On March 18, 2023, Milwaukee police officers responded to a 911 call and discovered Kayla F. Calderon, an 18-year-old high school student two months short of graduation, dead in a bedroom chair, with a gun on the bed nearby. The slight teen, who weighed just 109 pounds, had a gunshot wound to the right side of her head, a “close contact shot.” Her right eye and cheek were swollen and bruised. It was a gruesome scene, and the man who found her, her relatively new boyfriend, had a disturbing history.

For almost three years, Kayla’s mom, Iris Miranda, has pursued justice in her daughter’s case, disputing any claim that Kayla, who wanted to be a veterinarian, might have taken her own life. The mother says she even went undercover to gather information about the suspect and to determine whether he is involved in a Vice Lords-linked street gang, by “taking a job as a Lyft driver within the community where he lives.” In fact, Miranda was so dogged in her pursuit that the leading suspect in the case eventually obtained a restraining order preventing Miranda from talking about him on social media and having any contact with him. He also picked up a felony drug dealing conviction in Waukesha County while the case languished in Milwaukee… and languished.

“I am seeing where criminals are provided more lenience and rights than those that they have harmed in Milwaukee County, and it concerns not only myself but a long list of families that are facing the same tragedy of losing a family member to gun violence and not getting the help we need to keep the community safe,” Miranda says.

Miranda wrote Attorney General Josh Kaul and asked him to get involved because she was unhappy with Milwaukee police, to no avail. She met with the DA. She has even conducted videotaped interviews. A witness told Miranda in a video that she allegedly saw the suspect wielding a gun a week before Calderon’s death. “He came out, and he had the gun, and he looked at me.” The witness alleged that she saw the man “hitting her, abusing her (Calderon). Then he left. He stormed off. He was going to kill her.” Wisconsin Right Now has reviewed this video, as well as reports that show Milwaukee police have an alleged confession and text messages, allegedly from the suspect, that say the following:

The Medical Examiner’s report confirms the existence of these disturbing text messages.

Yet the suspect remains free.

A Break in the Case, But Not for Long…

Fast forward to March 2026. Detectives made so much progress in the case that, an arrest detention report filled out by police alleges, “It is believed that (the suspect) did intentionally shoot Kayla Calderon, causing her death.”

Police finally sent the case to the DA (although for which charge is confusing.) They arrested the boyfriend and booked him for first-degree intentional homicide. The alleged evidence included the text messages to Miranda and another woman in which the suspect allegedly threatened to shoot Kayla just days before her death, and an alleged confession to another man. In addition, we’ve learned, the suspect’s DNA (and Kayla’s) may have allegedly been found on the gun, according to Kayla’s mom. We have not been able to verify or dispute that with authorities.

But the suspect is no longer in the jail. And that’s where the case takes a very curious turn.

The Milwaukee County DA Won’t Prosecute

The Milwaukee County District Attorney declined to prosecute, and the suspect was released on an administrative release signed by Paul Tiffin, the Milwaukee prosecutor. It should be noted that suspects can only be held in the jail for a few days and must be released if they are not charged.

We wrote the DA to find out why the suspect was not charged. DA Kent Lovern’s spokesman, Jeffrey J. Altenburg, told us, “Our office received a Disorderly Conduct referral in February of 2026 that related to conduct that occurred in March 2023 as outlined in the police report you provided. That referral was reviewed and because we determined that we could not meet the elements of the referred charge beyond a reasonable doubt, the referred charge was not issued.”

Wait, what? Disorderly conduct? That was so contradictory to the statement police filed to hold the suspect in the jail that we wrote Altenburg back and asked him to check again. We received no response.

Miranda wants people to remember her daughter’s personality.

“She was very artistic. She loved art, she loved animals. She had a passion for horses, she loved animals. We frequently visited the zoo,” Miranda says of Kayla.

“She was a young mother. She was a good young mother. She did good in school. She was two months away from graduating. From high school. She loved fish. She had four fish tanks. She had a passion for helping people. I found homeless kids in my basement a few times. She would find kids who had no place to go and bring them home.”

Booked for 1st Degree Intentional Homicide

The arrest detention report confirms that the suspect was arrested on Feb. 18, 2026, and booked for first-degree intentional homicide, and it says that probable cause was found by a court commissioner. Keep in mind that is a much lower standard than reasonable doubt, the test prosecutors must prove. Bail was set at $100,000.

Even odder, when we asked Milwaukee police what charge they referred to the DA and why the suspect was released, the Milwaukee police spokesman responded, “This was ruled a suicide by the Medical Examiner’s Office. At this time, there is no information to determine anything different.” We asked to speak with the lead detective, and this was declined.

“We are not accommodating an interview and this was determined to be a suicide,” MPD’s spokesman reiterated. We asked, “Determined by the medical examiner, the police, or both? Was it referred to the DA?”

MPD’s spokesman responded, “Both, we do not refer suicides to the DA.”

However, that is not true. Through an open records request, we obtained the 2024 findings from the Medical Examiner, who ruled the manner of Calderon’s death “undetermined,” not a suicide. The Medical Examiner would not release the scene photos to us, even with a signed release from Miranda, saying they never release those even to families.

Furthermore, we then filed an open records request for all of the police reports in Calderon’s death, but this was denied with the justification that the case was still “open,” which there would be no reason for a suicide to be.

When we sent the Medical Examiner report to the police, the spokesman changed his stance. “The one I have states suicide and is dated 11/1/23. It must have been updated on their end. Regardless this is not classified as a homicide, at this time,” he said. Told the mother is upset, the MPD spokesman added, “I understand she is upset; however, there is no information at this time that this could be determined to be homicide.”

