Jackson County man committed for killing his father granted conditional release
BLACK RIVER FALLS, Wis. (WKBT) — The Jackson County man committed after killing his father is being released.
In 2017, a judge committed Lars Helgeson for life after he admitted to fatally shooting his father, burning his body and burying him under an ATV track on his family’s property.
Helgeson has been receiving treatment for mental illness at Mendota Mental Health Institute. The 29-year-old petitioned the court for release. A doctor who examined Helgeson told the judge he is not a danger to himself of others.
Helgeson’s brother and other family members objected. They say Helgeson only started taking meds a year ago, and he’s admitted to skipping doses.
“Now they are letting him go after he did such a violent act against his best friend. His Father,” Bjorn Helgeson, Lars’s brother, said. “He didn’t just murder his father; he murdered another human being. I don’t ever want that to happen to anyone else. No one else should have to go through that.”
The judge granted Helgeson conditional release. Over the next 60 days, the court will determine Helgeson’s outpatient treatment plan and where he will live.
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