MISSING PERSONS

Minnesota's oldest listed missing persons case: What happened to the three Klein brothers?

Jeremy Fugleberg — Tue, 01 Jul 2025 14:55:00 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — They were just boys when they vanished.

It was Saturday, Nov. 10, 1951, about 1:30 p.m. Three of the four Klein brothers — Kenneth Jr., age 8; David, age 6; and Daniel, age 4 — told their mother they were on their way from their North Minneapolis home to play in Fairview Park, just a few blocks away.

Hours passed. Their older brother, nine-year-old Gordon, went to retrieve them from the park at dinner time, and couldn't find them. He alerted his parents — Kenneth and Betty Klein — and the hunt was on.

For all they knew at the time, the youngsters had just left to play somewhere else, maybe down along the nearby Mississippi River, whose banks were coated with thin ice.

But the family would never again see the three boys. The mystery of the disappearance of the three Klein brothers would spark a relentless search, cause decades of false hopes and despair, and gain renewed attention that would place them on a Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension database as the state's oldest listed missing persons case.

The search and false leads

It quickly became obvious the boys weren't just playing somewhere else.

The Klein family was soon joined by Boy Scouts, policemen, search dogs, civil defense patrolmen and others, as they combed the surrounding area, including empty lots, garages and vacant buildings, and went door to door asking about the children.

"Squads plodded through warehouses of the river industrial district. Hollow echoes answered their shouts," reported the Austin Daily Herald on Nov. 13, 1951. "Oily machinery instead of little boys' eyes reflected the flashlight beams."

Two sound trucks drove through the North Minneapolis neighborhoods, broadcasting descriptions of the boys. All three had been wearing blue jeans. Kenneth Jr. had on a red jacket and stocking cap. David had a brown coat and red and gray cap. Daniel had been wearing a red snowsuit and a brown plaid cap.

Police insisted they had no reason to suspect foul play. But it wasn't ruled out, either.

A Minneapolis Star newspaper photographer snapped an indelible photo of Kenneth and Betty Klein and their boy Gordon, standing next to Daniel's empty high chair as Kenneth Sr. takes a phone call about the search.

When two of the boys' caps were fished from the nearby icy Mississippi River, it was was dragged by authorities who feared the boys had fallen in and drowned, but they came up empty-handed. Police followed up on reports of sightings, but those also didn't pan out, and the search widened even as hope dimmed.

By the middle of the following week, the hunt had been all but called off.

"It just doesn't seem reasonable those youngsters could disappear in the midst of thousands of people," said Minneapolis Police Chief Tom Jones in the Daily Herald article. "It isn't in the books, either, that all three of them would tumble into the river together. But that's what it looks like now."

While police closed the case as a suspected drowning, the Klein family didn't give up. They posted a $500 reward in the newspaper for any information leading to the recovery of the boys as well as regular "information wanted" classified listings.

With nowhere else to turn for answers, they sought help anywhere they could find it, and chased down every tip. They even appealed to a supposedly psychic "talking" horse in Virginia named Lady Wonder.

"We'll try anything if it will help us find them," said Betty Klein in the Dec. 12, 1952 edition of the Duluth News Tribune.

Renewed attention

Decades later, Minneapolis author Jack El-Hai saw one of the Klein's regular pleas in the newspaper classifieds sections in November 1997 and contacted them.

His resulting research and interviews led to a 1998 Minnesota Monthly article titled "the Lost Brothers" and eventually his 2019 book about the case, "The Lost Brothers: A Family's Decades-Long Search." and well as a companion TPT podcast, "Long Lost." that is also available on YouTube.

El-Hai chronicled both the family's efforts to keep hope alive, and resurgent interest from law enforcement, including from Wright County Sheriff's Deputy Jessica Miller and Minneapolis Park Police Sgt. Jim Schultz. Both El-Hai and the investigators believe the boys were likely kidnapped.

Several theories rise to the top, according to El-Hai:

Playground worker: A Fairview Park playground worker, now deceased, was investigated for the murder of three boys in Chicago. 'Creepy' man: A woman who rented rooms near the Klein family's home recalled a "creepy" man in his 50s playing basketball with several boys about the time the Klein boys disappeared. Truck driver: Not long after the boys vanished, a truck driver (now deceased) who lived near the Kleins reportedly replaced his pickup truck bed and his basement floor.

If they're still alive, the vanished Klein brothers would be in their 70s and 80s.

If you have any information regarding the case of the missing Klein brothers, contact the Minneapolis Police Department at 612-692-8477.

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New Hulu docuseries to re-examine Jodi Huisentruit case

Jeremy Fugleberg — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 14:59:12 GMT

A new docuseries to stream on Hulu starting July 15 will re-examine the 1995 missing persons case of TV anchor Jodi Huisentruit. Friday marked 30 years since she vanished, and the case remains unsolved.

The impending three-part docuseries is called "Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit." The series will "follow a major break that reenergized the case," said ABC News in a June 27 press release, and will feature new information and never-before-seen material.

