DATELINE ‘The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm’ Who murdered Ken Juedes
The story behind Dateline’s The Trouble at Dill Creek Farm has a number of twists and turns. For 13 years, the murder of 58-year-old pharmacist Ken Juedes went cold. Once his murderer was found, they faced an unexpected consequence.
The death of Ken Juedes
On Wednesday, August 30, 2006 Cindy Schulz-Juedes she says she found her husband Ken Juedes dead in 2006 in their home after she spent the night in the camper. He had been shot twice in the chest.
She says she up at 8 a.m. and went to check on her husband when she saw his car still in the driveway and worried that he was late for work.
Cindy says she didn’t hear the shots that kills him because she had been on heavy medication.
“It’s the most horrific scene I have seen in my life. I was terrorized by it,” Cindy said of the scene.
Why was Cindy sleeping in the camper that night?
The night of Ken’s murder, Cindy was sleeping in the camper instead of their house. Her reason? She had a headache and didn’t want to hear him walking around.
Cindy and Ken regularly fostered children, but they had no foster children in the home the night of his murder. Cindy has said that she had planned to have child they had previously fostered to come that night, but she didn’t show up.
Why didn’t Cindy call 911?
Cindy didn’t call 911 herself. Instead, she went to her neighbor’s house and asked them to call. She claimed that her cell phone wasn’t working.
While the one neighbor was on the phone with 911, Cindy left and went to another neighbor’s house to tell them that she’d found her husband.
Huge inheritance
Ken’s estate was worth almost $1 million, including land and a life insurance policy, and Cindy stood to inherit most of it.
How was Cindy caught?
Cindy’s case was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. There was no “smoking gun” tying Cindy to Ken’s death, but a number of red flags, including the ones mentioned above, led prosecutor Theresa Wetzsteon to pursue the case anyway.
The night Ken died, his house was unlocked, which was uncommon behavior for him. Furthermore, his security system had been turned off days before.
Cindy had tried to get Ken to sell some hunting land, but he had refused to do so. Cindy had also forged Ken’s signature on the life insurance policy to have her receive 75% of the policy.
Cindy had owned a shotgun prior to the murder, and a shotgun had killed Ken. However, her shotgun conveniently was missing after his death.
Cindy Schulz-Juedes on November 27, 2019, 13 years after Ken’s murder. She had a $1 million bond.
What was Cindy Schulz-Juedes’ sentence?
On June 8, 2022, Judge Michael Moran sentenced Cindy Schulz-Juedes to life in prison Wednesday morning, calling her actions following the death of her husband, Kenneth Juedes, “callous and unfeeling.”
At her sentencing, Cindy maintained her innocence.
Cindy was murdered in prison
Cindy Schulz-Juedes served four years in prison before she was killed by fellow inmate, 27-year-old Taylor L. Sanchez.
Taylor was serving a two-year sentence for battery charges when she stopped taking her psychiatric medication.
“I stopped taking my meds and I started hearing voices again,” Taylor said after Cindy’s murder. “I thought she was using my toothbrush to scrub the toilet”.
Cindy’s cause of death was head trauma, and fellow inmates could hear the scuffling.
Ken’s sister Laurie gave a statement to News 9 after learning about Cindy’s homicide: “Her death does nothing to alleviate the pain of the loss of my brother. Two deaths do not cancel each other out. They only double the pain. My condolences to Cindy’s family and friends for their loss.”
She wanted to divorce him, so he hired people to kill her. Now he’s dead.
