Ethan Hauschultz

Ethan Hauschultz was a seven-year-old boy from Manitowoc County, Wisconsin, whose death in April 2018 became one of the state's most closely watched child abuse cases and led to a change in Wisconsin guardianship law. He was not a public figure in life. He is remembered because of how he died and because his death exposed serious failures in a child welfare system that was supposed to protect him.

In 2017, child protective services placed Ethan and his twin brother, Anthony, in the care of their great uncle, Timothy Hauschultz, and his wife, Tina McKeever-Hauschultz, who became the boys' court-appointed guardians. According to prosecutors, the placement went forward even though Timothy Hauschultz had a known criminal history, a fact that would later become central to public outrage over the case.

Ethan died on April 20, 2018, after being found unresponsive in a snowbank in the yard of the family's home in the town of Newton, Wisconsin. According to the criminal complaint, Ethan and his brother were punished for failing to adequately memorize Bible verses, and as part of that punishment Ethan was made to carry a heavy wooden log, reported at about 44 to 44.5 pounds, back and forth along a path in the yard for roughly two hours in cold, wet conditions. Prosecutors said Timothy Hauschultz's son Damian, then fourteen, was left to supervise the punishment and that Damian struck, kicked, and hit Ethan dozens of times when he struggled to continue. A medical examiner later concluded that Ethan died of hypothermia with blunt force trauma as a contributing factor. Timothy and Tina Hauschultz told investigators they were not at home at the time and said they took Ethan to Holy Family Memorial Medical Center in Manitowoc after finding him unresponsive in the yard, but he could not be saved.

Ethan's death mattered beyond his own family because of what it revealed. The placement of Ethan and his siblings with a guardian who had a documented criminal history prompted Wisconsin lawmakers to act. In 2021, Governor Tony Evers signed Ethan's Law, legislation named for Ethan that was intended to prevent children from being placed with guardians who have histories of abuse. For child welfare advocates in Wisconsin, Ethan's name became shorthand for the risks of inadequate screening in guardianship placements.

The criminal case took years to resolve. Damian Hauschultz pleaded guilty to reckless homicide in June 2021 and was sentenced to twenty years in prison, with additional supervision added at a resentencing in June 2026. Tina McKeever-Hauschultz was convicted of failing to prevent child abuse and sentenced to five years in prison followed by five years of extended supervision. Timothy Hauschultz, who prosecutors say chose the punishment and the logs and put Damian in charge of carrying it out, has continued to fight the charges against him. As of October 2026, more than eight years after Ethan's death, his trial finally opened in Manitowoc County, with a jury hearing opening statements this week.