(Kenosha County Sheriff)
KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis. – After nearly 22 years of silence, suspicion, and stalled justice, Kenosha County prosecutors have charged Roxanna Vanderzee-Collins and her alleged lover, John Viskocil, with the cold-blooded murder of Vanderzee-Collins’s husband, David Vanderzee, in what authorities describe as an “execution-style” killing meticulously orchestrated under the guise of a crumbling marriage and secret romance.
Commissioner William Michel II signed arrest warrants for both defendants on Wednesday after District Attorney Xavier Solis personally authorized the charges. Vanderzee-Collins’s warrant was set at $75,000; Viskocil’s at $100,000. Both face life in prison if convicted of first-degree intentional homicide with use of a dangerous weapon as parties to a crime.
(Kenosha County Sheriff)
(Photo by McHenry County Sheriff)
Viskocil, 70, is currently in custody at the Kenosha County Jail. Vanderzee-Collins, 70, was apprehended in Illinois and is being held at the McHenry County Jail. She has a court appearance scheduled Thursday in Illinois regarding extradition to Wisconsin. At the time of the murder in 2003, David Vanderzee was 52 years old. His wife, Roxanna Vanderzee-Collins, was 49. John Viskocil, the man now accused of being her co-conspirator, was 48. David Vanderzee would have been 73 this year.
The case centers around the 2003 murder of David Vanderzee, a Navy veteran and skilled outdoorsman, who was found shot five times in the back of the head in his Town of Randall home. The bullets were fired at close range—“execution-style,” according to detectives. The weapon was never recovered, but the bullet fragments matched characteristics of .38 special or .357 caliber revolvers, both types of firearms previously owned by Viskocil.
For over two decades, the case sat dormant. Despite evidence and suspicions, former district attorneys Robert Zapf and Michael Graveley declined to prosecute. But DA Solis, elected in 2024, reopened the file. This spring, the Kenosha County Sheriff’s Office reinvestigated and uncovered a stunning pattern of deception, manipulation, and clues hidden in plain sight.
The Setup: Marriage, Motive, and a Secret Affair
Roxanna Vanderzee married David just eight weeks before his death. The two met online in 2000 and wed on July 26, 2003. But investigators now believe the marriage was a setup—part of a murder-for-profit and passion plot that ended with David’s execution inside his own home.
The complaints allege Vanderzee was having a romantic relationship with Viskocil before, during, and immediately after her marriage. Witnesses said the pair spoke constantly and appeared unusually close—even while Roxanna was honeymooning with David. After the murder, she moved in with Viskocil almost immediately.
On the night of September 23, 2003, Roxanna claimed she got off work at 5:45 p.m. and went shopping in Gurnee, Illinois. She said she returned home after 8:00 p.m. to find David lying dead on the floor with a pool of blood around his head. But investigators were skeptical: she refused to take a voice stress test and showed no visible emotion when speaking to detectives.
Even more striking, when she ran to the neighbors’ house to call 911, she told them, “David’s been shot!”—a fact no one outside the home could have known yet. At that point, police hadn’t determined the cause of death. One lead detective, a veteran of more than 300 death investigations, said he initially believed the victim had been beaten, not shot.
Viskocil’s Timeline Unravels
John Viskocil told police he had briefly visited David around 2:00 p.m., then went home, covered his boat, and went fishing on Powers Lake from about 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. He claimed he fell into the lake and immediately changed his clothes when he got home, allegedly to avoid dripping water on the floor. But his then-girlfriend, Janie Dunham, told detectives he wasn’t even home when she returned from a doctor’s appointment at 6:00 p.m. She also didn’t recall any wet clothes—or a mess.
She did, however, remember something else: Roxanna called the house that night and spoke with her for about 10 minutes. Moments later, Viskocil returned home and took a mysterious phone call, after which he told Janie that “David’s been shot”—again, before that information was public.
Investigators seized multiple .38 caliber revolvers and boxes of matching ammunition from Viskocil’s home weeks after the murder. He never asked for the guns back.
Dunham would later tell police that Viskocil and Roxanna were clearly in a romantic relationship and that when she moved out of the house in October 2003, she discovered Roxanna had already moved personal belongings into the home.
A Choreographed Killing?
In 2025, detectives retraced the possible escape route. Using a pontoon boat, investigators timed the trip from Viskocil’s dock to Lakeside Park—ten minutes. From there, it’s a five-minute walk to David’s home. That route would allow someone to access the house unnoticed and unrecognized by neighbors who were familiar with Viskocil’s truck.
Detectives believe Viskocil used that method to approach the home without raising suspicion.
Phone records further confirm the timeline. Between 6:45 p.m. and 7:36 p.m., there were no calls between the two alleged conspirators. But at 7:36 p.m., Roxanna called Viskocil’s house—and was surprised when Janie answered. At 8:11 p.m., Viskocil called Roxanna. Nine minutes later, she phoned 911.
Even more damning: both suspects made conflicting statements about the nature of their relationship, and both refused to take voice stress tests during the original investigation.
When confronted last month with the theory that Viskocil pulled the trigger and she helped plan it, Roxanna reportedly “looked away with a blank expression” and walked into her house without denying it.
