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

[GatorsNorth]

Thank you for your posts, @Richard. Today I intend to go back to the beginning of the thread and re-read the entire thing.

 

[GatorsNorth]

Okay, so going back over the thread, my instinct is that Dickie was killed by a family member (most likely Mathias) and buried somewhere. I just can’t believe that Dickie would sleep through an alarm (if that’s even true) since he was so excited to be going hunting. MOO

 

[Pressureandheat]

Okay, so going back over the thread, my instinct is that Dickie was killed by a family member (most likely Mathias) and buried somewhere. I just can’t believe that Dickie would sleep through an alarm (if that’s even true) since he was so excited to be going hunting. MOO

That and also sleeping through 3 teen boys knocking on the door. Teen boys are not quiet and that house was small. I don’t know how anyone could have slept through both the alarm and knocks on the door.

The question still lingers: did anyone (other than his parents) actually see him after he returned to the tavern Friday night? I believe his sister Ann gave a statement for the recent interview that she remembers him asking to use her bike. That would insinuate he was alive Saturday morning. But my experience leaves me to wonder with the girls being so young what they actually remember vs what they were told by their parents to remember… meaning, they could have easily been told on Friday night that Dickie was still out and the girls went to bed. Or that he had taken Anns bike and already left to go hunting Saturday morning when they got up. So that’s what they remember. Wouldn’t have been any reason to question such a basic explanation.

But then again, maybe Ann did see Dickie that Saturday morning before he rode off at sunrise.
It just makes the whole case that much more confusing….

 

[GracefulD1an]

Reading this case I do think the father killed Dickie (possibly in a drunken haze) and created this whole story to hide the truth and not face up to the fact that his alcoholism was a danger to not only himself but his family. Question is what did he do with the body if he is responsible for Dickie’s death?

 

[GatorsNorth]

Reading this case I do think the father killed Dickie (possibly in a drunken haze) and created this whole story to hide the truth and not face up to the fact that his alcoholism was a danger to not only himself but his family. Question is what did he do with the body if he is responsible for Dickie’s death?

Another poster mentioned upthread that Mathias had access to digging equipment and private land. MOO

 

[Richard]

This case was never officially solved or closed by the Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office. It is still in their jurisdiction and should be considered active.

The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension (BCA) is fully aware of it and has all of the press articles about it, as well as current contact information for family members and others mentioned in this thread. They have stated their willingness to assist the Sheriff with any investigation.

The BCA controls the listing of missing person cases on the Minnesota Missing Persons Clearinghouse website. Hopefully they will include Dickie Huerkamp on that site, since he is still missing.

 

[GracefulD1an]

Another poster mentioned upthread that Mathias had access to digging equipment and private land. MOO

Huh…so it is matter of going through each and every plot of land owned by Mathias. OK…that’ll be a bit of a hassle due to ownership transfers but why not? Dickie’s family deserves closure.

 

[GatorsNorth]

Huh…so it is matter of going through each and every plot of land owned by Mathias. OK…that’ll be a bit of a hassle due to ownership transfers but why not? Dickie’s family deserves closure.

I have no idea how to do this, but I would be glad to help!

 

[Pressureandheat]

So Kriengel Brothers construction were putting in tiling ditches all around main street of Mapleton in Oct 1965. Mathias worked for them and had access to all their equipment. Given they lived across from the tavern and it was all right down by main street the rumors have always been that coverup would have been easy. The family farm people refer to is just north of Mapleton and there have been relatives (not Dickie’s sisters) that have stated they felt the farm should have been searched. They even reached out to a ground penetrating radar company years ago but I believe it was too expensive. I believe Ann has lived in that farm for years now but recently put it up for sale or sold it as she was building a new house in town. I know in speaking with the journalist that wrote the recent article on Dickie’s disappearance stated that his sisters always thought his case was still open and found it disappointing to hear that it hadn’t been. I believe Ann gave a dna swab in case anything ever is found. Whats frustrating is that due to him not being listed all these years as missing, remains could have been found anywhere and it would have never been traced back to Dickie. Every year we are losing more of the friends and family that know of Dickie’s life and his disappearance. He deserves to be found and he deserves to be remembered. So I hope they finally list him.

