Green Bay News

State regulators have given verbal approval for a power line which would run through Outagamie, Brown, Shawano and Oconto counties, according to the company which will operate it.

Dubbed the “North Appleton-Morgan” project, it is a project which will costs $307 to $327 million, says American Transmission Co.

* Click here for a map of the project

“The approval of the North Appleton – Morgan project by the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin represents a major step forward in strengthening the electric transmission grid in northeastern Wisconsin,” said David Hovde, senior local relations representative for American Transmission Co. “We will continue to work with landowners and other interested parties as we move into the construction phase of the project.”

The project includes:

•A new 345-kV line and a new 138-kV line between the North Appleton Substation on French Road in the Town of Freedom in Outagamie County and the Morgan Substation in Oconto County (about 40 to 48 miles depending on route),

•Expanded facilities at North Appleton and Morgan substations,

•A new Benson Lake Substation at the site of the Amberg Substation in Marinette County to accommodate a large voltage-control device and,

•Additional work at 11 substations in northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

Single-circuit, self-supporting steel monopole structures would be used in most locations. The typical height of the structures would be 85 feet on the 138-kV line and 120 feet on the 345-kV line.

ATC announced this timeline:
Property owner notifications – June 2015
Begin easement negotiations – Late 2015
Construction start – July 2016
In-service date – Second quarter 2019

Green Bay – Fire crews were called to a downtown Green Bay apartment building Tuesday morning.

Authorities are not giving out many details about the incident at the Monroe Plaza Apartments. We do know most lanes of N. Monroe Avenue near Bodart Street are closed.

FOX 11 has a crew on the scene. We’ll bring you any updates as we get them.

RIVER FALLS (AP) – The University of Wisconsin-River Falls confirms the death of one of its students whose body was found in a local river after leaving a bar.

River Falls Chancellor Dean Van Galen identifies the student as 20-year-old Robert Steven Sontag, of Shafer, Minnesota.

Police say the student was last seen about 2 a.m. Friday when he and a friend were walking home from a bar and they separated. Sontag failed to show up for class Friday and for work during the weekend.

KSTP-TV reports city administrator Scot Simpson says Sontag’s body was recovered from the Kinnickinnic River Monday afternoon.

ZHARI, Afghanistan (AP) – It’s the cash crop of the Taliban and the scourge of Afghanistan – the country’s intractable opium cultivation. This year, many Afghan poppy farmers are expecting a windfall as they get ready to harvest opium from a new variety of poppy seeds said to boost yield of the resin that produces heroin.

The plants grow bigger, faster, use less water than seeds they’ve used before, and give up to double the amount of opium, they say.

No one seems to know where the seeds originate from. The farmers of Kandahar and Helmand provinces, where most of Afghanistan’s poppies are grown, say they were hand-delivered for planting early this year by the same men who collect the opium after each harvest, and who also provide them with tools, fertilizer, farming advice – and the much needed cash advance.

To the villagers, the shadowy men are intermediaries for drug lords and regional traffickers working with or for the Taliban, underscoring the extensive web that fuels the opium trade and keeps the poppy farmers in a clasp of terror and dependency. The impoverished famers have little recourse but to accept the seeds and other farming materials on credit, to be paid back when they harvest the crop, continuing a never ending cycle of debt.

Afghanistan’s poppy harvest, which accounts for most of the world’s heroin, is worth an estimated $3 billion a year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. Production hit a record high in 2014, up 17 percent compared to the year before, as opium and the drugs trade continued to undermine security, rule of law and development, while funding both organized crime and the Taliban – often one and the same.

The trend is expected to continue in 2015, in part thanks to the new poppy seeds, according to officials tasked with overseeing the eradication of poppy crops.

This upcoming harvest in late spring is expected to surpass last year’s country-wide record of 7,800 metric tons (8,600 U.S. tons) by as much as 7 percent and 22 percent in Kandahar and Helmand provinces respectively, local officials said.

Experts say the Taliban, who have been waging war on the Kabul government for more than a decade, derive around 40 percent of their funding from opium, which in turn fuels their insurgency.

Fierce fighting in recent months in poppy-growing regions shows the Taliban’s determination to protect their trafficking routes and the seasonal workers who come to earn money at harvest time from government forces under orders to eradicate the crop.

