{"id":11264,"date":"2026-05-12T17:10:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:10:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/catching-the-killer-of-neil-lafave\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T17:10:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T17:10:07","slug":"catching-the-killer-of-neil-lafave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/catching-the-killer-of-neil-lafave\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching the Killer of Neil LaFave"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On his birthday in 1971, Wisconsin game warden Neil LaFave went out to post \u201cNo Hunting\u201d signs.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The next morning, searchers found his body buried in a shallow grave. The brutality stunned investigators: multiple gunshots, and a horrifying attempt to conceal the crime.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Suspicion quickly centered on a young poacher with a history of conflict with LaFave. But proving it would take something new: one of the first wiretaps ever used in a Wisconsin murder case.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What followed was a breakthrough that changed the investigation, and revealed just how far someone was willing to go to avoid getting caught.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Got a tip about this case or know about another you think we should cover? Send us an email at bloodtrails@themeateater.com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo of Brian Hussong courtesy of the Wisconsin Historical Society.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read the full article here<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On his birthday in 1971, Wisconsin game warden Neil LaFave went out to post \u201cNo Hunting\u201d signs. The next morning, searchers found his body buried in a shallow grave. The brutality stunned investigators: multiple gunshots, and a horrifying attempt to conceal the crime. Suspicion quickly centered on a young poacher with a history of conflict<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11265,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.ctfassets.net\/pujs1b1v0165\/HPx4EUWI44OrLPe08Ho5l\/77e8c3b0905818f84c12e1ed7353fbe8\/lafave_feature.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-hunting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11264"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11266,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11264\/revisions\/11266"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11265"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sawahsolutions.com\/range\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}