SOUTH MILWAUKEE, WI – A Pizza Hut worker in South Milwaukee, Wisconsin, stands accused of brutally murdering his manager in the restaurant’s kitchen, allegedly because of a $7,000 inheritance check the supervisor had cashed days before. The victim, Alex Stengel, aged 55, was later found discarded in a dumpster outside the fast-food outlet.
On February 5, the local police received a call about a dead body in a garbage area linked to the Pizza Hut location. Upon arrival, they traced a trail of blood back to the kitchen, according to a criminal complaint. Earlier that week, Stengel had cashed in a $7,000 check and reportedly shown the stack of bills to his coworkers, 31-year-old Kavonn Ingram included. Authorities are convinced that the cash windfall motivated the fatal encounter.
Stengel’s life was taken violently, with a gunshot wound and multiple slashes around his neck. He was believed to have been killed in the kitchen itself, before his body was wrapped in a garbage bag and discarded in an outdoor trash can.
His wallet, keys, and cellphone were all reported missing. Ingram was apprehended after investigators spotted him on surveillance video, dragging a garbage can from the restaurant to the dumpsters around 10:30 a.m. on February 5. Authorities allege that Ingram composed messages from Stengel’s phone to a regional manager and even clocked out for Stengel in an effort to misdirect suspicion.
Ingram, a Milwaukee native, is now facing a potential life sentence on a first-degree homicide charge, along with charges of hiding a corpse as a party to a crime, armed robbery, and possession of a firearm by a felon.