Daniel Lundgren, 33, died on November 30, 1986, after what was first treated as a traffic crash near West Bend, Wisconsin. Lundgren, originally from Esko, Minnesota, managed the Paradise Inn Village Motel and Chinese Restaurant where traveling singer Alvin Taylor had been staying. Lundgren survived long enough to be hospitalized after his car struck a culvert in the Jackson area, but he died about 30 hours later and physicians attributed his injuries to the collision.

Months later, an investigation into Taylor’s crimes changed the official account. Taylor confessed to multiple killings and told investigators he had shot Lundgren before the vehicle crash. Lundgren’s body was exhumed on June 23, 1987; a second examination found three gunshot wounds to the head from a .38-caliber firearm, and authorities reclassified the death as a homicide. Taylor was charged in Washington County; he was found not criminally responsible because of mental disease or defect and committed to Mendota Mental Health Institute, where he remained while pursuing conditional-release proceedings into 2026.

If anyone knew Lundgren, worked at the Paradise Inn, or remembers that time in West Bend, can you share what you know?