Gul Mohammad Shukran, chief of Kandahar’s anti-narcotics department, said the new seeds came with the drug traffickers, but he did not know exactly where from. They yield “better drug plants, which require less water and have a faster growth time.”

“This is a big threat to everyone,” he said, adding that Afghanistan’s central authorities had failed to act on his warnings.

Growing poppy for opium is illegal in Afghanistan and forbidden under Islam, the country’s predominant religion. But Afghan farmers feel they have no choice.  For more than a decade the government and its international partners have pleaded with them to grow something else – wheat, fruit or even saffron.

When that didn’t work, the police were sent to destroy crops. And when that failed, the Americans and the British tried handing out free wheat seeds, an enterprise that found little fertile ground.

This spring, the opium fields have again erupted in a sea of bright pink poppy flowers.

The new poppy seeds allow farmers to almost double the output from each plant, said Helmand’s provincial police chief Nabi Jan Malakhail. At harvest, collectors cut the bulb of the plant, allowing the raw opium to ooze out. This resin dries and is collected the following day.

Malakhail said the new seeds grow bulbs that are bigger than usual and can be scored twice within a few days, thus doubling the quantity of raw opium. The plants mature in three to four months, rather than the five months of the previous seed variety, allowing farmers to crop three times a year instead of just twice.

In Kandahar’s Zhari district, farmer Abdul Baqi said he knows poppy growing is illegal and that, given a choice, he would “rather eat grass.” But, he added, “I cannot feed my kids with nothing but the air.”

Baqi said the Taliban and associated crime gangs make it easy for the farmers to produce opium, and difficult – even deadly – not to.

Without government support, it’s impossible to grow food crops as the cash-strapped farmers would have to pay for the seeds, tools, fertilizer and irrigation themselves. No one would come and collect their crop, even if their landlords allowed them to grow wheat or other food.

If the government took charge and provided irrigation and power, Hismatullah Janan, another Zhari poppy grower, said he would gladly change to growing wheat or similar crops “so we could make an honest and decent living, and leave this so-called dirty work behind.”

Afghan anti-narcotics officials say they need international assistance to proceed with poppy eradication.

Yet since 2002, the United States has spent at least $7 billion “on a wide variety of programs to reduce poppy cultivation, prevent narcotics production, treat drug addiction and improve the criminal justice system to combat drug trafficking,” John Sopko, the special inspector general for Afghanistan reconstruction, told the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control in January.

Afghanistan supplies 90 percent of the world’s opium and opiates originating from there find their way to every corner of the globe, Sopko said.

The Taliban will also likely be emboldened, since for the first time this year, there are no international combat troops on the battlefields of Afghanistan after the NATO drawdown at the end of 2014.

Many anti-narcotics officials also left, fuelling concerns that Afghanistan’s economic addiction to opium, worth around 15 percent of its gross domestic product, would only grow, Sopko added.

Almost 90 percent of Afghanistan’s poppy cultivation is in the south and the west – and provinces such as Helmand and Kandahar, longtime Taliban strongholds, have become synonymous for poppy cultivation.

As opium production rises, so does Afghanistan’s own drug addiction problem. Estimates put the number of heroin addicts in the country at between 1.5 million and 2 million in a population estimated at around 30 million. And the unchecked Afghan opium production is also blamed for rising drug addiction in neighboring countries, including the former Soviet republics to the north, Iran to the west, and China and Pakistan to the east.

The UNODC can do little beyond encouraging the government to curb opium production, said the organization’s chief in Afghanistan, Andrey Avetisyan.

Kabul, with the support from the international community, he said, needs to find a way to introduce “crops that can be a serious competition to opium.”

But for now, finding something more lucrative than the mystery poppy seeds is a daunting task, so the vicious opium cycle continues.

___

Lynne O’Donnell reported from Kabul, Afghanistan.

GREEN BAY – This week is the Greater Green Bay Habitat for Humanity’s Women Build Week.

The event is geared towards raising awareness for women builders and dedicate a day of having at least 75% of volunteers on a building site to be women. The group’s future goal is to have a home completed entirely by women.

Tuesday, organizers will hold a media event, challenging media teams comprised of women to build a picnic table. The team with the best time and approved stability wins.

The tables will be donated to one of the organization’s Habitat Partner Families.

FOX 11 will one of several media outlets participating in the challenge.

FOX 11’s Pauleen Le spent the morning checking it out.

