Family of man who killed parents & himself in Racine County in January wonder why he wasn’t in custody months earlier

ROCHESTER — Before Matthew Vinz killed both of his parents and took his own life in a murder-suicide in January, a family member called police and tried to warn them about him.

Tracy Vinz, a half-sister on the father’s side, worried that Matthew Vinz was abusive toward his parents. She asked the Racine County Sheriff’s Office to take him into custody and get him out of the house.

But the Sheriff’s Office declined, due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew Vinz, 30, was no stranger to law enforcement. He had an arrest record going back more than 10 years, much of it stemming from drug-abuse issues that family members say had long plagued him.

In the months leading up to his deadly rampage at home in Rochester, several police agencies had opportunities to get Vinz behind bars. He had outstanding warrants for his arrest in Racine County, Walworth County and Shawano County.

Helping to keep him out of jail? The COVID-19 pandemic.

With the pandemic driving concerns about health risks inside jails, the Racine County Sheriff’s Office and other agencies imposed capacity limits to avoid spreading the virus among inmates and staff. Vinz stayed on the streets partly because law enforcement had nowhere to put him.

On those few occasions when he did find himself behind bars, Vinz had two people who would show up with bail money: his parents, Terrence Vinz and Debra Meagher.

Family members say they pleaded with Meagher and Terrence Vinz to not keep bailing out their troubled son. The family hoped that spending time inside a jail cell would help Matthew Vinz set himself straight.

“They should have left him in there,” said Bonnie Lukas, Terrence Vinz’s sister, who lives nearby in Rochester. “A little more time would’ve done him some good.”

Six weeks after his final arrest, Vinz used a rifle to shoot and kill his mother and father inside the house they shared at 400 N. State St. When police showed up at the house Jan. 22 because the mother had not shown up for work, Vinz took his own life in the basement with a rifle shot to the head.

Newly released police records show that Debra Meagher had instructed co-workers at her place of employment, Gooseberries Fresh Food Market in Burlington: “If she wasn’t at work, it was because of her son.”

Family members are unsure exactly what that comment meant, or when Debra Meagher made the remark. But they say that Matthew Vinz had exhibited a volatile side before.

Years of opioid abuse

Jennifer Meagher, another half-sister on the mother’s side, said she herself had a physical altercation with Matthew Vinz. She believes he had fought with his father, too. For years, Matthew had abused heroin and other opioids, Meagher said.

“We all knew he was violent,” she said. “We didn’t think it was going to be this extreme.”

Records released by the Racine County Medical Examiner’s Office show that Vinz shot his mother five times and his father three times. His mother was 62, his father 65. Both were found dead in the garage of the house, covered with blankets.

Vinz left a suicide note, but investigators have refused to release the contents of the note. The Medical Examiner’s Office declined to disclose how long the parents had been dead before police arrived.

Police reports indicate that Vinz’s drug use was a persistent source of tension between him and his parents. The parents kept certain rooms in the house locked to keep Vinz from stealing, police reported.

Troubles predate murders

Terrence Vinz and Debra Meagher were married in 1989, one year before Matthew Vinz was born. Both parents had other children from previous relationships.

The couple divorced in 2000, but they agreed to share the house in Rochester. Family members say both parents had their own past drug-abuse problems, and that Vinz lived a troubled childhood.

Lukas called Vinz “a very lost child” who often was seen roaming the neighborhood to escape what she said was turbulent life at home.

“He never had a chance in life,” Lukas said. “Trouble always found him.”

First arrested as a teenager

Matthew Vinz was first arrested at age 17 on a misdemeanor charge of receiving stolen property. He pleaded no contest and got one year of probation.

He was later charged with driving without a valid driver’s license and misdemeanor bail jumping. It is not clear when or why he lost his driver’s license.

During a period when his parents had thrown him out of the house, court records show that Vinz was living in Algoma in 2018 and in East Troy in 2019.