"Her Last Broadcast" was produced by Committee Films and ABC News Studios for Hulu.

Huisentruit, a Long Prairie, Minnesota, native was well known from her broadcast work in Minnesota but was working at KIMT-TV in Mason City, Iowa, when she didn't show up to work on June 27, 1995.

Evidence surrounding her car in the parking lot of her apartment building indicated signs of a struggle and a likely abduction.

Family, friends, colleagues and community members marked her disappearance on Friday, commemorated in news coverage.

“We’ll close this at some point, and justice will be served at that point,” Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told WOI TV in Des Moines. “That's our goal as the police department.”

Huisentruit was declared legally dead in 2001.

The upcoming Hulu docuseries will feature over 20 new interviews with family, friends and colleagues, "rare" access to KIMT-TV where Huisentruit's desk remains untouched, and "exclusive, real-time access to the investigation and breaks in the case," ABC News said.

The "major break" referenced by ABC News in its press release reportedly took place after the airing of the ABC 20/20 special about Huisentruit in 2022 entitled "Gone at Dawn."

"The Investigation into her disapperance heated up after a 20/20 episode when a new tip led local police to share a long-hidden clue," said a sneak-peek of the new Hulu docuseries that aired on ABC's "GMA" show on June 27.

"'Her Last Broadcast: The Abduction of Jodi Huisentruit' breathes news life into one of the country's most haunting unsolved mysteries," ABC News said.

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Their grandmother vanished in the woods in 1975. They refuse to give up their search for answers

Tracy Briggs — Fri, 27 Jun 2025 20:00:00 GMT

BAD MEDICINE LAKE, Minn. — Like so many counties in Minnesota, Becker County is home to the familiar trappings of lake life — modern cabins, gleaming pontoons and jet skis that slice across the water.

But turn off County Road 37 and Black Bear Beach Road, and you’re in a different world.

The old logging trail seems a million miles from civilization.

The word "remote" doesn’t quite do it justice.

Here, near Bad Medicine Lake, it’s not unusual to spot a wolf or a bear, and the mosquitoes and ticks outnumber people by the thousands.

Still, on this dreary, overcast day, three Minnesota sisters have left the comfort of their homes to trek deep into the dense forest. They walk with the sheriff hoping to get closer to solving the case of their missing grandmother, a mystery that has haunted their family for 50 years.

June 17, 1975

In the early afternoon of June 17, 1975, former church secretary Milda McQuillan, 71, left her Round Lake home to visit friends at their cabin on Bad Medicine Lake, less than a half-hour away. It was raining, and the country roads were muddy.

A few miles into her journey, McQuillan's car stalled. A postman stopped to help her. Not long after, she took a wrong turn and was helped again — this time by a truck driver who pointed her in the right direction. He would be the last person known to see her.

That evening, when McQuillan didn’t return home, her sister Ida, with whom she lived, called Milda’s daughter, Carol Hinze. Carol then contacted her brother Dennis McQuillan, and the two drove from the Twin Cities to join law enforcement in searching for their mother.

Two days later, after an extensive ground and air search — including efforts from National Guard troops — Milda's pea-green 1968 Dodge sedan was found stuck in the mud on an old logging trail about three-quarters of a mile from her friends' cabin. A coat belt and plastic rain cap were found slung over some bushes nearby. There was no trace of Milda.

Then the trail went cold. For decades.

From dusty file to renewed search

In 1975, 9-year-old Todd Glander was growing up in Detroit Lakes, often hunting in the same woods where Milda McQuillan vanished. He never forgot her story.

By 2014, he was in a position to act — he'd just been elected sheriff of Becker County.

“I took those dusty case files, went to my investigative unit and I said, 'I want to do whatever we can do to find some answers',” he said.

That’s when he met the three women walking beside him in the woods today — Milda McQuillan's granddaughters: Lori Voigt of Arlington, Jo Cornell of Hackensack and Michelle Donahue of Mayer.

They were 17, 15, and 11 when their grandmother vanished.

They still remember the good times with their Grandma Milda — reading Raggedy Ann books, playing cards and helping her in the kitchen. Summers with her meant something.

Today, the sisters even wear matching T-shirts from the Ice Cracking Lodge, a local place they'd go for laughter-filled nights together.

“She’d get a Grain Belt and give us money to play the bowling machines. She was a lot of fun!” Voigt said with a smile.

A walk back to the woods

The sisters first joined Glander in 2017 at this site where their grandmother’s car had been found back in 1975. Now, they’re returning to the same logging trail, asking more questions, hoping something new will surface.

The forest has grown so thick that cars can’t pass. They ride with Deputy Adam Douglas in a side-by-side off-road vehicle to reach the swampy area where the Dodge was spotted a half-century ago.

In a twist of irony, the woods are stunning, lush and alive with color. Woodland ferns unfurl beside wild columbine and violets along the path, while cedar and birch trees either tower overhead or lie scattered across the forest floor. It’s both beautiful and heartbreaking.

