A school professor in Wisconsin was arrested after he allegedly murdered his pregnant girlfriend and her dog and tried eliminating the evidence by setting her house on fire.
Matthew R. Sierra has been arrested on charges of first-degree intentional homicide, first-degree intentional homicide of an unborn child, arson and mistreatment of animals causing death after he was accused of killing Alexis Pickett, in response to jail records viewed by Us Weekly.
The La Crosse Fire Department responded to the house on November 13 around 3:30 a.m. following reports of a fireplace, in response to the criminal grievance. Once the firefighters entered the house, they found Pickett dead on the age of 27.
An autopsy was conducted on Pickett’s body, and it was revealed that she lacked soot in her lungs and had low traces of carbon monoxide in her system. The discoveries meant that she was dead before the hearth began. Nonetheless, her reason for death has not yet been revealed.
Authorities also determined that Pickett’s dog was killed before the house was set on fire.
Surveillance video captured Sierra, 38, arriving at Pickett’s home around 12:45 a.m. on the day of her death. He left about two hours later, while the house’s smoke alarms began to go off as he got into his automobile.
Along with being pregnant with Sierra’s child, Pickett already shared a toddler with the professor. Cops said that they consider he wanted her to have an abortion and threatened to hunt custody of their first child if she refused, per the grievance.
Following his arrest, one in all Pickett’s friends spoke to detectives to share insight into her relationship dynamic with Sierra. “All I do know is that they’ve been on and off and so they have been continually fighting because he came upon she was pregnant along with his kid and he didn’t want anything to do with it,” the friend said.
Sierra claimed that he was at a gas station on the time of the hearth. Nonetheless, his cellphone data connected him to the crime by showing that he was at Pickett’s home when the residence burst into flames.
One month after the hearth, police confirmed Sierra was arrested on Tuesday, December 16, and was taken to the La Crosse County Jail. Sierra currently stays behind bars and is being held on a $1 million bond. He’s next scheduled to seem in court on Tuesday, December 23.
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It shouldn’t be currently clear if he has entered a plea or obtained legal representation.
“This has been a really diligent, comprehensive, and strategic investigation in collaboration with the La Crosse Fire Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and the Wisconsin State Fire Marshal’s Office,” City of La Crosse Police Chief Shawn Kudron said in an announcement. “Our thoughts proceed to be with the Pickett family.”
Sierra currently works as a mechanical design professor at Western Technical College in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in response to WXOW. He has since been placed on administrative leave in light of his arrest.