Mom Allegedly Bludgeoned to Death by Daughter Until 'Brain Matter Visible' Believed She Killed Dad, Too

Lauren Spors, 29, has been charged with one count each of first degree intentional homicide and domestic abuse - threat, according to the Milwaukee County Sheriff's Office, for the October 12 incident that saw police respond to a 911 call for violence that turned deadly.

The call came from Carrie Zettel, 64, at 2:06 p.m. When officers arriving to the family residence at 2:20 p.m., they found Zettel lying in the back yard under a blanket with "severe trauma to her head with brain matter visible," per a search warrant reviewed by CBS affiliate WDJT. She would be pronounced dead just minutes later.

Investigators noted a four pound rock covered in blood next to the victim's body. Inside the house, they found Spors, who WDJT described as "covered in what was believed to be the victim's blood." According to the criminal complaint reviewed by Fox affiliate WITI, a neighbor told police they saw Spors standing over her mother, beating her repeatedly with a large object she was holding in both hands.

They said they had previously seen her sleeping on the front lawn of the residence on Saturday morning and saw her again on Sunday pacing back and forth in front of the house.

According to court documents reviewed by WDJT, this wasn't the first incidence of violence between Spors and her parents. Her mother, in fact, had a restraining order in place against her daughter from 2018 to 2022. That order came after multiple alleged incidents of violence where Spors allegedly threatened and attacked her parents.

In the petition for that order, Zettel wrote that Spors "threatened life with a knife in hand after she struck her father repeatedly on [his] head with heavy decorative bottles," per the news station. She was also accused of throwing heavy items at them and once putting her father's head through drywall.

According to a neighbor, Spors' father died just a few days after the protective order. In a letter to a judge written shortly after his death, Spors wrote, "I haven't accepted my dad's death. My mom says I killed him, but I don't remember doing it."

She acknowledged in it that she acts out because of her mental illness, per the outlet, noting, "my paranoia is pretty bad ... people are afraid of me, it kind of sucks." She also wrote, "It's torture being mentally ill." In the criminal complaint, Zettel is reported to have told people that Spors suffers from schizophrenia.

According to a report issued by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner's Office, per Law&Crime, Zettel told police after her husband's death that Spors had "hit" him "over the head with two glass bottles."

However, law enforcement declined to charge her in his death because, per their report, he "was known to over medicate on his pain prescriptions." Nevertheless, Zettel insisted that the report note he had staples in his head from the bottle assault, as well as previous instances of alleged abuse. "Carrie stated their daughter would stomp on his head and bite him," the report reads, citing an interview with Zettel.

WDJT reports that Jeffrey Spors was found dead three days after he was allegedly attacked with bottles, with his body found in Copernicus Park, less than a mile from the family's home. A family friend told the outlet that he refused to press charges.

"He didn't believe that she belonged in jail," the friend told the news station. "He believed she belonged somewhere to get help for her mental illness, and so did Carrie."

The friend shared that Zettel had begun to fear for her life over the last seven years and had even made a haunting statement to her just two weeks ago, telling the outlet, "she goes, 'Maybe if she kills me, she'll get the help she needs.' Carrie was hopeless at this point."

Another friend told the Milwaukee Sentinal Journal of Zettel's death, "This isn't a surprise. We knew this was going to happen."

Records obtained by ABC affiliate WISN note that police responded 44 times in the last five years alone to Zettel's home, with the reasons ranging from "family trouble" to "abuse" and "threats." There are 10 calls listed as "violation of a restraining order."

There are also records of Spors violating the protective order against her in March and April of 2018, and that she threw rocks through the window of her mother's house at 2 a.m. in order to get inside in December 2021. She was arrested for that incident and charged with misdemeanor battery and theft.

In June 2020, Spors was charged with misdemeanor battery and theft for an incident at a coffee shop where she allegedly struck an employee "several times" and stole their phone, per the Journal Sentinel. She was drug screened after this arrest where she tested positive for methamphetamine, THC, and cocaine, per police reports.

In each of the four previous cases, media outlets report that Spors was deemed mentally incompetent to stand trial. She made her first court appearance in this case on Wednesday, October 15, where a competency exam was ordered by Milwaukee County Court Commissioner Barry Phillips, per WISN.

Her bail has been set at $100,000, and she faces the possibility of life in prison if found guilty.

If you are experiencing domestic violence, call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233, or go to thehotline.org. The hotline is available 24/7 in more than 170 languages; Calls are confidential and toll-free.