Found Deceased CA - Dolores Wulff, 45, Woodland, 31 July 1979

[Richard]

Dolores Wulff
Missing since July 31, 1979 from Woodland, Yolo County, California
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 45 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark hair.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Delores Wulff was a popular, outgoing secretary at Woodland High School when she vanished in the middle of the night from her rural home in Yolo County, an agricultural area tucked off the interstate about 20 miles west of Sacramento, CA, on July 31, 1979.

Police immediately looked at her husband who was the only person with her that night, as the prime suspect. Carl Wulff denied harming his wife, but refused a polygraph. He told detectives she left home the night their sons were staying at the nearby house of her brother.

All her clothes, her car was there and medication was left in her home. Investigators said they found traces of her blood, an earring, a strand of hair and a palm print in the trunk of Carl Wulff Sr.'s car. That discovery led detectives to hire a private plane with heat-detection equipment to search for a body.

After eight years of investigation the case was finally brought to trial. But the Judge dismissed the case in 1985, ruling that too much time had elapsed from the time of Dolores' disappearance, violating the husband's right to a fair and speedy trial.

Carl Wulff died in San Diego in 2005 at the age 70. He never admitted to anything. Foul play is suspected.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Yolo County Sheriff's Office
530-668-5213

Source Information:
The Daily Democrat
The Spokesman Review
Doe Network case 2477dfca

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2477dfca.html

 

[meggilyweggily]

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/w/wulff_dolores.html

 

[Richard]

July 31, 2009 will mark 30 years since the disappearance of Dolores Wulff.

 

[Kat]

Bump

Today is July 31, 2010 and Dolores has been missing 31 years.

 

[Graham Clayton]

An article about one of her sons, who became a college football coach, which gives some background information about the Wulff family:

http://www.komonews.com/sports/27313219.html

 

[Annie1004]

I grew up with Tom Wulff in Davis, CA, and remember Mrs. Wulff with her effervescent smile and warmth. Don't know anything about the husband; he was was gone a lot due to his business. Very nice kids, though.

 

[Steph54]

MISSING WOMAN SEEN ALIVE, COURT IS TOLD
Sacramento Bee, March 12, 1985

Dolores Wulff was seen alive about 1 1/2 years after she disappeared from her rural Woodland home, according to documents filed Monday in Yolo County Superior Court.

A man identified as Manuel Lemos was quoted in the documents as having seen Wulff in 1981 while shopping in Fairfield.

I think it was her I believe she is alive, Lemos said, according to the document.

The new development was revealed by a lawyer for Carl L. Wulff Sr., who was arrested Friday on a charge of murdering his wife. The Woodland High School secretary disappeared on July 31, 1979. Her body never has been found.

Carl Wulff, once a prominent Woodland insurance man and now a loan officer in Sacramento, was to be arraigned today.

Lemos, identified only as a friend of the Wulff family who has personally known Mrs. Wulff for approximately 30 years, spotted her shopping and quite alive in a Fairfield store, according to the documents filed Monday.

The documents were filed by a lawyer seeking dismissal of a wrongful death suit brought against Carl L. Wulff by one of the couple's four children.

Obviously he (Lemos) is a significant witness - in both the criminal and the civil cases, said the lawyer, Omar F. James.

James would not permit reporters to interview his 50-year-old client, who was being held in the Yolo County Jail.

James said he learned of Lemos' alleged encounter with Dolores Wulff in late 1984 in a report prepared in 1981 after Lemos notified the sheriff's department.

The missing woman's brother, Frank Rocha, a Woodland hay farmer who helped pressure authorities to prosecute Carl L. Wulff, said he had never heard of Lemos. It sounds like fabrication to me, Rocha said Monday.

The documents included a transcript of a Jan. 10, 1985, phone conversation. James, who declined to reveal where Lemos lives, said the interview took place after a private investigator located the man.

James: Did you try to talk to Dolores at all?

Lemos: No. I was surprised to see her there. I was concentrating on these vitamins I was looking at.

During the interview, Lemos speculated that blood - believed to be Dolores Wulff's - found in one of the couple's car trunks could have been planted by the missing woman as part of a dirty trick.

Another court document on file in the wrongful death suit suggested that Dolores Wulff hinted to a woman friend the night she disappeared that they run away.

