Remains identified as Chuprevich

GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) - The remains found by hunters in rural Brown County were identified Wednesday as a 32-year-old Allouez woman who's been missing for five years.

Areerat Chuprevich, a native of Thailand, was last seen in April 2003. She died of a gunshot wound to the head, said John Gossage, chief deputy of the Brown County Sheriff's Department. Her identity was confirmed through dental records, he said.

Hunters spotted Chuprevich's skull Nov. 26 sticking out from a shallow grave in a wooded marsh near the Brown and Manitowoc county line.

Gossage said the prime suspect in her disappearance, Karl McLeod, hanged himself in May 2006, at an Oshkosh prison where he had served the first 40 days of a 10-year sentence for beating and robbing a Green Bay woman eight days before Chuprevich disappeared.

McLeod, 41, was married to Chuprevich's stepdaughter, spent time at her home and used her computer, Gossage said.

Chuprevich and her husband, Tom, a Green Bay doctor who is now retired, had been married at least four years when she disappeared, Gossage said. McLeod was married to Tom Chuprevich's daughter from a previous marriage.

"When Tom was interviewed, he didn't consider Karl was a suspect," Gossage said. "We don't have a motive at this point."

McLeod was convicted of sexual assault in 1988 and served a prison term, Gossage said. But police have no evidence that Chuprevich was sexually assaulted in her disappearance, he said.

Reached at his Green Bay home Wednesday, Tom Chuprevich, now 65, declined to comment.

He reported his wife missing April 28, 2003, and authorities found her blue 2002 Jeep Liberty in the parking lot of St. Michael's Pub in Allouez, a few blocks from the Mariner Motel where the couple lived, Gossage said.

Chuprevich's remains were found at least 20 miles south of there.

Investigators found McLeod's DNA in the Liberty, but they don't know whether it was left the day she disappeared or previously, Gossage said.

"He said he had been in there numerous times, including to drive it through car washes," the deputy said. "They were family."

The last contact anyone had with Areerat Chuprevich was on April 26, 2003.

Thomas Chuprevich and his daughter, Chantel, had gone to the family farm near Pensaukee about a half hour north of Green Bay, where they had horses, Gossage said. The family had a home at the farm but stayed in Allouez during the week to accommodate the doctor's work in nearby Green Bay, Gossage said.

Areerat Chuprevich, who had been taking classes at St. Norbert College in De Pere to improve her English and get a degree in international studies, stayed behind to finish some homework, he said.

According to search warrant documents, Chuprevich sent an e-mail to her sister in Detroit at 6:13 p.m. The sister called her home a short time later, after Chuprevich abruptly stopped using the computer, but she didn't answer.

Wednesday would have been Chuprevich's 38th birthday, Gossage said. The case remains open even though McLeod is dead because it's possible there could have been accomplices, he said.