Man arrested for murder accused of staging a hanging
Jimmy D. McDaniel
By Ted Pennekamp
A Georgia man arrested for the murder of a Bridgeport woman is accused of trying to stage her suicide according to the probable cause statement filed Monday afternoon in Crawford County Circuit Court.
Circuit Court Judge Lynn Rider has found there is probable cause to believe that Jimmy D. McDaniel, 48, committed first degree intentional homicide in the death of his girlfriend Linda L. Kline at a residence on Velvet Lane in the town of Bridgeport.
According to the probable cause statement, on Oct. 5 at approximately 12:15 a.m., a 911 call came to the Crawford County Law Enforcement Center that a woman had hanged herself. Sheriff’s Department deputies and a Prairie du Chien police officer responded to the scene.
The police officer was the first to arrive, and he noted a woman lying on the ground in the backyard of the residence and a man kneeling near the head of the woman, the statement said. The man, subsequently identified as McDaniel, looked up at the officer and began what appeared to be CPR compressions on the woman. The officer told McDaniel to back away and to go into the residence. Emergency medical personnel were then contacted by the officer. EMTs arrived and confirmed that the woman was dead. She was identified as Linda Kline.
Officers observed Kline to be positioned under a wooden “T” shaped structure designed to hold a bird feeder. Officers saw a white extension cord with one end tied to the cross-piece of the bird feeder.
Kline was transported from the scene, according to the statement. She was described as approximately 5-foot, 3-inches tall and weighing between 120 and 140 pounds.
A sheriff’s department lieutenant went to the bird feeder where the electrical cord was hanging and pulled down on the cord. The top cross piece of the bird feeder completely pulled away and detached from the post with very little effort or force, the statement said.
When an officer spoke to McDaniel inside the residence, McDaniel said he and Kline had a relationship since October of 2015. McDaniel said he and Kline had been watching television at about 8 p.m. in the basement of the residence. He said he had gone into the bedroom and when he came out at about 8:45 p.m., Kline was not there, according to the statement.
McDaniel said he went looking for Kline, first upstairs and then outside. He said he then saw Kline partially suspended from the waist-up from the cross piece of the bird feeder, with her legs out to one side. McDaniel said he lifted Kline up, slipped the cord off of her neck, laid her down, and ran to the house.
McDaniel said he told Kline’s sister, Michelle Little, 55, who owns the residence, to call 911 because Kline had hanged herself. Little then immediately called 911, the statement said.
Because the 911 call came into the Dispatch Center at 12:15 a.m., McDaniel was asked as to his and Kline’s whereabouts and actions between 8:45 p.m. and 12:15 a.m. McDaniel was unable to provide this information.
When informed that Kline was, in fact, dead, McDaniel became emotional and began yelling at Kline’s sisters, brother and mother who were now at the residence, the statement said. McDaniel was then taken to the Crawford County Law Enforcement Center. McDaniel was later dropped off at the Holiday Motel in Prairie du Chien at 7:30 a.m. on Oct. 5.
Kline’s body was taken to University Hospitals in Madison for an autopsy. The pathologist said the cause of death was not asphyxiation, or death by hanging. The cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head and face area and strangulation prior to the alleged hanging. The pathologist ruled the death a homicide and said this was a “staged hanging” or “stage suicide.”
After learning the results of the autopsy, a Crawford County Sheriff’s Department lieutenant contacted the Prairie du Chien Police Department. McDaniel was apprehended at 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 6 at the AmericInn Lodge & Suites in Prairie du Chien. McDaniel had been waiting for a ride to the La Crosse Airport so he could fly to Georgia, the statement said.
During Monday’s bond hearing, Judge Lynn Rider set bond at $500,000. McDaniel’s initial appearance is scheduled for Monday, Oct. 17 at 1:30 p.m. The criminal complaint and charges will be filed at that time.
