WJJQ LOCAL NEWS
Arrest in Tomahawk homicide case
Thursday, May 15, 2008

An apparent break in the Rochelle Anderson murder case, when a Tomahawk teenager was arrested on Wednesday.

In a press release issued Thursday morning, Tomahawk Chief of Police Don Johnson reported the arrest of 18-year-old Derek Domke of Tomahawk. Johnson stated that with the assistance from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Department and the Wisconsin Department of Justice, Derek Domke was taken into custody. The arrest the result of the investigation into the murder of 25-year-old Rochelle Anderson of Irma.

Anderson was found brutally beaten and stabbed on the evening of March 22 outside of Zephyr Fuel on North Fourth Street in Tomahawk where she worked as a clerk.

Derek Domke is being held in the Lincoln County Jail. District Attorney Don Dunphy is reviewing the case. He is expected to determine if formal charges will be filed.

Derek Domke, according to his most recent address listed in court records, lived across the street from Zephyr Fuel on East Prospect Avenue. A search of court records shows that on March 4, 18 days prior to the murder, Domke was arrested in the city limits of Tomahawk for driving while intoxicated and operating without a license. Then on April 15, he would be charged with disorderly conduct in Lincoln County. Derek Domke’s current student status at Tomahawk High School was not released. He did plead no contest in January to truancy.

Chief Johnson stated that the investigation of the murder of Rochelle Anderson is not complete. He says that no additional information is being released at this time because it could be detrimental to the investigation.

Meanwhile, no new information was released on the status of 21-year-old Nathan Ives of Wausau. Chief Johnson named him as a person of interested several days after the murder was discovered. Ives had fled the area. After a statewide search was conducted, he was arrested in Milwaukee. He is being held in the Marathon County Jail on apparently unrelated charges of burglary and battery in Wausau.

Rochelle Anderson homicide investigation files

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