Sunday, July 13, 2025
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Sunday, July 13, 2025

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FREED: Lori Esker, Dairy Princess Strangled Rib Mountain Woman With Belt | Tony Evers’ Killers & Rapists #9

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Since 2019, Gov. Tony Evers’ Parole Commission has released hundreds of convicted criminals, freeing them early on parole mostly into Wisconsin communities, including more than 300 murderers and attempted murderers, and more than 47 child rapists.



Lori Esker was one of them.

9th in the series.


Lori Esker is one of Wisconsin’s most infamous criminals. In a rage because her ex-boyfriend was planning to marry 21-year-old Lisa Cihalski, Esker strangled her romantic rival to death with a belt.

The prosecutor said it was an agonizing death that would have required Esker violently pulling the belt tight for two minutes. Esker was the Marathon County dairy princess, so the case received massive news coverage when it occurred, in 1990. It was even made into a movie.

“Esker left school one night and drove 150 miles to the workplace of Cihaski and strangled her with a belt. The belt used belonged to the victim, Cihaski. Her engagement ring was taken off her hand by Esker. Esker then drove back to school in River Falls,” the IMDb profile for that movie, Beauty’s Revenge, says.

“Lori Esker took something that was very precious to me,” Lisa’s mother said during the trial, according to WSAW-TV.


Evers’ Parole Commission Freed Lori Esker Early

Lori esker
Lori esker

Date paroled: July 16, 2019

The released killer now lives: Racine, Wisconsin

Age: 53

Convicted: First-degree intentional homicide, 1989

Sentence: Life with parole eligibility after 13 years and nine monthsLori esker Lori esker Lori eskerLori esker


The Victim: Lisa Cihaski, 21

-An assistant sales and catering manager

Lisa cihaski
Lisa cihaski

 

 

 

 

 


What the Killer Did:

According to a 2019 Wausau Daily Herald article, Lori Esker was the 1989 Marathon County dairy princess.

She murdered Lisa Cihaski, 21, in Rib Mountain, Wisconsin because of a “mutual love interest.”

Cihaski was an assistant sales and catering manager at a then Howard Johnson hotel, and her mother found her daughter’s murdered body in a car inside the parking lot.

Lori esker

The motive: Cihaski was going to marry a farmer named Bill Buss, who was Esker’s former boyfriend. Esker, then a college student at UW-River Halls, claimed she was pregnant and then, when they argued, strangled Cihaski with a belt, the newspaper reported.

She was convicted in 1990.

According to Wisconsin State Farmer, the District Attorney told the jury that the crime was brutal and it probably took Esker holding the belt “tightly around Cihaski’s neck for a minimum of 2 minutes in order for her to die.”

“Strangulation is not something that a jury can easily accept as unintentional,” he said during the trial, according to that publication.

At the time of her conviction in 1990, Esker was sentenced to life in prison. However, she would become eligible for parole after serving 13 years and nine months.

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“In Washington County our budget cycle starts right now, and it’s not due until November. We will propose our budget goals to the County Board in the next couple of months. We will share ‘This is what we’re thinking.’ It gives them months of time to think those through, give us feedback, and [have] that kind of dialogue,” Schoemann explained in an interview on News Talk 1130 WISN.

Schoemann said that is far better than the approach Evers is taking again this year.

“That’s not how government is supposed to work,” Schoemann said. “It’s not the vision of the governor. It’s not the vision of any one person.”

Evers and the Republican legislative leaders who will write the budget have been involved in on-again, off-again budget talks this month. On Thursday, the governor’s office said those talks were off once again because of gridlock in the Senate.

“Ultimately, the Senate needs to decide whether they were elected to govern and get things done or not,” Evers spokesperson Britt Cudaback said in a post on X.

Schoemann’s criticism of Evers is nothing new. He has long been a critic of the governor and has turned that criticism up since launching his campaign for governor.

But the recent criticism was also aimed at other Republicans who may jump into the 20206 governor’s race later this year.

“Nobody else in this race on the Republican side, being rumored to this point, has the executive leadership of skills and history to be able to show ‘This is how I’ve done it before, and here’s how we’ll do it Madison,’” Schoemann said. “The results in Washington County speak for themselves.”

Northwoods Congressman Tom Tiffany is also rumored to be looking to get into the Republican race. Before he went to Congress, Tiffany was a Republican lawmaker in Madison.

Businessman and veteran Bill Berrien is also on the short list of likely GOP candidates for 2026.

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