about Erickson, former bishop Raphael Fliss, stated, "The diocese f Superiordid not learn of any improper sexual behavior by Erickson until Dec. 17, 2004, when Hudson police officers, during their investigation, informed the diocese of allegations that Erickson sexually molested a minor while a priest and had pornographic files on his computer." Leon Podles points out that although the diocese of Superior knew that Erickson had "admitted to incidents of sexual abuse" and had been accused of abuse before and while he was in the seminary, they had not included him on the list of accused priests "in its own audit" or the John Jay School of Criminal Justice list of sexual abusers "because the incidents and accusations did not occur ''when'' Erickson was a priest". He notes that O'Connell's family complained that no one from the diocese called O'Connell's widow to offer condolences or apologies. Reportedly, "the only member of the clergy to call on the widow in the three and a half years after the murder was Ryan Erickson, the murderer.""Jennie O’Connell is Ready for the Healing to Begin", ''Hudson Star-Observer'', October 13, 2005.Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Erickson, Ryan 1973 births 2004 deaths Murder–suicides in the United States American murderers People from Wisconsin Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals in the United States American Roman Catholic priests Suicides by hanging in Wisconsin