Couple to stand trial in murder, torture case

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published November 21, 2007

PORTAGE, Wis. - The alleged leader of a gang of drifters and his girlfriend must stand trial on charges that they killed one of their own, buried her body in their back yard and tortured the dead woman's 11-year-old son nearly to death, a judge decided Monday.

Columbia County Circuit Judge Alan White bound Michael Sisk and Candace Clark, also known as Candice Farris, over for trial on charges that include being party to murder and child abuse.

Prosecutors accused Sisk, Clark and 21-year-old Michaela Clerc of having a hand in Tammie Garlin's death.

Investigators have said Sisk, Clark, Garlin and Clerc roamed the country as fugitives, surviving by running financial scams and stealing identities.

Florida detectives searching for Courtney Alisa Clark, Clark's 2-year-old daughter who had disappeared from Florida's foster care system for nine months, tracked the group to Portage in June. When local police went to their apartment, they found Garlin's body in a shallow grave and her son locked in a closet naked. He was starving and severely burned.

[Last modified November 20, 2007, 22:55:03]