Prosecutors say Wisconsin man Todd Kendhammer murdered his wife and staged the scene to look like a freak car accident

Todd Kendhammer says his wife Barbara died in a freak car accident. But authorities questioned his story from the start, and he was tried and convicted of voluntary manslaughter.

Kendhammer and his children have refused to accept the verdict and are seeking a new trial. Their fight for what they say is justice is at the center of “Mystery on County Road M,” reported by “48 Hours” correspondent Erin Moriarty. An encore of the show airs on Paramount+.

Shortly after 8 a.m. on September 16, 2016, a distraught Todd Kendhammer called 911 to report a car accident on a rural road outside La Crosse, Wisconsin. “A pipe or something came through the windshield,” he told the operator.

When authorities arrived, he told them a pipe had flown from a truck traveling in the opposite direction, through the windshield and hit his wife. Barbara Kendhammer, 46, was rushed to hospital but died the next day. The couple had just celebrated their 25th anniversary.

Their children, Jessica Servais and Jordan Kendhammer, say their parents were always very much in love. “Everything my mother wanted, my father gave her,” Servais told Moriarty. “They were having a very good time in their lives because they had their first grandchild and they were well-off.”

An autopsy revealed that Barbara died from blunt force injuries to the head and neck. She also had three lacerations to the back of her head. The medical examiner did not find that Barbara’s injuries were consistent with the accident described by Todd.

“She said Barb’s injuries were very inconsistent with a pipe … of that size and weight going through the windshield,” said La Crosse County Prosecutor Tim Gruenke.

Surveillance video from a horse ranch down the road showed what appears to be the Kendhammer car passing around 7:57 a.m. the day of the incident. But around the same time, no truck matching the description Todd gave police was ever seen heading in the opposite direction.

Todd Kendhammer told police that he and Barbara were driving to pick up a truck with a windshield that needed replacing, owned by a man named Justin Heim. Kendhammer carried out windshield replacement work in parallel.

“When police looked into the matter, they discovered that Justin Heim had never ordered a windshield from Todd and did not need one. Todd didn’t even know where he lived,” says Gruenke. Kendhammer then told police he was going to see a friend of Heim’s.

Gruenke believes Todd Kendhammer killed Barbara and staged the scene to look like an accident. Kendhammer was arrested three months later and stood trial a year later. “Every day I was in a constant state of anxiety and couldn’t eat or sleep,” says Jessica.

At trial, both sides argued over the cause of Barbara’s injuries: a tragic accident or a brutal fight. The windshield was as hotly contested as the medical evidence. Dueling experts had different theories about the causes of glass fractures.

Jessica and Jordan don’t believe prosecutors ever answered critical questions about what happened.

“They never really said how he killed her or what he did to stage it all,” Jessica says. Her brother added, “If he wanted to kill Mom, why the hell would he do all this work and go to all the trouble of finding a tip, and drive out to the middle of a busy road…” “He has like 28 guns in the basement,” Jessica interrupted. “More than that,” Jordan said.

The prosecution had to admit that they didn’t know why Todd would kill Barbara. They found no evidence that either was having an affair, no history of domestic violence or financial problems.

Todd Kendhammer took the unusual step of testifying in his own defense. He told the jury he became upset during his interview with police, when he told these different stories about where they were going that morning. “I’m not in the right state of mind…I wasn’t thinking about where I was going or what I was doing. I was thinking about Barb,” he said on the stand.

But he continued to struggle with his memories of the incident and told the jury about a third person he was going to see that morning. Gruenke asked him, “Did you change your story for the trial because you knew the police discovered your lies?” “No,” he replied.

Todd Kendhammer’s children were by his side. “He doesn’t lie. So when he says he didn’t do it, we believe him,” Jessica said. But the jury didn’t believe him, and Kendhammer was convicted and sentenced to life in prison, with the possibility of parole in 30 years.

After the sentencing, the Kendhammer family hired attorney Jerry Buting, known for “Making a Murderer,” to handle the appeal, along with his wife and co-counsel Kathleen Stilling.

“It was an accident,” Buting told Moriarty. “The idea that out of the blue he would kill his wife and then stage the accident, that seems so implausible to me,” Stilling added.

In 2021, Todd Kendhammer was back before the same judge for an evidentiary hearing. It was an opportunity to argue that his initial defense team had been ineffective and that there was crucial new evidence. The medical examiner who testified disagreed with the initial medical examiner and stated that Barbara’s injuries were caused by an accident.

“We’re not going to stop until he’s home,” Jessica says.

Prosecutor Gruenke believes that justice has already been done for Barbara Kendhammer. “Do you have any concern that you have convicted an innocent man?” » asked Moriarty. “Not in this case, no,” replied Gruenke.