Woman charged with selling drugs at funeral home

GREEN LAKE COUNTY -- A 25-year-old woman who serves as the director of a funeral home in Green Lake County is accused of dealing drugs out of the business.

On May 25th, Markesan Police Sergeant Will Pflum responded to a disturbance outside the Wachholz Funeral Home, where he found Melissa Wachholz, and drug paraphernalia.

"A package with 3.4 grams of heroin, also some prescription pills, numerous needles, tourniquets, little foil squares for packaging," Sgt. Pflum said.

Sgt. Pflum says the drug paraphernalia was found in Wachholz' car. He says more paraphernalia was found in her house, attached to the funeral home.

Sgt. Pflum says Waccholz also confessed to driving to Milwaukee almost daily to buy more heroin, then selling it from her driveway.

"She was going down and getting enough so she could sell just enough to pay for her next trip down there. She was caught in the cycle," Wachholz said.

Now, Wachholz could face upwards of 20 years in prison if convicted.

Sgt. Pflum said he's concerned, as the funeral home is only about a block away from the Markesan Elementary School.

"Drugs, many times, lead to violence, so that's something we don't want anywhere near our kids," Sgt. Pflum said.

As for the Wachholz Funeral Home itself, Sgt. Pflum said it's an important business in the small town and said luckily, operations were not and will not be affected by the arrest.

"We haven't linked any activity to the funeral home itself," Sgt. Pflum said.

Wachholz remains in police custody, on bond.