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Frank D. Steward was sentenced on December 19, 2025, for homicide by negligent operation of a motor vehicle in the death of his wife, Michelle A. Steward, who suffered fatal injuries after being struck by a UTV in Balsam Lake, Wisconsin.

Steward, a State Farm insurance agent who had worked out of an office in Hudson, lived in Balsam Lake, in Polk County in northwest Wisconsin. He was 55 when a criminal complaint filed in Polk County on April 9, 2025, charged him with homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle, a felony. No intentional homicide charge was reported. A status conference was set for August 22, 2025.

On June 9, 2024, the couple spent part of the day at the Thirsty Otter, a bar and restaurant in Balsam Lake. According to the police report, security footage showed them drinking at a back-patio table with a small group. Steward appeared to pay the bill at about 3:18 p.m. after taking two drinks to go. They left by UTV at about 3:23 p.m. The deputy who reviewed the footage saw no sign that Michelle Steward was already injured when they left.

Balsam Lake first responders were later called to a UTV crash and found her injured and lying down. Steward told them they had come from the Thirsty Otter and had each had four drinks. An ambulance took her to the emergency room at St. Croix Regional Medical Center, where she died. Emergency medical staff told a hospital doctor she had fallen from ground level. Steward told the doctor she had fallen down eight to nine steps earlier that day. The doctor reported that her injuries, including fractured ribs on both sides and road rash on her right chest and shoulder, did not fit a ground-level fall.

The doctor contacted a Polk County Sheriff's deputy that day because the circumstances seemed suspicious, and the sheriff's office opened an investigation. The Ramsey County Medical Examiner's Office performed an autopsy on June 27, 2024, and listed the cause of death as "multiple injuries due to probable motor vehicle striking pedestrian."

Later reporting said she died of traumatic injuries after being struck by the UTV, and cited Steward's conflicting accounts, trauma inconsistent with a simple fall, and admissions he made. Crash reconstruction and the autopsy findings were reported to have played a central role in establishing how she was hurt. The recording shows Steward questioned by investigators about his wife's death.

Whether the conviction came by a guilty plea or at trial, and the length and terms of the sentence, have not been publicly reported. As of November 1, 2026, the Polk County Jail inmate roster lists him, booked on December 19, 2025, the day he was sentenced, on the charge of homicide by negligent operation of a vehicle.