Lisa Ann French

Lisa Ann French (June 2, 1964 – October 31, 1973) was a 9-year-old girl from Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, who was sexually assaulted and murdered by her neighbor, Gerald Miles Turner Jr. (later nicknamed "The Halloween Killer" ), on Halloween night 1973, while she was trick-or-treating alone.

French was out Trick-or-Treating alone near her home on her way to a neighborhood Halloween party.

Turner lured her into his home before sexually assaulting and killing her, then concealing her corpse in a garbage bag and later discarding her body in a farm field in the town of Taycheedah, Wisconsin.

Turner confessed to the murder nine months later, and was originally sentenced to 38 years and 6 months for his crimes.

Lisa Ann French was born on June 2, 1964, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin to parents Allan French and Maryann Gehrig.

She lived in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, with her mother, stepfather Bruce De Pauw, and newborn half-brother, a half-block away from where Turner lived.

French was a fourth grader at Chegwin Elementary School and a member of the Girl Scouts.

At the time of French's death, Turner lived with his girlfriend, Arlene Penn, and their infant child.

French and Turner knew each other before the incident; French often spent time with Turner and Penn's infant and had regular conversations with Turner.

Turner had previously shared a rented side of a duplex with French's family.

Prior to the murder, Turner had not been convicted of any major sex offenses.

Turner had previously sexually molested a 15-year-old babysitter but was never accused before the murder of French.

French left her home at around 5:45 p.m. dressed as a hobo, wearing a black felt hat, a green parka, jeans with blue masking tape, and dotted freckles on her cheeks.

French originally intended to be accompanied by a friend, Ann Parker, on her way to an outdoor Halloween party at Pumpkin Place on East Bank Street.

Parker, however, had been grounded, so she had to stay home, leaving French to trick-or-treat by herself.

It was reported that French stopped for candy at a classmate's house and the house of one of her teachers, Karen Bauknecht, before she made her way to Turner's residence.

According to Turner's confession, French rang his doorbell, said "trick-or-treat", and walked through his open doorway with her candy bag open as Turner came to the door.

Turner and French began to talk about candy and at some point Turner lured French into his bedroom, where he sexually assaulted and murdered her.

Turner said that after the sexual assault French wasn't breathing; he attempted to revive her but was interrupted when Arlene Penn arrived home.

Penn, who had been at the party French was supposed to attend, said that she arrived home around 7 p.m. Turner was wearing a bathrobe and claimed multiple times that he was "sick."

Penn said that Turner made several trips to the bedroom to lie down; in Turner's confession, he said that French's body was, at that time, in the adjacent bathroom.

After Penn left the residence at around 8:00 p.m. to visit her mother, Turner stuffed French's body and clothes into separate bags and drove her body to Taycheedah, Wisconsin, where he discarded her corpse in a farm field off McCabe Road.

In an effort to avoid leaving evidence of fingerprints on French's body or on the crime scene, Turner wore socks on his hands when moving the body.

He also wiped down French's shoes and the zipper of her parka.

French's mother, Maryann Gehrig, started to grow worried about French's whereabouts when she did not return home for her 7:00 p.m. curfew.

By 10:00 p.m., a search party had formed and begun looking for the young girl.

A four-day, county-wide search for the missing girl was conducted which included over 5,000 volunteers, 700 block parents, auxiliary police officers, The United States National Guard and some of her fellow Girl Scouts.

A farmer named Gerald Braun was returning home in his tractor in Taycheedah on November 3, 1973, at 11:30 a.m., when he discovered two brown plastic bags behind a barbed wire fence near a forest on McCabe road, one containing French's naked corpse, the other containing the clothing from her halloween costume.

An autopsy performed on French's body had revealed that French had died from asphyxiation though a pathologist had also stated she had died from circulatory shock from the sexual trauma that she endured.

French's funeral was held on November 6, 1973, at Immanuel-Trinity Lutheran Church in Fond du Lac.

On November 8, 1973, The chamber of commerce had posted a ten thousand dollar reward for the capture of Lisa Ann French's killer.

Turner was made a suspect of the murder early in the investigation by Fond du Lac law enforcement, but it took nine months of questioning and testing until he confessed nine months later on August 8, 1974, to the rape and murder of French.

During the nine months of scrutiny from police, he was brought in by law enforcement to perform a polygraph exam; the results of the exam came back inconclusive and Turner denied to perform a second exam.

Police had also collected body hair and bedspread fiber samples from Turner, which were positively matched to samples on French's body and her clothing.

Turner in his 1974 confession had stated that when he saw French in his doorway he was "highly sexually motivated"; he said he then proceeded to lead her into his bedroom where he undressed French and then performed anal intercourse on her.

Turner then said that he noticed that French had stopped breathing after the sexual assault and he put his head over her chest and noticed that her heart was still beating and attempted to revive her by placing his hands over her chest and then listening to her chest again until he said Penn had driven up to the house.

Gerald Turner was subsequently taken into police custody on August 9, 1974, and was convicted on February 4, 1975, by a jury on the charges of second degree murder, enticing a child for immoral purposes and acts of sexual perversion and was sentenced to 38 years and 6 months in prison.

He was mandatorily released on parole in 1992 and 1998, but sent back to prison in 2003 for 15 years and 6 months for violating his parole.

Turner was first paroled on October 13, 1992, for "good behavior" after only serving 17 years and 8 months of his sentence in Waupun Correctional Institution.

The murder sent shockwaves through the local community of Fond du Lac and the state of Wisconsin, causing more stringent daylight trick-or-treating hours in Wisconsin communities and inspiring the creation of Wisconsin Chapter 980, enacted in 1994 and nicknamed "Turner's Law," which allows criminals who have been released from their prison sentences to be detained in mental health facilities if they are deemed sexually violent persons and dangerous to the public.