15 Wisconsin Missing Persons Cases Still Unsolved #1
15 Wisconsin Missing Persons Cases Still Unsolved #1
Audrey Jean Good Backeberg
Audrey married Ronald Backeberg in 1957, when she was about fifteen years old. The couple had two children together and resided on Vine Street in Reedsburg, Wisconsin. Audrey was employed at the nearby woolen mill in the early 1960s. A photo of Ronald is posted with this case summary.
Authorities said that Audrey and Ronald's marriage was troubled and there were allegations of abuse. Audrey filed a criminal complaint against her husband on July 4, 1962. She said that Ronald beat her shortly beforehand, resulting in head injuries. Audrey also stated that Ronald threatened to murder her. She claimed that he had two loaded firearms inside the trunk of his vehicle.
Audrey departed from her family's residence during the day on July 7, 1962, three days after she contacted authorities regarding Ronald's alleged behavior. She planned to retrieve her paycheck from the mill at the time. Audrey never returned home and has not been heard from again. Ronald phoned many of her loved ones after her disappearance and inquired as to her whereabouts. He maintained his innocence in his wife's case from the onset.
The couple's fourteen-year-old babysitter returned to Wisconsin shortly after Audrey disappeared. She claimed that she and Audrey hitchhiked to Madison, Wisconsin and then took a Greyhound bus to Indianapolis, Indiana shortly after Audrey vanished.
After they left the bus, the girl decided to turn herself in as a runaway. She said she last saw Audrey walking around the corner away from the bus stop. The babysitter stated Audrey chose to leave of her own accord and said she would not return, but Audrey's family members insisted she would never have abandoned her children.
Ronald passed a polygraph exam conducted after Audrey's disappearance. There have not been any arrests in her case. Audrey's case remains unsolved.
Patricia Arnold
Arnold was last seen in Madison, Wisconsin sometime during 1997; the exact date of her disappearance is unknown. She was a prostitute at the time of her disappearance and was also involved with drugs. She was reportedly last known to be in the company of an African-American male known only as Gypsy, with dreadlocked hair and a Jamaican accent.
Arnold's family has not heard from her since 1999, which they say is uncharacteristic of her; she usually got in touch with them every month or so. She was a regular in downtown Madison. After her disappearance, there were rumors that she was killed while running drugs en route to Chicago, Illinois. The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are unclear.
DonaMae Bourgeois Bayerl
DonaMae was last seen at her home on Fennimore Lane in Muskego, Wisconsin on May 6, 1979. Her husband, John H. Bayerl, stated they had an argument and she left in the family car to cool off. When she had not returned by 10:20 p.m., he went to bed.
About an hour later, John was awakened by the sound of a car pulling into the garage and a door slamming downstairs, and then the sound of someone moving around inside the house. He thought DonaMae had come home. He then heard a car turn around in the gravel lot across the street and drive slowly away.
When DonaMae didn't come to bed, John came downstairs to look for her and found the car in the garage. The garage door was open and the drift pin that normally held the door shut was missing and it has never been found. and the garage door open. There was no sign of DonaMae and her clothes were left behind. She has never been heard from again.
John reported her missing three days later. He told the police she had taken $200 in cash, that there were problems in their marriage, and that he wasn't concerned by her absence. However, DonaMae's family didn't believe she would have left on her own without the couple's two daughters, whom she was devoted to, and they reported their concerns to the police.
After DonaMae's disappearance, John behaved suspiciously: he refused to say what they had been arguing about that night and he did all the laundry, something he had never done before, even when DonaMae was too sick to do it herself. After he was done washing them, a quilt and a rug still had stains on them. John acted unconcerned about his wife and even went bowling right after her disappearance. He didn't even tell his coworkers DonaMae was missing, and he acted as if DonaMae wasn't going to come back.
He stated that on the day DonaMae went missing, the family had gone out shopping and to dinner, something the children contradicted. The couple's daughters said they hadn't gone shopping or had dinner out that day. They stated their parents had been fighting all day and that their mother had been sick. They had last seen her when she put them to bed.