For more information on Women build Week and Habitat for Humanity, click here.

MILWAUKEE (AP) – The Milwaukee Brewers rallied for three runs in the eighth inning to win in Craig Counsell’s managerial debut, a 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Dodgers on Monday night.

Dodgers starter Clayton Kershaw was denied his 100th career win, and took a no-decision.

The Brewers overcame a 3-0 deficit with one run in the sixth and three in the eighth in Counsell’s first game since taking over for Ron Roenicke, who was fired Sunday night.

Hector Gomez and pinch-hitter Gerardo Parra opened the sixth with consecutive singles to cut the lead to 3-1.

Gomez pulled the Brewers within a run at 3-2 in the eighth with his first career home run. Adam Lind chased Kershaw with a pinch-hit double, and Carlos Gomez greeted reliever Chris Hatcher (0-3) with a tying RBI double. Gomez advanced to third on Jason Rogers’ groundout and then scored on infield single by Ryan Braun, who narrowly beat the throw. The Dodgers challenged the call, but it was upheld on review.

Michael Blazek (2-0) pitched two scoreless innings for the victory and Francisco Rodriguez pitched a perfect ninth for his fifth saves in five opportunities.

The victory was the third straight and fourth in five games for the Brewers, who improved to 8-18 after the worst start in franchise history.

Kershaw, who was trying for third time for his 100th victory, allowed three runs on five hits in 7 1/3 innings, striking out eight. He has not won since April 17.

Joc Pederson immediately put the Dodgers in front 1-0, driving the third pitch from Kyle Lohse over the right-field wall for his seventh homer.

The Dodgers added two runs in the fourth. Adrian Gonzalez was hit by a pitch and moved to second on Andre Ethier’s one-single. Yasmani Grandal followed with an RBI single off the wall in center, sending Ethier to third. Juan Uribe then delivered a sacrifice fly. Center fielder Carlos Gomez appeared to have a shot at Ethier at home, but catcher Martin Maldonado failed to handle the throw that was slightly to the first-base side.

MATTINGLY EJECTED

The Dodgers manager was ejected in the third inning by first base umpire Paul Emmel for arguing a balk call against Kershaw, who appeared to have picked Lohse off first. It was Mattingly’s first ejection of the season and 16th of his managerial career.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Dodgers: LHP Hyun-Jin Ryu, sidelined all season with a left shoulder impingement, was moved from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day disabled list.

Brewers: SS Jean Segura, who left Sunday’s game at Chicago after being was hit in the helmet by a pitch, was not in the lineup pending additional tests. “He’s going to see the doctors later, after batting practice,” Counsell said. “He’s going to go through a regular batting practice today. So we’ll know more around game time or after the game, probably. For me, he’s on the field today, running around. That’s great. I think we got a good result already.”

UP NEXT

Dodgers: Left-hander Zack Greinke, 4-0, has won his last nine decisions dating to last August. He is 0-2 with a 4.76 ERA in four games, including three starts, against the Brewers, whom he helped to the NLCS in 2011. Greinke is 15-2 in his career at Miller Park.

Brewers: Right-hander Matt Garza, 2-3, is coming off two consecutive quality starts. In 226 Major League appearances, Garza has never faced the Dodgers.

TOWN OF MENASHA – In Monday morning’s news conference updating the Trestle Trail Bridge shootings, Dr. Raymond Georgen of Theda Clark Medical Center stated he’s never seen a similar random act of violence in his 25 years in the Fox Cities.

“For the Fox Cities, this is kind of the end of the innocence,” said Georgen.

Talking with people near the scene of the shooting, it’s clear everyone has been hit in some way by the tragedy and is now dealing with it in their own ways.

Both friends and strangers of those involved in the shootings, laid flowers at the edge of the barricaded Fritse Park; some noticing unfamiliar and uneasy silence in the typically popular area.

“I’m proud of the way the community rallied together and just did everything humanly possible that they could to get to the people that needed the help,” said Pam Clough of Neenah.

Clough went by the park with her grandchildren. She had her own plans to be on the bridge Sunday night.

“I didn’t go and just said under my breath, that could have been me down there and that’s really the truth. It could have been. It could have been anybody,” said Clough.

It could have been anybody or anywhere is the attitude many others share.

“I think this can happen anywhere and I don’t think it’s the end of innocence in the Fox Cities because it can happen anywhere at any time,” said Mary Uttecht of the Town of Menasha.

