Charges Expected Against Stepfather in Germantown Murder

Police identified Cody Reetz, 14, of Grafton as the boy who was murdered outside the Walmart along Appleton Avenue. The suspect's ex-wife said he told her he killed Cody to get back at his current wife.

GERMANTOWN - Germantown Police have identified a 14-year-old boy who was murdered outside the Walmart along Appleton Avenue in the village.

Police say Cody A. Reetz was found in a car in the store's parking lot. Reetz is from Grafton. He was a student at Grafton Middle School, where students and staff are working through the grief.

The school superintendent called Cody, "a charmer."

A 37-year-old man, Cody's step-father, is in custody. Police say they plan to recommend a first degree murder charge against the step-father, and a court hearing was scheduled for his case on Tuesday afternoon.

Police Chief Peter Hoell say the murder was pre-meditated.

"This is a hard one to wrap your head around," said Chief Hoell. "We believe we know what the motive was. We don't think it was some sort of confrontation between the victim and the suspect."

Police say the step-father turned himself in and told them where they would find Cody's body.

The suspect's ex-wife, Krista Avey, said the suspect told her he killed Cody to get back at his current wife. Near the time of the murder, his wife was filing a police report against him for domestic abuse, after police say he attacked her with a hammer.

"I was in the middle of driving on a country road when he told me, and I just basically went numb," Avey said.

Avey said she drove the suspect to the Washington County Sheriff's Department so he could turn himself in.

The murder happened on what's a typically busy night for shopping at the Walmart Supercenter.

"I was totally surprised that it was Germantown," said Linda Wentworth, a customer at the Walmart. "Then, when I saw it was our Walmart, I was amazed it happened here."

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