DonaMae's sister came to stay at the house and take care of the children in her absence, and found bloodstains on the wall inside the garage and on a bottle inside the family vehicle. There was evidence of a struggle, including items knocked over. The police began to suspect foul play after the bloodstains were discovered. 1970s forensics didn't allow for DNA testing, but authorities determined the blood was DonaMae's type and not John's. He said didn't know how it got there.
Although DonaMae had been an independent person with a career, after she married John she became very dependent on him. She stopped working, and John didn't allow her to have much money. She had only one close friend, a woman who lived in Michigan. DonaMae wrote 35 to 40 letters a year to this woman.
In the letters, she confided that her husband physically abused her and that he had once thrown her down the basement stairs. DonaMae stated John had asked her to sign a document promising that he would become the sole owner of their house if she died, but she refused to sign it. Her friend offered her $500 in cash if she wanted to leave her husband.
John admitted that he had struck DonaMae on multiple occasions, and that he had been having an affair for two years prior to her disappearance. He had also abused his first wife, who divorced him on grounds of "cruel and inhuman treatment" after two years of marriage.
Three months after DonaMae was last seen, John filed for divorce. He subsequently remarried and went on to abuse other women he had relationships with. In interviews with police, he said he thought something bad must have happened to DonaMae because she would not have abandoned her children, and he admitted he had been a bad husband.
A photo of John is posted with this case summary. In February 2019, he was arrested in Florida, where he lived at the time, and charged with first-degree murder in DonaMae's case.
The case was mainly a circumstantial one, and one of the key pieces of evidence was a recorded phone conversation John had with his and DonaMae's youngest daughter in 2009. John stated: "Something happened and I, it, I, I’m sure that her heart’s not beating. Because if it was, she would have found her way back, whatever. You know what I mean? I don’t think she’s alive."
At John's trial in June 2019, he did not testify and the defense did not present any evidence, and instead simply argued that the prosecution had not proved its case beyond a reasonable doubt. After more than five hours of deliberation, the jury convicted him of first-degree murder. John faces a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Foul play is suspected in DonaMae's case due to the circumstances involved.
Dwayne Hill
Hill went out on a midnight boat ride on Lake Michigan to celebrate his 25th birthday on October 2, 1995. He was on a power boat with six friends, traveling about twenty knots about two miles offshore from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, when he disappeared.
Everyone on the boat had been drinking heavily, and no one realized Hill was missing for thirty to forty-five minutes. The Coast Guard was unable to find his body. He is presumed drowned.
Victoria Lynn Prokopovitz
Victoria was last seen at her residence in the 5100 block of Kunesh Road in Pittsfield, Wisconsin at 10:00 p.m. on April 25, 2013.
Her husband, James M. Prokopovitz, says he went to bed at that time and this was the last time he saw her. When he woke up at 4:00 a.m., she was gone. He said he searched the area, couldn't find her, and went to work. After he returned home that afternoon, he called the police to report her disappearance.
Victoria's medication disappeared with her, but she left behind her purse, identification, money and cellular phone. She didn't have access to a vehicle and hadn't driven one in years, and there's no evidence that anyone else picked her up. An extensive search of the area turned up no sign of her and she has never been heard from again.
James stated he thought she may have taken her own life, but according to her daughter, Victoria seemed to be doing well and was not depressed at the time of her disappearance. She had previously attempted suicide twice, but this was more than a decade prior to her disappearance. Both attempts took place at her home.
In 2015, police searched Victoria's home and all the buildings on the property and seized photos, seven computers, twelve hard drives, a cellular phone, financial documents, a roll of tape and other items. During the search, police found blood evidence in multiple locations in the house, including in the bedroom, hallway and kitchen. James still lived at the house, as well as Victoria's son.
James began seeing another woman, Kathryn Friday, a month after Victoria's disappearance. Photos of them are posted with this case summary. In May 2019, both of them were arrested in Victoria's case. James was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, domestic abuse, perjury and resisting or obstructing an officer, and Friday was charged with perjury and obstruction.