A Different Kind of Justice
DA Solis, who campaigned on restoring public trust and aggressively pursuing unresolved crimes, has now set in motion the first serious prosecution effort in a case long believed to involve a deadly betrayal between lovers.
An initial appearance in Kenosha County will be scheduled following extradition.
(Photo by Nathan DeBruin, for Kenosha County Eye)
(Photo by Nathan DeBruin, for Kenosha County Eye)
(Cell Phone Photo by Kevin Mathewson, Kenosha County Eye)
33 Responses
Wow! Excellent work to all involved. What an intetesting but tragic story. Well written too!
Kevin looks like many of these cold cases are solvable with the right Sheriff and DA. Thanks to both of their fortitude. Reminds me of the US border, we just needed a different President, change can be excellent.
Once again, excellent job Kevin and DA Solis. Be careful – both Zapf and Gravely likely wish both of you very ill tidings.
Kenosha County jurors aren’t smart enough to follow
And they would have got away with it if it wasn’t for those meddling kids
Zoiks!
Our family may finally have some closure after all these years!
“Romantic relationship” is code for “sexual relationship.”
Women = a poison
Nailed it. But with a qualification: the Boomer to current generation’s females, especially. Had the good fortune years ago of meeting an investigator with a major life insurer on a cross country flight 25 years ago who worked on several “Black Widow” murder cases in retirement communities in FL and CA…a real eye opener to the financial dangers of post-50 marriage (one of which was the famous Robert Ludlum poisoning). In many cases, while the insurer refuses the death claim successfully, i.e., the snake usually doesn’t get the money (in the Ludlum case the snake did and got away as a multimillionaire hook, line, and sinker) the cases are not prosecuted. However, the reverse is different – “Black Widower” cases,.ala Mark Jensen, prosecution is far more likely, though Jensen was easy pickings because he was ego-stupid.
And this folks is exactly how innocent people are convicted every day.
So the new DA is going to make precedence that simply owning a gun that is same make and model of one used in any murder where they can’t find the actual gun used makes you chargeable for that crime?
And call it holsom and justice?
But I guess if it pleases the sheep
Your relative is guilty
1 not my relative
2. You are the voice that burnt innocent women and men and called them witches.
And the mouths were attached to the catholic church that invented torture!
nah, they are just making up for the negligence from earlier
Are you saying that both Roxanne and limo are innocent …
They’ll get their day in court.
It has to please a jury, and your description of the case presented here is far from common sense or any type of reality. Obviously the description is inconvenient for you.
Well… they exercised their 2nd and 5th amendment rights. What more proof do you need?
We are trusting our dear SIL’s soul will be at rest. Dave’s sister was in anguish until the day she passed over the circumstances yet to be resolved in David’s death. “Be sure your sin will find you out”.
Innocent until proven guilty” means that anyone accused of a crime is presumed to be innocent until the prosecution has proven their guilt beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law. This principle is a cornerstone of justice systems in many countries, including the United States.
GREAT JOB XAVIER AND KSD!! AND VERY NICE ARTICLE KEVIN!!
excellent work!! finally glad they got these two scumbags
Finally my family will have closure !!! My parents and my sister and my brothers soul can finally have piece.. they led a lie for many years ..Now I pray that they get all that’s coming to them.. Finally the Vanderzees are no longer a cold case ..
“Always the dollars. Always the fuckin’ dollars.” -Nicky Santoro, Casino – 1995
Very strange seeing these mugshots. Dave was my father. I was almost 11 when he was killed. After the first few years with no arrests, especially into my teens, I figured it would just be one of those cases that went unsolved. Hell, it still might be. But at least there’s some progress being made. Thanks again, Kevin, for reaching out. I hardly knew my dad when he was alive. Maybe it would’ve stayed that way, but I would’ve like to have had a say in the matter.
That’s so sad. Looks like no reason it took this long! Glad you finally got closer. I’ve been waiting 40 years for closure and they know who did it. Very frustrating.
David was a gentle soul and my friend.
I am so grateful that his family can have peace and closure.
So, according to my neighbors, this guy was known as “Limo John” out here back in the day. He had clearly come into Money, and was suddenly driving around in a fancy car and had a new boat that was way too big and out of place on Powers Lake. Everyone was quite suspicious of him and found him to be creepy.
The big question is how in God’s Green Earth could local Law Enforcement and the DA’s office ever had allowed this to become a Cold Case?
It was pretty clear who benefitted from the murder, and all evidence pointed in one direction.
The fact that Zapf and Gravely are getting pensions from our tax dollars is a disgrace. They clearly felt no guilt or concern with allowing a Killer to live among us. A-Holes.
Yes, the Zapf and Gravely pensions are egregious with the incredible amount of prosecutable circumstantial evidence that existed afterwards. Effectively, both (especially Zapf) are indirect accessories to 1st degree murder. May their lives be very unpleasant going forward.
Were they still together when they were arrested? It looks like no with separate homes.
No. Roxanna has remarried in the interrim. Allegedly, the new husband was not aware of the circumstances surrounding my dad’s death. He was given a different story.
I am sorry you have to go through all this! SMDH! God speed!