“I’m going to cry. I’m so appreciative that the sheriff is willing to help us find some answers. He always calls back, always,” Donahue said, tearing up. “I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing to recognize the sheriff’s voice on the phone," she added with a laugh.

The sisters have compiled a detailed scrapbook of clippings and theories. Glander’s team has used cadaver dogs and sonar to search nearby lakes. Still, no definitive answers.

Puzzling clues and lingering theories

The most baffling detail, the family says, is how Milda’s car ended up so deep in the woods.

“There’s no way my grandmother would have driven her car out this far,” Cornell said.

The family suspects someone moved the car there, especially since aerial searches done the day before showed nothing in that location.

The coat belt and rain bonnet also appeared after earlier ground searches in that same area had turned up nothing.

“That cheap plastic rain hat could have blown from anywhere, but the belt had a heavy buckle on it, so I don't think we would have missed it the day before. We felt like that was planted out there to keep us in that area,” Hinze said.

Another theory involves two young men who were stealing boat motors in the area at the time.

“They recovered all but one of the stolen motors,” Voigt said in 2017. "So the theory is they used that last motor to sink her in the lake.”

The men were questioned and passed lie detector tests and were released.

Dennis McQuillan also shares a conversation he had with an Elbow Lake store clerk about his mother's disappearance. The clerk said she saw an older white woman matching Milda’s description come into the store with a 20-something Native American couple.

“The lady at Elbow Lake store told the older white woman that a lady of her description was reported missing and the lady said ‘I know — that’s me!’” said Dennis.

Hinze said the clerk even described her mother's blouse as having blue vertical stripes — details that had not been released to the public.

“Nobody ever discussed this with her (the store clerk) because they said she was known to make up stories. It made me mad,” said Hinze.

A family that won’t give up

The pain of not knowing has lingered for five decades. Dennis still remembers the heartbreak of leaving the area two weeks after the search.

“Leaving Round Lake/Bad Medicine after two-and-a-half weeks without finding Mom and feeling like I was washing my hands of my mom, who raised me. My mom never gave up on me, and now I was giving up on her,” Dennis said.

But the family never gave up.

Dennis and his wife recently visited from Florida just a week before the granddaughters came here from their homes in other parts of Minnesota. Hinze no longer returns to the site.

“I’m glad my kids still go up there, and I just can't do it anymore. I just can't. It was too depressing, wondering what happened. I just hope she didn’t suffer too much,” Hinze said.

They know, of course, that Milda is dead. She would be 121 years old today. Many of the people involved in the original case are also gone.

Still, Sheriff Glander and the family believe there may be someone out there — maybe even a child or teen at the time — who might remember the smallest detail from that overcast June day.

“We always feel that somebody knows something. We just hold out for a little bit of evidence that we can follow up,” Glander said. “We just want people to know that we’ll never quit searching. None of us will give up hope that we can find something, some kind of an answer to what happened.”

Did you see anything?

What: Disappearance of Milda McQuillan

When: June 17, 1975

Where: Near Bad Medicine Lake, Becker County, Minnesota

If you have any information, call the Becker County Sheriff’s Office at 218-847-2661.

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A crashed car and no sign of Ted Dengerud for 43 years

Dale Morin — Tue, 24 Jun 2025 16:59:53 GMT

BENSON, Minn. — It’s been more than 43 years since a man from rural New London, Minnesota, disappeared, leaving behind only the wreckage of his car.

Most surviving family members of Ted Dengerud believe he is dead. Neither the family nor the officer who has been re-investigating the case believe the 30-year-old husband and father walked away on his own.

Around 10:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 3, 1982, Ted Dengerud was apparently on his way from a supper club just outside Sunburg, Minnesota, to pick up his wife from her sister's house southwest of Sunburg.

His vehicle was eventually found, unoccupied, with a dented front end and smashed windshield on the driver side after it had apparently crashed into a small tree at the intersection of Swift County Roads 28 and 87 — roughly 10 miles northwest of the city of Sunburg and six to seven miles from the home of his sister-in-law.

According to Chief Deputy Mike Hoffman, who is re-examining the case for the Swift County Sheriff's Office, the crash location “doesn’t make any sense." Dengerud's sister-in-law lived south of Minnesota Highway 9, and his car was found at an intersection north of the highway.

Ted's wife, Denise, when interviewed by the West Central Tribune shortly after he disappeared, said he could have become lost on the way to her sister's home. She recalled instructing her husband over the phone that if he lost his way, he should go back to the supper club and call her, according to West Central Tribune archives.

Denise said her husband had not sounded angry or depressed on the phone when they talked that night. If anything, she said, he would have been in a good mood because he had gotten the job he had sought earlier that day in the Twin Cities, according to the West Central Tribune news article published April 8, 1982.

The known facts are familiar to anyone who has read the news accounts over the years. Ted Dengerud and his friend Robert Nelson left Ted's home on Norway Lake for the Twin Cities to inquire about potential construction work.

