DODGEVILLE — A 24-year-old Dodgeville man arrested in a July 2025 homicide remains in jail after he was determined to not be competent to stand trial last December.
Gavin P. Thompson is charged with first-degree intentional homicide, burglary while armed with a dangerous weapon, hiding a corpse, and operating a vehicle without owner consent.
The charges are in connection with the death of Dorinda Segebrecht, 67, Dodgeville, who was found dead in her SUV in Nebraska after a four-hour-long police and foot chase near Lincoln July 16, 2025.
Grant County Circuit Judge Craig Day ruled that Thompson was not competent to stand trial Dec. 12, but “will likely regain competency,” according to court records.
Thompson is in the Iowa County Jail, according to Iowa County Sheriff’s Office records.
Competency reports were written March 11 and May 27, according to court records.
Thompson’s bond was set at $500,000 cash at his first Wisconsin court appearance Sept. 26 after he was extradited from Nebraska.
Segebrecht was last seen at her Dodgeville residence July 14, 2025 around 11 a.m. Segebrecht’s family members reported her missing the next day around 7:50 p.m. Segebrecht’s SUV was also missing from her residence.
Dodgeville police determined that based on evidence at the scene Segebrecht may not have left her residence voluntarily.
Thompson was arrested after a police chase on Interstate 80 near Lincoln, Neb., and a four-hour-long search July 16, 2025.
The maximum penalty for first-degree intentional homicide is life in prison.
Nebraska State Patrol superintendent Bryan Waugh told the Lincoln (Neb.) Journal Star that “it was clear the woman had died before the crash.”
The criminal complaint said Thompson went to Segebrecht’s house to steal her SUV because it “appeared to be a calm place” and he needed money and a vehicle after recently losing his job.
According to the criminal complaint Thompson claimed the front door was unlocked so he “just walked into her house and did not knock.” When Segebrecht refused to give Thompson the keys an argument ensued, then Thompson stabbed her to death.
Thompson then dragged Segebrecht’s body to her car. When asked by investigators what he would have done had he been discovered, WISC-TV reported that Thompson said “maybe multiple people would’ve gotten hurt.”
Investigators first traced Segebrecht’s SUV to Peru, Ill., July 15, 2025 around 6:45 p.m., then to St. Charles, Mo., before determining the SUV was in Nebraska. Police used neighborhood cameras to determine that Segebrecht’s SUV left her residence July 15, 2025 between 2:16 and 3:06 p.m.
Segebrecht’s vehicle was found on I–80 near Lincoln, Neb., by a Nebraska State Patrol trooper Wednesday after 1 a.m. The trooper determined Segebrecht was not driving the vehicle.
The trooper tried to pull over the SUV, but the SUV swerved into I–80’s eastbound lanes going west, resulting in an eight-mile-long chase through a construction zone in heavy rain.
“The trooper did not pursue in the wrong lanes of travel, but another trooper continued pursuing westbound in the westbound lanes, while the suspect vehicle stayed in the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80,” Waugh told the Journal Star.
The chase ended when the SUV went off I–80 down an embankment and into a creek, and the driver ran from the scene Wednesday around 1:50 a.m.
Troopers checking the vehicle found a dead woman in the back seat with “similar physical and age descriptors” to Segebrecht, according to Dodgeville police chief Brandon Wilhelm in a news conference Wednesday afternoon.
The criminal complaint said Segebrecht died from “sharp force injuries to the head, neck, torso and extremities.”
Dodgeville police chief Brandon Wilhelm said the woman’s death “appears to be a random act of violence.”
Iowa County Sheriff Michael Peterson said there was “no known relationship” between Thompson and Segebrecht.
The state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory, Wisconsin State Patrol, Illinois State Police, Iowa State Patrol, Missouri State Patrol, Mineral Point, Peru, Ill., St. Charles, Mo., and Altoona, Iowa, police, and Dodgeville Fire assisted Iowa County and Dodgeville authorities.
Lincoln, Neb., police, and Lancaster and Seward county, Neb., sheriff’s deputies assisted the State Patrol and its SWAT team.
Thompson has two previous Dane County citations for disorderly conduct.