 

[GracefulD1an]

So Kriengel Brothers construction were putting in tiling ditches all around main street of Mapleton in Oct 1965. Mathias worked for them and had access to all their equipment. Given they lived across from the tavern and it was all right down by main street the rumors have always been that coverup would have been easy. The family farm people refer to is just north of Mapleton and there have been relatives (not Dickie’s sisters) that have stated they felt the farm should have been searched. They even reached out to a ground penetrating radar company years ago but I believe it was too expensive. I believe Ann has lived in that farm for years now but recently put it up for sale or sold it as she was building a new house in town. I know in speaking with the journalist that wrote the recent article on Dickie’s disappearance stated that his sisters always thought his case was still open and found it disappointing to hear that it hadn’t been. I believe Ann gave a dna swab in case anything ever is found. Whats frustrating is that due to him not being listed all these years as missing, remains could have been found anywhere and it would have never been traced back to Dickie. Every year we are losing more of the friends and family that know of Dickie’s life and his disappearance. He deserves to be found and he deserves to be remembered. So I hope they finally list him.

Good starting point then. If enough money can be raised for the right equipment and the right papers are issued then the authorities (led by the person who is keeping the torch lit to use a literary term) can start searching. If any bodies are found then genetic genealogy can be done to see if they are part of the family which would hopefully lead to Dickie being identified. And hopefully he’ll be listed sometime in the near future.

 

[Richard]

B-flat Clarinet

It is stated in the description of the Richard Huerkamp Music Scholarship that Dickie played clarinet in his high school band. It is also mentioned in the recent 60-year anniversary article by Steven Shute that he and his family attended a high school football game the evening prior to his disappearance. Did Dickie play in the band that evening at the game?

Maybe a small and insequential question, but can anyone confirm that a football game actually was played at Mapleton High School the evening of Friday 1 October 1965? And, if so did the school band perform at it?

The Maple River Messenger article stated that Dickie and his whole family attended a game the evening before his disappearance.

If that was the case, how was there time for Dickie to meet with and plan a goose hunt with so many different guys, visit the site of a car accident. Clean up the tavern, pack a lunch, gather his hunting gear, etc.?

Seems like an extremely busy evening.

 

[snooptroop88]

Maybe a small and insequential question, but can anyone confirm that a football game actually was played at Mapleton High School the evening of Friday 1 October 1965? And, if so did the school band perform at it?

The Maple River Messenger article stated that Dickie and his whole family attended a game the evening before his disappearance.

If that was the case, how was there time for Dickie to meet with and plan a goose hunt with so many different guys, visit the site of a car accident. Clean up the tavern, pack a lunch, gather his hunting gear, etc.?

Seems like an extremely busy evening.

Have been looking for the football schedule, it's going to be an uphill battle, that team's defunct now. I cannot even locate the team's name. As I was rereading some of the materials, though, did a double-take when I saw this:

Mmm. Looking up carnivals in the area where Dickie went missing. Carnival Corn on the Curb Days in LeSueur MN August 1965 about 45 mins from Mapleton... that year, they used a larger carnival company to attract a more adult crowd. I'm not saying this was "the" carnival mentioned with Dickie, but it's the one that came up for me closest both geographically and chronologically to Dickie's October disappearance, knowing this carnival would have occurred "weeks earlier." This was evidently a pretty big event, horse show in association with it.

MNHS Hub - Image Viewer

Digital access to the issues of the Minneapolis Tribune, Minneapolis Daily Tribune, Daily Minnesota Tribune, Minneapolis Morning Tribune published between 1867 and 1922.

newspapers.mnhs.org

As an added note here, would mention there's an MP, John Deeny 19yo 1973 from Janesville MN in Le Sueur County. Le Sueuer borders Blue Earth county to the north, based on what I'm reading. Janesville MN 30 mins to Mapleton.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Seeing there was a carnival at Forest Lake MN a couple of weeks prior to this MP's disappearance where the members of the White Bear Clown Club were going to be on hand. Forest Lake about an hour and a half to Janesville MN.

Any talk of a carnival reminds me of Beverly Potts, who went missing after attending Showagon traveling show in Cleveland in August 1951. She was 10 years old. Like Dickie, she hasn't been seen since. While there's a 14 year gap between disappearance of Beverly Potts versus Dickie, I am seeing three little boys, the Kleins, vanished November 10 of 1951 in Fairview Park MN. The Search for the Missing Klein Brothers
Note the weird parallels to Dickie in terms of the scene where the boys disappeared:

Daniel James Klein – The Charley Project

Fairview Park's about an hour and forty-five mins drive today to Mapleton. LE also assumed these boys drowned, but of the three boys that disappeared, no body was ever found, so the parents did not believe this. Seeing there was a winter carnival mentioned in the Rochester Post-Bulletin Nov 3 that drew about 1,000 people in Rochester's Hawthorne the week prior to the Klein boys' disappearance. Rochester/Hawthorne is also about an hour and a half from Fairview, where the Klein boys went missing. Rochester about an hour and a half from Mapleton.