Ted's wife was home with the couple’s 15-month-old daughter, Tenille, and later drove to her sister’s home.

When Ted and Robert returned, they stopped at the supper club located at the intersection of Highway 9 and Highway 104. Ted called his wife and said he would come to pick her up. He eventually left the bar alone.

The last confirmed sighting of Ted Dengerud was when he stopped at a nearby farm along Highway 9, about 2.5 miles west of the supper club, to ask for directions.

Chief Deputy Hoffman, when interviewed June 12, said he has his own theories as to what happened, including the possibility that someone in another vehicle might have picked up Ted after the crash, but said, for investigative purposes, he obviously could not share much more publicly.

“What I will say is that I don’t think he’s out there,” he said. “I don’t think his remains are around or anywhere near Camp Lake. … The place was searched very thoroughly … and a lot of people farm the area, hunt the area, walk the area, canoe the area, and just the fact nothing has been found since then, it’s hard to believe. If he’s not out there, he’s obviously somewhere.”

A thick investigative file filled with old reports, hand-written radio logs and photos sat on Hoffman's desk when he spoke with the West Central Tribune earlier this month. He first began reviewing the case file in 2024.

He had seen a Facebook post made several years ago by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension on the anniversary of Dengerud’s disappearance, and he decided to do the same on the Sheriff's Office page on the 2024 anniversary.

He said all he did was essentially repost the short BCA summary of the case, knowing that most people within Swift County had at least some familiarity as Dengerud’s disappearance is “kind of an urban legend.”

The post ended up garnering more attention than he expected. Hoffman said he initially just read the comments, but as he began cross-referencing some of the more detailed accounts with the original reports, he began to notice that some of those names were not anywhere in the original case files.

He began contacting people directly and asking for as many details as they could recall. Hoffman estimates he has talked to close to 50 people, including Ted's family and friends, the officers who were involved in the original investigation, even the patrons and staff members who were at the bar that night.

Becky Dean, Ted’s sister, was 17 at the time. She told the West Central Tribune in a phone interview on June 13 that one of her most vivid memories is when her family was notified.

“They were supposed to come over on Sunday for dinner. They did that a lot at our house,” she said. “I can remember my dad sitting in this chair by the window that looks out to the driveway. He was just watching and sitting there all day waiting for him to pull into the driveway.”

Dean said it’s been a painful and emotional journey ever since Chief Deputy Hoffman notified the family he was re-examining the case, second only to those handful of days 43 years ago.

Hoffman feels fortunate to also have interviewed all three of Ted's brothers: Larry, Glenn and Les. Les died earlier this year, on April 12 at age 83, according to his obituary.

“When I first sat down with Becky and (Ted's) brothers, I told them that I’m not going to promise that I will solve this case," Hoffman said. " … But I can start the investigation from square one and fill as many blanks as I possibly can so that we have the most information possible that I can get from everyone still living.”

Dean and Hoffman remain in regular contact.

“The fact he picked (the case) up and decided to put time into it is huge,” Dean said. “It's sad for, you know, 40-some years with not a lot of action, so I’m very grateful to him for wanting to spend time on it.”

Hoffman has been constrained not only by the passage of time but also the challenge of “Norwegian silence,” a term he used to describe the Midwest mindset of minding one’s own business.

He pointed to the fact that Ted’s car is believed to have crashed around midnight, and the car remained planted against that tree, south of Camp Lake, for almost 18 hours. It was not until around 5 p.m. the next day on Sunday, April 4, 1982, that the vehicle was reported to law enforcement.

He was able to confirm that a lot of people passed by the crash scene throughout the day.

The likely assumption was "someone got drunk, (crashed) their car and then ran away because they didn’t want to get caught,” he said.

The chief deputy said he has come across new information and talked to others who didn’t initially make any reports to police, but he’s still looking to form a clearer picture and timeline of events.

Nothing promising or concrete ever came of the few tips from the public in the weeks immediately after Dengerud disappeared, according to Hoffman. But he believes he could be just one missing piece away from getting back onto the trail.

Whether it’s someone pointing him to another area he should look, a short exchange someone might have had with Ted or some other odd occurrence that could be relevant.

“The problem now is it’s been 40 years. And my own thought is I think that someone is sitting there who knows something and they’re probably thinking, ‘If I come out and say something now, I’m going to look (stupid or suspicious),’” Hoffman said.

“I want to think that person exists and I want them to come talk to me. If it’s to the point where you think you could have charges on you, grab a lawyer and come talk to us. We’ll figure it out,” he said.

Hoffman, early in his investigation, ruled out the theory that Dengerud, after the crash, may have taken the opportunity to run away. The family does not believe that either.

Dean said Ted might have come off as a “wild man” to those who didn’t know him well but that simply isn’t the case. He was described as soft-spoken but a goofy guy who was great to be around.

“He just loved to have fun. Everybody loved him,” she said.

