Authorities say Aaron Nelson later gave Alexis Nelson’s wedding ring to a woman he met online.
JUNEAU, Wis. — Investigators say Aaron Nelson’s online life changed soon after his wife disappeared, with a new Facebook name, a widowed status and a later relationship that put Alexis Nelson’s ring on another woman’s hand.
The digital trail is one part of a wider Dodge County homicide case accusing Nelson, 43, of killing Alexis Nelson, 42, and hiding her body. Prosecutors have charged him with first-degree intentional homicide and hiding a corpse. His wife’s remains have not been found. The case draws together online accounts, dating records, surveillance video, a trash can purchase and DNA testing that authorities say connects Alexis Nelson to property found after her disappearance.
Authorities said Nelson created a Facebook account under the name James Nelson and listed his relationship status as widowed after Alexis Nelson vanished from regular contact. That detail stands out because investigators had not recovered a body and family members were still looking for answers. Prosecutors said Nelson then met another woman on Tinder on April 30, 2025. By the end of May, that woman told investigators, Nelson was living with her at her Oakfield home. Officers later interviewed her and noticed she was wearing an engagement ring. Investigators identified the ring as Alexis Nelson’s, according to reports describing the complaint.
The new relationship did not begin the investigation, but it gave police a location to search and a set of witnesses to question. At the Oakfield residence in Fond du Lac County, law enforcement found a 32-gallon Rubbermaid Brute trash can in a shed with Nelson’s other property. The complaint says DNA testing on swabs from the trash can produced results consistent with Alexis Nelson’s DNA, with no other male or female profile found on the container. Reports also said human remains detection dogs alerted to the scent of decomposing remains in areas linked to the case. The public record does not say Alexis Nelson’s body was found there or anywhere else.
Investigators tied that trash can back to a purchase made the morning after a key sighting. Surveillance video showed Alexis and Aaron Nelson together at 9 a.m. March 29, 2025, at the Kwik Trip on North Center Street in Beaver Dam. At 8:07 a.m. March 30, Aaron Nelson bought the 32-gallon trash can at Menards in Beaver Dam with his debit card, according to the complaint. The filing does not describe the Kwik Trip footage as violent. Its importance is timing: Alexis Nelson was seen with her husband, then the trash can was bought, then her normal contact with others faded.
Alexis Nelson’s family reported concerns after months without clear answers. Her mother told police she last spoke to Alexis by phone March 25, 2025, and later received a May 7 text saying Alexis and Aaron Nelson had moved to Missouri. When the mother asked for a mailing address, no reply came. The complaint does not publicly say who sent that text. Investigators reviewed phone data and other records to decide whether the Missouri message matched a real move or was part of a false story. No public report has placed Alexis Nelson alive in Missouri after the Beaver Dam surveillance video.
The case also includes claims about the Nelsons’ marriage before the disappearance. Reports on the complaint say Aaron Nelson was abusive toward Alexis Nelson and that she filed for a restraining order after a domestic incident. That led Aaron Nelson to stay with a co-worker for a time. A neighbor, Carrie Peaine, said she remembered hearing fighting and seeing Alexis Nelson only when Aaron Nelson was with her. “I still wish he would tell them where her body is,” Peaine said. Those accounts add human context to a case that otherwise reads through timestamps, account names and forensic swabs.
Other statements attributed to Aaron Nelson may shape the prosecution’s theory. Around Halloween 2025, while at a jobsite in Fitchburg, he told a co-worker his wife had died from excessive alcohol abuse, according to the complaint. Prosecutors may argue that statement, the widowed profile and the ring show he knew Alexis Nelson was dead. Defense attorneys may argue those details do not prove he killed her, and they may question whether investigators can prove death, cause, timing and intent without remains. Nelson has not been convicted, and the state must prove each charge beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Dodge County Sheriff’s Office announced Nelson’s arrest May 18, three days after he was taken into custody. The office said the district attorney had formally charged him and that he was being held in the Dodge County Jail. Sheriff Dale Schmidt’s office said no further details would be released while the case is before the court, citing Alexis Nelson’s family, the judicial process and the integrity of the investigation. The criminal complaint remains the main public account of the allegations. Nelson’s first court appearance was May 18, when cash bond was set at $1 million.
The court process now must sort evidence that moved between private life and public record. A Facebook status, a dating match and a ring may help prosecutors tell jurors what they believe happened after Alexis Nelson was last seen. The defense can seek to limit or explain those details if the case moves toward trial. Meanwhile, the search for Alexis Nelson’s remains remains unresolved. That gap matters to the family, to investigators and to any jury asked to decide whether a homicide occurred even without a body.
As of Wednesday, June 17, Aaron Nelson remains accused, not convicted, in Dodge County. Authorities have not announced the recovery of Alexis Nelson’s remains or a final public account of how she died.
Author note: Last updated Wednesday, June 17, 2026.