Daughter uses 4-pound rock to bludgeon her mother to death, Wisconsin cops say

A 64-year-old woman was beaten to death with a rock by her daughter in an attack witnessed by a neighbor, according to Wisconsin police and news reports.

Lauren Spors, 29, is accused of using a 4-pound rock to bludgeon her mother, Carrie Zettel, who was found with trauma on the side of her head, according to a criminal complaint obtained by TMJ4.

The attack was carried out in the backyard of a Milwaukee home Oct. 12, where a neighbor witnessed Spors standing over her mother and “repeatedly striking downward with an object” she was holding in her hands, police said, according to TMJ4.

Officers said Zettel had brain matter visible following the horrific attack, according to WDJT. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

“Carrie didn’t deserve what she got,” Susan Henderson-Hoffmann, a longtime friend of the victim, told WITI. “She definitely didn’t deserve how she passed.”

Before the fatal attack, Zettel had called another friend, Loretta Moyer, and said her daughter was attempting to break in, WITI reported.

“Pounding on the doors, the windows, and called 911. The police came, and caught her under a tarp and she ran away,” Zettel said in her 4 a.m. voicemail to Moyer, according to WITI. “Oh my god Loretta call me when you get a chance, honey.”

When Henderson-Hoffmann drove to her friend’s home the next afternoon, she heard sirens and “knew something was wrong,” she told WDJT.

Spors and Zettel had a rocky history, with the daughter being arrested twice in 2018 on domestic abuse charges against her mother, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The publication said Zettel filed a restraining order against Spors, and it was active until 2022.

With a history of mental health issues, Spors called her illness a “torture” and previously told investigators she needs “a lot of help,” the Journal Sentinel reported.

Because of their previous quarrels, Zetttel’s killing wasn’t a surprise, Henderson-Hoffman told the newspaper.

“We knew this was going to happen,” Henderson-Hoffman said.

Alex Spors, one of Zettel’s three children, said his mother often tried to help his sister, saying Zettel “was basically a full-time caretaker” for her, according to TMJ4.

“Despite the danger that (Zettel) put herself in, she was just there to try and make my sister have a better life,” Alex Spors told the publication.

Lauren Spors is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, court records show. She was jailed on a $100,000 bond.

According to Zettel’s obituary, she had had two grandchildren and worked as an acupuncturist after gaining her master’s degree in 2008.

“Her incredible generosity often came at great personal sacrifice to herself: She was never shy to cover your bill, even if she was short on money; she would help you shoulder a burden, no matter how heavy it was,” the obituary says. “She was a good Samaritan to all who crossed her path.”