Hoffman said he dug to "to get the dirt. ... A cold case of 40-plus years, I want to know everything. Even the not-so-good stuff." Did he rub people the wrong way, was there any turmoil in his life or in his marriage — but nothing of the sort has ever come up.

By all accounts, Ted was extremely family-oriented. He adored his daughter, and he and his dad were practically buddies, according to Hoffman and Dean.

“The theory of him skipping town, bailing on his wife and young daughter, and his dad … it doesn’t hold water,” Hoffman said.

Denise remarried a couple of years later and moved to Florida with her daughter. She now lives in Colorado, according to Dean.

Dean said she and Tenille, living in Florida with kids of her own, have been able to form a relationship.

“I talk to her on the phone often, and she comes home every year,” Dean said.

That’s one of the many reasons both Chief Deputy Hoffman and Ted’s family are wishing something will turn up this time around. They all want closure.

“That’s what keeps me going. … That’s the reason I want to get people talking,” Hoffman said.

The fact Tenille never knew her dad. Her kids never knew their grandfather. Hoffman said he hopes one day he'll at least have answers, good or bad, for Ted's family.

Dean told the West Central Tribune that most of the family at this point believes that Ted is no longer alive. She personally speculated that the crash was staged, and that he ran into trouble somewhere between the supper club and his sister-in-law's.

“He wouldn’t leave his family or friends. He had too many and they were too important,” she said. “That’s the hard part. If someone did kill him, I don’t know who that could be because I don’t know who would ever be angry at him."

Like Hoffman, Dean is confident that at least one or possibly more than one person knows what happened to her brother that night.

“If anybody knows anything, I would just plead with them to talk to Mike Hoffman,” she said, adding that after so much time, the family is no longer interested in “seeking justice” or putting someone behind bars.

“We just want to know where he is and what happened.”

Image and PDF Viewer

Click the image above to see a larger view of the April 8, 1982, clipping from the West Central Tribune.

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Click the image above to see a larger view of the April 20, 1982, clipping from the West Central Tribune.

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Click the image above to see a larger view of the June 14, 1983, clipping from the West Central Tribune.

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Tori Bess left a Minnesota home 12 years ago, leaving the front door open. She's never returned

Brielle Bredsten — Wed, 28 May 2025 12:15:00 GMT

EVELETH, Minn. — It’s been over 12 years since Tori Jean Grace Bess was last seen.

The circumstances surrounding her disappearance are unclear, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension said.

The Duluth News Tribune reported in October 2013 that the Eveleth Police Department claimed Bess arrived in the Iron Range in late October or early November 2012 to attend a funeral in Aurora or Hoyt Lakes. She stayed with a person in Eveleth until she disappeared Feb. 21, 2013.

According to The Charley Project, Bess left abruptly without notifying anyone or taking her belongings, which disappeared two days later. The person she was staying with said the front door was found open.

Eveleth police and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension believe that Bess had contact with or was given assistance by someone in the area during the days surrounding her departure, the Mesabi Tribune reported.

Bess was 36 at the time of her disappearance. She is described as Caucasian with blond hair and green eyes, 5 feet, 10 inches tall, weighing 155 pounds. According to NamUs, Bess has tattoos on her right leg, neck and back.

The Pioneer Press reported Bess had unspecified medical issues.

Bess has a history of a transient lifestyle with previous addresses in California, Oregon and Arizona. Before her disappearance, Bess expressed a desire to return to a warmer climate.

The Red Bluff (Calif.) Daily News reported that Bess was arrested May 26, 2011, in Tehama County, California, for fleeing from police in a vehicle. The article said that Bess, then 34, of Grants Pass, Oregon, was involved in a robbery and charged with accessory after the fact, conspiracy to commit a crime and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Contact the Eveleth Police Department at 218-744-7560 with any information.

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Law enforcement seeks help locating missing man last seen in Kelliher

Pioneer Staff Report — Thu, 22 May 2025 15:50:53 GMT

BELTRAMI COUNTY — The Beltrami County Sheriff’s Office is seeking the public’s help in locating 68-year-old Russell Anthony Coyle, who was last seen in Kelliher on April 24.

According to a release from the sheriff's office, family and friends report not seeing or hearing from Coyle after he made arrangements with a friend to watch his dog on the same day.

Coyle is described as a 5-foot-7, approximately 200-pound Caucasian male with blue eyes. He commonly has a beard, wears glasses and carries a pliers holder on his belt.

"The Beltrami County Sheriff's Office learned Russell could have left town headed 'west' to find work, but his current whereabouts are unknown," the release said. "Russell does not commonly drive a motor vehicle and was known to rely on family and friends for transportation."

Anyone who has seen or heard from Coyle or knows his current whereabouts is encouraged to call the sheriff’s office at (218) 333-9111.

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Cold case of missing Wisconsin woman solved after 62 years

Jeremy Fugleberg — Wed, 07 May 2025 14:55:00 GMT

BARABOO, Wis. — Audrey Backeberg's case had long been considered cold.

