Man pleads in 2002 deaths of Sparta couple - WXOW News 19 La Crosse, WI – News, Weather and Sports |

SPARTA, Wisconsin (WXOW) - It took more than ten years, but a Neillsville man has pleaded no contest in the 2002 shooting deaths of a Sparta couple.

In Monroe County Circuit Court Monday, Larry Schaffer entered into a plea deal to two counts of 2nd Degree reckless homicide in the deaths of Kale Kvistad Jr. and Connie DeGeorge.

During the court hearing, prosecutors agreed to ask for no more than 16 years in prison for Schaffer, 44. They said a plea deal was warranted in part due to the passage of time in the case.

Kvistad, 30, and DeGeorge, 34, disappeared from their home on Easter Sunday in March 2002, leaving three children in the house. A hunter found their remains in December 2004 under brush in a remote area near Fort McCoy. Both had been shot in the head.

Schaffer, who was considered by authorities as a suspect in the double homicide, was finally arrested in late January, 2011. 

Back then, Monroe County District Attorney Dan Cary stated that in the years since the shooting, Schaffer made statements at various times that implicated himself in the commission of the crimes. 

No date is set for sentencing.