A $100,000 reward offered in Wisconsin funeral home deaths

HUDSON, Wis. (AP) -- A $100,000 reward was offered Tuesday for information related to the fatal shootings of two funeral home workers nearly three months ago.

Daniel O'Connell, director of O'Connell Family Funeral Home, and intern James Ellison were found dead Feb. 5 in an office at the funeral home.

"The biggest issue is we are struggling to find a motive. That is a tough one," Police Chief Richard Trende said.

The Dan O'Connell Memorial Trust Fund has offered the reward through donations and pledges, Trende said. The award will go to anyone providing information that leads to a conviction of those involved in the killings.

Investigators believe the men were killed between 1 p.m. and 1:30 p.m. Police are trying to find a white man of slender to medium build who was seen outside the funeral home about that time, Trende said.

Someone saw the man get into a newer, white, mid-sized four-door car, Trende said. The man was wearing a light-colored T-shirt, light blue pants and a baseball cap.

"We don't know who the person is and we don't know what he was doing there," the chief said.

Police believe the funeral home workers were gunned down just before the county medical examiner found them while on routine business at the funeral home.

"There is a lot of stuff we are following up on," Trende said. "We still get some tips. We have been reinterviewing a lot of people."

Police still seek information on seven different vehicles that they believe were parked outside the funeral home between 8 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. the day of the killings, Trende said.

He doesn't know why the drivers have been unwilling to voluntarily contact police.

Police want to talk to the drivers of the vehicles, which include cars, sport utility vehicles and pickup trucks, to try and establish what was going on at the funeral home at different times during the day.

O'Connell's father, Tom O'Connell, said he knows investigators have a hard case to solve. "It was baffling for the police, for everybody, because nothing was taken," O'Connell said.