Backeberg was 20 years old in July 1962 when she went missing from Reedsburg, Wisconsin, a small town about 55 miles northwest of Madison.

Numerous attempts over the years by investigators to find out what happened to Backeberg proved fruitless. Her disappearance was eventually considered a cold case.

Earlier this year, investigators decided to take another look. The Sauk County Sheriff's Office assigned Backeberg's case to Detective Isaac Hanson in March for a comprehensive review, including a re-evaluation of case files and re-interviewing witnesses.

On Thursday, May 1, Sauk County Sheriff Chip Meister announced a major break in the case, one that took a surprising turn.

"The Sheriff’s Office is now able to report that Audrey Backeberg is alive and well and currently resides out of state," he said. "Further investigation has revealed that Ms. Backeberg’s disappearance was by her own choice and not the result of any criminal activity or foul play."

Hanson told Milwaukee TV station WISN how it happened. A key part of solving the case was a relative's account on Ancestry.com that led to a potential out-of-state address for Backeberg.

Hanson contacted the sheriff's office there and asked them to look Backeberg up. Sure enough, 45 minutes later, a call: It was Backeberg, who would now be age 82.

Hanson told WISN an abusive husband seemed to be the reason Backeberg decided to vanish to parts unknown.

"I think she just was removed and, you know, moved on from things and kind of did her own thing and led her life," Hanson said. "She sounded happy. Confident in her decision. No regrets."

The case has now been removed from Wisconsin's list of missing persons.

Audrey Good married Ronald Backeberg in 1957, when she was 15, according to a contemporaneous wedding announcement in the Reedsburg Times-Press. They lived in a home on Vine Street in Reedsburg.

The couple had two children together but the marriage was troubled, according to an archived case page from the Charley Project, a nonprofit organization that tracks unsolved murders and missing persons cases.

Backeberg had filed a criminal complaint against her husband on July 4, 1962, just before she disappeared, accusing him of beating her and threatening to kill her.

On or arout July 7, she picked up her paycheck at a local mill and vanished, the Portage Daily Register reported in a May 2002 article about the case. Authorities listed her as 5 feet, 5 inches, weighing 125 pounds, with hazel eyes and brown hair.

According to the report, Backeberg's 14-year-old babysitter later claimed she and Backeberg hitchhiked to Madison then took a bus to Indianapolis to "escape their lives." There, the babysitter parted ways with Backeberg, who had told the babysitter she was leaving on her own accord and didn't plan to return home.

Backeberg's husband always proclaimed his innocence in his wife's disappearance and took a lie detector test that indicated he had passed it. He officially divorced her in November 1963, according to a listing in the Baraboo News Republic.

Backeberg's address was listed as "address unknown."

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‘Historically, we have failed’: Advocates rally for Minnesota’s missing and murdered Black women

Jack O'Connor — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 21:25:55 GMT

MINNEAPOLIS — Over a hundred people came to the capital Wednesday to raise awareness about the disproportionate rates of violence facing Black women as part of Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls Day on the Hill.

The Wednesday, April 9, event also celebrated the Office for Missing and Murdered Black Women and Girls, which was created in 2023 to investigate and attempt to reduce the deaths and disappearances of Black women in the state. The office, established under the Office of Justice within the Minnesota Department of Public Safety, is the first of its kind in the nation, according to the DPS website.

Joyce Hayden, a Black mother whose 25-year-old daughter Taylor was killed in 2016, said the mission to protect Black women cannot stop with the creation of the office and that there must not be “another Taylor.”

“This is more than a ceremonial event,” Hayden said. “It is a pivotal, pivotal moment, a collective declaration that the lives of Black women and girls matter and that the silence surrounding their disappearances and deaths will no longer be tolerated.”

Black women, like Taylor, are six times more likely to be killed than their white counterparts, according to a peer-reviewed study in The Lancet medical journal.

Of the over 270,000 women reported missing in 2022 nationally, Black women accounted for around 36% of that total despite only making up 14% of the U.S. female population, according to the National Crime Information Center.

St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter, the city’s first African-American mayor, said that while the MMBWG office should not have to exist, Minnesota needs to do a better job of caring for women of color.

“Historically, we have failed as a state, as a community, as a country,” Carter said. “We should know, and all of our systems should reflect that anytime any of our girls goes missing, that that is a crisis for all of us.”

MMBWG’s director, Kaleena Burkes, said problems facing Black women extend beyond disproportionate rates of violence. She said a lack of media attention and police resources on cases can hurt community trust and leave families wondering if something more could have been done.

“This is not just about policy. This is about lives. This is about justice. This is about undoing centuries of racial indifference. It’s about ensuring that no more family members are left searching for answers alone,” Burkes said.

State Sen. Bobby Joe Champion, DFL-Minneapolis, while commending Black state leaders and advocates in the audience who helped create the MMBWG office, said the work is not done.

“It is not the finish line,” Champion said. “We need all of you to help us continue to push our state leaders to support and sustain this important work.”