“I really think this is still a beautiful and wonderful community and it’s just an unfortunate and horrible thing that happened,” said Bridget Engen of Neenah.

Engen heard the gun shots from her home on Sunday night.

“We occasionally hear things like that because people might be hunting squirrels or doing things like that, so we just kind of looked at each other, we’re like okay, you know, it’s not the first thing that’s going to come to mind,” said Engen.

Despite hearing that, Engen and others have no plans to abandon the park or their normal routines.

“It’s going to be weird the first few times going over that trail and knowing that there was a family enjoying it one minute and not so much the next,” said Uttecht.

“We won’t forget these people,” said Clough. “We won’t forget what happened. Hold them up in our prayers, that’s all we can do.”

FOX 11 did talk to one other woman off camera who lives near the park. She said she does believe this is the end of innocence for the Fox Cities. She is a teacher, to children about the same age as Olivia Stoffel, the 11-year-old victim. She says it’s been tough, and will be for a while.

MENASHA – People who saw and heard the shooting on the Trestle Trail Bridge say they’re still trying to process what they witnessed.

“My fiancé Allen heard the gunshot first and everyone running from the trail and hearing the police show up and telling people just leave your poles, run,” said Donna McMullian, who took video with her iPod from her front porch, just two doors down from the east end of the bridge.

McMullian says she ran to her door Sunday after hearing a commotion outside her Menasha home.

“More and more policemen coming and all my neighbors were out,” she described Monday afternoon. “And I have a scanner on my iPod and I put that up right away and next thing you know there were more police officers and they were running this way with their guns and they told us to get in the house. It was really scary at that point.”

McMullian says she listened to her police scanner until she felt it was safe. When she went outside, this is what she saw. The man police say was the shooter, Sergio Valencia del Toro, brought from the scene on a stretcher. This woman, his fiancé, collapsing to the ground in grief.

“It really made you sad and just kind of chaos, you know? It made it very scary,” said McMullian.

McMullian says she’s shaken up at what she saw, but she’s trying to put it in perspective.

“That was a relief, that it just seemed to be an isolated incident,” she said.

McMullian said she and her neighbors feel safer Monday evening. She said the area is usually quiet, aside from the foot and bike traffic on the trail.

FOND DU LAC – No one was hurt in a house fire Monday afternoon in the City of Fond du Lac.

Fire crews were dispatched to 37 South Reserve avenue at 3:36 p.m.

Upon arrival, crews say they saw light smoke coming from the attic.

Firefighters extinguished the fire with very little damage. They say the fire appears to be caused by a overheated roof exhaust fan.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The state Department of Justice is asking a federal judge to toss out Shirley Abrahamson’s lawsuit demanding that she be allowed to retain her title as Wisconsin Supreme Court chief justice.

Voters in April approved a constitutional amendment that allows the justices to elect their chief rather than basing the title on seniority. The high court’s conservative majority voted Justice Pat Roggensack chief last week, stripping the liberal-leaning Abrahamson of a title she’s held since 1996.

Abrahamson has filed a federal lawsuit challenging whether she can be immediately stripped of the title. DOJ attorneys on Monday filed a motion to dismiss the case, arguing Abrahamson has failed to state a claim for relief, she’s received her due process and the state had a rational basis for changing the selection process.

MADISON, Wis. (AP) – The number of Wisconsin farms where bird flu has been detected keeps rising.

The Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection said Monday that a fifth case has been detected in Barron County and a third case in Jefferson County. That brings the number of cases in the state to 10.

The latest case in Barron County involves a commercial turkey operation with more than 182,000 birds affected. In Jefferson County, the latest case involves a commercial chicken farm with more than 127,000 birds.

Bird flu was first detected in Wisconsin at a commercial chicken flock in Jefferson County on April 13. The number of affected birds has risen to more than 1.7 million in Wisconsin.

All the affected farms remain under quarantine.

MENASHA – The Trestle Trail Bridge trail head in Menasha is just a short bike ride away from where the shooter lived here on Menasha’s west side. It’s a popular spot for many in this community that is now marred by tragedy.

Police say Sergio Valencia Del Toro, 27, of Menasha randomly shot and killed three people Sunday evening, before turning the gun on himself.

Menasha police say Sergio Valencia del Toro had no prior criminal record and could legally possess weapons.