Victoria's family had been suspicious of James since soon after she was reported missing; they stated he refused to participate in any of the numerous searches for her, and also kept insisting she was "dead" and "never coming back."
Earlier on the day James and Friday was arrested, they both testified under oath at a John Doe hearing, which is a court hearing convened to determine whether a crime has been committed in that jurisdiction. In their testitomy, the couple admitted they had lied to police for years about when they met each other. James said he was "concerned what people would think" about him starting another relationship so soon after Victoria went missing, so he and Friday agreed to lie about it.
Investigators stated the couple had lied to them about other matters concerning Victoria's disappearance on numerous occasions. Among other things, James had lied to police when he said he looked for Victoria after he realized she was missing. He said he'd checked a nearby gas station for her, but security footage at the station proved this was untrue. Police said that after his arrest, James had admitted to killing his wife and admitted that he and Kathryn had lied in an effort to "keep their stories straight", but then he changed his story.
James had access to a sludge pond, which is full of industrial waste and is located on his route between his home and his job. At the John Doe hearing, when asked about the pond, James said, "I think if a body was put into the sludge ponds it would never be found. I know that as I saw what happened to the deer that went in there." He denied having put Victoria's body in the pond, and the pond is too hazardous to search.
People who knew Victoria and James said their marriage was "up and down" and one person described the marriage as abusive. Victoria had told a health care provider that her marriage was in trouble. Police also stated James "benefited monetarily" from his wife's disappearance.
He and Friday are awaiting trial on the charges. Friday has been released on bond, but James is in jail.
Victoria's daughter, Marsha Loritz, has founded a nonprofit organization, Wisconsin Missing Persons Advocacy Inc., to assist families of missing persons.
Edward Warren Smith
Smith was last seen leaving The Phoenix Bar in Milwaukee, Wisconsin during the evening of June 14, 1990. It is believed that Smith met serial murderer Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer sometime during the evening and returned to Dahmer's residence in West Allis, Wisconsin with him. A photo of Dahmer is posted with this case summary. Smith has never been heard from again.
Dahmer was arrested for numerous murders of young men in Wisconsin in 1991. He told authorities that Smith was one of his victims; he said he'd strangled him. Investigators believe that Smith's remains were destroyed. Among the other missing men presumed to be victims of Dahmer: Richard Guerrero; Steven Tuomi; and David Thomas.
Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison for Smith's murder and other deaths in the early 1990s. He was killed in prison by a fellow inmate in 1994.
Richard Guerrero
Guerrero was last seen leaving his family's residence in Milwaukee, Wisconsin on March 24, 1988. He was on his way to a friend's house, but never arrived. He was carrying no identification and only $3 in cash at the time of his disappearance.
Authorities believe that Guerrero met serial murderer Jeffrey Lionel Dahmer sometime during the evening and returned to Dahmer's residence in West Allis, Wisconsin with him. A photo of Dahmer is posted with this case summary. Guerrero may have agreed to pose for photos for Dahmer during the evening as a way to earn additional money.
Dahmer was arrested for numerous murders of young men in Wisconsin in 1991. He told authorities that Guerrero was one of his victims. Investigators believe his remains were destroyed by Dahmer. Among the other missing men presumed to be victims of Dahmer: Steven Tuomi; Edward Smith; and David Thomas.
Dahmer was sentenced to life in prison for Guerrero's murder and other deaths in the early 1990s. He was killed in prison by a fellow inmate in 1994.
Elizabeth Kutz
Elizabeth was last seen leaving work at Demco Plastics in DeForest, Wisconsin at approximately 3:15 p.m. on July 27, 2000. She was driving a borrowed green Jeep Cherokee with vanity license plates reading "DIDIS"; it was later found abandoned on a parking ramp at Meriter Hospital in downtown Madison, Wisconsin. She has never been heard from again and extensive searches of the area turned up no evidence as to her whereabouts.
Elizabeth's husband of twelve years, Daniel H. Kutz, was arrested a day after his wife disappeared and charged with misdemeanor counts of stalking his wife and of obstructing an officer. He was charged with Elizabeth's murder a month later and convicted five months after that, in January 2001. A photo of Daniel is posted with this case summary.
