Lauren Spors is an alleged killer from Wisconsin who would murder her mother with a rock
According to police reports officers were called to a home in Milwaukee Wisconsin after a neighbor called 911 saying she saw Lauren Spors beating her mother Carrie Zettel, 64, with a rock
When officers arrived on the scene they would find Carrie Zettel dead in the backyard and her daughter 29 year old Lauren Spors covered in blood inside of the residence
Lauren Spors would be arrested and has been charged with murder
Friends of the family would say that the mother believed that Lauren Spors had killed her father in 2018. The man had been struck with glass bottles and would die days later. His death was deemed an accidental overdose
Lauren Spors News
The daughter accused of killing her mother with a rock admitted she needs “a lot of help” and “it’s torture being mentally ill,” according to court records that show a history of mental health issues and escalating violence against her family and others.
Prosecutors charged Lauren Spors, 29, of Milwaukee, with first-degree intentional homicide in the Oct. 12 killing of her mother, Carrie Zettel, on the city’s south side. Zettel’s murder comes years after a restraining order against her daughter expired, following several distressing incidents that Zettel and others reported to authorities.
“This isn’t a surprise,” said Susan Hoffmann, a close friend of Zettel’s. “We knew this was going to happen.”
Charges were filed against Spors on Oct. 14, but provide few details on the attack.
The criminal complaint details that Zettel’s neighbor, described only by initials in the document, called police around 1 p.m. the day of her death after seeing Spors beating Zettel. When authorities arrived, they found Zettel on the ground and, upon entering the house, saw Spors with blood on her feet, hands and face.
Spors’ initial court appearance is scheduled for Oct. 14. Her charge carries a modifier of domestic abuse.
Court records show Spors’ interactions with police and the court system have spanned years, including other incidents involving her mother.
On Feb. 2, 2018, Zettel filed for a restraining order against Spors, writing in a filing that her daughter had been physically violent against her and other family members and threatened her with a knife. It was granted on Feb. 15, 2018 and in effect until Feb. 15, 2022, according to court documents
Spors twice faced charges in 2018, once in March and another in April of that year, for breaking the terms of a domestic abuse order that prohibited her from having contact with her mother.
Spors also faced a misdemeanor charge for battery in 2020, after an incident at a Colectivo Coffee where she struck a manager and stole their cell phone.
In one court document from 2018, attributed to Spors, she addressed two of her violations. She wrote that “It’s torture being mentally ill.”
“People are afraid of me, it kind of sucks,” she wrote.
In the 2025 criminal charge, a neighbor told police that Zettel told her Spors struggled with a mental illness.
In each of the cases filed before 2025, Spors was given or considered for deferred prosecution agreements and, on the court’s order, placed into a mental health facility in November 2018.
All of the charges were ultimately discharged after she was found incompetent for court proceedings by a doctor.
Deferred prosecution programs are designed for individuals who have committed less serious offenses, often first-time offenders, and offer them a chance to avoid a criminal conviction. Defendants must plead guilty to the crime, keep a clean record for a specified period and fulfill court-ordered conditions in return for a dismissal or lesser charges.
In a 2018 filing, Zettel wrote that deferred prosecution agreements were ineffective.
“Every time Lauren manages to step around these agreements her next violation and course of action increases in its severity,” she wrote.
Hoffmann grew up with Zettel and the two reconnected about 38 years ago, when Hoffmann moved back to Milwaukee, and became best friends.
Hoffmann said Spors had dealt with drug abuse and mental health struggles since she was a teenager. In recent years, Spors had become increasingly violent, leading Zettel to contact the police on multiple occasions, Hoffmann said.
It reached a point where Hoffmann began to assume the sound of sirens in the neighborhood was due to Spors.
Hoffmann said the criminal justice system failed her best friend.
“This should have never happened,” she said.
“You know what? You live with this, you help your friends, you take them to court … you do the right thing,” Hoffmann said. “Then when you get in front of the people that are supposed to have the power to help you, they drop the ball.”
‘This should have never happened:’ Daughter charged in mother’s death
