MN MN - Richard John ‘Dickie’ Huerkamp, 15, Mapleton, 2 Oct 1965

[Richard]

Bumping thread up.

 

[Richard]

Loyola Catholic School offers a scholarship called the Richard Huerkamp Memorial Fund to students who participate in the Loyola band or choir and demonstrate financial need.

The scholarship description states that Dickie served as an altar boy in his Catholic church, and also played clarinet in his school band.

 

[Brightchaser47]

Loyola Catholic School offers a scholarship called the Richard Huerkamp Memorial Fund to students who participate in the Loyola band or choir and demonstrate financial need.

The scholarship description states that Dickie served as an altar boy in his Catholic church, and also played clarinet in his school band.

Obviously folks thought highly of him. If he was indeed accidentally shot by one of his would-be hunting buddies, someone has been carrying an awful weight around all these years. I wonder if they were to be interviewed now, whether there would be a confession.

 

[Richard]

Obviously folks thought highly of him. If he was indeed accidentally shot by one of his would-be hunting buddies, someone has been carrying an awful weight around all these years. I wonder if they were to be interviewed now, whether there would be a confession.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is now investigating this as an open case, in conjunction with the Blue Earth County Sherrif's Office.

The possibility of a hunting accident will likely be considered, along with other theories regarding Dickie's disappearance.

Two of the three high school boys who planned to hunt with Dickie that morning in 1965 are still living in Minnesota. They are now in their 70's. Perhaps they can shed some light on this old case.

 

[Richard]

RICHARD JOHN ‘DICKIE’ HUERKAMP, age 15
Missing since 2 October 1965 from Mapleton, Blue Earth County, Minnesota
Sex: Male
Race: White
Date of Birth: September 1, 1950
Height: 4’9”
Weight: 78 pounds
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Brown
Clothing: Grey coveralls, a red shirt, blue jeans, a hunting cap and hunting boots with high buckles. He was carrying a 12-gauge shotgun that hasn’t been found.

 

[Richard]

It would seem that the bicycle, lunch, and other items were most likely planted where they were easily found, in an attempt to mislead searchers.

 

[Richard]

...

LINK:

Administrative Services - Minnesota Missing and Unidentified Persons Clearinghouse

dps.mn.gov

Minnesota's Clearinghouse for Missing and Unidentified Persons has photos for 106 cases.

For some reason there are some cases NOT included on their website.

Dickie Huerkamp's disappearance from Mapleton is not in their list of cases. Another is the 1944 Disappearance of Jackie Theel from Paynesville.

 

[Richard]

LINK:

Richard Huerkamp

Clipping found in The Minneapolis Star published in Minneapolis, Minnesota on 3/9/1966. Richard Huerkamp

www.bing.com

 

[Richard]

Dickie Huerkamp went missing on 2 October 1965. A large search effort was conducted, with no success in locating him, or in determining his fate. A new initiative has been started to look into the case by the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA), in conjunction with the Blue Earth Sheriff Department.

Below is a link to the Minnesota Missing Persons Clearinghouse website. Note, however, that Dickie's case and photo have not yet been added:

Administrative Services - Minnesota Missing and Unidentified Persons Clearinghouse

dps.mn.gov

 

[Bunny1998#]

Loyola Catholic School offers a scholarship called the Richard Huerkamp Memorial Fund to students who participate in the Loyola band or choir and demonstrate financial need.

The scholarship description states that Dickie served as an altar boy in his Catholic church, and also played clarinet in his school band.

I just registered for this site. I lived a few blocks away from the Huerkamps. I remember Dickie as a loner. He rode his bike around the neighborhood alone, and we never saw him playing with friends. One might consider him a Special Needs child. My Mother always thought he was in a abusive family. My gut feeling is someone in the family knows what happened. I pray it is solved some day.

 

[Richard]

I just registered for this site. I lived a few blocks away from the Huerkamps. I remember Dickie as a loner. He rode his bike around the neighborhood alone, and we never saw him playing with friends. One might consider him a Special Needs child. My Mother always thought he was in a abusive family. My gut feeling is someone in the family knows what happened. I pray it is solved some day.

Welcome to Websleuths and to this thread about Dickie Huerkamp. It is good to have someone posting here who actually knew him and the community in which he lived.

Your having seen him often riding his bicycle explains why he rode off on a bicycle just prior to going missing. It was obviously his usual way of traveling. The fact that he had to borrow his sisters bike (according to newspaper accounts) probably meant that his own bike had a flat tire or was in some way mechanically impaired. He was certainly persistent in his efforts to go hunting with his friends.

If, in fact, he was a "special needs child", it might have been because he was emotionally disabled to some extent. His mother's comments about him crying when he overslept and missed the car ride with the other boys has been commented on, as well as her having given him "a licking" for arriving home late the night before. He may have been somewhat underdeveloped/delayed behaviorly as well as physically, since he was 15 years old, yet her comments sound like she is describing a much younger child.

While investigators should definitely pursue the possibility of Dickie coming to harm from a family member, the family's story about him preparing for hunting, making a lunch, borrowing a bicycle from his sister, etc. tends to have been somewhat verified by the other boys he wanted to hunt with.

There were, however, some inconsistencies and open questions which need to be checked into and resolved.