Murder or car accident? Jury selection today in Kendhammer murder trial

The jury gets chosen today in a trial as to whether a West Salem man may have killed his wife and made the death look like a car accident.

Todd Kendhammer’s murder trial in La Crosse County is expected to last about two weeks.

Kendhammer reported to police that a pipe came off of a truck and gone through the windshield of the couple’s car, impaling his 46-year-old wife on Sept. 16, 2016. She died a day later.

Police, however, found evidence that this wife had been beaten severely. Sheriff’s deputy Jeff Wolf had questioned the 47-year-old Kendhammer about scrapes on his hands.

“He stated that he works with glass and that he gets cut frequently,” Wolf told the court last December.

The pipe was described as about 53 inches long and just over 10 pounds. Prosecutors argue the woman’s fatal injuries were too severe and widespread to have been caused by a flying pipe.

Tuesday, the jury is scheduled to visit the Cty. M, where the accident supposedly happened, and where investigators initially tried recreating Kendhammer’s story but were unsuccessful.

An autopsy showed the woman died from multiple blunt force trauma injuries including lacerations in the back of her head, a broken nose, a skull fracture and lip contusions.

A police report says there were inconsistencies in Kendhammer’s story. Video surveillance was also unable to locate the truck he described.