Another woman friend said Dolores Wulff told her she would like to run away from Carl Wulff once the children were old enough. She also said that she would not notify her relatives if she did run away, because they would tell Carl Wulff where she went, according to court records.

This friend said the missing woman once asked her how to acquire a fake driver's license or I.D., according to court records.

Also filed with the court Monday was a declaration by Carl L. Wulff alleging that since his wife disappeared, her family has subjected him to threatening and annoying telephone calls.

Since that time, according to Wulff's declaration, his automobile and home have been vandalized, including broken windows, painted graffiti, numerous lawn holes and tire tracks, dead animals Additionally, (the family's) suspicions regarding the alleged murder of my wife have been posted throughout the area in the form of spray-painted graffiti and crude signs.

James contended that Lemos' reported sighting of Dolores Wulff renders meaningless her family's suspicions that she was murdered by her husband.

Though Dolores Wulff's body was never found, that does not mean we can't prove death, District Attorney David Henderson said Monday.

We've done a lot of research, he said, and found that virtually every county in California has - at one time or another - prosecuted homicide cases where no body has been discovered.

Henderson declined to say what - if any - new evidence detectives have turned up since the original investigation in 1979.

Henderson, who became district attorney last year, also declined to speculate on why criminal charges weren't filed until 5 1/2 years after Dolores Wulff's disappearance.

 

[Steph54]

DEATH CASE IS DELAYED JAILED SUSPECT SEEKS NEW LAWYER
Sacramento Bee, March 13, 1985

Criminal proceedings against a former Woodland insurance man accused of murdering his wife 5 1/2 years ago were postponed for a week Tuesday so he can obtain a new lawyer.

Visiting Superior Court Judge Wayne Wylie ordered authorities to give 50-year-old Carl L. Wulff access to Yolo County Jail telephones while he seeks a criminal defense attorney.

Wulff was arrested Friday after the county grand jury indicted him on a charge of murdering his wife, Dolores, 45, a Woodland High School secretary, who disappeared July 31, 1979. Her body was never found.

Wulff, who is being held in lieu of $400,000 bail, asked the court to either release him on his own recognizance or reduce bail. The judge said he would rule on that motion when proceedings resume March 19.

Wulff was represented Tuesday by Omar F. James, a Sacramento lawyer who specializes in civil litigation. James represents Wulff in a wrongful death suit brought by one of the couple's four children.

Outside the Woodland courtroom Tuesday, James reiterated his belief that Dolores Wulff is still alive. I base this on 16 depositions taken in the (wrongful death) case, he said.

His comments came after reporters asked him about legal documents he filed Monday in Yolo County Superior Court contending that the alleged victim was seen alive in 1981 - about 18 months after she disappeared from her rural Woodland home.

The documents say that Manuel Lemos, who had known Dolores Wulff for 30 years, saw her shopping in Fairfield in 1981.

James told reporters the Yolo County sheriff's report of Lemos' alleged encounter has been on file for four years - but he doesn't know if sheriff's investigators have pursued it.

His statement speaks for itself, James said. The witness was available. The police report was available to the district attorney's office (but) nobody's been in contact with Mr. Lemos since I was (in January).

District Attorney David C. Henderson declined to comment on the evidence against Wulff, but said the prosecution's case would become clear when the transcript of the March 2 grand jury proceedings is unsealed - perhaps as early as next week.

 

[KateB]

NamUs: https://findthemissing.org/en/cases/18177

 

[Lavender Moon]

Bumping

 

[Gardener1850]

Delores Wulff vanished in the middle of the night from her rural home in Yolo County, about 20 miles west of Sacramento, CA, on July 31, 1979.

Dolores Wulff 's personal items an car were left at home.


https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/18177/

 

[Lavender Moon]

Bumping for Dolores Wulff

 

[Richard]

Missing for 39 years...

 

[sluethermac]

Unidentified Person Case

Could this be her???

 

[sunnynz]

Oh my goodness, that is a great find! Please tell me you submitted this? It all matches.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Bumping for Dolores as this week marks 41 years since she disappeared.

 

[Al Ka]

Benicia police solves identity of torso found in 1979 through DNA match

Benicia Police Department announced on Thursday that they have positively identified a torso that washed up on the shoreline 41 years ago.