Abductions do happen in conjunction with carnivals, it's a fact. They can occur where the perp's in the crowds, or they can occur because the perp is a carnival worker, an ex-carnival worker pled guilty in the Lyon sisters' case (this abduction was at a shopping center, NOT a carnival, but Welch traveled extensively in his role as a carnival worker, and the carnivals were often operated-- at shopping malls):

Person of Interest Named in Kidnapping of Lyon Sisters; Others Victims Sought

archives.fbi.gov

BEDFORD COUNTY, Va. — A one-time carnival worker accused in the 42-year-old unsolved disappearance of two young Maryland sisters pleaded guilty to charges of first-degree murder Tuesday, though he stopped short of admitting he killed them.

Lloyd Lee Welch Jr., 60, pleaded guilty to two counts of first-degree murder in the March 1975 kidnapping of Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10, of Kensington, Maryland. One of the most high-profile unsolved cases in the Washington, D.C. area, the girls’ disappearance baffled investigators for more than 40 years.

Ex-carnival worker pleads guilty to murder in 1975 abduction of Lyon sisters

<p>Lloyd Lee Welch Jr., 60, pleaded guilty in the March 1975 kidnapping of Sheila Lyon, 12, and Katherine Lyon, 10. The case went cold for more than 40 years.</p>

www.kiro7.com

And just updating this post to note the thread for Billy DeSousa, who'd been at a Chicago carnival in 1972, his body was found in a southwest suburb in 1975.

A

IL Thread 'IL - William 'Billy' DeSousa, 10, Chicago, 20 June 1972'

Nov 15, 2009

I have been lurking on this site for so long...so totally amazed and impressed with the knowledge you share and the good that you do. I've wanted to post this for so long but I have such little information....

I grew up on the south side of Chicago. I was born in 1963. Around 1972-73 or so, there was a traveling carnival in the Scottsdale neighborhood--this would have been around 87th & Cicero for those of you who know the Chicago area.

A young boy, I believe his name was Billy, went to the carnival with his family, got separated, and disappeared. He was either never found or was...

• alexmia
• Replies: 30
• Forum: Cold Cases

• 

 

[Pressureandheat]

Maybe a small and insequential question, but can anyone confirm that a football game actually was played at Mapleton High School the evening of Friday 1 October 1965? And, if so did the school band perform at it?

The Maple River Messenger article stated that Dickie and his whole family attended a game the evening before his disappearance.

If that was the case, how was there time for Dickie to meet with and plan a goose hunt with so many different guys, visit the site of a car accident. Clean up the tavern, pack a lunch, gather his hunting gear, etc.?

Seems like an extremely busy evening.

The football team was the Mapleton Scots. The football field was on the west side of Mapleton, not near the school. It’s where the Maple River softball fields are. The 1965/66 annuals do not give dates or info on the football games so I have a call into the museum to see if they have a record.

Oddly, Dickie isn’t in the band photo and isn’t listed as a member. But he went missing early in the school year, so that could be why he’s not in the photo. I was told the band only played for home games. They didn’t travel back then. Will try and confirm the game, that it was a home game and if the band played.

Has anyone found any info on if there truly was a car accident that night? That def would have made Mapleton news if there was one because it would mean the rescue squad and/or fire department was called out & that was always news worthy.

 

[Richard]

Probably the most likely place to find the 1965 Mapleton High School football schedule is in the 1966 yearbook. Dickie played clarinet in the Mapleton HS Band. Was he playing in the band that Friday evening?

I don't think a PTA " carnival" with only 1,000 folks attending is anything at all like the county fair or circus type carnivals. It is interesting that Dickie might have interacted with a young carnival worker a month or more before he disappeared but it is probably not connected to the disappearance.

 

[Richard]

The football team was the Mapleton Scots. The football field was on the west side of Mapleton, not near the school. It’s where the Maple River softball fields are. The 1965/66 annuals do not give dates or info on the football games so I have a call into the museum to see if they have a record.

Oddly, Dickie isn’t in the band photo and isn’t listed as a member. But he went missing early in the school year, so that could be why he’s not in the photo. I was told the band only played for home games. They didn’t travel back then. Will try and confirm the game, that it was a home game and if the band played.

Has anyone found any info on if there truly was a car accident that night? That def would have made Mapleton news if there was one because it would mean the rescue squad and/or fire department was called out & that was always news worthy.

It would help in understanding the sequence of events to know some of these things. What might seem minor or unimportant could confirm or refute other information reported.

There is almost too much information available concerning Dickie Friday evening, and then almost nothing from dawn
Saturday morning on.

 

[Richard]

The football team was the Mapleton Scots. The football field was on the west side of Mapleton, not near the school. It’s where the Maple River softball fields are. The 1965/66 annuals do not give dates or info on the football games so I have a call into the museum to see if they have a record.