The couple's relationship was deteriorating at the time of Elizabeth's disappearance and she had separated from Daniel, taken their children and gone to live with her mother outside of Poynette, Wisconsin. She was also seeing another man.
Daniel was reportedly extremely distraught about the breakup of his marriage and made threats against his wife. Elizabeth was afraid; the day she disappeared she told her mother to call the police if she did not arrive home within thirty minutes of leaving work.
Daniel maintained that he and Elizabeth rode around in the Jeep Cherokee and discussed their failed marriage on the day of her disappearance, and she dropped him off at a gas station in Madison and said she would continue to Portage, Wisconsin. He stated that he never saw her after that and he never harmed her.
Daniel was picked up by police at 11:00 p.m. that day as he walked down the road, soaking wet, without shoes or a shirt. He said he had left his shoes in the Jeep Cherokee and was walking home, which was thirty miles away. The police dropped Daniel off at his brother's house; he was arrested a short time later.
Traces of Elizabeth's blood were found on Daniel's wristwatch after his arrest, and drops of her blood were in the storage area of the Jeep when it was found. The vehicle had been wiped clean of fingerprints on the inside, but Daniel's prints were found on its exterior.
Daniel is serving a life sentence for Elizabeth's murder. He maintains his innocence in her case. Her parents raised their two children. Elizabeth's remains have never been found, but foul play is suspected in her case due to the circumstances involved.
Kayla Berg
Kayla was last seen on August 11, 2009. That evening, she was with a 24-year-old friend, Kevin J. Kielcheski. A photo of Kielcheski is posted with this case summary. He drove her around her hometown of Antigo, Wisconsin and the pair allegedly smoked marijuana.
Sometime between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m., Kielcheski dropped Kayla off at her boyfriend's home in Wausau, Wisconsin, about a forty-minute drive from Antigo. He stated the house, which is across the street from the Colonial Manor Nursing Home, had all the lights turned off and it looked as if no one was home. Kielcheski never actually saw Kayla go inside it. She has never been heard from again.
Kayla wasn't reported missing for six days because her parents, who are separated, each thought she was in the other one's home. Her parents had a fairly open living arrangement for her and her younger brother, and they often traveled back and forth by themselves between one parent's house and another. Kayla, her brother and her mother had moved to Texas earlier in 2009, but the two children were homesick and after just three months their mother took them and moved back to Wisconsin.
Authorities initially believed Kayla was a runaway, and they stated her friends appeared evasive, as if they were trying to conceal her whereabouts. Police began to reconsider the runaway theory as weeks passed without any contact. Her boyfriend denied having seen her the day of her disappearance. He is four years older than Kayla and her mother didn't approve of the relationship because of the age difference. The house Kayla went to on the night of her disappearance had actually been condemned and its occupants had moved out while the building was being renovated, but it's unclear whether she knew about this.
In October 2009, Kielcheski was arrested and charged with second-degree reckless endangerment, a felony; this is related to substance use with Kayla on the night she was last seen. The charge was dismissed in July 2011, however. Kielcheski hasn't been charged or named as a suspect in her actual disappearance, and he is no longer cooperating with the investigation.
Kayla is described as a passionate gymnast who was looking forward to being on her school's team. She didn't own a cellular phone or a computer at the time of her disappearance and apparently didn't use the internet very much. She has no history of running away from home and it's uncharacteristic of her not to keep her parents informed of her whereabouts. Although there is no evidence of foul play in her case, her mother believes she was abducted. Her case remains unsolved.
Rose Bly
Bly was last seen in St. Croix Falls, Wisconsin at 7:30 p.m. on August 21, 2009. She left her home in the 2300 block of River Road to travel four or five miles to Cushing, Wisconsin to meet a cousin at a bar. She was driving a white 2001 Pontiac Grand Am with a Wisconsin license plate numbered 535MAB. Sometime that night, Bly contacted her husband and said she'd be home by midnight. She never arrived in Cushing, however, and has never been heard from again.
