Popular Wisconsin Tubing River Becomes Sight Of Deadly Rampage Following Disagreement

For Minnesota and Wisconsin residents alike, the Apple River is at once a family-friendly river float and rambunctious young adult haven for (often underage) binge drinking on inflatable tubes. It attracts all kinds of people looking to escape the summer heat for a few hours while floating downstream. 

For those of us that know the river a little too well, it’s also got the faint stench of everybody’s urine. That’s as bad as we thought it could get – until this past weekend when the popular destination turned into a murder crime scene.

Nicolae Miu, 52, is accused of murder in the stabbing death of 17-year-old and would-be high school senior Isaac Schuman after Miu became entangled in a fight with Schuman and some friends.

Miu, claiming he acted in self-defense, alleges he was looking for a lost phone. Some eyewitnesses said he looked “sketchy” and the confrontation began after someone in Schuman’s party accused him of looking for underage girls. 

Fox News reports:

“Miu said he, his wife and two friends had come to the river that morning to go tubing, and he had acted in “self-defense” when a group of young people swarmed around him while he went out looking for one of his friends’ lost cell phone, which was in a floater bag.

Miu said the group of young people accused him of being a “child molester,” and video captured someone in a crowd converging toward Miu claiming that he was a pedophile “looking for little girls,” according to the affidavit. Miu, seen on cell phone video taking out a knife clipped to his own pocket, claimed that others “produced weapons” and had two knives of their own.” 

The self-defense case will hinge on the eyewitness video. It will either corroborate the story of Miu or the story of the victims. Fox continued:

“[Miu] then stands up in the water while “appearing to be looking for something” and tries to walk away before more people begin to gather around him. Multiple people were yelling at him and at least one person touched his shoulder, but the affidavit says, “the video and elapsed time shows opportunity for Nicolae to leave the confrontation.” Miu falls into the water and is shoved back into the water several times before he is seen using a blade in his right hand to stab people who he believed were on top of him.”

Mui also claimed that people within the larger party were at various times trying to pull down his swimsuit and that “people were coming at him, punching him, hitting him, and circling around him.” He also told local investigators that the people in Schuman’s party were “too drunk” and “too set on going after people.”

Either way, this is a tragic outcome to what all parties likely believed would be a carefree day of floating down the popular river with friends and family. Fox noted that Miu has no prior criminal record and is an electrical engineer who lives in a wealthy suburb of the Twin Cities. He was there with his wife that day. The deceased, Isaac Schuman, as well as four other stab wound victims, were part of a large group floating down the river. 

Miu is currently being held on $1 million bail, being charged with one count of first-degree intentional homicide and four additional counts of attempted first-degree intentional homicide.

Hailey Sanibel fiercely loves freedom. She equally detests evil and stupidity, both of which are out of control in the modern world. She is a regular contributor at The Blue State Conservative.

Featured image: Joe Shlabotnik, CC BY 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons