Vanessa Rheanne DeHerrera, 26, was shot to death on August 8, 2026, inside an apartment at the Knitting Factory Lofts near West Pierce and South 21st streets in Milwaukee. She was the parent of two young boys and, according to family, had been trying to separate from an on-and-off partner identified in court records as Thomas Seville Zollicoffer. DeHerrera had been staying at a friend’s apartment for several days before the shooting.

According to the criminal complaint, several people were gathered at the apartment that afternoon. Zollicoffer arrived about 4:00 p.m., argued with DeHerrera and at one point handed a small black semiautomatic handgun to the apartment resident. Witnesses described him as hostile, and the confrontation became deadly shortly before 9:45 p.m. DeHerrera and a friend, Scott Bucholz, were both found unresponsive and were pronounced dead at the scene; an autopsy determined DeHerrera died of multiple gunshot wounds.

Investigators linked Zollicoffer to two other fatal shootings that night through witness accounts, surveillance, cellphone-location data and ballistics. He was arrested August 11 after a standoff; prosecutors charged him with three counts of first-degree intentional homicide and four counts of possession of a firearm by a felon. Did anyone who knew Vanessa or saw activity at the Knitting Factory Lofts that day notice anything unusual?