David Bintz with Wisconsin Innocence Project lawyers, Rachel Burg (left) and Zoe Engberg (right). Credit: WIP
On August 4, 1987, the body of Sandra Lison was discovered about 30 miles away from the Green Bay, Wisc., bar she had worked at the night before. She had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted. Although DNA evidence was collected, the case went cold quickly. Until over 10 years later when a jailhouse informant accused two brothers if the crime. Even though the DNA evidence did not match the Bintz brothers, a judge sentenced them to life in prison.
They remained there until Wednesday, Sept. 25, 2024, when Brown County Circuit Court Judge Donald R. Zuidmulder signed an order calling for their immediate release thanks to work done by the Wisconsin Innocence Project, Bode Technology and students at the IGG Center at Ramapo College.
1987 murder and 1998 confession
Lison was bartending at a tavern in Green Bay the night of Aug. 2, 1987. The Bintz brothers were there that night, with bar-goers remembering he had an argument with Lison over the price of the beer he ordered.
Two days later, Lison’s body was found near a trail in the Machickanee Forest about 30 miles away. Detectives quickly determined she had been beaten, strangled and sexually assaulted. Semen was recovered from her body as well as her dress, which had been stained with blood. Despite this DNA evidence, the case went cold.
In 1998, David Bintz was incarcerated for an unrelated crime. His cellmate, Gary Swendby, told correctional officers he heard Bintz confess to Lison’s murder in his sleep. During his subsequent interrogation, Bintz confessed and also implicated his brother, Robert. However, the DNA evidence collected back in 1987 did not match either Bintz brother. Still, the Brown County District Attorney’s Office charged the brothers with Lipson’s murder, and they were sentenced to life in prison.
DNA and IGG
In the 2000s, DNA testing by the Wisconsin Innocence Project (WIP) established that the blood found on the victim’s dress came from the same man who had deposited the semen, consistent with law enforcement’s initial conclusion of sexual assault. This new discovery was deemed insufficient to warrant a new trial, a decision that was upheld despite WIP’s appeals to the Court of Appeals and the Wisconsin Supreme Court.
In 2019, the Great North Innocence Project (GNIP), an organization that works on wrongful convictions and to prevent future wrongful convictions, took another look at the case. They worked with an IGG lab, but were unable to generate a lead.
Then, in 2023, GNIP contacted the Ramapo College Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center (IGG) to provide a new look at the evidence. Within two days, a team of six students led by IGG Center staff produced a lead—the blood and semen came belonged to one of three brothers in the Hendricks family.
Officials quickly zeroed in on William Hendricks, as he had a history of robbing taverns and was previously convicted of a violent rape. In fact, William had just completed a sentence for rape a few months before Lison’s murder.
William died in 2000, so police exhumed his body to collect his DNA. It matched the blood and semen evidence left on Lipson and at the crime scene in 1987. The Green Bay Police Department was also able to place Hendricks at the crime scene that night.
In light of the new evidence, the Brown County Attorney’s Office joined the defense team’s motion to vacate the Bintz brothers’ convictions.
On Sept. 25, Judge Donald R. Zuidmulder granted relief and ordered the release of the brothers.
According to the IGG Center at Ramapo College, only two other individuals have been successfully exonerated as a direct result of investigative genetic genealogy.