Bly's car was found in a parking lot near a post office in Grantsburg, Wisconsin five days after her disappearance. The lot is normally used by semi truck drivers to park their tractor-trailers. The car was undamaged, there was no evidence of foul play and the keys were missing. Grantsburg is about thirty miles from St. Croix and fifteen miles from Cushing. Bly has family living there and she graduated from Grantsburg High School.
Bly left behind a husband and two daughters under the age of two. She doesn't have any credit or debit cards, and she left home with very little money. Bly's husband filed for divorce three weeks after her disappearance and sought a court order to prevent her from returning and taking the children. They had married in February 2009.
Their relationship was troubled and police were called to the home at least once to intervene in a domestic violence incident; Bly's husband accused her of slapping him, and she accused her of putting her in a headlock and banging her head on the ground. He had previously filed for divorce in June 2009, but withdrew the filing after he and Bly reconciled. Bly's husband passed a polygraph and he isn't considered a suspect in her disappearance. His divorce petition was granted in 2010 and he has sole custody of their daughters.
Bly fell off a horse a week before her disappearance. She told her mother she was having headaches after the accident and her mother advised her to see a doctor, but there's no evidence she ever did. Bly's mother speculated her daughter became disoriented due to her injury and wandered away. There is no evidence to support any theory, however. Bly's case remains unsolved.
Ruth Muriel Egnoski
The date Egnoski was last seen is uncertain; it may have been anytime between August 1964 and sometime in 1966. Her disappearance was reported to police, but they didn't investigate it at that time. Egnoski's family hired private investigators who said she'd taken a bus to Chicago, Illinois, but there was no sign of her after that. She has never been heard from again.
In 1973, Egnoski's driver's license and Social Security card were found in the custodian's office of Wileman Elementary School in Delavan. Egnoski's father had been employed with the school as a custodian.
In 2002, police investigating Egnoski's case dug at the house in the 1000 block of Center Street where she'd lived in 1966. Her family sold the home in 1971. Investigators found a crawl space under the house, but it was empty. No evidence was located during the search.
Egnoski's case remains unsolved and the circumstances of her disappearance are unclear.
Beulah Ann Ware
Beulah was last seen in the afternoon hours of March 23, 2003 in the vicinity of the 1400 block of Harvey in Green Bay, Wisconsin. She was accompanied by an unidentified woman at the time; the woman is described as Hispanic and shorter than Beulah.
Beulah has never been heard from again. Her husband, Tyrone M. Ware, reported her missing on March 30, which was also his birthday. All of her belongings were left behind, except for her jacket.
Beulah was in an abusive marriage at the time of her disappearance and her husband was jailed for domestic violence. She had hoped to find another place to live before Tyrone's release from jail.
Tyrone left the area shortly after he reported Beulah's disappearance, and as a result warrants were issued for his arrest for bail-jumping and failure to appear in court. He was not located by police until 2005, over two years after Beulah vanished. He was considered to a person of interest in his wife's disappearance, but not labeled a suspect.
Tyrone was killed in July 2007, four years after his wife's disappearance, when he was accidentally struck by a car.
Prior to her disappearance, Beulah often rode a bike between the areas north of Ashland Avenue east through Danz Avenue in Green Bay. She was unemployed in 2003 and had to rely on community services for support. She obtained food at a local food pantry.
Authorities initially believed she was hiding to avoid her husband, but her daughter says they spoke to each other frequently and it is uncharacteristic of Beulah to be out of touch. Her case remains unsolved.
Bobby Curry
Curry was last seen at Erv's Lounge in the 1900 block of 63rd Street in Kenosha, Wisconsin on March 27, 2005. He got into an argument there with two Caucasian males. They settled their dispute and the two men bought Curry a drink, and all three of them later left the the establishment together. Curry has never been heard from again. His two companions have never been identified.
Curry had an outstanding warrant for his arrest at the time of his disappearance, and police initially believed he'd left of his own accord. They began to reconsider this theory as years passed without anyone hearing from him.
Foul play is now suspected in Curry's case, which remains unsolved.
