Racine man convicted in 1986 killing of 22-year-old woman

A Racine man has been convicted in the 1986 killing of a young woman whose body was found in a swamp at a Green Bay nature area.

Lou A. Griffin, 67, pleaded no contest Friday in Brown County Circuit Court to a charge of homicide by reckless conduct, and a judge found him guilty. His sentencing is set for March 27.

Griffin entered his plea as potential jurors were reporting to court Friday ahead of Monday’s expected start of his trial in the death of Lisa Holstead, 22.

Griffin was originally charged in October 2020 with first-degree intentional homicide in Holstead’s killing. Her body was found in a swamp in a Green Bay nature area in August 1986.

Holstead’s slaying had been Brown County’s oldest unsolved murder case.

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Investigators said that at the time of her killing Griffin lived within a few miles of where her body was found.

Griffin was identified as a suspect in Holstead’s slaying after Green Bay police sent DNA evidence found on her body to a company that performs forensic genetic genealogy testing. That testing provided information on the suspect’s heritage and possible relatives.

Griffin was eventually placed under police surveillance and DNA that was collected from cigarettes and beer cans he had discarded matched the DNA collected in the murder case, police said.

Griffin told investigators he might have had sex with Holstead but denied killing her, police said.