Milwaukee, WI
2020 Milwaukee homicide, man now charged in woman's death
MILWAUKEE – A man is now charged with second-degree reckless homicide in a Milwaukee woman’s 2020 death.
While 43-year-old Kerry Whitehead is now accused, court filings state homicide detectives did not receive the case until September 2023.
At the scene
Police were called to a home near 6th and Albert, just southwest of Port Washington and Capitol, around 1:30 p.m. on May 10, 2020. Officers found the victim unconscious on a bedroom floor. Fire department personnel attempted lifesaving measures, but the victim was pronounced dead at the scene.
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A criminal complaint states Whitehead was at the scene. He said he lived with the victim, and later told police he thought of her as a wife. Whitehead told investigators the victim was drunk and fell down some steps two days earlier, hitting her head. Moments later, though, prosecutors say Whitehead changed his story – but again described the victim as being “sloppy drunk” and “drunk as (expletive).”
An autopsy determined the victim had blunt force injuries to her head, including brain hemorrhages, and a thyroid cartilage fracture. The complaint states the cartilage fracture is a common injury in choking cases. The autopsy concluded the woman died of a blunt force injury to her head.
Homicide case
At the time of the victim’s death, officers did not pursue her death as a homicide and did not refer it to homicide detectives. Court filings state MPD homicide detectives were not made aware of the case until 2023, when a different assistant medical examiner reviewed the initial autopsy report.
The new review noted that samples taken of the woman’s blood contained no alcohol, and alcohol would not have metabolized after the trauma. According to the complaint, it meant no alcohol was present in the victim’s system at the time she sustained the fatal injury, contradicting Whitehead’s claim.
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Homicide detectives then spoke with Whitehead on Sept. 28, 2023. The complaint states Whitehead maintained he and the victim had been drinking, but said it happened the night before her death. Detectives specifically asked if the victim had fallen down the stairs and if he picked her up; Whitehead answered “no” to both questions.
Detectives later reviewed police reports of Whitehead allegedly abusing a woman in October 2020 – months after the vicitm’s death. The woman in that October 2020 case said Whitehead held her down by her throat and punched her in the side of the head. She said she fought to get away and asked, “Is this how you did your wife?” to which Whitehead answered, “Yeah, you crazy (expletive).” The woman also described conversations with Whitehead in which he described ways he could hit her without leaving a mark.
Court records show Whitehead is currently a Racine Correctional Institution inmate.
Drone video shows dug‑up yard at former Michael Lock home
Drone video shows a dug‑up yard at a Milwaukee home once owned by Michael Lock, following a police search for possible homicide victims.
Milwaukee police on Monday, April 20, began digging up a home once owned by notorious Milwaukee drug dealer Michael Lock.
The dig marks another chapter in Lock’s long criminal history in Milwaukee, which has included convictions for homicide, drug dealing, kidnapping, torture and running a prostitution ring.
As of 6 p.m., April 20, police had partially dug up the concrete driveway and yard in Lock’s former home. Lock has been convicted of murders of other drug dealers whose bodies were found under concrete slabs at a different home he owned.
As the dig continues, here’s what to know about Lock:
Who is Michael Lock?
Lock was the head of a murderous criminal organization known as the “Body Snatchers” and one of the leading criminal operators in Milwaukee until his 2007 arrest.
Over the course of a decade, Lock’s organization sold large volumes of cocaine, tortured and killed other dealers, prostituted women across the Midwest and ran a mortgage fraud scheme.
A jury convicted Lock in July 2008 in the homicides of two drug dealers in 1999 and 2000, whose remains were found in 2005 under concrete slabs in the backyard of a home once owned by Lock at 4900 W. Fiebrantz Ave. He has also been found guilty of running a prostitution ring, various kidnapping and drug dealing charges and mortgage fraud.
Where is Michael Lock now?
Lock is is serving multiple terms of life in prison at Waupun Correctional Institution without the chance of parole.
Where are Milwaukee police digging on April 20?
Milwaukee police confirmed they are executing a search warrant at the home on 4343 N. 15th St. in Milwaukee’s north side. City tax records show the property is owned by Shalanda Roberts, formerly Shalanda Lock, Michael Lock’s former wife.
Why are police digging up the yard of Lock’s former home?
There has long been suspicion on the part of law enforcement that there are additional bodies buried under the yard. In 2011, police dug another Milwaukee yard looking for remains.
In that warrant 15 years ago, investigators said at least four victims are buried somewhere in Milwaukee. Before that, police had dug a half-dozen other yards. Police have found no remains in the other digs.
Who lives at the property now?
It is unclear if anyone currently lives at the North 15th Street property. Shalanda Roberts told the Journal Sentinel she owns the property where police are digging, but it is a rental and she lives out of state now.
She said she has no information on the dig and has not spoken to her former husband in years.
Read the Journal Sentinel’s past coverage on Michael Lock
The Journal Sentinel documented the case against Lock in a five-part investigative series, “The Preacher’s Mob,” published in 2009.
You can read the series below:
Marvin Bynum, adjunct professor at Marquette University Law School, was named to BizTimes Milwaukee’s list of Notable Leaders in Law.
Bynum, shareholder and real estate attorney with Milwaukee-based Godfrey & Kahn, teaches a course on real estate transactions at Marquette. He has experience with a range of property types, from sports facilities to manufacturing plants and office spaces, and works to help clients navigate transactions including development, financing, leasing, acquisitions, dispositions and low-income housing tax credit-financed projects.
Notable Leaders in Law is part of BizTimes Milwaukee’s Notable series, which recognizes leaders in the southeastern Wisconsin business community.
Six alumni were also named to the list:
- Jim Brzezinski, managing partner and CEO of Tabak Law
- Adam R. Finkel, partner at Husch Blackwell
- Jeremy Guth, shareholder and attorney at O’Leary-Guth Law Office S.C.
- Keith Kopplin, shareholder at the Milwaukee office of Ogletree Deakins
- Isioma Nwabuzor, associate general counsel and assistant corporate secretary at Modine Manufacturing Co.
- Joe Pickart, partner at Husch Blackwell
Milwaukee Wave coach Marcio Leite 2025-26 team’s evolution in MASL
See first-year Milwaukee Wave head coach Marcio Leite discuss the roles of younger players and veterans as the 2025-26 MASL season begins.
The Milwaukee Wave had been in the awkward position of trying to sell tickets to the MASL championship series without knowing when it would actually host a game.
The questions were answered late April 19, when the San Diego Sockers beat the St. Louis Ambush in the other semifinal in overtime. Their series didn’t even start until four days after the Wave eliminated the Baltimore Blast with victories in a regulation Game 2 and knockout Game 3 at the UWM Panther Arena.
Now the finals are set for two of the most decorated teams in arena soccer.
The Wave will host Game 1 at 6:35 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 and then the series will finish at the Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California, with Game 2 at 9:30 p.m. April 24 and a potential Game 3 at 9 p.m. April 27.
Three versions of the Sockers have totaled 16 championships in various indoor league with the latest iteration founded in 2009 owning six of those. The Wave has seven.
First-year Wave head coach Marcio Leite has won titles with both franchises.
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