A boy died inside a home the system refused to empty. Now the question is who killed him.
April 2026 | Justice Is A Process
On the night of February 10, 2023, a family member called 911 to request a welfare check on a 6-year-old boy named Alexavier Pedrin.
She was worried. She had been worried for months. She had called before. The family had contacted Child Protective Services. They had contacted the school district. They had done everything the system tells you to do when you believe a child is in danger.
A La Crosse County Sheriff's deputy arrived at the home in the town of Medary, Wisconsin. He found Alexavier sleeping. The deputy tried to speak to him a couple of times, but the boy would not wake up. Josie Dikeman, the woman caring for him, explained that the whole household was getting over COVID. She said she had given him melatonin to help him sleep.
The deputy left.
Fifteen hours later, Alexavier was dead.
What happened inside that home between the time the deputy walked out and the time Dikeman called 911 the next morning is the question a La Crosse County jury will now answer. The State of Wisconsin says Josie Dikeman beat this boy to death. The defense says it was his own father, Derek Pedrin, who was arrested that same night and who had a documented history of domestic violence in that household.
Both sides will call children from inside the home to support their version. Both sides will rely on expert testimony to explain injuries that no adult witnessed. And both sides will have to reckon with a reality that should haunt everyone following this case: the system had every warning, every chance, every reason to remove Alexavier Pedrin from that home before February 11, 2023.
It didn't.
Josie Dikeman is presumed innocent. She has pleaded not guilty to all charges. The burden of proof rests entirely on the State of Wisconsin, and it is the heaviest burden in the law: beyond a reasonable doubt.
This is Justice Is A Process. We are here to watch whether the system does what it is supposed to do.
According to the criminal complaint, at approximately 9:26 a.m. on February 11, 2023, Josie Dikeman called 911 from a home in the town of Medary, just outside La Crosse, Wisconsin. She told the dispatcher that her son, 6-year-old Alexavier Pedrin, was not responding.
But the 911 call was not her first call that morning. Investigators later determined that Dikeman called her mother, Rebecca Ehlers, before dialing emergency services. According to testimony from a Wisconsin Department of Justice special agent, four minutes and eleven seconds passed between the call to Ehlers and the call to 911.
When La Crosse County Sheriff's deputies arrived, they found Alexavier on a bed, unresponsive. They began first aid immediately, including CPR and a dose of Narcan. One deputy later noted in the criminal complaint that the boy's body appeared "very stiff as if rigor had already set in."
Seventeen minutes after the initial 911 call, Alexavier Pedrin was pronounced dead by medical personnel. He was six years old.
Deputies also found an empty prescription pill bottle and a bag containing pills near AJ's body.
Dr. Reade Quinton, a pathologist in Rochester, Minnesota, performed the autopsy shortly after Alexavier's death. His findings were devastating.
The cause of death was blunt force trauma. Quinton documented a constellation of injuries across the boy's body: blunt force injuries to the head and neck, multiple contusions on the chest and back, a fractured rib, a torn liver, injuries to the pancreas, brain swelling, and multiple bruises on his face, scalp, and neck.
There was something else. Alexavier had alprazolam in his system. That is the generic name for Xanax, a prescription sedative. Quinton testified that the amount found in the boy's system would be considered elevated even for an adult. The drug, he said, reduced Alexavier's respiratory drive at a time when he was already suffering from severe internal injuries.
The official cause of death: blunt force trauma. Contributing factor: the toxic effects of alprazolam.
Despite the empty Prednisone bottle found near AJ's body, no Prednisone was detected in his system.
The investigation involved multiple agencies, including the La Crosse County Sheriff's Office and the Wisconsin Department of Justice. It took more than three months. Josie Dikeman was arrested on May 19, 2023, and a 16-page criminal complaint was filed on May 22.
Central to the investigation were interviews with children who had lived in the home with Dikeman and Alexavier. According to the complaint, Dikeman's own children told investigators that they had seen her hit, choke, and kick Alexavier more than once. Danielle Swedberg, a worker from the Family and Children's Center, testified at a preliminary hearing about what the children described: Dikeman bending AJ's leg back toward his head until he cried, and choking him in a way that made one child feel unable to stop it.
But those same children are also at the center of the defense's theory. And what they saw, what they remember, and how their statements hold up on cross-examination may determine the outcome of this trial.
His family called him AJ. His grandmother, Cheryl Anderson, described him as a normal, energetic boy who loved being outside and seeing his relatives. He liked cuddles. He liked to be held and rocked. He loved to be with his family.
AJ was born into a complicated situation. His biological mother, Jenah Love, was incarcerated. His father, Derek Pedrin, was in a relationship with Josie Dikeman. For a time, AJ lived with his grandmother Anderson, and by all accounts he was a happy, active child during those years.
