Accounts
of Crime Sharply Differ
Graphics by Wisconsin
State Journal
There's no dispute that UW-Madison student
Shanna Van Dyn Hoven
died by the side of Plank Road in Kaukauna on June 25, 2000. The
19-year-old was stabbed to death while jogging by a quarry near her
family's home.
There's also no question Ken Hudson was with Van Dyn Hoven
before her death, and that the gravely injured woman spent some time in
his battered 1985 Chevy pick-up truck. Hudson fled the scene,
everyone agrees, leading police on a 16-mile chase from Kaukauna to
Greenville. After that, the prosecution and defense version of
the crime differ sharply.
Prosecution Says
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Defense Says
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Hudson
was lying in wait for someone to attack after arguing with his mother
and girlfriend.
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Hudson was on Plank Road to inspect a
roofing job.
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Hudson stabbed and tried to abduct Van Dyn
Hoven.
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Hudson tried to help the woman after she
ran from the nearby woods covered in blood. She sat briefly in
his truck but fled when a retired police sergeant's son, David Carnot,
ran from the woods carrying a rake.
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Hudson tried to run over Carnot and drove
off to avoid arrest for Van Dyn Hoven's murder.
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Hudson feared Carnot would attack him.
Hudson fled police because he had a revoked license, marijuana in his
pocket and had been drinking.
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Hudson's leg, chest and hands were covered
with blood as police pulled him from his truck.
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Outagamie County
Sheriff's Department
Hudson's left foot and leg after his arrest.
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Police poured and smeared a red substance
on Hudson as he sat in a police car. One test found animal blood
on his left foot; a later test found only Hudson's DNA.
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Hudson tossed the murder weapon on the
floor of his truck. The blood on the knife was Van Dyn Hoven's.
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Outagamie County
Sheriff's Department
The alleged murder weapon.
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Police planted the bloody knife in his
truck. The knife had no fingerprints and there was no blood on
the floor of the truck. At least one vial of the victim's blood
is unaccounted for.
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Hudson's bid for a new trial is based on
false allegations of a police frame-up.
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Police and prosecutors withheld and
tampered with evidence, including police communications that contain
virtually no mention of the crime or the 16-mile chase.
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State Crime Laboratory
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A State Crime Laboratory drawing shows no
blood--as indicated by red--on the steering wheel or gear shift, nor on
the driver's side floor of Hudson's truck--calling into question the
state's contention that Hudson's hands were covered with blood as he
fled and that he threw a blood-covered knife near the brake and gas
pedals of his truck.
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