“We had no contacts with him,” said Menasha Police Chief Tim Styka. “As far as from a mental health perspective. But that’s something we’ll definitely be looking at as we gather more information on this.”

Questions remain about the man, who police say just last week, he and his fiancée called off their wedding.

Styka also confirmed Del Toro’s ties to the community here in Northeast Wisconsin.

“We do know that he was a student at UW-Oshkosh and previously served with the Air Force.”

According to a spokesman with the Air Force personnel center, Del Toro was a senior airman stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California. He worked as a food service journeyman from November 2008 to March 2014. A U.S. Army official told FOX 11, Del Toro joined the Michigan National Guard after leaving the Air Force and transferred to the Wisconsin National Guard.

In a statement confirming Del Toro’s enrollment as a second semester freshman at the Oshkosh campus, the university says it “sends its heartfelt condolences to those affected by the tragic shooting in Menasha on Sunday evening.”

It goes on to say “The UW Oshkosh Police are cooperating, as needed, with authorities investigating the incident.”

“It was a relationship issue that he had, he and his fiancé had called off their wedding about a week ago,” Styka said, “and discussed other issues with their relationship, and he was distraught over that.”

When authorities arrived on scene, one of the victims still alive – Erin Stoffel – and Del Toro were transported to Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah.

“He arrived and he was met by our trauma blue team and this individual had a heart rate initially, no blood pressure and subsequently succumbed to a through and through gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced quickly,” said Dr. Ray Georgen, the trauma services director at the hospital.

Styka says multiple Fox Valley agencies are working the investigation. Dive teams and detectives were back out here at the crime scene today to gather more evidence, trying to give some sort of closure to a terribly tragic event.

NEENAH – Amid the violence on the Trestle Trail Bridge Sunday evening, police and doctors say there was plenty of heroism and bravery.

Investigators say Erin Stoffel kept her seven-year-old son and five-year-old daughter away from the gunfire after she was shot three times.

“You can never underestimate the power of a mother to protect her children,” said Dr. Ray Georgen, the Medical Director of Trauma at Theda Clark Medical Center in Neenah. “To have three gunshot wounds and be able to get off that bridge and save two of her children is incredible to think about what she’s had. It’s an amazing story of heroism on her part and certainly of her children.”

City of Menasha Police Chief Tim Styka says 27-year-old Sergio Valencia Del Toro randomly opened fire near the middle of the Trestle Trail Bridge around 7:30 p.m. Sunday.

“The shooter shot all four of the victims unprovoked and at close range,” said Styka. “After shooting the four victims, the gunman then turned the weapons on himself.”

The pedestrian bridge runs over Little Lake Butte des Morts and connects the City of Menasha on the east to the Town of Menasha on the west.

The gunman killed Stoffel’s 11-year-old daughter Olivia, her husband Johnathon and an unrelated Appleton man, Adam Bentdahl.

Erin Stoffel – the mother and wife of Olivia and Johnathon – was taken to the hospital and underwent emergency surgery.

“She has done well thus far,” said Georgen. “We’re very hopeful for a recovery, but it’s obviously very early in her hospital course.”

Styka emphasized the significance of her actions

“Despite being shot multiple times, Ms. Stoffel was able to get herself and two additional children off of the bridge, instructing her young son to go run for assistance,” he said. “Absolutely amazing.”

Barry Busby, the Winnebago Co. Coroner, said the Stoffels’ seven-year-old son also played a big role in getting help.

“Another true hero was the 7-year old, who followed his mother’s lead of getting off the bridge and she said, ‘Ezra, run for help. Get somebody to call for help,’” said Busby.

Police say they found the gunman with a wound through his head. He died at the hospital. They say he got into an argument with his ex-fiancée at a house in Menasha, then rode his bike to the bridge and eventually began shooting.

Police and doctors describe the violence as unprecedented for the area.

“For the Fox Cities, this is kind of the end of the innocence,” said Georgen. “I’ve been here 25 years and this type of random act just hasn’t happened in the past.”

Busby says the violence could have been worse if it wasn’t for the quick reactions of victims, bystanders and law enforcement.

“True heroes going into an act of fire, where they don’t know what’s out there on this unprotected bridge, but trying to save other people,” said Busby. “And I think their fast response helped save a lot of people.”

Based on evidence at the scene and witness statements, police believe there was only one gunman. They say the shooter fired from two handguns. Investigators found both weapons at the scene.

