In December 2024, Joseph Laedtke uncovered startling news from his ancestry DNA test results. The test revealed he had nine half-siblings, all seemingly connected to his mother’s former doctor, Dr. Frederick Dettmann. Mary Ellen Lukezich and her late husband, Thomas Laedtke, had sought fertility treatment from Dettmann in the early 1980s after struggling to conceive.
The couple agreed to use donor sperm as part of their fertility treatment. Lukezich recalled Dettmann suggesting a donor who was a medical student. She expressed that Dettmann assured her the donor would not donate again, was from another state, and matched her and her husband’s appearance closely. “I was young,” Lukezich explained. “I wanted to be a mom, and I followed whatever he asked me to do.” The couple chose to keep their decision private.
This privacy remained until their 43-year-old son submitted his DNA to a genetic testing company. Laedtke was astonished to discover his doctor might have used his own sperm. In his November 2024 DNA submission, he did not expect to find anything unusual.
“I got an email from Ancestry, which is the company I ordered the DNA test from, saying I had a half-sister,” Laedtke shared. “When I reviewed my DNA results, I noticed several half-siblings.”
He immediately informed his mother, discovering for the first time that donor sperm was used. Lukezich was shocked to learn the donor might have been Dettmann. Using genealogy tools, Laedtke confirmed the connection to Dettmann. Lukezich reacted with disbelief upon hearing the news.
Initially, Laedtke wished his late father, who passed in 2005, could be there during this overwhelming moment. As realization dawned, his feelings of “disgust and disappointment” grew.
“What Dettmann did was a betrayal of trust,” Laedtke expressed. “I want to hold him accountable for the pain he caused.”
Lukezich described the revelation as a violation. “I feel like I’ve been raped,” she stated. “It’s not right, and I want other women to feel safe to come forward.”
Their attorney, Al Foeckler, noted that multiple women had contacted him with their own unsettling experiences with Dettmann. This includes interactions dating back to the 1970s. “In my mind, this man was a serial predator,” Foeckler remarked. Dettmann, now 91, retired in the 1990s and resides in Arizona.
Dettmann’s lawyer did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, attorney Sean Gaynor indicated Dettmann is aware of the claims but cannot discuss patient care due to privacy laws.
In 1985, a police report was filed by a man claiming Dettmann assaulted his wife during a gynecological exam. Dettmann denied the allegation. Authorities did not pursue charges due to the burden of proof. The case was reported to the medical licensing board and concluded in 1986. However, no records exist owing to retention laws of that period.
According to Gaynor, Dettmann was never sued, disciplined, nor investigated with any ethical complaints against him.
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