Criminal complaint provides information on the death of man found in Holmen residence

A criminal complaint for 1st Degree Intentional Homicide is filed against a Winona man accused of killing the current boyfriend of an ex-girlfriend.

The man, Jacob Andrew Klaver, 38, is now in a La Crosse hospital for what is listed as a medical emergency that happened after his arrest.

The criminal complaint said that the girlfriend ran to a neighbor’s home to call 911 after finding the 37-year-old man, identified as J.P., cold to the touch in a bedroom.

Holmen Police later identified him as Josh E. Pigney, who lived in the home.

The power was out at the home at 815 Granum when a Holmen Police officer arrived. A first responder told the officer that Pigney was dead.

Later, an officer found that the main breaker for the home was turned off.

When talking to the girlfriend, she said she’d slept on the couch that night after a minor disagreement with Pigney earlier Saturday evening. She went to the bedroom to find him Sunday morning after he didn’t wake up at his usual time.

An autopsy would later determine that Pigney died from blunt force trauma and strangulation.

The complaint said she’d been drinking the night before. She told the officer while half asleep thought she had heard a commotion upstairs but couldn’t be sure.

She also said $5,000 in cash secured by a black clip which was intended for a car purchase was missing from the home.

Further investigation led to Klaver, who the woman described in the complaint as a former boyfriend and as “very scary”.

On June 29, when a La Crosse County Sheriff’s investigator went to talk to Klaver at his residence, he avoided contact with him. The investigator parked down the street and saw Klaver a short time later leaving the residence. The complaint said he had cuts on his hands, two black eyes and bruising. He later told investigators he fell down while walking his dog a few days before. He said he was at home all night on Saturday into Sunday morning.

Investigators tracked his vehicle to West Salem about 1:44 Sunday morning. He denied being there when asked by investigators.

Later, a search warrant for Klaver’s residence found money held together by a black clip along with some lock picking devices.

A search of his phone, the complaint said, found a search for “will flipping a breaker disable domestic security cameras,” along with searches for the ex-girlfriend and Pigney.

Authorities also interviewed two of Klaver’s co-workers who were with him on Saturday afternoon. They said they didn’t see any of the injuries that Klaver had the following day when he was seen by the investigator according to the complaint.

PREVIOUS STORY

Holmen Police said late Wednesday night that a Winona man is arrested on a homicide charge in the death of a person found in a residence early Sunday morning.

Police Chief Shane Collins said that Jacob Andrew Klaver, 38, was arrested in Winona around 9 p.m. Wednesday.

He is currently in the Winona County Jail awaiting extradition to Wisconsin to face a charge of 1st Degree Intentional Homicide.

In a statement released Monday, Holmen Police Chief Shane Collins said officers went to 815 Granum Street at 5:39 a.m. Sunday morning for a report of an unresponsive man.

The residence is located on the east side of Holmen.

Officers found the man dead at the residence.

A new statement on Wednesday said that based on what they found out during their investigation, it was determined the person died as a result of a homicide. The statement did not say how the person died.

It said that through the investigation, Klaver was identified as a suspect. However, the statement didn’t provide any details on what the connection was between the victim and Klaver.

The name of the victim won’t be released at this time according to Chief Collins.

He said the investigation remains ongoing.

Chief Collins said that a number of agencies participated in the investigation.

They include the following from La Crosse County: Sheriff’s Office, District Attorney’s Office, and Medical Examiner’s Office. Holmen First Responders, Onalaska Police, and Winona Police assisted in the case. State help came from the Department of Criminal Investigation, State Patrol, and State Crime Lab.