Most days, Nadine Guilbault didn’t worry about her daughter. But after hanging up the phone that afternoon, she couldn’t help but fear for Laurie Colon's safety.
Guilbault, a 60-year-old from Appleton, didn't recognize the number when her phone rang shortly after 5 p.m., but she picked up. She listened as a man’s voice on the other end explained the situation.
He told her that herdaughter wasn’t responding to calls or text messages. The man was afriend of Laurie’s from Pennsylvania, and hereached out to Nadine for help.
Nadine tried calling her 37-year-old daughter, but Laurie’s phone was off. Nadine’s son, Jake Guilbault,picked up his mother and they made the 10-minute trip to 309 N. John St. in Kimberly, where Laurie had, until recently, livedwith her husband, Greg Colon.
The drive was shortbut intense.
“We both knew,” Nadine said in an interview with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin. “We both knew something had happened.”
When they arrived shortly after 5:30 p.m., the house was quiet.It was July 13, 2018, a Friday.
Laurie’s car was in the garage, but nobody answered the door. Jake took out a window on a side door to get inside the garage. The door inside was already unlocked. Jake and Nadine both went in the house.
Laurie’s body was on the kitchen floor.
A few steps away, Greg’s body was in the living room. A revolver was lying near his right knee, a single live round and five spent shell casings in the cylinder.
Jake, who is 41, touched his younger sister’s stomach with his bare hand. She was cold to the touch. In a burst of anger, he kicked Greg’s body three times — maybe more.
Then he called 911. The first police officers arrived minutes later. Two of them searched the house with guns drawnbut didn’t find any danger — only a dog, Daisy, who was alive and safely removed from the home.
The investigation by police is documented in reports obtained by USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin from the Fox Valley Metro Police Department. But the story of Laurie’s death follows a pattern already familiar to almost anyone who works with victims of domestic abuse.
The most dangerous time forvictims of domestic violence is when taking steps to leave their abuser — exactly what Laurie had been doing when she was killed, said Chase Tarrier, public policy coordinator for End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin, a statewide organization that advocates for victims of domestic violence.
“There is a perception that domestic violence is about anger, when it’s really about control,” Tarrier said. “Abusers can feel they’re losing control over their victim.”
Nadine wrote Laurie’s obituary, which was published in the Post Crescent four days after her body was found. She didn’t shy from the violent nature of her daughter’s death. The obituary describes Greg as Laurie’s “soon-to-be ex-husband,” and calls Laurie a victim of domestic violence.
Nadine said she simply wanted people to know why her daughter had died. Laurie wasn’t sick. She didn’t have an accident.
“He chose to get a gun and he chose to kill her,” she said.
'Rather be alone than deal with his temper'
Laurie and Greg jointly filed for divorce on April 23, 2018. The paperwork was tucked inside a manila envelope when police searched their house.
The divorce “wasn’t going well,” Nadine told police. Laurie wasn’t the type of person to share many details of her relationship with Greg, but shortly before her death, she told her momshe had started carrying a knife to protect herself from him.
At the time, Laurie and Greg had already started the process of selling their house. Greg, who was 42,had moved to an apartment at 1510 E. Cass St. in Appleton. Laurie had been sleeping at Nadine’s house in Appleton for a few weeks, but still spent a lot of time at the house she had shared with Greg, where she often worked remotely for ePlus.com, an online security firm. Laurie had been planning to move to Pittsburgh on July 20, 2018, only about a week after she was killed.
A friend of Laurie’s from Pennsylvania — the same friend who called Nadine for help — told a police officer Greg was “very controlling and physically abusive” with Laurie. The friend also told police that Greg had, months earlier, threatened to get a gun.
It wasn’t the only time Greg had mentioned guns. In text messages found on Laurie’s phone, she told a friend Greg has said “he was going to beat her and that he is pre-approved to purchase a gun,” a police report said.
Laurie’s friend told police Laurie had the divorce papers for years, but Greg only recently agreed to sign them. Laurie's friend is identified in court documents, but he declineda request for comment for this story.
RELATED:A husband's violence escalated from a brutal assault to murder in public view
RELATED:Guns in home boost suicide risk, but almost no gun owners believe it
In text messages sent July 6, 2018, to her friend Tina Kraut, Laurie talked about her choice to leave Greg and her“abusive relationship.”
“Decided I (would) rather be alone than deal with his temper anymore,” Laurie wrote to Kraut.
Laurie told her mom she had been with Greg on July 8, 2018, when the two of them had used the swimming pool at their house for the last time. Laurie even confided to Nadine that, at the time, she had wondered whether she should “try to make things work in the marriage,” a police report said.
At 3:54 p.m. that same day, Greg Colon made a 14-minute call to 1-800-273-8255 — the phone number for the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline. He also searched online for information about suicide, including looking up “how to shoot yourself,” a police report said.
