The relationship between Teri Sue Jendusa-Nicolai and David Larsen was a stew of hard feelings, abuse allegations and restraining orders that prosecutors say came to a violent boil over the weekend.
After he ambushed his ex-wife with a baseball bat during a child exchange, Larsen, a 39-year-old air-traffic controller, abducted her, sealed her in a garbage can with duct tape and put her in a self-storage unit in Wheeling, authorities said. Jendusa-Nicolai,38, was in serious but stable condition Monday, a day after she was found severely beaten, with hypothermia and frostbite (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text).
Larsen faces multiple federal and state charges. If convicted of kidnapping in federal court in Milwaukee, he could face life in prison without parole.
“This clearly was one of the more brutal kidnapping cases, primarily because of the domestic violence situation,” said Assistant U.S. Atty. Mario Gonzales.
Police and court records from Racine County, Wis., sketch a tumultuous history between Larsen and Jendusa-Nicolai that began five months after they married in 1996.
At that time, a neighbor, who said she heard fighting, called police to the couple’s home in Norway, Wis., where they found Jendusa-Nicolai with a bloody nose. She said a pet rabbit had scratched her, but police arrested Larsen anyway for disorderly conduct and resisting an officer. The charges were dismissed.
Police were called to the house four more times for domestic disputes before Jendusa-Nicolai filed for divorce in 1999 (this sentence as published has been corrected in this text). She and Larsen were given joint custody of their two daughters, and Jendusa-Nicolai called authorities three more times to complain that Larsen didn’t return the girls to her on time.
Shortly after filing for divorce, Jendusa-Nicolai received a two-year restraining order against Larsen after she alleged ongoing physical and mental abuse.
She sought another restraining order in December, saying Larsen continued to be violent. The request was dismissed when she didn’t show up at the hearing, but Jendusa-Nicolai sent a letter to the judge saying Larsen had threatened to “ruin the holidays for the children” if she persisted.
Jendusa-Nicolai tried once more for a restraining order on Jan. 22, telling a judge Larsen had threatened her and her new husband when they had gone to pick up the children 12 days earlier.
“He has an anger problem, and it is escalating,” Jendusa-Nicolai wrote in her request. “Mr. Larsen stated, `Get off my property or I’ll come out there and take care of both of you.'”
The judge signed an order for Larsen to appear at a hearing scheduled for Monday, but Larsen was never served with the notice.
Authorities said the sour relationship finally exploded Saturday, when Jendusa-Nicolai went to Larsen’s home to pick up their daughters, ages 4 and 6.
Jendusa-Nicolai later told investigators that Larsen had lured her inside, telling her the children wanted her to come in. When she did, she said, he struck her repeatedly with a baseball bat, according to a complaint filed by the Racine County district attorney’s office.
Gonzales said, Larsen “beats her up, tapes her up and then puts her in the back of the truck and covers her with a tarp. He gets the kids and puts them in the front of the truck.
“According to the kids, they never saw her that day.”
More Top Picks Best Toilet Safety Frames For Arthritis Sufferers
The Racine County Sheriff’s Department was alerted to the alleged kidnapping by a phone call from a woman who said she was at Larsen’s address and that she was having trouble breathing.
About two hours later, a woman identifying herself as Jendusa-Nicolai called 911 to say she was in the bed of the pickup truck and her ex-husband was going to kill her, according to the federal criminal complaint.
Racine County deputies, who had gone to Larsen’s house after the first call, went back and found what appeared to be blood on the dining-room floor and in other parts of the house, the complaint said. Wheeling police arrested Larsen about 6 p.m. Saturday as he was driving to work at Palwaukee Municipal Airport. At first, Larsen denied that he had seen his ex-wife. But eventually he told investigators he had hit her and they had had a fight that began when he bent over to put something in a backpack and saw her standing over him with a hammer. He said he used a baseball bat in self-defense.
He told police he couldn’t remember where Jendusa-Nicolai was. But after authorities learned that Larsen rented space at a Public Storage facility in Wheeling, they discovered his ex-wife crammed in a garbage can sealed with duct tape. Boxes were piled on top.
Jendusa-Nicolai was taken to Lutheran General Hospital in Park Ridge, where doctors diagnosed blunt trauma, severe hypothermia and moderately severe frostbite. Dr. Daniel Resnick said Jendusa-Nicolai would remain hospitalized for the time being, but her prognosis is good.
The Larsen case was the talk of the Palwaukee Airport Monday, where those who knew him as an FAA air-traffic controller and a competent pilot struggled to understand the allegations against him. “He was by definition a controller. It’s no accident they chose that word. He kept things in control,” said Dean Ellis, president of the Windy City Flyers club.