GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – Homicide charges have been filed against the man accused of murdering Victoria Prokopovitz in 2013.
73-year-old James Prokopovitz was in Brown County Court Wednesday.
Along with first-degree intentional homicide of his wife, he was also charged with domestic abuse, resisting or obstructing an officer, perjury before court and conspiracy to commit murder.
Investigators say James was the last person to see his wife the day she disappeared on April 25, 2013, in Pittsfield.
The evidence authorities needed to make an arrest in Prokopovitz’s disappearance came two weeks ago.
That’s when James Prokopovitz and his girlfriend Kathryn Friday were arrested after testifying in a John Doe hearing.
“I did not kill my wife Vicki but I did lie to the police for years in connection with the investigation surrounding her disappearance,” Prokopovitz said, under oath, at the hearing, according to a criminal complaint.
According to the complaint, both Prokopovitz and Friday testified to lying about when they met each other.
“The truth is that I was concerned what people would think about me if they found out I was involved with another woman so soon after my wife went missing so Kathy and I agreed to come up with this lie which we told police for years and ultimately I told the court under oath today,” Prokopovitz said, according to the complaint.
The complaint shows Victoria’s family was suspicious of James soon after she was reported missing. They claimed James refused to participate in the frequent searches for her, saying things like “She is dead. She is nowhere around here. She is never coming back.”
The complaint also states Prokopovitz had access to a sludge pond, located between his home and work. It’s near the airport and filled with industrial waste. According to deputies, its “not conducive to being searched by law enforcement due to its nature.”
“I think if a body was put into the sludge ponds it would never be found,” James Prokopovitz said under oath in the May 8th John Doe hearing, according to the criminal complaint. “I know that as I saw what happened to the deer that went in there. I did not dispose of my wife in the sludge ponds.”
When Victoria Prokopovitz disappeared, her cell phone, purse, and ID were still at her home in Pittsfield.
The criminal complaint acknowledges Prokopovitz was being treated for depression and had two suicide attempts, but both were more than a decade before her disappearance. Both occurred in her home.
According to all witnesses, Victoria Prokopovitz was not very mobile at the time she disappeared, the criminal complaint states. She also had not driven in years, and authorities never found anything when looking into whether someone could have picked her up from her home.
With those circumstances noted and factoring in the vast amount of searches for her, a deputy noted in the criminal complaint it would have been unlikely she could have even attempted suicide the night she went missing without her body being located.
They also say he lied on numerous occasions to investigators about Victoria’s disappearance and conspired with his girlfriend Kathryn Friday
Friday was also charged with perjury, resisting or obstructing an officer and conspiracy to commit.
Prokopovitz will return to court in June, giving him time to hire an attorney.
Friday is currently out on a $25,000 bond. She is due back in court June 26 for a preliminary hearing.
