Authorities say a request from worried relatives opened a homicide investigation that quickly crossed state lines.
MOUNT MORRIS, Wis. — Deputies answering a welfare check at a home on Strawberry Circle found 75-year-old Patricia Mae Glenn dead, then traced the case to Utah, where her grandson was arrested hours later on a Wisconsin homicide allegation.
What makes the case notable is how it moved from a local check on an elderly resident to a two-state arrest in less than a day. Randy Jenks, 36, now faces a first-degree intentional homicide charge. The immediate significance lies not only in the accusation itself, but in how quickly family concern, scene evidence and interstate coordination pushed the case from uncertainty to custody.
In rural counties, welfare checks often begin with a simple worry: someone is not answering. That is how this case entered the public record. Family members could not reach Glenn and asked authorities to go to the home she shared with Jenks in the Town of Mount Morris. Deputies responded around 7:45 p.m. March 8. According to the complaint, they found Glenn lying on the floor with dried blood around her. The scene, as publicly described so far, was spare and grim. A folding knife covered in blood was found on a table. Officials have not publicly released a fuller forensic description, but the basics were enough to turn a welfare visit into a homicide investigation almost immediately.
From there, the search widened fast. Relatives told deputies that Jenks had confessed and may have gone to Ogden, Utah, where family connections gave investigators a likely destination rather than an open-ended chase. Local Utah reporting said officers found him at a home near Fowler Avenue. One person there reportedly said he arrived around 2 p.m. March 8. Body-camera video later showed Jenks surrendering calmly, a striking contrast to the violent allegations in Wisconsin. The arrest was made without incident, and Jenks was taken to the Weber County Jail while Wisconsin authorities prepared the next legal steps. For investigators, the distance did not slow the case so much as change its map.
The public narrative from Wisconsin remains anchored to the house itself. According to the complaint, Jenks had lived with Glenn for more than a year. A family member told police he said, “I stabbed grandma in the living room, on the floor.” Another relative said he told them Glenn had pushed him too far. Police also said Jenks texted a family member that he had stabbed his grandmother in the neck and ran because he was scared. Those statements, if proven, place the alleged violence in one of the most ordinary rooms in a home, which may be one reason the case has drawn such sharp public attention. The complaint does not describe a prolonged struggle, a witness inside the house, or any attempt to summon help after the stabbing.
The setting matters because it helps define the loss. Mount Morris is not being described in headlines as a place of spectacle or massive police presence. Instead, it is a rural community where the first official action was a welfare check and where the alleged victim and suspect shared a residence. That gives the case a domestic closeness that differs from stranger killings in public spaces. It also means the early timeline depends heavily on relatives noticing silence, piecing together conversations and telling police where Jenks might have gone. Authorities have not publicly explained whether neighbors saw anything unusual, whether there was surveillance footage nearby, or whether other family members had recent contact with Glenn before she was found.
After the arrest, the case shifted back toward the formal routines of criminal court. Jenks was charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Waushara County, returned to Wisconsin and booked into the county jail. At a later hearing, a judge set cash bond at $2 million and ordered him not to leave the state and not to possess dangerous weapons. Court records cited in local coverage showed an early-April appearance date. The charging document remains the main public source of detail, and prosecutors have not yet publicly added a more developed explanation of motive or evidence beyond what investigators outlined in the complaint.
The case stands now as both a family tragedy and a reminder of how quickly a routine welfare check can become something far more serious. The unanswered call that brought deputies to Glenn’s home is no longer the main question. The next questions are for court: what can be proved, what more the state will disclose, and whether the early account in the complaint holds up as the case moves deeper into the justice system.
Jenks remains in custody in Wisconsin, with future hearings expected to bring the next public update on the prosecution in Glenn’s death.
Author note: Last updated April 7, 2026.