Deputy burglarized homes while families grieved at funerals, Wisconsin police say

A Wisconsin deputy is accused of burglarizing the homes of families while they grieved at funerals, media outlets report.

One of her targets was the home of a firefighter killed on duty, police say.

The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office opened an investigation into Janelle Gericke, a deputy in the jail, after finding evidence she broke into a home, according to a news release.

The sheriff’s office later turned the probe over to the Wisconsin Department of Justice, and Gericke was fired in July.

According to a criminal complaint, Gericke looked online for obituaries, found the names of surviving relatives and targeted their homes during funerals, WKOW reported.

When the family of Lake Mills, Wisconsin, firefighter Chris Truman, who died helping a stranded driver, was at his funeral, Gericke went to the home, WITI reported.

When a fellow deputy caught her on the porch, Gericke said she was at the home to buy a baby item from Facebook Marketplace, the Milwaukee TV station reported.

Police say she tried or succeeded in burglarizing at least six homes, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported. If confronted about going into or near homes, she often told a similar story about seeking to purchase items from a Facebook Marketplace seller, the newspaper reported.

In June, police staked out homes of relatives attending a funeral publicized in an obituary and saw Gericke enter one home and try to go into another, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

“The sheriff’s office refuses to let events like this define itself and call into question the goodness of the people who work so hard every day to serve this community with honor and pride,” Sheriff Paul Milbrath wrote in a news release.

This story was originally published December 18, 2019 at 12:31 PM.