Some of the other speakers at the event included Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, Senate-hopeful Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan, and Brittney’s Place founder Lakeshia Lee.

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What happened to Keith Schmidt?

Eric Grabowsky, Contributor — Mon, 17 Feb 2025 16:30:00 GMT

DICKINSON, N.D. — Keith William Schmidt, 53, went missing on Monday, May 20, 2024. As reported previously, Schmidt is described as 5’9’’ tall, weighing 140 pounds with long brown hair and green eyes.

The Dickinson Press reported in June that the police investigation was continuing with no significant forward movement on the case.

On Aug. 5 and Oct. 23, the Dickinson Police Department posted updates on Facebook, and the situation was the same. The department stated, “Investigators have invested significant time reviewing leads and surveillance recordings. However, no leads have uncovered further information.”

https://www.facebook.com/DickinsonPD/posts/pfbid0rnhZTPLKm5344NHjJc2yoEtDgrjraTc3AbAtZZ3B8hb8EFpmDU8hX69ZSptdszV8l

The post included a link to the Keith William Schmidt page from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) website. According to Schmidt’s NamUs page, he “was seen on video at 0603 hours leaving his residence on foot. Keith did not return to his residence.”

The department remains in contact with the Schmidt family, providing regular case status updates. With the possibility of foul play as a factor, the Dickinson Police Department says it is limiting its public disclosure of aspects of the investigation.

On or around May 10, Schmidt began a significant shift away from his overall regular pattern of life — a fact uncovered during the research conducted for this article.

WHO IS KEITH SCHMIDT?

Family and friends have provided a wide range of insights about Schmidt. He is well liked, does not go out of his way to make enemies and socializes at Bernie’s Esquire Club in downtown Dickinson.

In fact, persons who care about Schmidt through the Esquire initiated a check on Keith’s welfare when it was clear that Keith was not around town and was not communicating.

In the big picture of Schmidt’s life, it would not be unusual for him to travel. However, it

would be

unusual for Schmidt to not tell anyone that he is traveling.

Keith is not someone who is known to open up willingly in a conversation without some degree of prompting, at least for certain topic areas, especially on the personal level. He enjoys playing darts and pool. Schmidt is a lunchtime regular at the Subway in the T-Rex Plaza in Dickinson, just south of Interstate 94 — also affirmed by employees at that location. Schmidt is known there by name.

According to friends and family, Keith had various tenants over a period of time who lived at his residence in Dickinson.

Schmidt typically wears a hat. He is known to wear a pen in his T-shirt. On the top of his wrist on his left arm, Schmidt has a watch or clock tattoo. Just below his left shoulder, he has a tattoo on his left upper arm that looks like a clock with skeletons, possibly a theme from the music group Anthrax. Schmidt has a tattoo on his back, which might be a skeleton snake tattoo. On the top of his wrist on his right arm, Schmidt has a tattoo of some sort of creature, possibly a theme from the musical group Megadeth.

Both personally and professionally, Keith is generally an organized person with a somewhat steady routine. He can be at times meticulous. Keith is in the flooring business, with the reputation of doing quality work for his clients. He keeps one or more notebooks going that pertain to his work, and according to a source familiar with Keith, might have also contained information possibly related to his personal life.

A SIGNIFICANT SHIFT AFTER MAY 10

Beyond May 10, Kodi Meduna of Allan’s Decorating Center in Dickinson, a strong advocate for finding Schmidt, attempted multiple times to reach Keith.

According to Meduna, on the morning of May 20 at 5:56 a.m., she received the text “Sorry, been busy” from Keith. This is about seven minutes before he was last seen on neighborhood residential camera footage outside his residence. After that text, even with other communication attempts by Meduna, she received no further communication from Keith.

Multiple people who know Keith have said that it was unusual for him to be active in this way during this early phase of the morning, as he is not a morning person. For instance, Schmidt’s daily routine would have him getting his flooring work going between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m. Also worthy of note, according to Laura Scherer, Keith’s sister, the trash pickup for his neighborhood is on Tuesday morning, yet Schmidt put his trash out by Sunday night, May 19.

Scherer stated that police study of neighborhood residential camera footage indicated that Schmidt was at some point facing north when outside of his house on the morning of May 20.

Schmidt was at his father’s farm during the weekend between Friday, May 10 and Monday, May 13, according to Donald Schmidt, Keith’s father.

Schmidt would regularly go to his father’s farm in the Watford City area to spend time with family and help with tasks. Donald Schmidt said as Keith concluded his weekend at the farm before Monday, May 20, Schmidt stated to his father that he would not be returning during the following weekend.

So, during the May 10 to May 20 time frame, Keith maintained some level of communication with family from the Watford City area, but was dropping out of communication with other people here in Dickinson.

Schmidt did not complete a job that was part of a residential project for Claire Campbell of Studio 9 Design in Dickinson. Campbell stated that she unsuccessfully tried to reach Keith from after May 10, and then through and beyond May 20.

Keith left his tools at the work site.