His last text message to Laurie, sent at 2:39 p.m. July 12, 2018, was “Ok.” Theirconversation was about meeting at their house for dinner.
Laurie had also been exchanging text messages that day with her friend from Pennsylvania, which she did most days.
Laurie hadn’t planned to move in with the man in Pennsylvania, according to Nadine’s statement to police. But she plannedto move “to see where (their) relationship took them,” the friend told police.
Laurie’s last text message to her friend, sent at 6:40 p.m., was adescription of a meal she had recently eaten. Her phone continued to get text messageseven when she could no longer respond.
‘Normal,’‘very patient’ gun customer
Greg Colon didn’t have a criminal record. He didn’t seem to be overly upsetby the divorce.
He legally bought thegun he used to kill his wife, a black .38-caliber revolver with a brown handle, the day before he shot her and then himself. Police officers who searched his vehicle found the receipt, as well as a box of ammunition with six rounds missing.
Greg bought the gun from a business in Appleton.The store’s owner didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary, describing him as “normal” and “very patient,” a police report said.
Greg worked at Konz Wood Products, which manufactures wooden pallets among other items.A co-worker who talked to Greg on July 12, 2018, told police he had been “in a good mood” and even mentioned he would be in early the next day. Greg was “not very social at work” and rarely talked about his personal life, the co-worker told police.
RELATED:Domestic abuse survivor: 'Love is supposed to feel good. It's not supposed to hurt.'
RELATED:'I was so scared to tell anyone': Wisconsin teens grapple with dating violence
A different co-worker described Greg as someone who “got angry easily,” but was quick to apologize and forget about whatever made him upset, a police report said. Yet another co-worker told police Greg had recently been asking him for advice about buying a gun.
Laurie and Greg met in Pennsylvania, where Laurie spent a portion of her childhood after her family moved from Stevens Point, Nadine said. The coupledidn’t have children.
Laurie was always fiercely independent, which gave her family the confidence not to worry much about her, Nadine said. Even as the divorce was nearing an end, Laurie was helping Greg get an apartment and transition to a life apart from her.
“She was helping every possible way she could,” her mother said.
The police investigation didn’t uncover anything unexpected. Months later, police concluded Greg had acted alone when he shot and murdered Laurie, and that Greg had died by suicide.
Nadine had a difficult time getting over the initial shock of what had happened to her daughter.
“I just couldn’t believe he would do something like that,” she said.
‘You see so many of these’
Nadinehas photos of her daughter hanging on her walls. A portrait taken during Laurie’s senior year of high school is still her favorite.
The process of sorting all of Laurie’s belongings was exhausting, but months later things have started to calm down, Nadine said.
“We just keep trying to move forward,” she said.
After her death, Laurie's friends started a GoFundMe campaign, hoping to raise money for Harbor House Domestic Abuse Programs in Appleton. They raised more than $6,600.
AndLaurie’s family isn’t alone in their grief. In 2017, a total of 62 people died — both victims and perpetrators — as a result of domestic violence in Wisconsin, according to a report by End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin. The organization hasn’t yet released a report tallying the number of domestic violence-related deaths last year. But the tragedies continued in 2018.
Sara Schmidt, 40, was shot and killed by her husband in his parent’s driveway Jan. 9, 2018, near Appleton. Her children were close enough to hear the shots.
Cierra Hardrath, 21, and Duane Lopez Jr., 25, died Jan. 20, 2018, when both were shot by Hardrath’s fiance inside a house in Abbotsford. A third woman waswounded.
Ashley Mielke, 27, is believed to have been shot and killed May 1, 2018, near Neenah by a man with whom she was in a romantic relationship, which was “contentious at times,” police said.
Those were only a few of last year’s cases. And in the first three months of this year, more Wisconsin women have died.
Brooke Fontaine, 34, was shot and killed Feb. 18 in Suamico by her 4-year-old son’s father, who had lost custody of the boy and was fighting the decision, according to court records.
Brooke Harris, 26, was shot multiple times by her boyfriend March 2 at an apartment on the south side of Oshkosh. Her 9-month-old son was inside the apartment, but wasn’t hurt, according to the Oshkosh Police Department.
Nadine shook her head as she stood in her kitchen and thought about her daughter's deathand the other women who have died since then.
“You see so many of these,” she said.
Contact Chris Mueller at 920-996-7267 or cmueller@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @AtChrisMueller.
Domestic violence resources in your area
If you or someone you know is in an abusive relationship, you can find help nearby at the End Domestic Abuse Wisconsin resource map: www.endabusewi.org/gethelp.
If you’re not from Wisconsin, you can still get help by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 or 1-800-787-3224.
