Derby Wagner

Derby Wagner-Richardson was a working mother and overnight security officer in Racine, Wisconsin. Colleagues described her as responsible and reliable in her role at Styberg Engineering, where she worked long shifts to provide for her family. Public records and reporting identify her as a mother of young daughters; after her death her mother aided in raising Derby’s children. Derby’s family connections and the impact of her loss – particularly on those daughters and on her mother, who later became an advocate for victims’ rights – are part of the public record and speak to the real human consequences of her passing.

Those who knew Derby remember someone who held steady responsibilities at night and whose life centered on family. While many elements of Derby’s life beyond work and motherhood remain private in public records, the available sources show she was a person relied upon by her employer and loved by family members who survived her. Her mother’s later public statements and memorial notices reflect how profoundly Derby’s death changed her family’s life and motivated advocacy on behalf of other victims’ families.

Decades after Derby’s death on March 22, 1987, renewed attention to her case brought new legal developments; in 2024 authorities charged a person in connection with the long-unsolved homicide. That development did not define Derby — it simply reopened public focus on a life that was cut short and on family members who continued to remember her. This page honors Derby as an individual: a mother and a worker whose steadiness mattered to the people around her. Though public details are limited, her life and the love of her family endure in memory, and her daughters and relatives remain central to her legacy.