A Wisconsin man on Aug. 4 walked into a police station at Lake Geneva and confessed to having killed his wife on that day, 13 years prior.
A man who identified himself as Keith Comfort walked into the station and asked whether he could speak to an officer about a mental health issue, according to the probable cause statement filed in Boone County, KMIZ reported.
“All cases are unique, one way or another,” Boone County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Knight said. “The circumstances where you have someone come into a police station and accept responsibility thirteen years later, yes… That is unusual.”
On that fateful day, Aug. 4, 2006, according to court documents, Comfort said his wife, Megan N. Shultz was “frantic, yelling, at him,” when she called him at his work about a botched drug deal, according to court documents obtained by KMIZ.
When he arrived home, the two got into an argument, according to the Missourian, to the point that his wife Megan Schultz was “swinging her arms at him.” That’s when, he “grabbed” her, “took her to the ground, and strangled her.”
When he noticed she wasn’t breathing, “he placed her in a black garbage bag and threw her into the shared dumpster of the apartment complex” where they lived in the 1700 block of Amelia Street in Columbia, Missouri, according to the probable cause statement.
“I knew he had killed her,” Megan’s mother, Debra Schultz, said to the Missourian, “But I couldn’t prove it.”
It wasn’t till the next day, when Debra inquired as to Megan’s whereabouts, that Comfort filed a missing person report.
Police officers noted a three-inch bruise and a small scratch on his left arm. Comfort explained that he incurred those injuries during the fight he had with his wife and that she had left that same day on foot—never to return.
Debra Schultz had erected a little memorial outside her home in honor of her daughter that disappeared, while she was only 24.
Less than three weeks after that, Comfort filed for divorce.
But police did not suspect foul play and treated the case as a civilian missing person’s case.
Comfort moved to Wisconsin, remarried and divorced again last year. Comfort and Schultz had a daughter who Comfort had gained custody of. He had been living in a long-stay motel recently until last Sunday when he walked into the Lake Geneva Police Department.
On Sunday night, police detectives informed Debra Schultz about Comfort having confessed to killing her daughter.
“Keith could smile and put on the charm, but he was a very troubled young man,” Shultz said. “[He] had it down to an art of lying and smiling,” Debra Schultz told KMIZ.
13 years after the disappearance of a Columbia woman, her husband comes forward and confesses to murder.https://t.co/nGzlxTdkuK
— Columbia Missourian (@CoMissourian) August 6, 2019
A warrant for Comfort’s arrest has been issued. Comfort is held at a $1,000,000 cash-only bond at Walworth County Jail, awaiting extradition to Missouri.
“We’re going to work very hard in this, and we’re going to try our best to make sure that justice is achieved,” Knight said.
Debra Schultz, who hasn’t seen her granddaughter for nearly 10 years now, wishes to gain custody of her.
“I would like to have her,” Shultz told the Missourian. “I’ve got room for her.”