Amber Wilde
Wilde was a student at the University of Wisconsin at Green Bay at the time of her disappearance; she had transferred there three weeks before, having completed an associate's degree at a community college.
She last spoke to her family September 23, 1998, after she got into a minor car accident. She was not seriously injured, but she did hit her head on the windshield and had a headache afterwards. The other person involved in the crash called Wilde's apartment in the 2000 block of August Street that evening to work out damages.
Wilde had class at 1:00 p.m. the next day. Her father, who lived in Mayville, Wisconsin, called his daughter to wake her up for her class but received no answer. She also missed a scheduled eye doctor's appointment and other obligations, which is uncharacteristic of her. Her father drove to Green Bay and found Wilde's apartment locked. He then reported her missing.
More than a week after Wilde's disappearance, her car, a dark gray four-door 1988 Subaru GL with the license plate number X5725T, was discovered unlocked and abandoned in the parking lot of a sports bar in Green Bay, near Lambeau Field on the south side of Lombardi Access Road, near Ridge Road.
There was no sign of Wilde at the scene, but her purse and cellular phone were locked inside the trunk of the Subaru, which is where where she usually kept them, and the car keys were in the ignition. The driver's seat was pushed all the way back, indicating someone taller than Wilde was the last person to drive the vehicle.
Some authorities do not believe the car had been at that location for the whole week Wilde had been missing. It had been driven about 900 miles that could not be accounted for. Photos of it are posted with this case summary.
Wilde is a native of Campbellsport, Wisconsin and a graduate of Campbellsport High School, and her mother still lives in that area. She took some University of Wisconsin classes before she graduated high school in 1997, and with her accelerated schedule she was able to accumulate two years' worth of credits in one year at the community college. She had a full scholarship at school, was studying pre medicine and planned to become a pediatrician.
Wilde's family says it's uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning, and they also do not believe she would have committed suicide. She wasn't involved with drugs and alcohol and she had seemed optimistic about her future. Her aunt had offered to take care of her child once it was born, so Wilde could finish school.
Police suspect foul play in Wilde's disappearance and have done several unsuccessful searches for her body. In 2016, authorities named Matthew John Schneider, the father of her unborn child, as a suspect in her case. A photo of Schneider is posted with this case summary.
Wilde had told her aunt and godmother that Schneider, whom she met at a party in May 1998, had denied paternity. He was engaged to marry another woman at the time Wilde's baby was conceived and he didn't want his fiancee to find out about her pregnancy.
About a month before her disappearance, Wilde told Schneider's fiancee and his mother that she was pregnant with his child. According to entries in Wilde's diary, Schneider was furious after he found out she spoken to his fiancee, and he had pressured her to have an abortion, but she refused.
He later told police he barely knew her and that they had never had sex, but his phone records showed they had had about sixty phone conversations back and forth, and Wilde's family said they saw each other for approximately four months. Police stated Schneider showed no apparent concern for Wilde's welfare after her disappearance.
No one has been charged in Wilde's disappearance, but her case is being investigated as a homicide. One theory is that Schneider, a highway worker, buried her remains under Highway 29, which was under construction in 1998.
Becky Marzo
Marzo was last seen in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in the late evening hours of December 15, 2003. That night she had been at a bar called Conversations in the 3500 block of west Villard Avenue.
Her live-in boyfriend, Carl A. Rodgers III, called her on her cellular phone several times and wanted her to come home, but Marzo said she wasn't ready to leave yet. They argued and Marzo eventually turned her phone off. Her girlfriend later dropped her off at her residence in the vicinity of the 3100 block of north 5th Street. The girlfriend said Marzo went inside, turned on the light and waved at her from the window. She has never been heard from again.
Marzo's mother became alarmed when Marzo failed to make contact with the family after her grandfather died and her brother had an accident. She had to make several attempts to report her daughter missing; the police would not accept a report until June 2004.
Marzo's mother stated that Rodgers abused her frequently and Marzo had been severely beaten by him at least once; her nose was broken, her hair was pulled out and she was choked. He has a prior criminal record for weapons and domestic disorderly conduct charges.