Schmidt had completed a job that was part of a residential project for Shane White of Shane White Plumbing in Dickinson. However, according to White, up through the time of the disappearance, Schmidt never did provide a final bill for the remaining balance due for the job.

A MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC

With friends and family concerned, Schmidt was officially reported as missing to the police by the end of May. As far as people know definitively, he left everything but his wallet at his residence, including his vehicles and cell phone. A job list book, or one of his more recent notebooks pertaining to work, are still not accounted for as of this article.

Keith’s family and friends say that they have a message for the public.

They expressed a desire for people to proactively become involved in the search for Keith, noting that if he is alive, he is somewhere, and might be in need of some sort of assistance.

They acknowledged that should Schmidt be dead, finding his body would be a major step in bringing closure to a difficult situation.

Scherer has also called on North Dakota hunters be on the lookout when out and about through the various established hunting seasons as the search continues.

Individuals with relevant information are encouraged to call the Dickinson Police Department at 701-456-7759, or submit tips through Badlands Crime Stoppers at www. dickinsonpd.com/crimestoppers — you may submit anonymously.

The Press will provide additional updates on this case going forward, with a dedicated reporter assigned to this missing person case.

Editor's note: This article was first published in the Dickinson Press on Sept. 30. It has been updated to reflect the Dickinson's Police Department's Oct. 23 Facebook post about the case.

Eric Grabowsky is a special contributor to The Dickinson Press. Grabowsky has a PhD In Rhetoric from Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, PA. He was a faculty member in the area of communication at Dickinson State University from August 2010 to May 2024.]]>

Genome sequencing IDs remains, but now investigators want to know who killed him

Trisha Taurinskas — Sun, 16 Feb 2025 15:35:00 GMT

ISANTI COUNTY, Minn. — Donald Rindahl hadn’t been seen by friends and family members since he said goodbye in the summer of 1970.

The 22-year-old told family members he was off to California, yet their concern regarding his whereabouts quickly escalated when the Federal Bureau of Investigation began searching for him on an unrelated matter.

“They were told that the FBI had been looking for him prior to his disappearance due to involvement with drugs,” DNASolves said in a news release regarding Rindahl’s case.

Unbeknownst to the FBI and his family, Rindahl’s remains were buried in a shallow grave along Isanti County’s rural stretch near the intersection of Highway 47 and County Road 5.

His remains were discovered in the summer of 2003 by a landscaper, launching a quest to uncover his identity.

That quest began with analysis of the remains, which were believed to belong to a white male between ages 20 and 28. Initial estimates put his date of death and burial between three and 28 years, creating a wide gap of possible missing persons cases to cross-reference.

Known then as Isanti John Doe, his dental records were submitted to the missing persons database, and his DNA sample was obtained. At the same time, a portrait reflecting the likely image of the then-unidentified man was created.

From there, the case hit a dead end — until 2019 when a new investigator took over the case.

Chasing DNA advancements

Lisa Lovering, then-Isanti County Sheriff’s Office chief deputy, began searching for new DNA technology that could help crack the case, and she didn’t stop until she had an answer.

The first attempts to obtain DNA profiles through the extraction of DNA samples were executed through the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in 2019 and 2020, according to a DNASolves news release.

Both attempts failed.

Lovering, who was heading the case at the time, sought another measure. One more sample was sent to an outside lab. The results were the same: the sample didn’t yield the quality of DNA necessary to obtain a DNA profile for genetic matching.

At that point, Lovering began looking outside the scope of familiarity and geographical territory. She discovered Othram, a Texas-based lab specializing in forensic-grade genome sequencing.

The lab is utilized by law enforcement agencies in cases where local and state labs have failed to extract DNA from degraded or damaged samples. In short, they’re the elite among the forensic scientific community.

Their website advertises directly to law enforcement officials handling cold cases, offering renewed hope in scenarios where repeated DNA analysis has failed to extract a genetic profile suitable for national databases and forensic genealogy efforts.

“We work with forensic professionals, medical examiners and law enforcement globally to achieve results the first time, even when other approaches have failed,” the Othram site states.

That claim rang true for Isanti John Doe’s case.

After the first attempt by Othram in 2022, the Isanti County Sheriff’s Office received the news they had been after for years: they were able to extract a viable genetic profile.

That profile was submitted to a national database and led to a DNA match with Isanti John Doe’s distant relative. The Isanti County Sheriff’s Office worked with an independent forensic genealogist, who worked backward through the family tree to discover at least two possible siblings.

Lovering met with the siblings, who provided DNA samples and invaluable information in the case. They confirmed that their brother, Rindahl, had gone missing in the summer of 1970 and that they believed he had been caught up in drug-related violence.

Rindahl has been identified, yet investigators and family members still don’t know who put him in the rural Isanti grave. They believe foul play is involved, and are still seeking answers from the public.

Anyone with information on this case can contact the Isanti County Sheriff's Office at 763-691-2426 or CrimeStoppers at 800-222-8477.]]>