Hide Article Text (OCR)
Investigators probe 18-year-old sexual assault and murderAssociated PressAPPLETON — The daughter of a woman murdered 18 years ago says she still hopes the killer will be found.Betty Rolf, 60, was found dead in November of 1988, wedged behind a concrete abutment under the overpass.Rolf had been beaten and sexually assaulted. Her cause ofwdeath was listed as asphyxiation.“I just never give up hope and I keep hoping some day we will find out something,” said Rolfs daughter, Teresa Colbert, 52.Outagamie County Sheriff s Sgt. Gary Shortess said the department hasn't stopped investigating the case.We had about three months starting in January of last year where that was all we worked on and noticed some things we wanted to do with this case, he said. And we interviewed a bunch more people and obtained more DNA samples.”Shortess said the second look at the case has helped.We did obtain some trace evidence from the crime scene and we have developed a DNA profile, Shortess said.That evidence recently was resubmitted to the state Crime Laboratory to further refine the DNA profile, Shortess said.“The frustrating part is we have sent the DNA profile to a national database and we have never gotten a hit,” he said. “One would think this person would have done this again and again until they got caught.”He said whoever committed the crime was likely very angry, given the level of violence and injuries.Shortess said investigators have used the DNA sample to eliminate virtually anyone connected to Rolf.“The initial investigation was always pointing toward the husband because there were a lot of issues, but he was eliminated” as a suspect, he said.Investigators are unsure exactly when or where Rolf was killed.Rolf left her home Nov. 6, 1988, shortly before 6 a.m. to walk 10 blocks to a restaurant where she cleaned. But she never arrived.Her husband, Charles, noticed she didn’t return that afternoon but assumed she had gone to baby-sit for one of their children, as she often did.It wasn’t until the next day after family members got in touch with each other that a missing persons report was filed.Soon an Appleton police officer walked the route from the Rolf residence and came to an area where the road passes over the railroad tracks. The officer checked under the overpass and found Rolf s body.Colbert, can’t forget the day her mother was found.“I called my sister from work to see if they found anything and they said ’no,’ so I got upset and told my boss what happened and that I was going to go home and I drove down Spencer Street and ran into the police officer there who had the road blocked off,” Colbert said.She asked officers if they had found her mother. “And they said, ‘Give us a description of your mother,’ and I did and 10 minutes later they came back and told me it was her,” she said.Shortess said the department plans to re-interview the doctor who did the autopsy.“We will go through all the photos and stuff so we can find something that was missed the first time,” he said.
Newspaper Details
, ,
Mon, Jan 01, 0001
Page 0
Full Page
Clipped by
Melissa R.
