By LARRY BALLWAHN | Wilton
Dave Cubiak is now sheriff of Door County. He originally came to Door a year ago to get away from several problems that developed while he was a policeman in Chicago (detailed previously in “Death Stalks Door County”). Sheriff Cubiak received a call reporting that three men were dead where they had been playing cards — at an estate near Gill’s Rock. Carbon monoxide was the apparent cause, though why was unclear. Shortly thereafter, another of their card-playing buddies was shot dead, also near Door County’s Gill’s Rock. His wife soon confessed to the murder, but refused to say why.
Four deaths among the same group of friends, even with three of them supposedly accidental, was a bit much. Was there some connection, other than cards, that might indicate that the deaths were somehow connected, and perhaps none were accidental?
One death was clearly not accidental; Agnes Millard had blasted a hole in her husband’s chest, and then promptly turned herself in and confessed. She was the same woman who had shouted “four of a kind” at the others’ joint funeral. Although she refused to offer a reason, had her husband been the fourth? If so, a fourth what? He wasn’t a war hero like them. What was the connection if there was one? Could ithave led to their “accidental” deaths?
As family and friends were interviewed, it eventually came out that the former wrestling coach had been one of the card players who had frequented the cabin where the three men were found. This became the clue that eventually unraveled the case. The son of one of the dead men had had unfortunate dealings with the coach. It turned out that others had also, and that he had originally been hired by “Big Guy,” the acknowledged leader of the three-man group, to fill the coaching role for the team, which was sponsored their successful businesses.
So if the men were actually murdered, how was that possible? There was no doubt that the deaths were from carbon monoxide poisoning from the gas heater, though it didn’t have an obvious leak. There had to be something missing. And if it was actually murder, by whom and specifically why? Could it have been Agnes Millard? She claimed not. Why would she confess to one and not all?
