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Matthew Pahl was sentenced to life in prison without eligibility for release to extended supervision on November 11, 2025, for the killing of Stephanie Pavlons, 44, in Waukesha County, Wisconsin. Pahl, 57 at the time of his 2025 trial, was found guilty of first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse on November 4, 2025. The circumstantial case went to a jury after an eight-day trial in Waukesha County Circuit Court before Judge Ralph M. Ramirez. Jurors deliberated about one hour.

Judge Ramirez also imposed a consecutive 12.5 years for hiding a corpse, comprising 7.5 years of initial confinement and 5 years of extended supervision. He ordered $8,309 in restitution for funeral costs and no contact with the Pavlons family as a condition of extended supervision. Pahl maintained his innocence at sentencing, said he was "the only victim here" and called the trial a sham. He was given 20 days to appeal. No appeal or postconviction filing has been reported.

Pahl and Pavlons had an on-and-off relationship that the criminal complaint put at about 20 years, and they had a child together. Her parents told detectives she lived with him in a Waukesha, Wisconsin, apartment. Investigators obtained her journal, which contained the entry "I am afraid of Matt, but have nowhere to go." Prosecutors argued that Pahl was a violent and abusive partner who killed her when she tried to leave. The defense argued that she was suicidal and went into the woods on her own.

Apartment surveillance showed them leaving together at about 8:40 a.m. on August 23, 2022, and a Kwik Trip camera showed Pavlons getting into Pahl's truck. He had an appointment at Orthopaedic Associates of Wisconsin, near Golf Road in the Town of Delafield, arriving about 9:15 a.m. and checking in at 9:34 a.m. Cellphone data placed both phones near the clinic that morning and back at the apartment after 11 a.m. Surveillance showed only Pahl returning, carrying her water bottle and other items. Pavlons was not seen alive again. Investigators placed her death on August 23, 2022.

Construction workers putting up no-trespassing signs found her badly decomposed body at about 11 a.m. on September 9, 2022, 17 days later, in woods north of Golf Road, close to the clinic. The medical examiner could not determine a cause or manner of death. A forensic anthropologist testified at trial that she found no evidence of trauma. Prosecutors argued that Pahl strangled Pavlons with her own purse strap, but no cause of death was ever established.

Detectives from the Waukesha County Sheriff's Office interviewed Pahl on video on September 17, 2022. He said he had not seen Pavlons in weeks, did not know where she was and claimed she had left a suicide note in his truck. Late in the interview, detectives revisited his account of finding her purse a week or two later while cleaning out the truck, with a note alluding to suicide. They asked why he carried her purse into the apartment in a plastic bag and pressed him on inconsistencies about her phone and belongings. Pahl said they were twisting his words and that he needed an attorney. Detectives ended the interview.

The complaint says an apartment search recovered her phone, wallet and credit cards. Pahl's phone showed more than 60 searches for local obituaries and her name between August 26 and September 17, 2022, and hundreds of checks of a police scanner app, including on the day her body was found. He was not charged for a year. A complaint filed on September 18, 2023, charged him with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse, with bail set at $2 million cash. A court commissioner found probable cause on November 29, 2023, and Pahl pleaded not guilty on January 10, 2024.

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Part 2 of 2 of the recording described above.