Katelyn Fleischauer

Katelyn Elizabeth Fleischauer, known to colleagues and friends as Kate, was a Wisconsin police officer who spent more than a dozen years in small town law enforcement before her unexpected death at age 41 in October 2026. She was not a national celebrity. She was a local public servant whose sudden loss shook the rural communities of Grant and Iowa counties, Wisconsin, and whose death became a point of public attention when neighbors and friends questioned the official finding and asked for an independent review.

Fleischauer was <cite index="9-2">born on February 9, 1985, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the daughter of William and Kathleen (Rosati) Fleischauer</cite>. <cite index="9-3">Her family moved to Wisconsin, and she graduated from River Valley High School in 2003 and from Milwaukee Area Technical College in 2007 with a degree in criminal justice.</cite> She built her career in law enforcement across several small Wisconsin departments. <cite index="9-4">She served as a police officer in Spring Green, Belleville, Plain, Lake Delton and Marshall, and in 2014 she started at the Muscoda Police Department, where she worked up until her death.</cite>

Outside of work, those who knew her described a woman with varied enthusiasms. <cite index="9-5,9-6,9-7">She enjoyed scuba diving in Saint Croix, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico, riding her motorcycle, going to concerts, tattoos and playing PlayStation, and she loved scary movies, ghost hunting and dogs, as well as being a devoted fan of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Pittsburgh Pirates.</cite> She was preceded in death by both of her parents and by her dog.

Fleischauer died on Sunday, October 18, 2026. <cite index="2-2,2-3,2-4">Officers responded to an address on East Catherine Street in Muscoda shortly after 1 p.m. that day, where they found her unresponsive in an indoor heated pool; the responding on duty officer determined she was deceased, and she was 41 years old.</cite> <cite index="3-2">The department later confirmed she was off duty when she died.</cite> Her death was announced by the Muscoda Police Department and the Grant County Sheriff's Office, which assisted with the investigation.

A preliminary investigation and autopsy pointed to an accidental drowning, but the finding did not settle the matter in the community. <cite index="3-4,3-5">People who knew Fleischauer said she was a certified scuba diver and that the official account did not add up, and a petition gathered more than 600 signatures in less than a day asking the state Department of Criminal Investigation to review the case as a second opinion.</cite> On the day this page was first published, the final autopsy findings were released. <cite index="7-1,7-2">The Grant County Sheriff's Office announced that the coroner had received the final autopsy report from UW Forensic Pathology, and the death was ruled accidental, with the cause listed as fresh water drowning in an indoor pool and a contributing factor of acute alcohol and diphenhydramine intoxication.</cite> <cite index="7-6">The sheriff's office said no further information would be released.</cite>