A quiet Saturday night in Lac du Flambeau, Wisconsin turned into something nobody in the tight-knit tribal community saw coming. Around 9 p.m., a 911 call went out to the Vilas County Dispatch Center. The caller said two people were believed to be dead inside a residence on the reservation. Officers with the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police Department rolled up to the scene and found a scene that stopped everyone cold.
Gilbert “Barney” Chapman was lying on the floor of the garage. He was clearly gone. Inside the living room, his partner, Natalie Poupart, was found unresponsive — no pulse, not breathing. Officers got down and started CPR right there on the spot, working as hard as they could to bring her back. It didn’t work. Both were declared dead before the night was over.
What made this even harder for people to process was the complete silence surrounding the cause of death. Investigators swept the scene and found no signs that either victim had been physically attacked. No wounds. No obvious trauma. Nothing that could give anyone a straight answer right then and there. The Lac du Flambeau Tribal Police were clear about one thing though — there is no threat to the rest of the community.
Barney Chapman was the kind of man people talk about long after he’s gone. He was known for his generosity and for always showing up when someone needed him. He was deeply rooted in the Lac du Flambeau community, and that connection meant everything to the people who knew him. His warm personality wasn’t something you forgot about after one meeting.
Natalie Poupart carried her own kind of light. Those who knew her say she had a gentleness about her that drew people in. She was caring and strong at the same time — the kind of person whose presence made any room feel a little safer. Losing her has left a hole in the hearts of everyone she touched, especially those closest to her.
Now the community is doing what close-knit communities do. They’re showing up for the Chapman and Poupart families. Prayers are being said. Neighbors are checking in. People are leaning on each other through something that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense yet. Vilas County Sheriff Gerry Ritter joined LDFPD investigators at the scene, alongside the Lac du Flambeau Tribal Victim Services Director, Lac du Flambeau EMS, Oneida County Med 5, and the Vilas County Medical Examiner — all working together to piece together what happened.
Autopsies are now scheduled to determine how Barney and Natalie died. Until those results come back, their families are left sitting with a grief that has no clean explanation to hold onto. Funeral and memorial arrangements will be announced by the families when they are ready. For now, Lac du Flambeau mourns two of its own — and waits for answers that haven’t come yet.
