Sauk County detective: 'Self-defense was not realistic' in homicide trial against Richland Center woman

More details about the married life of a 38-year-old Richland Center woman accused of shooting a man were presented by prosecutors Friday in the form of data from her cell phone and social media messages.

Amber M. Lundgren faces life imprisonment in the death of then 37-year-old Christopher Lytle, of Westfield, after police said she admitted to shooting him twice in the back of the head Sept. 21, 2019, before leaving his body in a turnaround area at the end of Levee Road near North Hein Road in the town of Fairfield. A person driving in the area found Lytle the next day.

Messages between Lundgren and her former husband, David, outline a relationship of control and infidelity. The pair had each other’s initials branded into their forearms. In a video call while Lundgren was in the Sauk County Jail in November 2019, David alluded to hanging up and leaving immediately if Lundgren began crying, all while rehashing his relationships with other women and her past cheating actions with other men.

Det. Drew Bulin, of the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, presented the data with the guidance of Sauk County District Attorney Michael Albrecht.

Bulin said all of the data presented in the form of text messages and photos was recovered using software aimed to gain all media files, even some that have been deleted, from a cell phone. Lundgren had five apps on the phone aimed at texting or chatting for free and the police recovered messages sent via Facebook, all with the use of a subpoena for the information.

The data outlined abusive and harmful behavior, beginning with testimony from a man who said he was terrorized by Lundgren and her husband during a trip in August 2019, and continuing on to testimony from Miranda Updike, the woman David had a relationship with and prompted Lundgren’s messages to her mother that she was leaving the marriage.

But they didn’t divorce then, according to the messages between the two, and instead Lundgren pursued men on dating apps with the encouragement of David while he continued in his own relationship. They also showed Lundgren expressing her desire to reconcile with David in their home and raise their children.

Other cell phone evidence showed Lundgren was registered on a website aimed at obtaining firearms while, Bulin said, never having legally registered to carry a concealed weapon.

Friday concluded the first week of the homicide trial in which Lundgren faces charges of first-degree intentional homicide and misdemeanor carrying of a concealed weapon. Lundgren’s defense attorney, Andrew Martinez, will begin questioning Bulin as the trial resumes Monday.

Lundgren was found as a potential connection in Lytle’s death after surveillance footage from the Ho-Chunk casino near Baraboo showed Lytle getting into a white car registered to Lundgren. Investigators have never found the phone Lytle was using at the time of his death, Bulin said, but they did locate a previous cell phone in his vehicle that showed messages were exchanged between him and Lundgren.

In October 2019, Bulin said investigators solely had the vehicle as a connection between Lundgren and Lytle, prompting them to gain a warrant for the car. They interviewed Lundgren Oct. 9, 2019, about Lytle’s death. Bulin said he provided Lundgren with information “to elicit responses.”

“It was clear, as the interview progressed, based on her responses, based on what we knew, based on my observations of Amber ... that she was not being truthful with us and there was more to the story,” Bulin said. “So we used portions of what we knew to elicit more information.”

Bulin also said during the questioning, detectives tried to appeal to Lundgren by speaking negatively about Lytle. Specifically, he said that in more than one interview with Lundgren, he had never heard her indicate anything about acting in self-defense until Bulin broached the idea with her.

“As the interview went on, we would get to a point where we would confront Amber with things that we knew, and the story would continue to evolve,” Bulin said, adding that her responses changed with the information investigators provided to her. “To me, and other investigators, self-defense was not realistic.”