Janesville Craig High School announces the death of a staff member whose name matches a town of Fulton address that’s been tied up in a police death investigation for two days.
A mass email from the Craig High School administrators to staff and parents sent Wednesday obtained by Big Radio says school paraprofessional staff Valerie Letsen has died.
Court records from 2022 and state property tax records from 2023 show Letsen’s address was a home at 9909 North Newville Road. Rock County sheriff’s detectives had been investigating at that address since Wednesday morning.
Police say they found a man and woman they say had a marital relationship both dead inside of the North Newville Road home early on Wednesday. Police had gone to the 2-acre, rural property to check the welfare of people there.
Police as of Thursday night had not named the two found dead in the house or shared any details, including a possible cause of the deaths or when they were thought to have died. Police did have the property cordoned off with police tape on Wednesday and Thursday as sheriff’s office detectives conducted a death investigation.
As of Thursday, Rock County Sheriff’s authorities said they couldn’t give further details on the deaths, pending an investigation.
Police had marked the property as a crime scene but they say the public is safe, and they’ve characterized the deaths as being “isolated to the residence.”
School district officials did not comment on Letsen’s death other than to confirm the district sent out notes on the woman’s death on Wednesday. The district said students knew Letsen from various roles she’d handled at Craig, including being a study hall monitor.
In an interview Thursday with a Big Radio reporter, a Rock County Sheriff’s captain acknowledged a heavy police presence at the Newville Road House has been highly visible because it’s on a busy local stretch.
It’s also located alongside Interstate 90/39, where thousands of vehicles pass each hour.
