Lantern Lit on 12/31/14-1/6/15 for Donald Simon

Lantern Memorial Project: Since October 2013, Hope House has joined with other domestic violence programs around the state by implementing the Lantern Project. For our part in this statewide project, we added to the lamppost in front of Hope House a purple memorial wreath. We will turn on the light for a week every time there is a death related to domestic violence in Wisconsin. We will post information online about the person that was killed. If you drive by our building and see our lamppost on, please reflect on the deadly impact that domestic violence has on our communities.

The obituary for Donald Simon is not available at this time.  If it becomes available online, we will re-post it here.
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"A Baraboo woman accused of stabbing her brother to death told investigators the incident resulted from a dispute over cigarettes.

In court Friday, a judge ordered that 58-year-old Anne M. Simon remain jailed on a $40,000 cash bond. She has been charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of her brother, 56-year-old Donald E. Simon.

The criminal complaint filed Friday in Sauk County Circuit Court says Simon told investigators that her brother had been verbally abusive toward her, asking her for cigarettes early Monday morning.

'At one point, while she was standing at a kitchen counter, he approached her from behind, placed his hands roughly on her shoulders and yelled at her about his cigarettes,' the complaint says. 'She grabbed a knife from the counter, turned and stabbed him in the chest.'

The complaint says the man walked back to the recliner where he had previously been seated, and that Simon saw him collapse onto the floor on his back.

Prosecutors say that incident occurred sometime between 2 a.m. and 2:30 a.m., after which Simon went to her room and went to sleep. About 9 hours later, she awoke to find her brother in the same position, dead on the floor, and called 911, according to the complaint.

Officers arrived at Simon’s Town of Delton home Monday morning to find her brother lying dead on his back on the floor in front of the recliner. An autopsy at the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison determined the man died of a stab wound that pierced his heart.

The medical examiner told authorities that Simon’s brother would have died very quickly from the wound he suffered. During a search of the home, investigators allegedly found knives in the basement.

'Crime Lab personnel found a set of Chicago Cutlery knives hidden in the foundation of the residence in the basement,' the complaint states. 'Officers had to break through the concrete block foundation wall to recover some of the knives.'

Investigators say Simon admitted to placing the knives in the basement foundation walls, but had no explanation as to why she had done that.

Simon appeared in court Friday for a bond hearing via video conference from the Sauk County jail with Baraboo attorney Greg Sacra.

Sauk County District Attorney Kevin Calkins asked that the judge impose a cash bond of $100,000, noting that Simon has reason to flee because she faces a maximum sentence of 60 years in prison if convicted. He also said she has a lengthy criminal history, including convictions of drunken driving, disorderly conduct, battery and resisting an officer"...Read the full article in the Baraboo News Republic

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