Mother feared daughter, police tried to get help, hours before murder
By James Stratton
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MILWAUKEE (WISN) — Milwaukee police responded to Carrie Zettel’s home for a conflict with her daughter. Zettel told police it sounded like Lauren Spors was breaking into her home near 23rd Street and West Ramsey Avenue in the early morning hours of Oct. 12, 2025.
Later that afternoon, a search warrant states Zettel called police, saying her daughter was “being violent.” When police got to her home, they found Zettel dead. Spors is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, accused of her death.
Before the homicide, around 3 a.m., body-camera video shows officers responding to the home. Spors can be seen lying under a tarp in the front yard.
“She doesn’t have a place to live,” Zettel told police from her front door. “She can’t live with me because she’s too violent. She tried breaking in.”
Court records show Spors has schizophrenia. Her mother told police she has been staying in a hotel room for a few weeks, but keeps getting kicked out for being disorderly.
“My poor baby, hey, I’m afraid of her,” Zettel said. “I’m afraid of her.”
“We can’t force her to get some help,” one officer said. “Like my partner said, we can go catch up to her and see if she’s willing to get some help.”
“Voluntarily,” the other officer chimes in.
Police then appear to discuss how to get her mental health help with Zettel. However, MPD muted some of the audio for medical privacy.
“See if she wants to get help or not, at least offer that to her,” police said.
“Stay there until Monday, then maybe we can get her in a bed somewhere, you know,” Zettel responded.
Police later caught up to Spors a couple of blocks away, after she ran from her mother’s house. Spors declined help when police and later her mother asked, and they came to a resolution of getting her a hotel room, the video appears to show.
12 News uncovered a trail of run-ins with Spors and the court system.
In 2018, Zettel was granted a restraining order against her daughter after penning a handwritten plea detailing her fears of Spors, who struggled with mental health issues. Court records show Spors is accused of violating that order four times. Each time, Spors was found incompetent for the case to move forward.
Court documents show she was taken to the county mental health facility after the fourth event, when she had “thrown a rock through one of the double pane windows” at Zettel’s home. Public records do not indicate how long she was held.
Spors’ case has similarities to other high-profile mental health cases in Milwaukee recently, including Katelyn Librizzi, who was arrested for allegedly stealing a day care van with kids inside.
The day before, body-camera video provided by her mother and verified by 12 News Investigates shows Christy Librizzi pleading for Wauwatosa officers to help her daughter while at a mental health facility in Wauwatosa.
The other, Isaiah Stott, who was cleared by a crisis team hours before a shootout with Milwaukee police.
In all mental health cases, officers have the ability to take someone to get mental health help involuntarily through the state’s mental health law, Chapter 51.15. In Stott’s and Librizzi’s case, police say they didn’t meet the criteria.
The law says a person must meet criteria that they are affected by mental illness, drug dependence, or are developmentally disabled. They must have “substantial probability” that they’re going to harm themselves or others, and are deemed treatable.
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