Naman Shrestha
In 1989, a 21-year-old dairy princess named Lisa Cihaski met her untimely demise, which sent shockwaves across the entire community of Marathon County, Wisconsin. While grief took over her family and friends after the tragedy, the detectives began investigating the mysterious case and digging deep into a pool of possible suspects, looking for the perpetrator/s responsible for the gruesome murder. The entire case is covered in a detailed manner in the episode titled ‘Queen vs. Princess’ of Investigation Discovery’s ‘Mean Girl Murders,’ which also features exclusive interviews with the loved ones of the deceased woman.
Lisa Cihaski Was Found Dead in Her Car Outside Her Workplace
On October 25, 1967, in Antigo, Wisconsin, Lisa Anne Cihaski entered the world of her parents, Vilas “Max” and Shirley Cihaski, in the form of a little bundle of joy. Growing up in a seemingly loving household, she was accompanied by a sister named Tammy Cihaski, a brother named Val Cihaski, and a half-sister, Valinda Trowbridge. The daughter of a ginseng farmer, Lisa went to Wittenberg-Birnamwood High School, where she met the love of her life, Bill Buss, a dairy farmer who had earned various awards in youth agriculture circles. After graduating from high school in 1986, she landed a job at the former Howard Johnson Hotel in Rib Mountain, Wisconsin, as an assistant sales and catering manager.
In August 1989, Lisa and Bill took their relationship to the next level by getting engaged and planning to marry in the spring of 1991. With so much to look forward to, her life was cut short on the night of September 20, 1989. When she didn’t return home from work that night, her mother, Shirley, got worried about her well-being and whereabouts. In the early hours of September 21, Shirley drove down to the motel where she worked and found Lisa’s remains inside her car in the parking lot. When the authorities arrived at the scene of the crime, they discovered that the 21-year-old woman was strangled to death with a belt. Without wasting any time, a murder investigation was launched to get to the bottom of the case.
A Love Triangle Turned Out to be Deadly For Lisa Cihaski
As part of the homicide investigation, the detectives interviewed Lisa Cihaski’s family members and friends, trying to identify possible suspects who had a motive to commit murder. The authorities found out that Lisa and Bill Buss dated for three years before the latter got into a relationship with one of their mutual high school friends, Lori Esker. The Dairy Princess of Marathon County kept more than a dozen dairy cows at Bill’s family farm in Eland and was a student at UW-River Falls at the time of the murder. More than a year and a half later, Bill and Lori allegedly broke up in June 1988.
Not long after, he rekindled his romantic connection with Lisa, and the two began considering a future together. Upon talking to Lisa’s friends and classmates, the investigators learned that Lori was obsessed with Bill and hadn’t stopped pursuing him even after his engagement with Lisa. As per her friends, Lori hated Lisa and had made plans to marry Bill and farm with him. With enough witness statements against her, the police brought the possible suspect in for questioning about a week after the murder. During the interrogation, Lori told the detectives that on the fateful night of September 20, 1989, she drove nearly 150 miles to the Howard Johnson motel near Wausau, Lisa’s workplace, to confront her.
After waiting in the motel’s parking lot for a while, the two women allegedly got into Lisa’s car and began talking. According to Lori, when she lied to Lisa about being pregnant with Bill’s child, things escalated and a heated argument erupted. In the middle of the physical struggle inside the car, the suspect claimed that she believed Lisa would kill her, so she grabbed a belt lying in the backseat and strangled her, allegedly in self-defense. As per her accounts, she did not have any intention of killing her former schoolmate. After the incident, she allegedly took the belt and a ring Lisa was wearing at the time, throwing the former into her dorm’s incinerator and disposing of the ring into the trash barrel of a convenience store. Subsequently, Lori Esker was charged with Lisa Cihaski’s murder.
Lori Esker is Out on Parole Today
In the summer of 1990, Lori Esker stood trial for the killing of Lisa Cihaski, her ex-boyfriend’s fiancée. During the trial, the prosecution claimed that the defendant had the intention to kill Lisa, as she had to have wrapped the belt tightly around her neck for a minimum of two minutes for her to pass away. “Strangulation is not something that a jury can easily accept as unintentional,” the prosecutor stated. In June 1990, Lori was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with the 21-year-old woman’s murder. A couple of months later, on August 24, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole. In 1992, Lori filed a motion requesting a new trial by claiming that her confession was coerced and the jury instructions were confusing and misleading.
Despite multiple arguments, the 3rd District Court of Appeals rejected her request. While she was serving time at the Robert Ellsworth Correctional Center in Union Grove, her parole hearing took place in 2017. Initially, her parole eligibility date was scheduled for February 2018, but it was postponed to August 2018 and then to July 2019. After serving nearly three decades behind bars, she was released on parole on July 16, 2019. Although her whereabouts are unknown to the public, it is certain that she has been living in Racine, Wisconsin, under the supervision of a probation and parole agent ever since her release. In case her parole gets revoked again, she would be sent to a DOC facility to continue serving her life sentence.
