In 1966, law enforcement authorities dropped a case involving the death of a seven-year-old Michigan boy whose remains were found in Mequon and dismissed charges against the boy’s adoptive parents, who admitted to killing their son but did not could be linked to the police. skeleton at the time.
Now, some 65 years later, Wisconsin investigators and law enforcement have solved the cold case of Markku Jutila — born Chester Breiney — through genetic genealogy, according to a Nov. 8 news release from the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
Human remains found on October 4, 1959 in Mequon
On October 4, 1959, a Milwaukee woman picking wildflowers happened to fall on the head of what was then thought to be a young girl in a culvert near Davis Road, north of Bonniwell Road and south of Pioneer Road in the city of Mequon . reporting from the Milwaukee Journal published March 28, 1966.
The next morning, police found more remains in a partially burned cardboard box and launched an initial investigation, pursuing more than 200 leads.
Meanwhile, law enforcement authorities in Houghton County, Michigan, conducted their own investigation into a possible missing child, Markku Jutila.
Relatives of William and Hilja Jutila had become suspicious about the whereabouts of the couple’s adopted child, Markku, and filed a complaint with police in Michigan, according to the Milwaukee Journal.
Hilja’s brothers had visited William and Hilja several times in Chicago, where the couple had recently moved, and each time asked where the child was.
According to reports from 1966, the couple admitted to killing their son, fleeing and putting him in the culvert
William and Hilja were questioned by Chicago police. Police said the couple spoke in Finnish in an attempt to reconcile their stories during interrogation, without knowing the officer also spoke Finnish, according to the Milwaukee Journal.
William eventually admitted that the child had died in his arms after being beaten by his wife while they were still in Houghton.
When confronted, Hilja started crying and admitted, “Yes. He’s dead. We put him in a culvert,” the Milwaukee Journal reported.
During the interview with police, the couple also admitted to dumping the child’s body in a ditch in Mequon while fleeing Houghton, Upper Michigan, for Chicago. The couple had left Houghton in such a hurry that clothes were left hanging in the backyard and food continued to cook on the stove, the Chicago Tribune reported.
During further psychiatric evaluations, the couple claimed that Markku had been ill for several days before he was found dead in his room, according to the Nov. 8 Sheriff’s Office release. They claimed that out of fear of what had happened, they traveled to Chicago and dumped the child’s body on the side of the road along the way.
Law enforcement authorities found that the human remains in the culvert had characteristics similar to those found at Markku.
Seven years after Markku’s remains were found, the Jutilas were arrested and extradited to Houghton County for prosecution, according to the Nov. 8 release.
The charges against the couple were dismissed in November 1966
On November 10, 1966, the charges were dismissed due to the “lack of corpus delicti and the inability of the prosecution to link the skeleton of the child found in Mequon to the defendants,” according to the press release. (Corpus delicti, or “body of the crime” in Latin, refers to the legal standard of proof required to prove that a crime has been committed before someone can be convicted.)
The case remained cold until October 2023.
That’s when Dr. Jordan Karsten, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh and chair of the Department of Anthropology, Global Religions and Cultures, along with Hannah Moos-Classon, Madison State Crime Lab Analyst, conducted tests on skeletal remains determined to be linked to the death of 1959 in Mequon.
Karsten and Moos-Classon contacted Neil McGrath, special agent in charge of the Wisconsin Department of Justice in the Criminal Investigation Division, and Scott Heller, a detective with the Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office.
Karsten explained how a radiographic comparison of the skull for case 6426 matched the skull and mandible x-rays provided by Moos-Classon regarding Ozaukee County records on the case, which matched the details of Markku’s death .
The researchers and researchers attempted to further identify the remains, using DNA extracted from the skull and conducting research genealogy.
An analysis by Bode Technology Labs in May 2024 determined that the remains belonged to a male individual, but the DNA profile did not yield matching results when entered into CODIS or the Combined DNA Index System, a national database of DNA profiles used to solve crimes and identify missing people.
In July, investigators sought further assistance with DNA analysis from Othram Labs.
Investigators used court records and newspaper articles to gather information
Pending those results, investigators have been reviewing court records and newspaper articles from the 1960s, including several from the Milwaukee Journal, the Sheriff’s Office said. Most of the original research reports from that time could not be retrieved due to the passage of time.
Based on those news stories, McGrath sought records from the Houghton County Probate Court and the Houghton Good Will Farm orphanage, now called UP Kids, which is owned by the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
Records showed Markku Jutila Chester’s birth name was Alfred Breiney, born February 26, 1952. Chester’s biological mother was listed as Josephine Breiney of Houghton, Michigan, and the father was listed as “unknown.”
Adoption records also showed that Chester was admitted to the Good Will Farm orphanage and later adopted by the Jutilas on March 24, 1955.
Further examination of the remains revealed that they came from an individual who most likely suffered significant neglect based on dental health and new bone formation due to infection, trauma or hemorrhage, the Nov. 8 release said.
“The individual may have suffered from rickets and also had a healed fracture to one of the left ribs,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
Researchers used DNA to discover similarities with family members
In September 2024, researchers entered the skull DNA into a public DNA database, which revealed several matches to members of the Breiney family, most notably Josephine Breiney, Chester’s mother. Josephine Breiney died in 2001 and had no living relatives.
Chester’s adoptive parents, William and Hilja Jutila, who were involved in the child’s death, both died in 1988, meaning there will be no future charges in the case, the Sheriff’s Office said.
“Child abuse is real. So many children are affected by the trauma they receive at the hands of people who are supposed to love and care for them,” the Sheriff’s Office said in its news release.
Chester Breiney’s funeral will take place on November 15 in Port Washington
A funeral for Chester Breiney will be held on Friday, November 15 at 1:00 PM at St. John XXIII Parish – St. Peter of Alcantara Church, 1800 N. Wisconsin St., Port Washington. A procession will follow to St. Mary’s Parish Cemetery, located on West Beutel Road in Port Washington, west of Holden Street.
Donations in Chester’s memory can be sent to the Lakeshore Regional Child Advocacy Center, which advocates for children and is an integral partner to law enforcement, Ozaukee County and surrounding communities.
“While no one will be prosecuted for the death of Chester Alfred Breiney, Chester can now rest in peace now that the truth about his death is known. No child should leave this earth as Chester did,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
“It’s been 65 years since Chester was murdered, but he was never forgotten.”
Contact Claudia Levens at clevens@gannett.com. Follow her on X @levensc13.
This article originally appeared in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Agencies crack 65-year-old cold case of remains found in Mequon
