GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Lou Griffin was sentenced Monday to the maximum of 10 years in prison for the 1986 murder of Lisa Holstead.
Her body was found partially submerged in a swamp in an area now known as the Ken Euers Nature Area. Griffin, now 67, was charged with first-degree murder in October 2020 after investigators linked Griffin to the scene by a DNA match. On the day jury selection was expected to start, Griffin pleaded to a count of homicide by reckless conduct.
Before the sentence was issued, several of Holstead’s relatives addressed the court, including her brother, Steven Holstead.
After thanking the many police officers who worked on the case, Holstead said the family always had to check on each other because of what happened to his sister. Then he addressed Griffin.
The pain it caused our family cannot even be described here. Many tears. I have thought about Lisa all these years, every day, and up until the last two years, multiple times a day, thinking “What happened to her?” and what you did to her. You should be ashamed of yourself. But you know what? You’re probably not,” Holstead said. “At the end of the day, we were robbed of Lisa’s presence. You know, today, right now as we sit here, it’s been 13,377 days since you murdered her. 13,377 days. In that timespan, people make a career out of that. Instead, Lisa’s laying in a box, bones, right now. 13,377 days. And it will keep counting after today. You stole her from us. You stole Lisa’s life from our family. You’re a coward. You’re a coward.
Audio recordings of Lisa Holstead singing were also played at the hearing. Steven Holstead said the family has no video of her, so the audio and photographs are all they have left.
Griffin did not address the court before the sentence was issued.
According to a criminal complaint filed in October 2020, investigators linked Griffin to the murder earlier that year by matching his DNA to a sample found at the scene. Police tracked Griffin and got his DNA from beer cans and a cigarette he threw away.
Police say Griffin fit the profile of the killer. He lived in Green Bay at the time of the murder and was released from prison for a sexual assault crime a month prior to Holstead’s death.
The complaint says Griffin initially denied ever seeing Holstead, 22. However, when presented with the DNA evidence, he said he must have had sex with her but did not kill her. He said he did not remember having sex with her.
Griffin’s attorneys had planned to argue Holstead’s boyfriend was instead responsible for the murder.
