A 71-year-old New Richmond, Wis., man who strangled his wife after “things got out of hand” and then discarded her body in a cornfield has been given a 20-year sentence.

Gordon Laakso (Courtesy of the New Richmond Police Department)

Gordon Charles Laakso was sentenced in St. Croix Circuit Court on Friday for the March 2 killing of 68-year-old Mary Louise Laakso, a mother of three children and six grandchildren who volunteered at a local Catholic school.

Judge R. Michael Waterman sentenced Laakso to 14 years in prison, followed by six years of extended supervision. Laakso was given credit for the 278 days he was in custody after his arrest.

Prosecutors asked for 25 years in prison and five years of extended supervision.

In September, as part of a plea deal, Laakso pleaded guilty to an amended charge of first-degree reckless homicide instead of the original first-degree intentional homicide. Two other charges were dismissed: strangulation and hiding a corpse.

‘Oh, you didn’t find her?’

According to the criminal complaint, New Richmond police responded to the couple’s home around 1:45 p.m. March 2 after their son-in-law reported that Laakso had just killed his wife by strangling her.

An officer parked several houses down from the home in the 1300 block of Bluff Border Road and called Laakso, who answered and said he was the only one inside. When the officer asked him if everyone was OK, he “stated things got out of hand and he didn’t know what else to say,” the complaint read.

Laakso, who had dried blood on the inside of his right hand, was put in handcuffs and into a patrol car. He told the officer that his wife “rambled at him for seven straight hours” and claimed she “became belligerent and began hitting him,” the complaint read.

When the officer asked if she was still inside, Laakso asked, “Oh, you didn’t find her?” and explained what he meant by saying, “She’s dead.” He said he couldn’t say for sure exactly where she was and that he would have to go with the officer to find her.

In the basement of the home, officers found a pair of gloves with blood on them.

Laakso’s son-in-law told police that his wife was on a video chat with her father about 1:30 p.m. Laakso said he and his wife had been having marital issues, and then disclosed he “choked” her to death that morning.

Laakso, while still in the patrol car, told the officer that he had retired two days earlier. When told they were still trying to locate his wife, Laakso replied with, “Well, I can show you.”

Officers then learned that Mary Laakso’s phone pinged northeast of Star Prairie, just into Polk County. Laakso said he had driven east from the water tower in Star Prairie and went a bit north.

“This was totally unintended,” he added, according to the complaint. “I just drove because I was panicking, ya know, and that’s the way it ended up.”

Officers found Mary Laakso’s body about 4 p.m. in a rural area of Polk County. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner’s Office ruled she died of asphyxiation by homicide.

‘Her life was lived in love, faith’

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Laakso ran a Farmers Insurance agency in Superior, Wis., for more than 42 years and had no prior criminal convictions in Wisconsin nor Minnesota.

According to Mary Laakso’s online obituary, she was born in Duluth and grew up in nearby Iron River, Wis., where she graduated from Northwestern High School in 1975.

While raising a family in Superior, she worked at Cathedral School and for the insurance business. She moved to New Richmond in 2020. She was a member of St. Patrick Catholic Church in Hudson and also volunteered at its school, the obituary said.

“Her life was lived in love, faith, generosity and a deep commitment to her family and community,” the obituary said.