ST. LOUIS (AP) — A woman who recently reunited with her 49-year-old daughter filed a petition Monday seeking court files and adoption records that might shed light on what exactly happened in 1965 at Homer G. Phillips Hospital in St. Louis, where the mother says she was told her newborn baby was dead.

The petition filed in St. Louis Circuit Court does not seek money, but simply seeks access to any records and files on behalf of Zella Jackson Price, 76, and her daughter, Melanie Diane Gilmore.

Attorney Albert Watkins said the suit is an effort to uncover any information “that would explain the genesis of Baby Diane.”

FBI spokeswoman Rebecca Wu said Monday that the agency is aware of allegations that babies may have been taken at Homer G. Phillips Hospital, and encouraged anyone with information to call the local office. Wu refused to say whether the FBI has opened a human trafficking investigation.

Price gave birth to a daughter whom she named Diane on Nov. 25, 1965, and says she was told a short time later by a nurse that the girl had died.

Price and Gilmore reunited last month after Gilmore’s granddaughter tracked down her birth mother based on a birth certificate. DNA testing confirmed with near 100-percent likelihood that Price was Gilmore’s mother.

Since the mother and daughter reunited, nearly 20 women have come forward to Watkins, expressing concern that their infants who reportedly died at birth at the now-closed Homer G. Phillips Hospital, mostly from the mid-1950s through the mid-1960s, were actually taken.

Many told strikingly similar stories: All were black and poor, most of them ages 15 to 20 when they gave birth. Watkins said they were not allowed to see their deceased children and they did not receive death certificates. All were notified by nurses of the babies’ deaths, though it’s usually a doctor who delivers such news.

Watkins believes the babies were sold to adoptive parents. He has asked Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay to launch investigations.

Several women who have contacted Watkins gathered Monday in his office, including Brenda Stewart. She was 16 and unmarried when she gave birth to a seemingly healthy girl on June 24, 1964. She cried as she recalled when a nurse told her the baby had died.

“They told me I didn’t need a baby,” Stewart said. “I was too young to have a baby. They told me my parents didn’t need another mouth to feed.

“I know my baby’s not dead,” she said.

OSHKOSH – The man who allegedly supplied heroin which killed Nicholas Aronson was ordered Monday to stand trial.

Patrick Brown waived a preliminary hearing, according to online court records.

Arraignment on the first-degree reckless homicide charge is set for Friday in Winnebago County court.

Police say Aaronson, 31, of Redgranite, died in February on W. 10th Ave. in Oshkosh. Autopsy results confirmed the cause of death as heroin toxicity.

MENASHA – Community groups are offering counseling in the wake of Sunday’s deadly shooting on the Trestle Trail.

The Menasha Police Dept. says its Victim Crisis Responder team are providing counseling at:

• Menasha Library Administrative Conference Room, 440 First St.
• Senior Center Wellness Room, 116 Main St.
• Menasha Health Department Conference Room, 316 Racine St.

In addition, the Menasha school district has posted information on its website for parents to help teens cope with the shooting. While district leaders say they don’t think any Menasha public-school students were directly involved in the shooting, they say some students were in the area when the shooting happened.

• Click here to access information from the Menasha school district

A total of four people – including the shooter – were killed in the incident on the popular recreational trail. Police say the attack was random and it ended with the shooter turning the gun on himself.

GREEN BAY – A woman who allegedly stabbed her boyfriend was charged Monday with first-degree recklessly endangering safety.

Cayla Katch, 20, allegedly got into an argument Friday night with her boyfriend at a Howard apartment, according to the Brown County Sheriff’s Dept.

He was stabbed in the back. His injuries are not life-threatening, police said.

TOWN OF VINLAND – The Winnebago County Sheriff Dept. is looking for information about human remains found last week in the town of Vinland.

The remains were found near the railroad tracks, south of County GG, just east of Interstate 41.

The initial examination determined that the remains appear to be those of a white male with an unknown age. The investigation was also able to determine that the remains had been at this location anytime from January of 2013 to December of 2014.

Further forensic testing is being conducted to determine the identification of the deceased and the cause of death.

Anyone with information about this incident please should contact the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office 920-236-7300.

Learn more about a fundraiser for the Stoffel family, victims of a May 3, 2015 shooting on the Trestle Trail in Menasha.