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Competency hearing set for Jaren Kuester
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DARLINGTON - A second competency hearing is scheduled Dec. 4 for the Waukesha man accused of bludgeoning to death three retired Wiota farmers earlier this year.

Jaren Kuester, 31, remains in custody at Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison but is expected to return to Lafayette County Circuit Court for the hearing Dec. 4 in the triple homicide case. The involved attorneys scheduled the hearing during a telephone conference Monday, Nov. 25.

Kuester has a long history of mental health issues, including hospitalizations, but was previously found competent to stand trial for the murders of Gary Thoreson, 70, his wife Chloe Thoreson, 66, and brother Dean Thoreson, 76. The three were killed in April after Kuester allegedly broke into their home, apparently at random.

His competency was again called into doubt after he refused to communicate with Judge William Foust during a hearing in September. Kuester walked into court that day barefoot and wearing a suicide smock. His public defender, Guy Taylor, said his client wasn't receiving the right medications or treatment and his mental health was deteriorating as a result.

Kuester was committed to Mendota in late October.

Under discussion at the Dec. 4 hearing will be the latest competency report on Kuester, filed by a psychologist Friday, Nov. 22.

Police say Kuester broke into Gary and Chloe Thoreson's unoccupied home on Philippine Road late April 26, seeking a warm place to sleep after abandoning his SUV in western Green County earlier in the evening, stripping off his clothing and hiking alone several miles because he feared he was being followed.

The next day, he reportedly killed each of the Thoresons as they entered the house, starting with Dean as he stopped by to check on the house and later Gary and Chloe as they returned from a vacation out-of-state.