But that’s not true, either, as we will outline below. Detectives felt their evidence was persuasive enough to argue in a probable cause statement that the suspect murdered Calderon. However, of course, it’s prosecutors who decide whether there is enough evidence to prove a case to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt, and, it should be noted, that the Milwaukee County’s DA’s office has a notoriously high non-prosecution rate for cases brought over by police. In recent years, it’s been almost 60 percent. That means 6 of 10 cases referred by police don’t result in charges. One prosecutor we showed the Calderon documents to from another county commented that he thought the case was “chargeable.” Of course, in a murder case, authorities only get one chance to make it. But if there is some other investigative reason that they let the suspect go without a charge, no one is telling us.

Miranda is tormented by the case. “I haven’t been able to function, keep a job, I haven’t been able to date, I don’t want to go out in public, I have severe anxiety because I have never gotten answers. I’ve come up with all of these theories,” she said.

A Battery History

There are no charges against this suspect on CCAP relating to Calderon, although, on December 18, 2025, he was convicted of felony drug dealing in Waukesha County while the investigation continued and sentenced to probation. To get the suspect’s side on all of this, we contacted Adam Galaviz, his attorney in that case, and we did not get a response. The suspect has maintained to police that he did not kill Calderon. He says she committed suicide.

We are not naming the suspect as he has not been charged in the Calderon case. The suspect was convicted of misdemeanor battery in 2019. According to that criminal complaint, AF, the assistant principal at a Milwaukee school, stated that he was “dealing with the defendant who had been suspended and refused to leave the school. AF stated that the defendant was yelling obscenities and becoming very aggressive. AF stated that the defendant grabbed him by his tie and pulled him to the ground. The defendant was then on top of AF and struck him in the face causing him pain and redness without his consent.”

Calderon’s life was tough at times, and she compounded it by making poor choices in men and not only this one; the fathers of her two kids have spent time in jail, her mom says. We ran their records, and they are extremely serious. Her dad died of a heart attack at age 56.

What’s the Evidence?

Miranda sent Wisconsin Right Now a detailed timeline, and, in it, she maintains that there were a number of investigative steps that police could have taken but did not. She insists, for example, that evidence was not sent to the crime lab for months. There are aspects of the case we can’t verify without the full file, such as what crime lab reports say and whether the suspect and Calderon’s hands were checked for gunpowder residue, for starters.

Here’s what the arrest-detention report alleges, outlining what they do have:

Detectives Joseph Newell and Michael Gretenhardt conducted an interview with the suspect. He said he had been dating Calderon for four months. On March 17, 2023, he was with Calderon at the apartment most of the day. They got food from Wendy’s and then returned. He said they had sex and then went to sleep.

Around 5:30 a.m., the suspect told police he woke up and went to shower. While he was in the shower, “he heard a bang and exited the shower. He went into the bedroom Calderon was in and saw her on a chair with a gun on her lap.”

The Medical Examiner’s report, however, says that the gun was on the bed when investigators arrived. Calderon was on a chaise lounge. Her boyfriend heard “a thud.” There was a “spent casing” that failed to eject from the 9mm handgun. This report says that the suspect heard the gunshot at 5:43 a.m. while taking a shower.

The report lists a number of contusions.

The suspect claimed she had a history of “making suicidal statements and had stated that she would drive off a bridge or drink herself to death.”

Her mother denies this. In fact, Miranda asked Ascension to review her daughter’s medical records for any signs of depression or suicidal ideation. “Your daughter’s medical record was thoroughly reviewed, and based on the findings of my investigation, there is no documented diagnosis of depression within the chart,” the medical provider wrote.

The suspect said he had a prior conversations with Calderon’s mother regarding her mental health and that the gun recovered and used in the incident was Calderon’s, and he never possessed it.

Another woman told police she was in a different bedroom with her boyfriend. They heard a “loud bang” around 5 a.m. The suspect came to their bedroom door and said Calderon had just shot herself.

Detectives interviewed Calderon’s mother. She provided the text messages she received from a person she believed to be the suspect prior to Calderon’s death. He was trying to get his keys back from Calderon. It’s believed the phone belonged to the other man in the house, but the suspect was using it.

“Tell that bitch come outside idgaf if y’all call y’all family or police I’ll shoot through that bitch n kill whole house in the kids I’m coming to every address n on Waterford tf,” the suspect is accused of writing.

And: “N that bitch have me a std I’m ready killing her I told that bitch don’t play wit me idgaf you a die to bitch you on her side.”

All the same, police told the medical examiner’s office by November 2023 that they didn’t see any evidence to contradict a suicide finding.

However, then that changed.

New Evidence

On Feb. 9, 2026, the detectives interviewed a friend of Calderon’s, who is also friends with the suspect. She said she was aware of allegations that the suspect gave Calderon an STD. She said that she received text messages from March 12, 2023 that stated in part, from the suspect. The following information is also accusations described in the arrest-detention report.

“Tell her bussin her down for getting f*cked while by bby in dat stomach notbappp,” the suspect is accused of writing.

The friend said, “How she pregnant.”

Suspect: “Mymm Blood me nuttin in that mf all the time obviosuly.”

The woman said that she believes “tell her bussin her down” means he is going to shoot her. She did not contact police at first because she was scared. But she retained the screenshots and provided them to police.

She further stated that she was now dating a different male who told her that he met the suspect in the summer of 2025 when the man got out of prison. The woman said this man “told her that (the suspect) told him that he (the suspect) shot Calderon.”

Miranda provided Wisconsin Right Now with a text message she says is from that woman.

On Feb. 10, 2026, the detectives interviewed that man, who was in the House of Correction. He said he knew the suspect and confirmed that he asked the suspect about Kayla. The man stated that the suspect “told him that he beat her and shot her in the head.”