A rural Fond du Lac County property has become the center of two investigations at once: a felony stalking case against 47-year-old Benjamin Larson, and a separate probe into human skeletal remains discovered inside his home, including a full skeleton displayed in a glass coffin behind a padlocked door.
According to FOX6 News Milwaukee, Larson is accused of obsessively stalking a woman he briefly dated in 2013, more than a decade after their relationship ended. The Dane County criminal complaint alleges he kept mementos including hair, voicemails, dried flowers, and a clay head sculpted in her image, and that he referred to stealing her trash as “hunting,” describing driving to her house at night wearing a mask and gloves while holding a machete. Larson has since posted a $15,000 cash bond and is scheduled for arraignment in Dane County on September 11.
The complaint also details how the relationship first fractured. Per FOX6, the victim ended the brief two-month relationship in 2013 after Larson called her claiming he was actively suicidal with a gun to his head, an incident that appears to have set off years of indirect contact that eventually escalated into direct threats.
Cards, Letters, and a Threat to Knock on Her Door
Court records reviewed by FOX6 show Larson mailed uninvited letters and gifts to the victim's mother's house and sent a 15-page email in 2015 disclosing that he had tattooed the victim's initials and a shared symbol onto his own body. He also wrote a 25-page journal detailing intense rage toward her husband and child, and, according to the complaint, wrote that he wanted to take the husband and child's skulls.
The contact escalated further in November 2025, when Larson mailed a card to the victim's workplace stating he would continue contacting her until she responded and writing that he might knock on her door, as reported by WTMJ. That same year, cards sent to her business and home addresses referenced her husband and child by name, and Larson's trauma therapist separately contacted the victim repeatedly about his treatment. He also wrote letters under a fake name threatening to ruin her career if she refused to contact him, and submitted false complaints to professional licensing boards in Wisconsin and two other states. At one point, Larson told the victim he was wandering around Madison as part of his therapy.
A Padlocked Room, a Glass Coffin, and Serial-Killer Relics
The stalking allegations alone were enough to bring Madison Police Department investigators to Larson's rural Fond du Lac County residence, near County Road Q and U.S. Highway 151, on August 14, where they served a search warrant jointly with the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office. What they found inside went well beyond the stalking case. Investigators discovered a locked room containing a life-sized silicone doll, a nude painting matching the victim's likeness, human skulls, and articles about missing or murdered women.
Per WTMJ, that same search turned up a full human skeleton displayed inside a glass coffin, also kept behind a padlocked door, along with what appeared to be numerous other human skulls and skeletal remains elsewhere in the home. Sheriff's detectives collected the skulls, skeletal remains, and other evidentiary items, and the Fond du Lac County Sheriff's Office separately obtained its own search warrant from a county circuit court judge to expand the search.
Zodiac Casings, a Jar Labeled Gacy's Brain, and Ed Gein Grave Rubbings
Authorities also found books, documents, and memorabilia related to murders and serial killers throughout Larson's home. WTMJ reports the seized items included shell casings linked to the Zodiac Killer, a jar labeled as containing part of John Wayne Gacy's brain, an Ed Gein grave rubbing, and 10 binders titled “Edward Gein Book” along with items described as taken from Ed Gein's grave or former home. Investigators also found jars labeled as arsenic, ricin, and cyanide.
The Dane County complaint also logged the more personal items Larson kept tied to the stalking case, according to WTMJ: a Ziplock bag of polished stones, a Tibetan cross, a lone earring tangled with the victim's hair, two pieces of scrimshaw, a pressed blue scilla, and a 1984 coin.
Determining Whether the Bones Are Ancient or Evidence of a Crime
Investigators are still working to determine whether the skeletal remains are authentic, and if so, whether they are modern-era remains or archaeological Native American remains. Fond du Lac County Sheriff Ryan Waldschmidt said the investigation is expected to take several months because of the specialized forensic laboratory testing required, according to WISN 12. An initial physical examination by a forensic anthropologist with the Wisconsin Crime Lab determined that many of the remains are likely ancient Native American in origin, though several skeletal remains still require specialized laboratory testing before their origin can be confirmed.
Detectives are working with that forensic anthropologist, specialized laboratories, the Wisconsin Historical Society, and the Wisconsin Inter-Tribal Repatriation Committee as the case unfolds. Under Wisconsin Statute § 157.70, any Native American human remains or grave goods found on private property must be evaluated in consultation with the Wisconsin Historical Society and the repatriation committee to determine proper disposition, a mandate the Wisconsin Legislature put in place to govern state repatriation protocols.
Larson currently faces one count of felony stalking. Under Wisconsin Statute § 940.32, stalking is generally a Class I felony carrying up to three and a half years in prison and a $10,000 fine, but the charge can escalate to a Class H or Class F felony carrying up to 12.5 years in prison when aggravating factors such as threats to family members are involved, according to the Van Severen Law Office. Whether Larson faces additional charges tied to the remains or the labeled poison jars depends on the results of the ongoing crime lab testing.
A Familiar Pattern in Rural Wisconsin
Wisconsin has seen skeletal remains cases unravel into long-dormant mysteries before. Hoodline previously reported on a dog's grim 2017 discovery in Barron County, where a skull dragged onto a property eventually led, through genetic genealogy in 2020, to the resolution of Gary Herbst's 2013 disappearance as a homicide. That case underscores how forensic anthropology and DNA testing have become central tools for Wisconsin investigators facing unexplained remains, the same tools now being applied to the bones found at Larson's Fond du Lac County home. Additional details in the current case, including the contents of the criminal complaint and Larson's bond, come from Wisconsin circuit court records.
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