Man charged with fatally beating his mother in their Hugo home after she alleged years of abuse

A 45-year-old man was charged Thursday with fatally beating his mother at the family’s Hugo home earlier this week after she alleged years of physical and emotional abuse from her son.

Trevor Joseph Wunderlich was charged in Washington County District Court with second-degree intentional murder in connection with the death of Charlene G. Wunderlich, 68, on Monday at the residence in the 15900 block of N. Ingersoll Avenue.

Wunderlich remains jailed in lieu of $2 million bail ahead of an Oct. 24 court hearing. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

“Today we charged the defendant in the brutal murder of his mother,” said County Attorney Kevin Magnuson. “My office will do everything in our power to hold him accountable for her tragic death.”

Charlene Wunderlich’s injuries included broken ribs, sternal fractures and bruised lungs, the criminal complaint noted. What the complaint does not offer is a motive for the attack.

According to the complaint and a related court document:

Shortly before 6 p.m., sheriff’s deputies responded to an open 911 line call coming from the home that allowed emergency dispatch to hear noises suggesting there was an ongoing assault or struggle.

Deputies entered the home and found a wounded Charlene Wunderlich on the floor, with bruises and cuts all over her body, and Trevor Wunderlich seated in a chair next to her. Deputies attempted to arrest Trevor Wunderlich, but he ran into the basement and out the back door.

While the deputies came to her aid, she told them in a brief moment of consciousness that her son attacked her. Emergency medical responders took her to a hospital, where she was pronounced dead just after 7:30 p.m.

Law enforcement found Trevor Wunderlich the next morning elsewhere in Hugo, in the 9800 block of N. 152nd Street, after a call from a resident who found him in a camper on her property. He again ran but was quickly captured.

Charlene Wunderlich petitioned a judge in 2020 for an order for protection from her son. In it, she alleged he routinely tormented her for three years up to that point in November 2020. Charlene Wunderlich’s husband, 64-year-old William Wunderlich, died in 2020 from natural causes.

“He throws things at me, calls me terrible names saying he wishes I would die and breaks everything in the house,” the petition read. “It just keeps escalating.”

Court records show Trevor Wunderlich has a long and violent criminal history. He’s been convicted three times for assault, two of them for injuring corrections officers in the Washington County jail.

He also has three convictions for violating domestic abuse no-contact orders, two for weapons-possession offenses and one each for terroristic threats, disorderly conduct and drunken driving.