Marzo became estranged from her family as a result of her relationship with Rodgers; her parents wanted her to leave him and told her they wouldn't see her until she did. Her coworkers at the Target store where she was employed later stated she was often bruised and seemed depressed.
Marzo filed charges against Rodgers after for domestic violence, then moved to Florida, where she stayed for two months. When she returned to Wisconsin, she resumed her relationship with Rodgers and failed to appear in court about the charges against him; they were dropped as a result, just three days before her disappearance. She was attending college at the time of her disappearance and had nearly completed the coursework for an accounting degree.
In October 2007, nearly four years after Marzo was last seen, Rodgers died by suicide. At the time of his death, he had been awaiting trial on charges of sexually assaulting another girlfriend. He had not been cooperative with the police in the investigation into Marzo's disappearance, and her family believes he may have been involved. Rodgers left behind a note where he denied having ever raped or killed anyone. A photograph of him is posted with this case summary.
Marzo left behind an uncashed paycheck for $500. Since her disappearance her driver's license has expired and there's been no activity on her credit cards. She may have traveled to the Miami, Florida area after her disappearance, but her mother believes she is deceased. She graduated from Oak Creek High School in 1998, then got married at age 19, but the marriage ended within a short time.
Marzo enjoys a variety of music. Her case remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.
Evelyn Hartley
Evelyn was baby-sitting a twenty-month-old girl at the home of La Crosse State College professor Viggo Rasmusen on the evening of October 24, 1953. Rasmusen and his wife, along with many other La Crosse residents, were attending the town homecoming game. The Rasmusen house was located in the 2400 block of Hoeschler Drive.
The family had a regular baby-sitter, but she also planned to attend the homecoming game that night, so Evelyn was hired as a replacement. She brought four or five schoolbooks with her and planned to study while the baby slept.
She was supposed to call her parents at 8:30 p.m. to check in, but she never did. Her father tried to call several times that day and never got an answer. He became worried and went to Rasmusens' house to check on his daughter.
Evelyn's father found the house's doors locked and the lights and radio on. The baby was unharmed, asleep in her crib, but there was no sign of Evelyn. The furniture inside the living room was disarranged and Evelyn's textbooks were scattered. One of her shoes and her eyeglasses, which were broken, were on the living room floor. Her other shoe was found in the basement.
All the windows in the house locked except a basement window in the back of the house. The screen for that window had been taken out and was leaning against the outside wall. A short stepladder was positioned at the window in the basement; it belonged to the Rasmusens and they'd been using it to help paint the basement. Three other windows had pry marks. There were footprints from a pair of sneakers in the basement window box and in the living room.
In addition to the indications of forced entry, was a significant amount of blood of Evelyn's type both inside the home near the basement window, and outside in the yard. There were two pools of blood in the yard; one stain was 18 inches in diameter. There was a bloody handprint about four feet off the ground on the wall of a garage 100 feet from the Rasmusens' home, and stains on the home of a neighbor's house.
Authorities believe Evelyn's abductor(s) carried or dragged her through the yard, and blood pooled twice when the kidnapper(s) stopped and rested her on the ground. Tracker dogs traced Evelyn's scent for two blocks, then lost the trail at Coulee Drive northeast of the Rasmusen home. Authorities believe whoever took her put her in a car.
One neighbor reported seeing a light-colored car circling the neighborhood at approximately 8:00 p.m. Another local resident said they heard screams at about 7:00 p.m., but they assumed it was children playing. Authorities believe Evelyn was abducted around that time.
Two days after her disappearance, a local man named Ed Hofer came forward to say that at about 7:15 p.m. that night, he almost hit a two-toned green 1941 or 1942 Buick which was speeding westward. He noticed two men and a girl inside.
One man was driving and the other was in the backseat with the girl, who was slumped forwards with her head leaning against the front seat. Hofer said he'd seen the car's occupants a few minutes earlier, staggering down the street near where the blood was later found.
