70-year-old strangled wife, then hid her body, WI cops say. ‘Oh you didn’t find her?’

Police arrested a 70-year-old Wisconsin man accused of strangling his wife and hiding her body in a rural area.

Officers took Gordon Laakso into custody on Sunday, March 2, after responding to his home at about 2 p.m. for a welfare check, the New Richmond Police Department said in a March 3 news release.

Someone called the department, concerned about Laakso’s wife, 68-year-old Mary Laakso, police said. Based on things Laakso had said, according to police, the caller was worried Mary Laakso may be hurt.

But when officers arrived at the New Richmond home, they couldn’t find her.

“Officers were able to locate Gordon, however, they could not locate Mary at the residence or reach her by phone,” police said.

McClatchy News reached out to an attorney for Gordon Laakso but didn’t immediately hear back.

At first, Gordon Laakso didn’t say what he’d done to his wife, but told officers that she had “rambled” at him for hours that day, then started hitting him, and the situation escalated out of control, according to court documents obtained by WEAU.

Police said Gordon Laakso started packing things into a suitcase and told officers he would come with them, the outlet reported, but when asked if Mary Laakso had left the home, he seemed surprised.

“Oh, you didn’t find her?” he is accused of saying, according to WEAU. “She’s dead.”

He regretted not taking her to a hospital, he told police, but said he panicked and dumped her body beside a cornfield, the outlet reported.

Officers found Mary Laakso’s body about two hours later, at 4 p.m., in a rural area of neighboring Polk County, police said.

Gordon Laakso is charged with murder, strangulation and suffocation, domestic abuse and hiding a corpse, records filed in St. Croix County show. His bond is set at $1 million.

Gordon Laakso is an agent with Farmers Insurance and has an office in Superior, according to his profile on the company’s website. He’s been with the company for 35 years, it read.

New Richmond is close to Wisconsin’s border with Minnesota, and is a roughly 40-mile drive east from Minneapolis.

This story was originally published March 5, 2025 at 10:30 AM with the headline "70-year-old strangled wife, then hid her body, WI cops say. ‘Oh you didn’t find her?’."