In 1966, a Menomonee Falls secretary was stabbed more than 100 times. Her murder has never been solved.
Multiple stab wounds
“Diane died of massive hemorrhaging due to multiple stab wounds to the chest, neck and head, according to James Welch, the Waukesha County coroner at the time.
She had been stabbed 106 times with a knife that likely had a 3½-inch blade with one cutting edge.
The wounds measured from one-half to three-quarters of an inch wide and from 2¼ to 3¾ inches deep.
She had at least 30 stab wounds in her head, neck and face, and 35 in rows down the sides of her back, where she had been stabbed repeatedly while on her stomach.
There were defensive wounds on her arms and the back of her hands. Her nose had been broken.
Diane was found with her knit dress pulled up between her legs and partly off her shoulders but her undergarments undisturbed. She had not been sexually assaulted, Welch determined.”
Diane fought like hell. This was a personal/targeted attack. After she was defenseless and on her stomach the perp proceeded to stab her over and over and over. I believe he started to sexually assault her, then was scared off by a noise- a phone ringing, perhaps? Agree with LE, this was someone that either worked at the facility or was just familiar with the layout and her being alone at closing time. Not an opportunistic killing IMO, this was an advance-turned-down murder. Would be interesting to see the DNA tested with today’s technology, especially compared to the prime suspect, the owners son:
“Diane’s family and close friends pointed police toward one person in particular, her employer’s son, whose unwanted advances had frightened Diane.
“She was terrified of him,” her sister Patti said. “He obviously was attracted to her and had been bugging her to go out with him. And she just didn’t want anything to do with him.”
Police questioned the employer’s son extensively, but he had an alibi as well. He said he had been with family members at the time of the killing. His family backed him up.
It wasn’t long before leads began to dry up. The evidence sent to the FBI didn’t result in any break in the case. Police were forced to move on to other crimes.
Weeks turned to months and months to years, and Diane’s unsolved murder hung like a dark cloud over the department.
“The case was always on the minds of anybody who worked there,” Schramm said.
DNA profile created
The advent of DNA technology in the 1990s gave Diane’s family and police renewed hope her case could be solved.
A DNA profile was created from evidence found at the crime scene and entered into CODIS, the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System that looks for matches with convicted offenders.
Despite the millions of profiles in CODIS, a match was not obtained.
Police tracked down early suspects to gather DNA samples, but again there were no matches.
The one suspect they were most interested in getting a sample from — the employer’s son — had died in 1991. Despite his alibi, his obsession with Diane had always made him the prime suspect in the eyes of the police. Unfortunately, his body had been cremated and the whereabouts of his remains were unknown.
Police sought and received a court order to exhume the bodies of his parents to obtain DNA samples for comparison with the crime scene profile. Again there was no match.”
MOO IMO
