For two decades a woman found dead in Wisconsin went without a name, but now everyone across the nation will know who she was. The potential of there ever being closure for this female homicide victim was once grim, but one investigating agency in another state refused to give up.
According to the Portage County Sheriff’s Office, on May 11, 1998, authorities received a call from someone fishing in the area who said they found something disturbing in the Tomorrow River near a small town called Amherst, with a population of little more than 1,000. The caller told deputies they thought the discovery was possibly human remains, but they weren’t sure. After an expansive, exhaustive search, investigators said they found a pelvis and two lumbar vertebraes. They did not say how the person died, but they also uncovered “numerous items of clothing” at the scene, the press release said.
The bones were sent in for DNA testing, but the results did not come back as a match for any missing person or case the Sheriff’s Office was working. Detectives said they “exhausted” all of the tips and leads at the time and eventually the case of the unknown woman went ice cold. It’s unclear if over the years other tips came into the sheriff’s office or how extensively the case was worked through the ’90s and 2000s, but in 2014 proved to be a game changer for authorities.
In February 2014, the Portage County investigators said the Criminal Division of the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota contacted them. The press release said they were asking the sheriff’s office for a DNA profile from the pieces they found in the water years before.
Investigators from Ramsey County said that in 1997, someone reported a missing woman to them in their area and they think the discovery in Wisconsin could possibly be a match. The profile was sent, but after processing the findings, authorities in Minnesota said they were wrong. The woman was not their missing person – and then both departments were back to stage one.
Although all investigators were back to the drawing board, they still weren’t ready to give up. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension then offered to do an updated test, the release said. Two months after the profile was sent to them, the unidentified remains were then shipped to Minnesota for formal testing. Those results came back and they still did not match the missing person – but all of the collected information was sent to the National Missing Person Database (NMPDD). That proved to be a jackpot.
The press release said the NMPDD program was developed by the FBI in 2000 to help identify unknown human remains and missing people. In July, just five months after the remains were sent across state lines, investigators finally had a match. The bones were linked to 36-year-old Susan Glaser from West Allis, the release said. She was reported missing to the Wisconsin Police Department in 1995.
For nearly two years, and at the request of the West Allis Police department, the case remained confidential. The reason why no formal information was released to the public because the West Allis Police department, according to the release, wanted the details to remain under wraps so they could work on the case and new leads without anyone finding out. When that proved not to be successful for them, authorities jointly decided to release the case details last week to the public.
Glaser had black hair, fair skin and a clear complexion. No word on where authorities found her photo, but they have now made it public. It’s unclear how she died, but reports say her family did report her missing. Sheriff Mike Lukas spoke out to WREX and said, “I didn’t think we’d ever find a match.”
If you know anything about this unsolved mystery, please contact the West Allis Police Department directly. Det. Vanderwerf will take your call: 414.302.8079. You can also contact Crime Stoppers: 414-476-CASH.
Read more: WREX
Portage County Sheriff’s Office
Minnesota of Bureau Apprehension
<!– End of DoubleClick Floodlight Tag: Please do not remove —>
The post Wisconsin Cold Case Secrets Revealed: Who Killed Susan Glaser? appeared first on CrimeFeed.