Erik Metzig Case: Murders, Failed Insanity Plea, and Life Sentence

The Erik Metzig case ended on October 17, 2025, when a Winnebago County judge sentenced the 28-year-old Wisconsin man to two consecutive life terms without the possibility of parole for the March 2023 shooting deaths of his parents, David and Jan Metzig, the longtime owners of the Union Star Cheese Factory near Fremont. The sentence followed a failed insanity plea, no-contest pleas to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide, and a rejected last-minute attempt to withdraw those pleas based on an abuse allegation the court found not credible.¹

Who the Victims Were

David Metzig, 72, and Jan Metzig, 71, were the third generation of the Metzig family to run Union Star Cheese, a small independent operation in Zittau, Wisconsin. They had purchased the business from David’s great-aunt in 1980 and expanded it to include a second facility, Willow Creek Cheese Creamery, and a retail shop in Neenah. They lived in a home above the factory and are survived by five sons and seven grandchildren.² After their deaths, their son Jon Metzig, a Wisconsin Master Cheesemaker, took over the business.³

The Killings and Arrest

On the morning of March 18, 2023, officers responded to a welfare check at the Metzig home on Metzig Road in the town of Wolf River. They arrived around 5:15 a.m. and found David and Jan Metzig dead in a bedroom, both with gunshot wounds to the head. Their bodies were covered in blankets with bags over their heads.⁴

Erik Metzig, then 26, was arrested hours later at a YMCA in Kimberly, Wisconsin. Police reported that he appeared intoxicated at the time. A criminal complaint filed on March 21, 2023, charged him with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide in Winnebago County Circuit Court, and cash bond was set at $1 million.⁵

The Evidence

Investigators found a gun on the kitchen counter and a Glock 9mm handgun inside a garbage bag in the garage. Several unfired 9mm bullets were near the victims’ bodies, and police observed red smears consistent with blood inside Erik Metzig’s car.⁶⁵

The most damaging piece of evidence was a journal recovered from Erik Metzig’s bedroom. According to the criminal complaint, entries in the journal described his desire to “eliminate his parents and make it look like they disappeared while out on a walk.” Prosecutors treated the journal as direct evidence of premeditation.⁶

The Insanity Plea and Its Collapse

In September 2023, Metzig entered a plea of not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect, Wisconsin’s version of an insanity plea. Under that framework, a jury would first decide guilt and then, if it convicted, decide whether Metzig was mentally ill at the time of the killings.⁷ Two doctors examined him. Neither supported the mental illness claim, and one concluded, according to the prosecution, that Metzig was “likely malingering, or in other words, faking mental illness.”¹

On August 26, 2024, Metzig withdrew his not-guilty and insanity pleas and entered no-contest pleas to both homicide counts, canceling a jury trial that had been set for October 2024. A no-contest plea accepts conviction without admitting or denying guilt. The state said it would recommend 50 years on each count, to run concurrently.⁸⁹

The Abuse Claim and the Motion to Withdraw the Plea

In a notarized handwritten letter dated October 11, 2024, Metzig told the court he had been sexually assaulted by his father.¹⁰ On February 6, 2025, his defense attorney filed a motion to withdraw the no-contest pleas, arguing the plea colloquy was defective and that the abuse allegation was newly discovered evidence supporting an adequate provocation defense that could reduce the charges to second-degree intentional homicide.³

Prosecutors called the claim fabricated. Assistant District Attorney Amanda Folger produced a message Metzig had sent to his sister-in-law admitting the abuse claim was false and had been suggested by other inmates. Two jail inmates housed near Metzig told detectives his abuse claims were “all garbage” and said he “got the idea from watching news coverage of the Menendez brothers’ case on television.” On August 18, 2025, Judge Michael Gibbs denied the motion, ruling that “the court does not believe that the new evidence is credible” and that “just coming up with a different excuse or a desire for a trial later on is certainly not new evidence as contemplated in the statutes.”¹¹

Sentencing

At sentencing on October 17, 2025, two of Erik Metzig’s brothers gave victim impact statements. One told the court that police believed the couple had been naked and shot in their bedroom, and asked for life without parole, saying the crime would “define who he is and how he will be remembered.” Another said that if Erik was “willing to murder our own parents in an attempt to tarnish our father’s reputation, the very people who care for him and love him the most, he is capable of harming anyone.”⁴

Metzig addressed the court himself. He said his parents were “causing me to be depressed, causing me to be mentally ill” and blamed a prescription medication, telling the judge he was “certain that if I had not been taking that, this never would have happened.” He also said that if released he had plans that “would probably involve moving somewhere far away.” Folger reminded the court that neither doctor who evaluated Metzig supported his mental illness claim and that one concluded he was faking.¹¹²

Judge Gibbs said Metzig had engaged in “victim blaming” and “medication blaming” and showed “very little remorse.” He imposed life in prison on each count of first-degree intentional homicide, ordered the two sentences to run consecutively with no possibility of parole, and ordered $1,036 in restitution to the victims’ families. No appeal had been reported as of the most recent available information.¹

1
NBC 26. Erik Metzig Sentenced to Life in Prison for Murdering His Parents
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Lewin Funeral Home. David and Jan Metzig Obituary
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Post-Crescent. Son of Slain Union Star Cheesemakers Asks to Withdraw No-Contest Pleas
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Law and Crime. Son Journaled About Plans to Eliminate Parents Before They Were Found Dead With Bags Over Their Heads
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NBC 26. Erik Metzig Appears in Court on Homicide Charges Over the Deaths of His Parents
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WBAY. Erik Metzig Accused in Parents’ Murder Bound for Trial
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FOX 11. Oshkosh Man Pleads Not Guilty by Reason of Mental Disease in Parents’ Murder Case
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WBAY. Erik Metzig Pleads No Contest to Murder of His Parents
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The Northwestern. Erik Metzig Pleads No Contest to Murders of Union Star Cheese Factory Owners
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FOX 11. Defendant’s Motion to Withdraw No Contest Pleas
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Post-Crescent. Man Convicted of Killing Parents Not Allowed to Withdraw Pleas
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FOX 11. Erik Metzig Sentenced in Parents’ Deaths