In a heartbreaking turn of events, 26-year-old Ariel Spillner — a final-year pharmacy student at Concordia University Wisconsin — lost her life during what was meant to be a simple birthday celebration at a friend’s home in Milwaukee on Nov. 4. According to court documents, her friend for about a year, 32-year-old Jamica Mills, became anxious and paranoid after the two smoked marijuana, and believed Ariel might stab her. Mills is now charged with first-degree reckless homicide.
That evening, the two friends were at Mills’ north-side residence near 39th Street and Lancaster Avenue when the fatal shooting occurred around 9:40 p.m. Police arriving on scene discovered Ariel unresponsive with a gunshot wound to her shoulder; she was later pronounced dead. Mills was also found wounded — a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the abdomen, she later told investigators.
According to the complaint, Mills told detectives she and Ariel had smoked weed together and that she suddenly felt threatened. She said Ariel was supposed to be grooming her dog and using scissors, and that in a moment of paranoia she believed Ariel would stab her. Without seeing a weapon and against no actual threat, Mills retrieved a handgun from her bedroom, returned to the living room and when she saw Ariel make a “hand motion,” she pulled the trigger. Ariel collapsed face-down between the couch and an ottoman, according to investigators. No scissors or weapon were found in Ariel’s hands.
In the aftermath, Mills says she then walked toward the front door and “accidentally” shot herself in the stomach near the exit. Investigators say she was combative on scene and again at the hospital, and that the handgun used — a Ruger .380 caliber — along with two spent casings matching the weapon, were recovered at the scene.
For Ariel’s family, the loss is immeasurable. Her sister Courtney Spillner described Ariel as “literally the best person you could ask for as a friend, as a sister … as a daughter.” The two spoke roughly an hour and a half before the shooting and shared an “I love you” moment that Courtney says she’ll forever hold onto. Ariel had been a standout student and athlete — excelling in basketball, soccer and cross country at her hometown high school, and said to be planning to move to Florida after graduation.
According to authorities, Mills’ bond has been set at $150,000 cash and she is scheduled for a preliminary hearing on Nov. 17. Prosecutors note that the reckless homicide charge carries a possible sentence of up to 60 years when the dangerous-weapon modifier is included.
Friends, classmates and mentors of Ariel gathered in her hometown of DeForest to remember her infectious laugh, her kindness and her drive to help others. As the family has set up a GoFundMe for her funeral and charity in her name, the shockwaves from this tragedy are being felt far beyond the immediate circle.
What began as a night of celebration, turned into a moment of fear, confusion and irreversible loss. Ariel’s bright future in pharmacy, the love she shared with family and friends, and the trust she placed in someone she called a friend — all gone in a flash. Her family and community now wait for justice, answers and a way to carry forward the memory of a young woman who was “there for anyone, no matter what you needed, when you needed it.”