Hofer had assumed the three people were en route to the homecoming game, as he was. He didn't realize the significance of what he saw because, at that time, no one knew Evelyn was missing. Hofer's information was publicized, but his name was withheld from the media for nearly 50 years after Evelyn's disappearance.
Several days after her disappearance, a pair of underpants and a brassiere that could have been Evelyn's were found near the underpass on Highway 14, two miles south of La Crosse. They too were stained with blood. A bloodstained pair of men's pants was found along the same road four miles away; it is unknown if the pants are connected to Evelyn's case.
A pair of size 11 bloodstained Goodrich sneakers was found in the Coon Valley area southeast of La Crosse. They were apparently dumped there only a short time before they were discovered. The soles had a suction-cup pattern very similar to the footprints found near where Evelyn was last seen and the blood was her type; investigators believe they were worn by her abductor. Inside one of them was a single human hair, possibly from an African-American.
Authorities consulted the Goodrich company and learned that that particular model of shoe was called "Hood Mogul" and was sold in Wisconsin, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota and Illinois. Based on the pattern of wear on the shoes, investigators believe their owner worked with machinery. The shoes also had a distinctive circular wear pattern on the soles, suggesting that their owner frequently operated a Whizzer motorbike. Investigators determined that two different people had worn the shoes; the second wearer's feet were too big for them.
Within 800 feet of the shoes was a well-worn, size 36 blue denim jacket with metallic buttons and bloodstains on the front, back and sleeves. The jacket had some base metal paint flecks on it. It had been cut off at the bottom and roughly re-hemmed with white thread, and one of the four buttons was missing. There was a worn mark running the entire width of the jacket under the armpits, possibly from a safety harness. There were bast fibers, like the kind used in scrubbing brushes, in the left-hand pocket.
The blood on the jacket was Evelyn's type and blood smears found at the house she was taken from were made by cloth with the characteristics of denim; authorities believe the jacket was worn by her kidnapper. However, it appeared to be too small for a person big enough to wear size 11 shoes. One investigator concluded, based on the pattern of wear on the jacket and the way it was cut off, that whoever owned it worked as a steeplejack.
Evelyn's kidnapping sparked one of the biggest searches in Wisconsin history. Among other extreme measures, investigators conducted mass searches of local vehicles and gave lie detector tests to all the students and teachers at Evelyn's school. They took the shoes and the jacket to 31 different communities in the area and displayed them to an estimated 10,000 people, but no one recognized them. Many suspects were questioned over the years, but there was on evidence to implicate anyone.
Some people suspect Edward Theodore Gein may have been involved in Evelyn's case. A photograph of him is posted with this case summary. He was visiting relatives in La Crosse, just blocks from the home where she was babysitting, on the night of her disappearance.
In 1957, police went to question Gein about the disappearance of a local barmaid and found human remains all over his house. He had killed two women and had dug up other women's bodies in the cemetery and mutilated them.
Gein was declared insane and died in a mental institution in 1984. No trace of Evelyn was found on his property and he denied any involvement in her case. He has still not been completely cleared, however, and is also being considered in the 1947 abduction of Georgia Weckler.
Evelyn was a junior at Central High School at the time of her apparent abduction; she had a straight-A average and was involved in many school activities. She also played the piano and sang in the choir at the First Presbyterian Church. She had had few dates with boys and had never had a steady boyfriend.
She is the youngest of four children; one of her older brothers died of polio several years prior to her disappearance. Evelyn's parents are now deceased. One of her siblings lives in Oregon and the other in Australia. Her case remains unsolved.
Madeline Kelly Edman
Madeline disappeared from La Crosse, Wisconsin on July 29, 2005. She and her mother had gone to the laundromat at St. James and Caledonia Streets. Madeline left to go home while her mother stayed behind to finish the laundry. When her mother arrived home, Madeline was gone.
Many agencies classify Madeline as a runaway who may have remained in the local area after her disappearance, and when her mother died in 2010 at the age of 45, her obituary listed Madeline as having survived her. However, there has been no trace of her since she disappeared and police believe she may have been the victim of human trafficking or murder. Her case remains unsolved
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