Laurie Bembenek Dead 52

By: Michael Stevens
Staff Writer
Published: Nov 21, 2021

Laurie Bembenek Dead 52 - Health problems included hepatitis C, liver problems, and kidney failure.

Laurie Bembenek dead 52. Milwaukee's longest running legal saga may be dead after Lawrencia Bembenek died at 52 years old. She died in hospice care.

Bembenek, who later changed her first name to Laurie, had been admitted to a hospital in recent days and then was transferred to a hospice, her sister said. Her health problems included hepatitis C and liver and kidney failure. "It went real fast. I'm glad she didn't linger," Colette Bembenek said. "I knew it was inevitable that she probably would be expiring early in life."

Laurie Bembenek was the former Milwaukee police officer charged with killing her then-husband's ex-wife, Christine Schultz. She was convicted in 1982 and sentenced to life in prison, but that was far, far from the end of the story. In 1990, with the help of fiance Dominic Gugliatto, the brother of another inmate, she escaped from Taycheedah Correctional Institution. They were captured three months later in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

More legal proceedings resulted in her pleading guilty to second-degree murder and being released on parole for time served. Colette Bembenek said she did not have a chance to speak with her sister before she died. She was told of her sister's death by Martin Carson, Laurie Bembenek's ex-husband. According to Martin, Laurie Bembenek was in and out of consciousness. Colette last saw and spoke to her sister when their father died in 2003.