DARLINGTON — She is either a “monster” who would take her three young kids on a trip to Grandma’s house in Benton in February 2023 to kill an 83-year-old woman, or she was just a concerned relative who had been framed for murder by other relatives embroiled in a family conflict.

Those were the competing messages for the jury given by the defense and prosecution in opening statements Monday, Nov. 4, in the wake of Lynn Montgomery’s murder last year. Shannon Bussan, 31, of Elizabeth, Ill., is accused of first-degree intentional homicide in the death of Lynne Montgomery of Benton, on or close to Feb. 27, 2023. 

The victim is grandmother to the defendant’s husband, Brandon. Although most people did not know it from her lifestyle and modest, small-town demeanor, Montgomery was reportedly worth $3.3 million, much of it in land holdings, according to testimony Monday in Lafayette County Circuit Court.

Bussan was reportedly an occasional companion to Montgomery, and authorities contend she was in the victim’s home prior to her death, with her baby and two of her youngest children in tow. According to testimony, she reportedly went to Montgomery’s to sort through knick-knacks that Montgomery was hoping to get rid of from inside her home.

“Help, Shannon is hurting me, she dragged me to the basement to get in my safe,” read a note, one of two ostensibly left by the victim for relatives and authorities to find, expressing fear of Bussan. 

That safe, authorities discovered, contained $10,000 in cash, and was moved into the garage shortly before Bussan died; and bizarrely back into the house shortly after. Bussan’s fingerprints were reportedly found on the safe.

Initially, authorities ruled the death accidental and the victim’s body was sent to a funeral home for preparation. But the next day, relatives, aware that the heavy safe had been moved at one point and that notes had been found implicating Bussan, urged police to investigate the death at that home, in the 5000 block of Carr Factory Road. 

According to published reports, an autopsy was conducted on Montgomery on March 1. The preliminary autopsy report noted “multiple blunt force injuries” on Montgomery’s head, face, and limbs, as well as rib fractures.

Prosecutors, arguing Monday, Nov. 4, 2024 in the vast Darlington courtroom before Dane County Circuit Judge Mario White, said that in addition to the incriminating notes, Bussan’s DNA was found under the victim’s finger nails, along with a small amount of Bussan’s blood on the victim’s pillow. A short video reportedly found on a cell phone also contained a roughly three-second clip in which Bussan was heard to say “what’s the combo to the safe.”

But defense attorney James O’Dell painted an entirely different picture for the jury. He said Montgomery was a friend to Bussan and that she would never hurt her. He said she initially lied to investigators about when she was at Bussan’s home out of fear of being blamed.

O’Dell implored the jury to ask why a woman would bring her three children to “witness the murder of her grandmother,” for no apparent reason.

“This is something that a monster would do, and Shannon was not a monster,” O’Dell told the jury of 14, including alternates — comprised of nine women and five men — chosen Monday morning before trial. 

He added that Montgomery — an elderly woman who nonetheless swam five days a week, still drove a car and walked without assistance — was in relatively good health and died of “natural causes.”

“This was someone Shannon and her children loved,” said O’Dell, who also suggested that the incriminating notes left may not have been in the victim’s handwriting. “It’s (prosecution’s version of events) a juicy story.”

Further, he told the jury that Montgomery had been having trouble opening the safe herself, and that when Shannon came over “she asked Shannon maybe she (could) make a crack at getting it open.” 

The safe in question weighed 300 pounds, he said, so heavy Bussan could not have moved it.

The prosecution’s first witness was 84-year-old Lois Rupp, a lifelong friend and fellow church member of Montgomery’s, who testified she had seen a healthy Montgomery just a day prior to her death.

Prior to opening statements, the two sides and White agreed that they would not attempt to get testimony from a South Korean foreign exchange student who lived with Bussan for a short time in 2023, was not home when Montgomery reportedly died, and had since returned to his country.

Bussan, who lives in Elizabeth, Ill., has been out on bail pending trial. Testimony was expected to last through the end of the week. If she is convicted of first-degree intentional homicide, she faces a possible maximum sentence of life in prison.