That changed in August 2021, when AJ moved in full-time with Dikeman, Derek Pedrin, and four other children in a blended household. Anderson said that when she told Derek about abuse AJ had reported during visits with Dikeman, the family was cut off. Dikeman took sole control of AJ's contact with his maternal relatives. Anderson never gained legal custody.
Family members who saw AJ after the move said he changed. He became more physically aggressive. He started missing school. His cousin, Raven Holzer, described a growing dread that something was wrong.
AJ was six years old when he died. He deserved better from every adult in his life and from every system that was supposed to protect him.
Josie Dikeman was 31 years old at the time of Alexavier's death. She is now 34. She lived in Onalaska, Wisconsin, and was in a relationship with Derek Pedrin, AJ's father. They shared a home in the town of Medary with a blended family that included seven children.
Dikeman has pleaded not guilty to all charges. She is presumed innocent, and nothing in this report should be read as a statement of guilt. The State of Wisconsin carries the entire burden of proving these charges beyond a reasonable doubt.
What the public record does show is that this is not the first time Dikeman has been involved in cases concerning the welfare of children in her care. More on that in a moment.
Derek Pedrin is Alexavier's biological father. He is not charged in this case. But his name will be heard throughout this trial, because the defense has built a theory that Pedrin, not Dikeman, is responsible for his son's death.
Pedrin was arrested on domestic abuse charges in November 2022 and was placed under a no-contact order with Dikeman. That order left Dikeman as AJ's primary caregiver. In the days before AJ died, Pedrin was arrested twice more for violating conditions of his bond, including the no-contact order and a no-alcohol provision. He was arrested on the evening of February 10, 2023, hours before his son was found dead the next morning.
The defense attorney has stated in court that videos exist showing Pedrin "routinely" beating Dikeman and the children in the home, including on the evening of February 10. The prosecution counters that no one other than Dikeman herself claims Derek hit AJ, "especially on the night in question."
Judge Levine has ruled that Pedrin may attend the trial, but only after he testifies as a witness.
The trial is being heard in La Crosse County Circuit Court before Judge Elliott Levine, who has overseen the case since its early stages and expressed frustration with repeated delays.
The prosecution is led by La Crosse County District Attorney Tim Gruenke, with prosecutors Julie Nelson and Matthew Torbensen also involved in pretrial proceedings.
The defense is represented by attorney Christopher Zachar, who has been aggressive in pretrial hearings, filing motions for change of venue, bond reduction, charge dismissal, and evidence exclusion.
Josie Dikeman faces three felony counts. If convicted on the first count, she faces mandatory life imprisonment. The judge has already approved that sentencing provision.
Wisconsin Statute: 940.01(1)(a)
What it means: The State alleges that Josie Dikeman caused the death of Alexavier Pedrin with the intent to kill him. This is the most serious criminal charge in Wisconsin, classified as a Class A felony.
What the State must prove: That Alexavier Pedrin is dead. That Josie Dikeman caused his death. That she did so with the intent to kill. Intent does not require premeditation or advance planning under Wisconsin law; it means the defendant acted with the purpose of causing death at the time the fatal act occurred.
Potential sentence: Mandatory life imprisonment. There is no lesser option if convicted on this count.
The burden: Entirely on the State. Dikeman does not have to prove anything. She does not have to testify. She does not have to present a defense. The State must convince all twelve jurors beyond a reasonable doubt.
What it means: The State alleges that Dikeman chronically neglected Alexavier over a sustained period of time, and that the neglect resulted in his death. This is different from the homicide charge because it addresses a pattern of behavior rather than a single fatal act.
What the State must prove: That Dikeman had a duty of care for Alexavier. That she chronically failed to provide adequate care. That the chronic neglect was a substantial factor in his death.
Defense attempted to dismiss: Zachar filed a motion to have this charge thrown out. Judge Levine denied it in March 2025.
What it means: The State alleges that Dikeman engaged in repeated acts of physical abuse against Alexavier and that the abuse caused his death. Like the neglect charge, this addresses a pattern rather than a single incident.
What the State must prove: That Dikeman intentionally caused bodily harm to Alexavier through repeated physical acts, and that those acts were a substantial factor in his death.
All three charges are felonies. All three carry severe penalties. And all three require the State to prove its case beyond a reasonable doubt.
A 6-year-old boy died inside a home where multiple adults had been violent, where the system had been warned, and where police left him sleeping 15 hours before he was found dead. The State charged the girlfriend. The defense says it was the father. The children inside that home are the only witnesses to what happened, and both sides need their testimony to win.
