Waukesha - Nearly nine years after the bodies of two men were found wrapped in blankets and chains in a Waukesha County lake, the man accused of killing them is scheduled to go on trial Thursday in the double-murder case.
It took authorities until 2009 to gather enough evidence to charge Chad Lurvey, 37, formerly of Ottawa, long a suspect in the deaths of Brian Lazzaro of Mukwonago and Andrew Long of West Milwaukee.
The bodies of Long and Lazzaro, both 25, were found in September 2002 in a 6-acre private lake on property in Ottawa owned by Lurvey's family. They had been missing since Aug. 24, 2002.
They had been shot multiple times with a shotgun and their necks were cut, according to the criminal complaint filed in the case that charges Lurvey with two counts of first-degree intentional homicide.
Investigators had been called to the lake by Lazzaro's parents and other people who had gone there on Sept. 5, 2002, to search for Lazzaro and saw what they believed to be a body floating along the shoreline, the complaint says.
The next day, Long's body surfaced on the lake while officers were watching the area as they awaited a search warrant.
Both bodies were shrouded in moving blankets and chains typically used for towing or securing cargo, court records show. The blankets and chains also were secured to the bodies with long plastic cable ties, according to records.
Lurvey is believed to have been the last person to see the two men alive.
In a search of the lake in 2003, investigators found a sawed-off Remington Express shotgun used in the crime, according to court records.
The gun was a gift to Lurvey from a family friend. Although the gun was found in 2003, it took investigators until about mid-2009 to show that the shotgun shells found on the Lurvey property after the men were reported missing were fired from the gun found at the bottom of the lake, according to the criminal complaint.
In addition to the shotgun, DNA evidence found on a soda bottle left in the front seat of Lazzaro's Dodge Durango also linked Lurvey to the crime, the complaint says.
The men may have been killed in a dispute over missing illegal drugs, according to court records.
District Attorney Brad Schimel on Wednesday said he could not comment on the case beyond what is contained in the criminal complaint.
Lurvey's attorney, Stephen P. Hurley, declined to comment on the case Wednesday.
But during a hearing Wednesday afternoon to discuss trial procedures and jury instructions and address motions that had been filed, Hurley told Judge Patrick C. Haughney that during opening statements he would contend that the state arrested the wrong person in the homicides.
Others had motive and opportunity for the crime, Hurley said.
Among the evidence the state will present is a statement from a man who told investigators that he was drinking at a bar with Long two nights before Long disappeared. That night, Long told the man he was going to collect money from Lurvey, and he was worried that trouble would occur, according to the statement.
Hurley on Wednesday sought to block that statement, but Haughney said he would allow the state to "bring in the testimony of the deceased Mr. Long" through the statement.
Lurvey's trial in Waukesha County Circuit Court is scheduled to last nearly three weeks, with jury selection getting under way Thursday morning.