Police say the case reopened in July this year when the Doe Network contacted Solano County Coroner’s Office and suggested a body found in 1979 might have been matched with an identity. Detectives determined that was not the case, and that the identity was not related to the torso.

However, a persistent sergeant expanded the search of missing women from 1979 from the areas of Sacramento to San Francisco.

Based on Benicia detective Sgt. Kenneth Hart’s findings, 11 results returned similar, but one stood out in the case of Dolores Wulff.

Wulff went missing on the night of July 31, 1979 from her home in Woodland in Yolo County. At the time, her husband was considered a suspect and arrested, but ultimately the case was dismissed for a lack of evidence. Her husband died in 2005.
---
Investigators, with cooperation from Solano County Sheriff’s Office, determined the DNA was a match with the exhumed body found in 1979.

Confirmation came from the Department of Justice’s DNA lab this week that the femur bone from the partial recovered body was in fact that of Dolores Wulff’s.

Benicia police solves identity of torso found in 1979 through DNA match
Body Found In 1979 Identified As Missing Woman: Benicia Police

 

[JudgeJoe]

Benicia police solves identity of torso found in 1979 through DNA match

Benicia Police Department announced on Thursday that they have positively identified a torso that washed up on the shoreline 41 years ago.

Police say the case reopened in July this year when the Doe Network contacted Solano County Coroner’s Office and suggested a body found in 1979 might have been matched with an identity. Detectives determined that was not the case, and that the identity was not related to the torso.

However, a persistent sergeant expanded the search of missing women from 1979 from the areas of Sacramento to San Francisco.

Based on Benicia detective Sgt. Kenneth Hart’s findings, 11 results returned similar, but one stood out in the case of Dolores Wulff.

Wulff went missing on the night of July 31, 1979 from her home in Woodland in Yolo County. At the time, her husband was considered a suspect and arrested, but ultimately the case was dismissed for a lack of evidence. Her husband died in 2005.
---
Investigators, with cooperation from Solano County Sheriff’s Office, determined the DNA was a match with the exhumed body found in 1979.

Confirmation came from the Department of Justice’s DNA lab this week that the femur bone from the partial recovered body was in fact that of Dolores Wulff’s.

Benicia police solves identity of torso found in 1979 through DNA match
Body Found In 1979 Identified As Missing Woman: Benicia Police

Wow! So impressed with persistance of LE and dna advances. Does DW still have living relatives who can feel good about the closure of this? And give her a proper resting spot?

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Wow! So impressed with persistance of LE and dna advances. Does DW still have living relatives who can feel good about the closure of this? And give her a proper resting spot?

It mentions in the article that she has children, so yes.

 

[Sevilla]

Law enforcement has now identified a body pulled from the water on September 17, 1979 as being that of Dolores Wulff.

It's a pretty quick drive from her home in Yolo County to where her torso was found, and it better explains why her blood, some of her hair, an earring, and her palm print were all found in the trunk of her husband's car.

Dolores Wulff
Missing since July 31, 1979 from Woodland, Yolo County, California
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics
Age at Time of Disappearance: 45 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Dark hair.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Delores Wulff was a popular, outgoing secretary at Woodland High School when she vanished in the middle of the night from her rural home in Yolo County, an agricultural area tucked off the interstate about 20 miles west of Sacramento, CA, on July 31, 1979.

Police immediately looked at her husband who was the only person with her that night, as the prime suspect. Carl Wulff denied harming his wife, but refused a polygraph. He told detectives she left home the night their sons were staying at the nearby house of her brother.

All her clothes, her car was there and medication was left in her home. Investigators said they found traces of her blood, an earring, a strand of hair and a palm print in the trunk of Carl Wulff Sr.'s car. That discovery led detectives to hire a private plane with heat-detection equipment to search for a body.

After eight years of investigation the case was finally brought to trial. But the Judge dismissed the case in 1985, ruling that too much time had elapsed from the time of Dolores' disappearance, violating the husband's right to a fair and speedy trial.

Carl Wulff died in San Diego in 2005 at the age 70. He never admitted to anything. Foul play is suspected.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Yolo County Sheriff's Office
530-668-5213

Source Information:
The Daily Democrat
The Spokesman Review
Doe Network case 2477dfca

LINK:

2477DFCA - Dolores Wulff