Documents described custody disputes, counseling issues and firearms concerns before a medical examiner ruled the girls’ deaths homicides.
WINNECONNE, Wis. — Long before a Wisconsin medical examiner concluded that Jeffrey Manke killed his two daughters and then himself, a trail of divorce records documented conflict over custody, the children’s relationship with their father, counseling, his health and a substantial firearm collection.
The records have received renewed scrutiny since the Winnebago County Medical Examiner’s Office classified the July 31 deaths of Jaelyn Manke, 16, and Lenora Manke, 11, as homicides and their father’s death as suicide. The findings confirmed that what began publicly as a welfare-check investigation was a double murder-suicide. They also sharpened questions raised by the girls’ mother, Lindsey Lewandowski, who said after the deaths that her daughters had repeatedly expressed feeling unsafe. No public agency has released a complete retrospective review concluding that the killings could have been predicted or prevented.
The family’s court case stretched back to 2024, when Lewandowski filed for divorce. Records reviewed by news organizations show that the parents continued to dispute custody and placement as the case moved forward. At a January 2025 hearing, they agreed to joint legal custody and a shared placement schedule, according to published accounts of the court file. The court also addressed the children’s education and counseling, along with financial and property issues. Those arrangements did not end disagreements between the parents, and later entries in the case reflected continuing problems over placement.
One set of hearing notes described tension involving Manke and the older child, as well as concern that schoolwork was not being completed while the children were with him. Reporting on the court file also described an earlier altercation involving the older daughter during placement. At another stage of the case, Lewandowski sought sole legal custody or authority to resolve disputes when the parents could not agree, while Manke objected. The court did not immediately replace the joint-custody arrangement. It did, however, address individual counseling and other measures intended to manage the continuing family conflict.
Manke’s health and ability to work became another recurring issue. Court notes cited in news reports said he maintained that medical problems prevented him from working and that he was pursuing disability benefits. At one point, the court ordered him to cooperate with a vocational evaluation. The records show disagreement over his employment prospects and finances but do not establish that his health condition caused the later violence. Authorities have not announced an official motive for the killings, and no medical or psychological diagnosis should be inferred from the fact that his health was discussed during divorce proceedings.
Firearms entered the documented record before the deaths as well. NBC26 reported that a restraining-order matter earlier in 2026 noted Manke’s access to guns. A divorce settlement reviewed by the station listed 14 firearms, including handguns, rifles and shotguns. Four days before Manke and his daughters died, a witness was requested to appear in the divorce case to discuss his firearm collection and health. The presence of firearms in a court file is not, by itself, proof that officials anticipated violence, and publicly available reporting does not establish what risk assessment, if any, was made because of that collection.
Lewandowski’s account after the killings focused less on the property dispute than on what she said the girls had been telling adults. In a social media post reported by Wisconsin outlets, she said her daughters had felt unsafe in their father’s care and that concerns had been brought to a counselor, police and child-protection authorities. She said she had continued sending them for court-ordered placement despite their fears and wrote that she believed the system had failed them. Her statement is an allegation about how institutions responded and has not been matched by a single public record setting out every contact involving the family.
Other court documents show that the custody picture remained legally complex even late in the proceedings. A partial marital settlement signed shortly before the deaths continued joint legal custody, according to reporting based on the case file. The agreement also addressed homeschooling and stated that the children’s wishes should be respected in connection with individual counseling. Those provisions illustrate the difference between concerns voiced during a difficult custody case and a formal court finding that a parent poses a lethal danger. Available reports do not show that a judge had made such a finding against Manke before July 31.
The divorce became final that morning. Reporting by the Oshkosh Northwestern said Manke was denied maintenance and ordered to pay $771 per month in child support. Lewandowski later told the newspaper that she believed the financial outcome mattered to what followed and described Manke as upset by the child-support decision. She also said custody and placement had already been decided before that hearing and were not the subject of an argument that day. Her view that money was central remains an attributed assessment. Investigators and the medical examiner have not publicly designated a motive.
Later that afternoon, according to Lewandowski’s account, Jaelyn drove herself and Lenora to their father’s Winneconne home. She said the girls arrived at about 5 p.m. and that concern was later expressed about their father’s demeanor. At approximately 6:58 p.m., police and sheriff’s deputies were dispatched to the Division Street residence for a medical incident and welfare check. Officers found the sisters and their father dead inside. Winneconne police then requested that the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office serve as the primary investigative agency.
For more than a month, officials did not publicly identify the causes or manners of death. Early statements emphasized that investigators believed the incident was isolated and that the community was not in danger. Winneconne Police Chief Ben Sauriol described the deaths as shocking for a town where many residents know one another. The later medical examiner reports provided the first official public conclusion about what happened inside the home: Jaelyn and Lenora died by homicide, while their father died by suicide. The reports said scene evidence supported a double murder-suicide.
That finding does not automatically answer the institutional questions raised by the earlier court record. Divorce proceedings regularly contain disputes, allegations and requests that do not result in findings that one parent presents an immediate threat. Publicly available material has not established what information was shared between law enforcement, counselors, child-protection authorities and the court, or whether those entities possessed the same information at the same time. It also has not established that any agency had evidence before July 31 that Manke intended to kill his daughters.
The sisters’ family and friends have meanwhile emphasized the lives that were lost behind the court filings. Their obituary remembered Jaelyn and Lenora as exceptionally close sisters whose interests ranged from dance and gymnastics to reading, animals, martial arts, crafts and faith. Both were connected to a local dance school, and memorial events were organized after their deaths. A family memorial site says a dance scholarship is planned in their names. Those details have become part of the public record as relatives seek to ensure the sisters are not remembered solely through their father or the divorce case.
The absence of a criminal trial leaves the court file with unusual importance but also clear limits. Manke cannot be prosecuted, so prosecutors will not be required to present evidence of planning, motive or intent to a jury. That means many questions now depend on investigative records, family accounts and any future administrative review. Those materials can document concerns and decisions, but each must be weighed according to what it actually establishes rather than treated as proof that the eventual killings were foreseeable.
The medical examiner’s ruling answers the basic question of how the three deaths are classified, but the documentary record leaves broader questions unresolved. Public reporting has not established whether agencies that encountered the family shared information with one another, whether any formal danger assessment was performed or whether an additional administrative review will examine the earlier contacts. The Sheriff’s Office led the death investigation, while Manke’s death means there will be no criminal prosecution in which evidence about motive, planning or the family’s prior history would ordinarily be tested in court.
Author note: Last updated September 20, 2026.