Bio

Mark D. Jensen was born on October 5, 1959. He lived in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, with his wife, Julie Jensen, and their two sons. By the late 1990s, Jensen was working as a stockbroker and appeared publicly to have a stable suburban family life.

Mark and Julie Jensen had been married for 14 years by the time Julie died. Behind the household’s public image, prosecutors later argued that the marriage had been deteriorating. Julie told friends and neighbors that she was afraid of her husband and believed he might harm her. She also told others that Mark had not forgiven her for a brief affair years earlier.

Before her death, Julie became suspicious of Mark’s behavior. She found a list in his planner that she believed was concerning, photographed it, and wrote a letter to police naming Mark as the person she suspected if anything happened to her. She gave the letter to neighbors and instructed them to turn it over if she died.

At the same time, Mark Jensen was involved in an affair with a co-worker, Kelly LaBonte. Prosecutors later argued that the affair gave Jensen a motive to kill his wife and begin a new life.

Murder Story

Julie Jensen died on December 3, 1998, at the couple’s home in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin. She was 40 years old. Mark Jensen reported finding her dead in bed. Early in the investigation, suicide was considered, but investigators later focused on homicide. Toxicology evidence showed that Julie had ethylene glycol, a chemical found in antifreeze, in her system. Prosecutors alleged that Mark Jensen poisoned her over several days, drugged her with sleeping medication, and then suffocated her when the poison did not kill her quickly enough.

Julie’s pre-death letter became one of the most important pieces of evidence in the case. In the letter, she wrote that she would never take her own life because of her children and said that if anything happened to her, Mark should be the first suspect. Mark Jensen was arrested on March 18, 2002, and charged with first-degree intentional homicide. The case became widely known as the “letter from the grave” case because of Julie’s warning letter.

Jensen’s first trial took place years later. On February 21, 2008, a jury found him guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. On February 27, 2008, he was sentenced to life in prison without parole.

The conviction became the subject of lengthy appeals over whether Julie’s letter and statements could legally be used at trial. In 2021, Jensen’s original conviction was vacated after the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled he was entitled to a new trial and that Julie’s letter could not be used in the same way against him.

Jensen’s retrial began in January 2023. Prosecutors again argued that he killed Julie with antifreeze and suffocation. The defense argued that Julie was depressed, died by suicide, and had tried to frame her husband.

On February 1, 2023, a second jury found Mark Jensen guilty of first-degree intentional homicide. On April 14, 2023, Jensen was again sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He remains imprisoned for the murder of Julie Jensen.