A 56-year-old man has told police he didn’t even know a dead woman was inside the Madison house where he used to live when he entered to retrieve some of his property.
Gregg Raether is charged with first-degree reckless homicide.
Officers discovered the woman’s decomposed body when they made a welfare check last September for 55-year-old Patricia McCollough.
An autopsy determined McCollough had been killed about two months before her body was found.
Raether’s bail has been set at a half-million dollars.
He has a Dane County court appearance scheduled for next week.
His girlfriend, Sherri Albrecht, is listed as a co-defendant.