i didn t know how he planned to get tim up there. a few months later, as jeff paridon and gene maxwell from compressed air technologies were beginning to ask questions of embezzlement of the business, she says gaede called wicks to finalize the phony music gig, telling him to come to north dakota so they could drive to canada together. during wicks first day at their house, fruge said he painted their staircase, plays with her son joshua, and seemed excited about the upcoming job. it was during the evening of his second day that everything changed. about 8:00 or 9:00 i gave joshy a bath and took him upstairs, and dennis and tim were like drinking and partying and stuff downstairs, and me and josh went to bed. and are they hitting it off like old friends? oh, yeah, drinking, smoking pot. what s the next thing you remember? dennis waking me up in a panic.
24-hour phone service and cashed out a cd and had it deposited into a savings account. a total of $17,000 was taken, and gaede was long gone. but police say gaede kept and he, fruge, and her son drove from state to state, campground to campground. by staying at campgrounds one night each, they were able to stay one step ahead of the law for four more weeks. finally one day i broke down and cried and i said i can t live in this camper any longer. i can t take this. this isn t fair to my 3-year-old. he should be outside playing. no, he doesn t deserve this. i said, i m going crazy. i said let s just go turn ourselves in. that wasn t going to happen. but fruge was able to convince gaede to spend an extra night at this campground in lincoln, nebraska, where once again they used wicks credit card, this time to buy groceries at this store.
the person you re dealing with? cold. sick. and trying to keep the fact that the victim might be identified. investigators moved in on the house, but gaede was gone. police took these photos inside. they also tracked the real timothy wicks credit card use and also discovered the credit card was used here to rent a truck. u-haul was ultimately returned with over 1,700 miles having been put on it. you do the math, between north dakota and the upper peninsula of michigan, where the body was found, and how does that equation work out? it s pretty consistent with that trip. and there s more. wicks credit card was also used here to buy burlap bags, gloves, and an axe like these. the purchase all caught on a store security camera. that s dennis gaede and diane fruge with her son at the store. i believe that by the time
longstanding legal troubles caught up with him. and he told her they were going to have to leave wisconsin and start a new life in fargo, north dakota. at that time i didn t know the seriousness of all the trouble dennis was in. once here in fargo, gaede hid his identity by using the name of his trusty milwaukee friend, timothy wicks. fruge says she wanted her new life so much, she went along with it, pretending to be wicks wife, even called her husband tim in public. but fruge insists her deal with the devil went way beyond anything she ever bargained for. did you have anything to do with it murder of timothy wicks? no, sir. any of the planning for it? no, sir. fruge says the whole tragic story began when timothy wicks called dennis gaede a man wicks thought was a good friend. during that conversation, tim who told dennis about he found out someone was
to let her know what he was going do with the apartment, and he left a phone number with her saying if you need me for some reason, here s a phone number. though the cell phone number was eventually traced to fargo, north dakota, it did not lead to tim wicks. but when schoonover called the fargo police department he got a lucky break. tim wicks was a name they already knew, same birthday, same social security number, except in fargo, north dakota, timothy wicks was not known for his drumming. i told detective schoonover that mr. wicks was a suspect in an embezzlement case i was currently working on and that later that afternoon i had an interview with him at the police station. you may be solving a missing person s case this afternoon? that s what i thought. could it be the easy-going drummer family and friends in the milwaukee area describe had an alter ego and was now passing himself off as an accountant in fargo? true, tim wicks run his own painting business and kept his o