Nightmare in Portage

Although more is being revealed about what happened among the nine people who lived at 304 W. Oneida St. in Portage, Wisconsin, the story only seems to get more confusing.

With each bit of information, comes more questions.

Portage -- A day after hearing her injured mother "sighing" in the trunk of a car, a teenage girl helped dump the body in a backyard grave and then plant flowers over it, according to court documents released Tuesday.

It was unclear from the documents whether the 15-year-old daughter was coerced into participating in the macabre chain of events, or did so voluntarily.

The Columbia County medical examiner identified the homicide victim Tuesday as Tammie A. Garlin, 36, of Sanford, Fla.

Preliminary autopsy results indicate she was strangled.

...According to the court documents:

The 15-year-old girl said Garlin had AIDS, cancer and other illnesses. The teenager said she was told that the man who lived in the house, Michael S. Sisk, 25, had kicked her mother in the stomach on Memorial Day or the day after, and her mother had to be put in the trunk of a car. She and Sisk's girlfriend, Candice Clark, 23, drove to Wal-Mart to buy a shovel, and she could hear her mother sighing in the trunk.

Garlin was left in the trunk overnight, and the following night Sisk dug a hole in the backyard. The teen and Sisk put Garlin's body in the grave, while Clark acted as a lookout.

After Sisk filled the hole with dirt, the 15-year-old and Clark planted flowers there.

The court documents also include statements from Clark and the other adult in the home, 20-year-old Michaela Clerc.

Clerc told investigators that Garlin's 11-year-old son could be found, with burns all over his body, in a closet inside the home.

That is how investigators found him.

But according to the court documents, the 15-year-old girl and Clark told investigators that it was Clerc who burned the boy with hot water and abused him in other ways, including pulling his penis with a pair of pliers.

Clark told investigators she knew Garlin had died and that Garlin was buried behind the home, the court documents say.

Clark has three children - ages 2, 1 and 3 months - and was suspected of taking the 2-year-old from Florida after she lost custody of the child.

Investigators were able to confirm some of the statements from people in the home by evidence seized there, said Portage police Detective Klaude Thompson.

This really is like a horror movie, an over the top horror movie.

The relationships between the people are unclear. The motives behind the strangulation death of Tammie A. Garlin and the torture of her son are unknown.

I don't know how a 15-year-old girl could put her murdered mother's body in a grave and then plant flowers there.

It's all absolutely horrific.

Was this some sort of weird cult-like group?

Is Sisk a Charles Manson wannabe?

At this point, there's many more questions than there are answers.

My heart breaks for those children.
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Here is the Portage search warrant.

New details.