Chai Soua Vang, 57, the St. Paul man serving life for the 2004 killings of six deer hunters in northwest Wisconsin, has died in custody, according to court records and state officials. The death was recently noted in court files and by corrections officials, although authorities have not released details about the cause.
Online court records show Vang’s death was entered on June 10, and Wisconsin Department of Corrections officials said he died at a hospital. The department declined to share further medical information, citing federal privacy rules, according to The Star Tribune. A separate case-status update on the Wisconsin Circuit Court Access docket also lists his death, as reported by local station WSAW.
How the 2004 shooting unfolded
On Nov. 21, 2004, Vang was hunting from a tree stand in Sawyer County when he ended up on private property and was confronted by a group of hunters. The encounter escalated quickly, turning a dispute over trespassing into gunfire and multiple deaths. The runup to the confrontation and the chaos that followed were widely covered at the time, including detailed national reporting. The New York Times and other outlets chronicled the incident and the sharply differing accounts that later emerged in court.
Victims and what prosecutors said at trial
Six people were killed and two were wounded in the shooting. The dead were identified as Robert Crotteau, Joey Crotteau, Allan Laski, Mark Roidt, Jessica Willers and Dennis Drew, all described in reporting as from the Rice Lake area. At trial, prosecutors said Vang fired at least 20 rounds and that four of the victims were shot in the back. Those details came out in court testimony and have been summarized in local coverage. The Star Tribune reviewed the trial records and testimony.
Sentence and prison record
A jury convicted Vang in 2005, and later that year he was sentenced to six consecutive life terms plus additional years, a punishment that left no possibility of release, according to contemporaneous coverage from Minnesota Public Radio. MPR reported on the sentencing and the courtroom proceedings. In recent years, records and corrections documents show he was held at Oshkosh Correctional Institution. The institution’s visitor guide and official pages list Oshkosh Correctional Institution at 1730 West Snell Road in Oshkosh. The Wisconsin Department of Corrections provides facility details.
The case remains one of the region’s most notorious and divisive, raising entrenched questions about race, trespass and self-defense that surfaced at trial and in the years that followed. Documentary work and long-form reporting over the past two decades have revisited the episode and its long shadow in the North Woods and in Twin Cities communities. NPR and other outlets have examined the broader fallout in subsequent coverage.
So far there has been no public comment from victims’ family members or attorneys about Vang’s death, and officials say they cannot provide further medical information. For now, court records and the state corrections office remain the main public sources confirming his status.
