Neosho woman charged in her boyfriend's death, cause noted as 'opioid intoxication'

Selena Leitzke



WAUKESHA -- Selena Leitzke of Neosho faces a charge of first degree reckless homicide in the death of 26-year-old Jeremie Bischel on Wednesday, Sept. 6, 2017.

According to the criminal complaint, officers from the Village of Summit Police Department were dispatched to a residence on Main St. in the Village of Dousman on Sept. 6. They found Bischel deceased. In addition, officers recovered "evidence of drug use, in particular, marijuana and heroin." The complaint says officers also found "two empty corner cut baggies with suspected heroin residue in them." An autopsy on Bischel also determined the cause of death as opioid intoxication (fentanyl and heroin).

The Wisconsin Regional Crime Laboratory tested those baggies -- and "confirmed the presence of Fentanyl on one of the baggies that had been recovered from Jeremie Bischel's bedroom." The test also showed a "mixture of DNA from two individuals -- one of them, Selena Leitzke, 27.

When interviewed by police, Leitzke initially "denied using heroin, although she indicated that she had gone to rehab five years earlier, because her parents found out that she used marijuana." When asked about the death of Jeremie Bischel, Leitzke's boyfriend, she said when she left him around 10 p.m. on Sept. 5, "Jeremie was playing video games and he seemed fine."

After that initial interview, police obtained a warrant for records on Leitzke's cellphone. Those records showed Leitzke's phone was in the area near 22nd and National on Milwaukee's south side on the night of Sept. 5.

In Leitzke's first interview with police, the complaint says "she insisted that she and Jeremie Bischel had been nowhere near Milwaukee on the evening of September 5, 2017 and that they never went further east than the Wales area." Leitzke was interviewed again on Dec. 13, 2017 -- and she told investigators she and Bischel drove to Milwaukee to pick up heroin near 22nd and National. After completing the drug deal, the two drove back to heroin. When a detective asked Leitzke "if it were possible they got fentanyl, she said, 'You never know out there.'"

Leitzke made her initial appearance in court on Thursday, Feb. 7. She is being held on $20,000 bond. Leitzke is due back in court March 7 for a preliminary hearing.