Insets (from left to right): Alexis Nelson and Aaron Nelson (Dodge County Sheriff”s Office). Background: The home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, where the victim and suspect lived (WITI/YouTube).
Authorities are accusing a man in Wisconsin of killing his wife and hiding her body before giving her wedding ring to a new woman he met online.
Aaron Nelson, 43, has been arrested “in connection with the disappearance” of 42-year-old Alexis Nelson, the Dodge County Sheriff’s Office announced on Monday. The man stands charged with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse.
In February, the sheriff’s office posted a missing-person flyer for Alexis Nelson, declaring that it and the Beaver Dam Police Department were searching for her. Family members had not heard from her since the spring of 2025, they said.
Prior to her disappearance, Alexis Nelson lived with Aaron Nelson in an apartment in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, a small city about 65 miles northwest of Milwaukee. A neighbor said she would only see Alexis Nelson, however, when accompanied by her husband, and she remembered hearing fighting coming from the couple’s living quarters.
“I still, I wish he would just tell ’em where her body is,” Carrie Peaine told area Fox affiliate WITI. “What he did with her at least, you know. The family needs it.”
On March 29, 2025, the couple was reportedly seen on surveillance footage at a Kwik Trip convenience store in the city. Alexis Nelson’s cellphone records indicated that her phone then moved to Sun Prairie, Wisconsin, about 30 miles south — before Aaron Nelson allegedly bought a 32-gallon trash can the next day.
Prosecutors have suggested they have additional evidence from the following weeks that shows Aaron Nelson killed his wife and hid her body. They also claim the defendant gave conflicting stories about what happened to Alexis Nelson.
By April 2, 2025, Aaron Nelson had created a new Facebook profile and made his relationship status “widowed,” Madison CBS affiliate WISC reported. By the end of that month, he is said to have met another woman on Tinder — an online dating platform — and begun dating her.
Law enforcement reportedly interviewed this new woman, who said the defendant moved in with her by the end of May. When the investigators noticed she was wearing an engagement ring, they say they checked on it and learned it was the wedding ring once owned by Alexis Nelson.
Investigators executed a search warrant at the new girlfriend’s home in June and found the trash can that Aaron Nelson had purchased, per WISC. They say it tested positive for the victim’s blood and that a cadaver dog indicated that human remains were there.
Alexis Nelson’s body has not been found.
Following his arrest last Friday, Aaron Nelson was booked in the Dodge County Jail, and he appeared in court on Monday. He is expected to return for a preliminary hearing next week.