In May 2019, East Troy police were called by a man who had taken in Vinz as a house guest. The friend told police he made Vinz leave because the house started to smell “like smoke and suspected drug use.”

Walworth County prosecutors charged Vinz with misdemeanor theft for allegedly stealing tools from the friend’s garage and pawning them for cash. Court records show that Vinz’s father posted his bail in the Walworth County case.

When family members later learned that Vinz was back living in Rochester, they worried about the parents.

Tracy Vinz, who lives near Madison, called the Racine County Sheriff’s Office in April 2020 and asked that police arrest her half-brother on the outstanding warrants against him. She was told they would not arrest Matthew because the COVID-19 pandemic had resulted in jail capacity limitations that prohibited such arrests unless a subject is wanted for a violent crime.

The Sheriff’s Office’s response left Tracy Vinz angry and worried. Of the deadly violence that erupted nine months later, she said: “To say this was a shock would be a lie. We knew something like this was going to happen.”

Racine County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Sgt. Michael Luell confirmed that Tracy Vinz called the department on April 27, 2020. Luell said COVID-19 jail capacity restrictions were keeping nonviolent offenders out of jai. That was how authorities viewed Matthew Vinz at the time — nonviolent.

Also, none of Vinz’s previous charges were felonies.

“Deputies were not instructed to search for Matthew,” Luell said, “because the offenses were not felonies, the offenses were nonviolent, and the offenses did not involve weapons.”

Just three days after Tracy Vinz’s phone call to the Sheriff’s Office, her troubled half-brother had another brush with the law.

Run-in after run-in

Police in Muskego, in Waukesha County north of Wind Lake and Norway, arrested Vinz after finding him sitting alone in a parked car. He was shaking his head violently, in what police identified as a drug-induced outburst.

Vinz gave police a fake name and told them he was en route to a work assignment on his tree-trimming job. He was booked for possession of drug paraphernalia, resisting or obstructing police, and other charges, all misdemeanors.

Muskego police noted the outstanding warrants in Racine County and elsewhere. But the officers wrote of the other police agencies: “They would not request a hold of Vinz due to the current COVID-19 virus.”

Police body cam footage of the arrest shows Muskego Police Officer Michael Petz taking a handcuffed Vinz into custody. While leading him to a police wagon, Petz told Vinz that the booking process would be handled differently because of COVID-19, to avoid exposing Vinz to the virus behind bars.

“We want to see you somewhere safe,” Petz said.

Muskego police gave Vinz a court date, then released him later that day to his father.

In early December, Vinz was arrested once more.

In the Milwaukee County city of Greenfield, police booked him on suspicion of shoplifting at a Walmart. Police reported that he stole a shopping cart filled nearly $400 worth of food, including steaks, frozen pizzas and ice cream.

Because of the outstanding warrants elsewhere, Greenfield police handed Vinz over to the Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department. Court records indicate that either Vinz or his public defender told a Waukesha County judge that he would be “incarcerated in another county.”

Vinz spent a week in the Waukesha County Jail before being released Dec. 10 on a signature bond, which means he did not have to post any bail money.

Charges against Vinz were pending in four counties — Racine, Waukesha, Shawano and Walworth — when he killed his parents and himself.

How it could’ve been different

Family members said that although they had no idea Vinz was capable of such deadly violence, they question whether police and the court system handled him appropriately before the tragedy.

Lukas said she generally is supportive of police departments, and she understands why Vinz was not incarcerated, with his nonviolent arrest record and the COVID-19 pandemic limiting jail populations. Still, considering the violence that occurred later, Lukas said: “I’m sure the ball did get dropped.”

Tracy Vinz, who said she was frustrated at how Racine County sheriff’s officials handled her call for help in April 2020, said she was indignant when police contacted her in January to report that her half-brother had killed his parents and himself.

“I was pissed,” she recalled. “I said, ‘You all wouldn’t come get him.'”

This article originally ran on journaltimes.com.