That is the core tension of this trial. Not just whether Dikeman is guilty, but whether the State can prove which adult in a chaotic, violent household killed this child, when no adult other than the defendant witnessed the fatal events, and when the man the defense points to as the real killer was arrested just hours before the boy died.
Prosecutors will argue that Dikeman was the only adult present when Alexavier became unresponsive on the morning of February 11, 2023. They will present testimony from children in the home who told investigators they saw Dikeman hit, choke, and kick AJ on multiple occasions. They will present the autopsy findings showing massive blunt force injuries and Xanax in a child's system. They will highlight the 4-minute delay before calling 911, the call to her mother first, and the rigor that had already begun setting in when deputies arrived.
The prosecution will also try to establish a pattern. Dikeman's history with other children in her care, the femur fracture just weeks before AJ died, the bruising a doctor flagged as concerning. The State will argue that the evidence points to one person, and that person is Josie Dikeman.
Legal experts anticipate the case will lean heavily on expert testimony. Professor John Gross of the University of Wisconsin-Madison law school noted that with no direct eyewitnesses to the fatal event, the trial will likely focus on reconstructing what happened inside that home. "What occurred in that home on the day that the child died is going to be the crux of the case," Gross told reporters.
Christopher Zachar has telegraphed the defense strategy clearly in pretrial hearings. He intends to point the jury at Derek Pedrin.
Zachar has stated in court that a "growing body of evidence" including recordings, cellphone records, and eyewitness accounts points directly at Derek Pedrin as the person responsible for Alexavier's death. He has argued that videos show Pedrin "routinely" beating Dikeman and the children in the home, including on the evening of February 10, 2023, when Pedrin was arrested "shortly before his child died."
The defense has also suggested an alternative explanation for some of AJ's injuries: that he was pushed down a staircase by another child. The criminal complaint notes that AJ's femur fracture in January 2023 was initially blamed on a younger child pushing him down stairs, though the complaint also says that child later denied doing it.
Zachar faces a challenge. The prosecution's position is blunt: nobody other than Dikeman claims Derek hit AJ, especially on the night in question. If the defense cannot convince the jury that someone else could have inflicted the fatal injuries, the State's circumstantial case, built on pattern evidence, child witnesses, and medical findings, may be enough.
In one of the most significant pretrial rulings, Judge Levine excluded the testimony and report of Dr. Kristen Iniguez, a forensic child abuse expert, from the trial. Iniguez had testified over roughly four hours during a pretrial hearing about AJ's injuries and whether they were consistent with intentional abuse versus accidental causes.
The problem was not her testimony. The problem was that the prosecution never provided the defense with her full report. Prosecutor Matthew Torbensen acknowledged in court that he had "copy and pasted" parts of the report into a notice but never turned over the complete document. The defense called it a discovery violation.
Judge Levine agreed. Both the doctor and her report were excluded from the trial, although Levine left open the possibility of calling Iniguez as a rebuttal witness.
This is a meaningful loss for the prosecution. Child abuse cases often hinge on expert testimony explaining how injuries occurred. Without Iniguez's testimony in the State's case-in-chief, prosecutors will need other experts and the children's statements to carry the weight of proving that AJ's injuries were intentionally inflicted, not accidental.
Court records show that Alexavier Pedrin was not the first child to suffer serious injuries while in Josie Dikeman's care.
In 2011, when Dikeman was 19, she was charged with child neglect after her boyfriend's 1-year-old daughter suffered a skull fracture and a traumatic brain injury at Gundersen Health System. Dikeman told investigators the girl fell down the stairs because the child gate was broken and she could not afford to fix it. That charge was eventually dropped.
Two years later, in 2013, the same little girl was back in the system. By then the child was 3 years old and had been returned from foster care. A social worker noticed the girl was losing weight and hair. A doctor found old and new fractures in her hands and feet, injuries consistent with being struck with a blunt object. Family members told police the child was only allowed three drinks a day, was often barricaded in her room with toys out of reach, was forced to stand for time-outs lasting up to 90 minutes, and was made to sit on the toilet for up to 45 minutes with her hands in the air.
Dikeman and her then-boyfriend Dustin Barnes were both charged. Dikeman pleaded guilty to child neglect resulting in bodily harm and was sentenced to three years of probation with one year of electronic monitoring.
District Attorney Tim Gruenke noted during Dikeman's initial bond hearing that she had been charged with child neglect twice in the past. Whether and how this history is presented to the jury will depend on evidentiary rulings during the trial. The judge has already excluded one child abuse expert's report that addressed past incidents involving Dikeman. How much of her history the jury ultimately hears remains an open question.
Here is what the system knew before Alexavier Pedrin died.
