Eleven-year-old Lenora Manke and her sixteen-year-old sister Jaelyn spent months trying to tell adults they did not feel safe around their dad. Their mother, Lindsey Dash, says those warnings fell on deaf ears for two whole years. On a Friday evening in early August, police walked into a house on Division Street and found both girls dead alongside their father.
Deputies from the Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office showed up at the home in the 500 block of Division Street in Winneconne around seven in the evening. They were responding to a request for a welfare check. Inside, officers found Lenora, Jaelyn, and their 57-year-old father, Jeffrey Manke. All three were pronounced dead at the scene.
Investigators have shared very little about what happened inside the home. The sheriff’s office called the deaths an isolated incident and told the local community there is no active threat to the public. Detectives have not said how the three died, only that the investigation remains open and active.
For Lindsey Dash, the quiet response from local authorities comes far too late. Shortly after learning her daughters were gone, Dash shared her anger and heartbreak online. She wrote that both girls spoke up repeatedly about their fear of spending time with their father. According to Dash, nobody in a position of authority took the girls seriously.
Dash detailed how she tried using every legal avenue available to protect her kids. She filed reports with child protective services, called local police departments, and brought the girls to a family counselor. Instead of helping, Dash said the counselor dismissed the children’s fears. In the end, family court judges legally forced her to hand the girls over for scheduled visits anyway.
The timing of the tragedy adds another layer of grim reality to the case. Court records show that a county judge finalized the divorce between Dash and Jeffrey Manke earlier that very same Friday. The court paperwork noted that the marriage was irretrievably broken with no chance of reconciliation, ending years of contentious legal battles.
Friends and local community members have rallied around Dash in the wake of the loss. A GiveSendGo fundraising page set up to support her surpassed $20,000 in donations by early Tuesday morning. Meanwhile, Dash says the fault lies squarely with the institutions designed to protect vulnerable children. As she put it, if someone had simply listened to her daughters, they would still be alive today.
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