Kendhammer murder trial set for year’s end

Trial for West Salem man will happen more than a year after wife’s death

Only a couple more court hearings are planned before Todd Kendhammer goes on trial in La Crosse for the murder of his wife, Barbara.

Jury selection is set for December 4th, and the trial could last almost two weeks.

A 1st-degree murder charge was brought in December of 2016 against the West Salem man, three months after he claimed his wife died in a rural La Crosse County traffic accident.

Kendhammer is accused of fatally beating his wife, and then faking the accident to explain her injuries. 

Investigators don’t buy his story that a large pipe fell off a passing truck and smashed through his windshield, hitting Barbara. 

They believe that Barbara’s injuries were too extensive to be caused by a pipe, and the windshield damage apparently happened while Kendhammer’s vehicle was parked. 

Police have found no evidence of a truck carrying a pipe anywhere near the time or place where Kendhammer says the accident occurred.