On November 18, 2022, AJ's biological mother, Jenah Love, wrote a letter to La Crosse County Child Protective Services from the Chillicothe Correctional Center in Missouri, where she was serving a five-year sentence. Love was specific: "In Josie's residence, there is alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and emotional and mental abuse. I am concerned there is physical abuse as well to Alexavier and maybe her other children."
She described Dikeman striking Alexavier in the face. She described Dikeman making him drink his own spit when he was thirsty. She noted that Derek Pedrin had canceled multiple medical appointments scheduled for the boy. She asked CPS to check on Alexavier at school and at home without announcing the visits, "as I do not want Josie to be able to prepare and manipulate the situation."
Three months later, AJ was dead.
The family had also contacted the Holmen School District. AJ's cousin, Raven Holzer, said the family had reached out to CPS and the school multiple times. No results. In August 2021, when AJ's grandmother told Derek Pedrin about abuse AJ had reported, the family was cut off entirely. Dikeman blocked communication between Alexavier and his maternal relatives.
Then, on November 2022, Derek Pedrin was arrested on domestic abuse charges. A no-contact order was issued. That order, intended to protect Dikeman, had a devastating side effect: it left Dikeman as the sole caregiver for all the children in the home, including Alexavier.
On the night of February 10, 2023, Holzer called emergency dispatch for another welfare check. She told police about Dikeman's alleged history of child abuse. Deputies went to the home. They found AJ sleeping. The deputy tried to wake him. He would not respond. Dikeman said COVID, melatonin.
The deputy left the child in the home.
Holzer later told reporters that Alexavier's death exposed systemic flaws. "It needs to be reformed," she said. Family members have worn "Justice for Alexavier" T-shirts to every court hearing since Dikeman's arrest, a visible demand that has become its own force in this case. Judge Levine has banned such displays in the courtroom during trial to protect jury impartiality.
This case will test something that matters to everyone, whether they realize it or not.
Child homicide cases are the most emotionally charged trials in the American legal system. Jurors walk in carrying the weight of what happened to a child. Community members wear T-shirts and organize protests. Social media campaigns demand conviction before the first witness takes the stand. The entire system bends under the gravitational pull of an unimaginable loss.
That is precisely when due process matters most.
My father, Steven M. Askin, spent his career fighting for the principle that constitutional protections exist for everyone, especially in cases where the public has already decided. He was prosecuted for teaching people their rights. He was disbarred for refusing to violate attorney-client privilege. He understood, in a way that cost him everything, that the system only works when it works for the people nobody wants to defend.
Josie Dikeman is accused of killing a 6-year-old child. If those accusations are true, the evidence should prove it beyond a reasonable doubt. If the State cannot meet that burden, then the system worked exactly as it was designed to work, no matter how unsatisfying that outcome feels.
We will be watching whether the State can prove intent. First-degree intentional homicide requires proving that Dikeman acted with the purpose of killing Alexavier. Not that she was reckless. Not that she was negligent. That she intended to kill. The autopsy tells us how AJ died. The State must prove who did it, and that the person who did it meant to kill him.
We will be watching how child witnesses are handled. The State's case depends heavily on the statements of children who lived in that home. Children who witnessed violence. Children who are being asked to testify about events that happened when they were young, in a household full of trauma. The reliability of their statements, how they were obtained, and how they hold up under cross-examination will be central to this trial.
We will be watching the impact of the excluded evidence. The prosecution lost a significant expert witness due to their own discovery failure. Does the remaining evidence fill that gap? Or does the absence of Dr. Iniguez's testimony create enough space for the defense to raise reasonable doubt?
We will be watching how the jury handles the alternative suspect theory. The defense is going to point at Derek Pedrin. If the jury believes there is a reasonable possibility that Pedrin caused AJ's injuries, Dikeman must be acquitted, even if jurors think she is "probably" guilty. Probably is not enough. That is the burden. That is the principle. That is what we watch for.
This case has taken over three years to reach a courtroom. The delays have frustrated the judge, the family, and the community.
The trial is expected to last up to three weeks, with Judge Levine scheduling occasional breaks for other court matters. The jury composition, 12 men and 2 women, will be something to watch. In a case involving alleged child abuse by a female defendant, jury dynamics matter. Zachar acknowledged during pretrial that finding jurors without strong opinions would be difficult, and Professor Gross agreed: "I think you're going to have people on the jury who will say, yes, I do have an opinion. And those are the jurors the defense is going to want to remove."
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We are watching the system. We are watching whether the evidence proves this case beyond a reasonable doubt. We are watching whether due process is honored for all parties.
Josie Dikeman is presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. That is not a technicality. That is the foundation.
Let's watch together.
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