Genetic genealogy helps solve cold case homicide of child, remains found in Mequon 65 years ago

OZAUKEE COUNTY, Wis. (CBS 58) -- After several decades, Wisconsin officials have had a breakthrough in a cold case homicide that involved the remains of a young boy whose body was found in a culvert in Mequon. 

Officials say the seven-year-old victim was killed by his adoptive parents. His skeletal remains were discovered on Oct. 4, 1959. At the time, the Houghton County, Michigan, sheriff's department was investigating a possible missing child, Markku Jutila. 

The adoptive parents, William and Hilja Jutila, had relocated from Houghton to Chicago and were not able to account for the whereabouts of Markku. During an interview with police, the couple admitted to disposing of the child's body in a ditch in Mequon before arriving in Chicago, and Hilja Jutila confessed to physically beating her son to death. 

The sheriff's office says the Jutilas were arrested on March 28, 1966, but charges were ultimately dismissed because prosecutors could not connect the skeleton of the child found in Mequon with the Jutilas. 

In October 2023, investigators attempted to identify the victim using DNA extracted from the skull and by conducting investigative genealogy. An analysis was completed in May 2024, and it was determined the remains belonged to a male individual. 

An investigation revealed Markku's birth name was Chester Alfred Breiney, and in September 2024, genealogy revealed that the DNA extracted had several matches to family members of the Breiney family -- including to his birth mother who had died in 2001.

As both adoptive parents William and Hilja Jutila died in 1988, there will be no future prosecution in the case. 

“When you touch a case like this, once you start working it you just want to see it through," said Special Agent Neil McGrath with the Wisconsin Division of Criminal Investigation. “His story is a very sad story, and his life is very sad and to be able to give him his name back and to be able to lay him to rest peacefully, there’s satisfaction in that.”

With the donations of many community members, Chester was laid to rest on Nov. 15 in Port Washington, at St. Mary's Parish Cemetery, after a funeral and procession. 

Donations in memory of Chester can be made to the Lakeshore Regional Child Advocacy Center.