A roving band of identity thieves who allegedly killed and buried one of their own in a Wisconsin backyard had lived in Colorado recently, where two of them are wanted in theft cases.
Members of the group also beat and locked the slain woman’s 11-year-old son in a closet in a rental home in the small town of Portage, authorities say.
“It’s crazy. Weird,” said next-door neighbor Angie Turley, who moved from Milwaukee to Portage to get away from crime. “It can happen anywhere.”
Charged Wednesday with being a party to first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse and child abuse were Candace Clark, 23; Clark’s boyfriend, Michael Sisk, 25; Michaela Clerc, 20; and Felicia Mae Garlin, 15, whose mother was killed.
Authorities say Tammie Garlin was slain June 4.
Grand Junction authorities have issued warrants for the arrest of Sisk and Clark, who are wanted on identity-theft-related charges, Mesa County District Attorney Pete Hautzinger said.
Sisk was convicted of theft in July and was sentenced to three years’ probation and two years in a work-release program in Grand Junction. He did not return to jail after he was let out on work release, Hautzinger said, and an escape warrant was issued in September, according to Colorado Bureau of Investigation records.
Clark was wanted in two felony cases involving identity thefts in November and December 2005, he said.
Police said the group arrived in February in Portage, a town of 8,000 about 40 miles north of Madison.
Detectives said the group was running from the law in several states. Clark was wanted in Florida in the kidnapping of her 2-year-old daughter from a foster home last fall. She also was wanted in Kentucky on felony warrants of financial fraud, said Jane Kohlwey the district attorney in Wisconsin’s Columbia County.
In the past year, the group had also lived in Colorado, Florida, Maine, Tennessee and Kentucky. They made a living through financial fraud using aliases, prosecutors said. Kohlwey said investigators found a stash of money orders in the house, each good for $500, made out to fake names.
They allegedly tortured the 11-year-old – identified only by his initials – by whipping him, withholding food, scalding him with hot water and pulling his genitals with pliers, the police complaint said. The group also sometimes choked him until he nearly passed out and forced him to sleep naked in a closet.
His mother and sister helped torture him, prosecutors said.
At some point, the group turned on Tammie Garlin, burning her and forcing her into the closet with the boy, the boy told authorities.
He said she was the only one who helped him, putting cream on his wounds.
The complaint said that Tammie Garlin and Clerc had been lovers and that Clerc was upset because she thought Garlin had cheated on her.
According to the document, Felicia Garlin and Clerc had kicked her, then later that day carried her into the bathroom, where Clerc dropped her head on the floor.
Sisk went into the bathroom and shut the door. He allegedly emerged a few minutes later, announcing that Tammie Garlin was dead. Clerc laughed, the complaint said, and they buried her in the backyard.
Portage officers, alerted by sheriff’s deputies in Lake County, Fla., went to the house June 14. They found the missing toddler, Clark and Clark’s two other children, the complaint said.
Police found the 11-year-old sitting on the closet floor with his knees pulled to his chest, his body a mess of cuts, burns and scars. His feet were burned so badly he couldn’t walk.
The complaint said the boy told a doctor, “I don’t want to hurt no more.”
Sisk was captured at a Milwaukee bus terminal with a ticket to Kentucky, police Lt. Mark Hahn said.
A judge Wednesday denied bail for Sisk and Clark, identified by prosecutors as the group’s leaders. He set bail at $500,000 for Felicia Garlin and $350,000 for Clerc.
“We could have victims from all over, in different parts of the country,” Hahn said. “Fortunately, it ended here.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
