‘To me, this is not justice. She got to lead her life. We didn’t live ours,’ the victim’s son, who was 16 at the time, said
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For the now 81-year-old killer, passions ran deep.
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Mary Jo Bailey has been sentenced to spend the rest of her life in prison for killing a romantic rival in 1985.
She was convicted in June of the first-degree murder of Yvonne Menke which carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison. But because of laws at the time of the slaying, she can apply for parole after serving 19 years in the slammer.
Bailey would be 100 years old if she is ever released. Her lawyers have vowed to appeal.
In the early morning hours of Dec. 12, 1985, Menke told her daughter she was going outside to warm up her car before work.
Her daughter then heard what sounded like a “whip-like” noise. She thought it was gunshots and looked out the windows of their apartment.
She said she saw a person walking and then jogging away from the scene wearing a grey dress coat, scarf, and stocking cap.
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At the bottom of the stairs, Menke was discovered dead.
The murder of Yvonne Menke stunned the small town of Osceola, Wisc. More chilling was the fact that the case quickly went cold.
But detectives took another look at Menke’s murder in 2021 and linked the mother-of-three’s death to Bailey.
At the time of the slaying, the two women were romantically involved with the same man. After Menke’s murder, Jack Owen married a different woman and moved to Montana, where he died in 2021.
For Menke’s children — one of whom who was pregnant at the time of the slaying, her murder shattered their lives.
“You waited in a dark stairwell to maliciously murder my mom. You sentenced us to a life filled with pain, sadness and hurt,” daughter Julie Connors, who was 20 at the time of her mother’s murder, told Bailey in court.
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“To me, this is not justice,” said son James Menke Jr., who was 16 in 1985. “She got to lead her life. We didn’t live ours. But it’s as close as it’s going to get. So, now we can finally put this behind us. But (Bailey) should never be let out again.”
Judge Scott Nordstrand said because of the 1985 law he could not add — or subtract — time from Bailey’s sentence. He said he would have set Bailey’s parole eligibility date at 38 years.
“I think it needs to be said how brutal and how horrific this crime was. And cold-blooded,” Nordstrand said.
Assistant District Attorney Holly Wood-Webster said: “Other than her lack of denial, Ms. Bailey has not admitted what she did, she has not taken accountability for her actions, she has shown no remorse.
“In fact, she told the bailiff after she was convicted that she can now retire and not worry about it. This is first-degree murder … Ms. Bailey should not be eligible for parole.”
@HunterTOSun
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