On Tuesday, a retired Bayport funeral director admitted in a St. Croix County courtroom to a role in a long-unresolved mystery that started when a skull was found in western Wisconsin in 2002. Investigators later connected the remains to a Stillwater woman who died in 2001. The guilty plea, entered this week after years of forensic and genealogical digging, finally identified the decedent, has revived a wrenching question for the family about whether the cremated remains they received two decades ago were actually hers.
Plea and terms
According to Pioneer Press, Benjamin Carl Hanson pleaded guilty to hiding a corpse with the intent to conceal a crime and accepted a plea deal that calls for restitution and three years of probation. Prosecutors say the agreement requires Hanson to sit down with investigators for a full and truthful account of his actions and motives, and a judge has scheduled sentencing for June 2, 2026. The plea wraps up charges that were brought after new forensic genealogy work finally tied the skull to a specific person.
How the skull was identified
The skull was found on Oct. 21, 2002, by Boy Scouts hiking near the Fred C. Andersen Scout Camp in Houlton, Wisconsin. It stayed a John Doe case for years, until the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office turned to the nonprofit DNA Doe Project for help. The organization reports that genetic genealogy pointed investigators toward a particular family line, which led them to Alyce Catharina Peterson, and that a niece’s DNA ultimately confirmed the identification.
Local reporting and county statements note that Peterson died in July 2001 at Regions Hospital in St. Paul and that records indicated her body was cremated two days later. Investigators say those cremation and funeral records are now part of the active case file.
What investigators say
County documents and media accounts state that a forensic examination determined the skull had been removed from the body after death, “likely with a hand saw,” a detail that has only deepened questions about what happened to Peterson’s remains. As reported by the Star Tribune, investigators traced Peterson’s path from the hospital to a local funeral home where Hanson was working in 2001. Authorities say that combing through records and interviewing family members and cemetery staff remain central pieces of the inquiry.
Court process and next steps
Under the plea agreement, prosecutors can move to dismiss certain counts in exchange for Hanson’s cooperation, restitution, and probation, while the court still retains authority to impose a sentence on June 2, 2026. Prosecutors told the court that requiring Hanson to provide a complete account is important both to Peterson’s relatives and to investigators who are still trying to understand how parts of her body ended up separated and discarded.
Officials have again urged the public to share any information with the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office, saying that tips, along with existing records and forensic leads, continue to be reviewed as the case moves toward sentencing.
Reaction
Outside the courthouse, Michele Hanson, who is Bayport’s mayor and Benjamin Hanson’s wife, told reporters she “just wanted it to be over like everyone else,” according to the Pioneer Press. The family has requested privacy while authorities continue to sift through records and cremation paperwork. The St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office has repeated its tip-line information on its case page as the investigation continues.
Legal note
Prosecutors charged Hanson under Wisconsin laws covering hiding a corpse and felony theft, with local reporting and a county press release outlining the statutes cited in the complaint. Under state law, those offenses can carry significant fines and prison time, although in this case the plea agreement calls for probation and restitution instead of immediate incarceration. Readers seeking the official background on the case can find the county’s release and related court documents through the St. Croix County Sheriff’s Office and local news coverage.
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