Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Dead Necedah woman's money spent
Detectives say money was spent from a joint account of a 90-year-old woman who was found decomposing in a Necedah residence bathroom.
She shared an account with a woman who was living in the home with her children, praying for the elderly woman to come back to life.
According to court documents, Tammy Lewis, who lived with Alvina Magdelina Middlesworth, 90, was one of the six members of Alan Bushey’s “church,” the Immaculate Conception Chapel. Juneau County Sheriff Brent Oleson said Bushey, 57, had been living in Necedah for 11 years and built a chapel on the back of his home.
Middlesworth, whose body was discovered last week inside a home on Shrine Drive in the Town of Necedah, was also a member of the chapel.
Oleson said Bushey's chapel was not recognized by the Diocese of LaCrosse as a Catholic church, and was also not part of the Queen of the Holy Rosary Mediatrix of Peace Shrine. "Apparently the shrine turned him away several years ago, and that’s when he started on his own,” Oleson said.
According to the criminal complaint, on May 7, Deputy Leigh Neville-Neil of the Juneau County Sheriff's Office conducted a welfare check on Middlesworth, after Middlesworth’s sister, Bernice Metz, contacted the sheriff’s department because she had not heard from her sister in two months.
Officers discover the body
At the residence, the deputy spoke with Lewis, 35, also known as, Sister Mary Bernadett.
Inside the home, Neville-Neil smelled a strong odor of "incense and burnt wood." She said that religious hymns were playing on a stereo.
According to the complaint, Neville-Neil opened the door to the bathroom and said she smelled “an overpowering odor of decaying matter” and observed a “pile of something on the toilet.” Neville-Neil asked what was on the toilet and Lewis said it was Middlesworth’s body.
Neville-Neil told Lewis and two children living at the residence, a 15-year-old girl and a 12-year-old boy, to leave the home.
At this point, Lewis told Neville-Neil that she could not speak to her without her “superior,” Bushey, also known as Bishop John Peter Bushey.
Lewis told Neville-Neil that “when Alvina died, God told her Alvina would come back to life if she prayed hard enough."
After Bushey arrived, Lewis said on March 4, she was helping Middlesworth get dressed when the elderly woman passed out in her arms. Lewis said she then propped her on the toilet and called Bushey.
According to the complaint, Bushey told Lewis to leave her in the bathroom and pray. He said he had “received signs from God that God would raise Alvina from the dead in a miracle.”
Lewis insisted to the deputy that Middlesworth was not “fully dead.” She added that the elderly woman was breathing when she placed her on the toilet. Juneau County District Attorney Scott Southworth said an autopsy has been performed, but results are not available at this time.
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.