St. John XXIII Catholic Parish and School in Port Washington was barely filled on Friday, November 15, with dozens of people attending the funeral of a young boy they had never met. A young boy who had never lived within 300 miles of Ozaukee County. A young boy found dead in Mequon more than 65 years ago.
For the past year, Wisconsin investigators and law enforcement have been working to solve a once-abandoned cold case: the death of Chester Breiney, a 7-year-old Michigan boy whose adoptive parents admitted to killing their son but were not tied to the crime at the time.
The agencies made a bittersweet announcement on November 8. They had solved the case using recent advances in genetic genealogy, but had uncovered evidence of significant abuse and neglect suffered by a child at the hands of his adoptive parents.
The Rev. Pat Wendt, pastor at St. John XXIII, said Breiney’s story is a reminder to care for each other and recognize the dignity in others, “especially at a time when we seem to be so against each other.”
At least 120 people lined the parish pews, including members of law enforcement agencies, detectives and analysts who had solved the mystery of Breiney’s murder and had plans to pursue other cold cases like his. Four served as pallbearers and carefully carried Breiney’s casket during the service and burial.
Also in attendance were Kevin Parins and James Luck, members of Guardians of the Children, a national motorcycle group that advocates against child abuse with five chapters in Wisconsin. The group organizes fundraisers, attends child abuse court proceedings, organizes events for adopted children and plans vigils for those who have lost their lives to abuse.
They even plant trees for every victim killed as a result of child abuse in memorial gardens in the seven provinces covered by this chapter.
They also plan to memorialize Breiney, “in honor of a child who didn’t get to do all the things a child should do,” said Parins, the chapter’s president.
During the service, some attendees were moved to tears, including Allyson Olivier, director of communications and stewardship at St. John XXIII Catholic Parish and School.
“It was hard to even hear about this,” Olivier said. “I have a six-year-old granddaughter and many children at our school are that age.”
And yet Olivier also felt joy.
“All these people came together to celebrate him, to love him and to treat him the way he should have always been treated,” she said.
‘A house where love can live and everyone can live safely’
Another participant, Nyama Reed, is both an adoptive mother and a genealogical research hobbyist, and has helped some in her community track down lost relatives.
Reed lives in Whitefish Bay, where she is director of the village library, but drove to Port Washington after her stepdaughter, who lives in town, shared news of Breiney’s case.
Reed was curious and tried to find more information about Breiney’s birth mother Josephine Breiney and her family. She confirmed authorities’ findings that Josephine never remarried or had children, meaning there are no direct descendants with whom she can share news of the case.
“She was 21 when she had Chester, and unfortunately there wasn’t a lot of support for women who were single and pregnant at the time,” Reed said.
The details of Breiney’s death are brutal and dishearteningly indicative of how cruel the world can be, some attendees said before the service. It was probably mainly adults who were present, some dressed in formal work suits, others in construction clothes.
The only children in the room were members of the parish and school children’s choir, whose light voices carried the sounds of sacred songs through the vast space, a stark reminder of how young the boy they sang to was when he died.
“Let’s build a house where love can dwell and everyone can live safely,” the choir sang in its first song, “All Are Welcome.”
Breiney was likely murdered in 1958, authorities said
Knowles estimated that Breiney was likely murdered in 1958, about a year before a Milwaukee woman picking wildflowers in the city of Mequon came across a human head in a culvert, according to reporting by the Milwaukee Journal published in 1966.
After several years, relatives of Breiney’s adoptive parents reported to the police that Breiney was missing.
In 1966, the couple was arrested after Breiney’s adoptive mother confessed to beating him to death. But the charges were ultimately dismissed because prosecutors failed to link the skeleton to the adoptive parents.
Wisconsin agencies worked together to solve Breiney’s cold case using recent advances in genetic genealogy. More cases are likely to follow.
At a pre-funeral press conference at the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, those instrumental in solving the Breiney case shared more about how they worked together to take advantage of technological advances and how the new tools will allow them to goals to pursue. cold cases.
In 2023, Breiney’s skull came into the possession of both Jordan Karsten, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and chair of the Department of Anthropology, Global Religions and Cultures, and Hannah Moos-Classon, Madison State Crime Lab Analyst, Ozaukee County Sheriff Christy. Knowles said.
Karsten and Moos-Classon worked with Neil McGrath, Wisconsin Department of Justice Special Agent in Charge of the Division of Criminal Investigation, and Scott Heller, a detective with the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office, to connect the skeleton to some data on the case are archived in Wisconsin State Crime. Laboratory, Knowles said.
Advances in genetic research allowed Moos-Classon and Karsten to extract DNA from the skull to conduct genealogical studies to identify the remains.
“The skeleton was in pretty good condition,” Moos-Classon said, noting that there was undefined DNA in several places on the skull.
The research team sent the DNA to two different labs for analysis, and while they waited for the results, they searched through old newspaper articles, including several from the Milwaukee Journal and Milwaukee Sentinel.
The articles were the only surviving documentation of Breiney’s case, McGrath said at the news conference
“There’s just not much left that people have saved that hasn’t been destroyed or cleaned up. So we just put every little bit together, and everyone had a role in finding little parts to help us come to a conclusion ,” McGrath said.
Knowles said lab results and data from Houghton County, Michigan, where Breiney lived and from which he was adopted, helped them identify Breiney and come to that conclusion.
McGrath said those involved were committed and eager to identify the remains because “once you get into a case like this, once you get into it, you just want to get through it.”
He said the newer tools were invaluable, even a “game changer,” opening up new ways to rethink old issues.
Karsten said it’s difficult to estimate exactly how many cold cases could be solved with these techniques. But he agreed that Breiney’s case will be a springboard for solving other cases.
“In any county, at least for most counties, you’re going to have several, if not possibly dozens, of cases where you have human remains that were unidentified,” Karsten said.
Chester Breiney gets ‘a proper funeral’ in Port Washington
After the funeral service, Breiney’s remains were interred in St. Mary’s Cemetery, a stuffed teddy bear next to him in the small, white casket.
Both the bear and the coffin were donated by the Eernisse Funeral Center. Prior to the Nov. 8 announcement, the Sheriff’s Office contacted Joe Eernisse, vice president of Eernisse Funeral Homes, to explain Breiney’s story.
Within hours, Eernisse had the entire funeral planned, Knowles said.
“Because of the generosity of our community, Chester will have a proper burial and will call Port Washington his home,” she said.
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X @levensc13.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Funeral held for 7-year-old boy in 1959 Mequon cold case