Oddly, Dickie isn’t in the band photo and isn’t listed as a member. But he went missing early in the school year, so that could be why he’s not in the photo. I was told the band only played for home games. They didn’t travel back then. Will try and confirm the game, that it was a home game and if the band played.

Has anyone found any info on if there truly was a car accident that night? That def would have made Mapleton news if there was one because it would mean the rescue squad and/or fire department was called out & that was always news worthy.

The microfilm files or bound editions of the local news paper ( if such records exist) might have stories on football games or car accidents in October 1965. There might also be some detailed reporting on Dickie's disappearance.

Today's on-line searching has turned up a lot of information on this old case as seen here in these threads. But it is very likely that more material exists in libraries or various files which has yet to make it to the internet.

 

[snooptroop88]

The football team was the Mapleton Scots. The football field was on the west side of Mapleton, not near the school. It’s where the Maple River softball fields are. The 1965/66 annuals do not give dates or info on the football games so I have a call into the museum to see if they have a record.

Oddly, Dickie isn’t in the band photo and isn’t listed as a member. But he went missing early in the school year, so that could be why he’s not in the photo. I was told the band only played for home games. They didn’t travel back then. Will try and confirm the game, that it was a home game and if the band played.

Has anyone found any info on if there truly was a car accident that night? That def would have made Mapleton news if there was one because it would mean the rescue squad and/or fire department was called out & that was always news worthy.

Much thanks on this, I saw the Scots mentioned. So glad I was at least somewhat on the right track. But I also saw the Falcons because certain sources were confusing Mapletons (think they were talking about a team in Mapleton North Dakota with the Falcons).

Am glad you have contacted the museum about the game/schedule, and my guess is that piece of info will be confirmed, but it's guess only at this point.

Probably the most likely place to find the 1965 Mapleton High School football schedule is in the 1966 yearbook. Dickie played clarinet in the Mapleton HS Band. Was he playing in the band that Friday evening?

I don't think a PTA " carnival" with only 1,000 folks attending is anything at all like the county fair or circus type carnivals. It is interesting that Dickie might have interacted with a young carnival worker a month or more before he disappeared but it is probably not connected to the disappearance.

Continue to fear abduction in Dickie's case, but agree it doesn't seem likely someone from a carnival with weeks having passed since the event. I don't know, though, I still find it strange anything "carnival" is popping up in terms of the article at all. No matter what, carnivals of any kind can potentially bring travelers, but totally agreed that's true with some carnivals a lot, lot more so than others. And agreed, this Rochester event sounds like... no midway. But the population of Rochester MN was about 30,000 in 1951. So this event drew 1,000 people, that's pretty impressive. Adjusted for inflation, I think they made what would be about $7,000 today.

There's a campground quite close to where Dickie went missing, right? Daly Park & Campground. I wonder if that place was there back in the day & what it was like. I can find current reviews, it seems like a tranquil, pretty place, and a nice campground setup. Of note, the Beatles had played at Metropolitan Stadium (now Mall of America) in Bloomington (just outside Minneapolis) towards end of August that year.

I believe Dickie's sister when she says Dickie asked to borrow that bike, and I believe her when she says she found it unusual he asked because he usually rode it without asking. And am wondering why he'd have asked that particular day. Had Dickie been accused recently of taking something he shouldn't have taken... been chastised for taking something without permission by someone? Questioned about ownership of some item?

Was the point where Dickie's bike was found like a full half hour ride on the bike? When I look at maps, that appears to be the case, but I'm not local. But if so, that's a long way to go on a bike out in a pretty rural area. Even if "busy" by rural standards, I'm guessing you could be on that road without a soul other than yourself.

 

[STLBlues]

Maybe the carnival wasn't your typical carnival. When I was in grade school, my school had a carnival every year. But, this carnival was to raise money for the PTO. It was put on by the PTO and mostly run by those PTO members. I remember a cake walk (cakes donated by kids' moms), and other games. We purchased tickets (of which the proceeds went to the PTO) in order to participate in the various games.

 

[Richard]

I think that the first mention of a possible "carnival" or "circus" connection to this case was as wild speculation in an old newspaper article. The context was NOT that a carnival worker might have abducted Dickie but rather that he might at some time (months earlier) have met a boy who had run away from home and took up with a carnival - and that maybe Dickie had chosen to likewise run away from home. Not the most likely scenario for many reasons.

By all accounts (his parents, sisters, and five different potential hunting buddies) it was Dickie's expressed intention to go goose hunting that Saturday morning.

The bicycle, packed lunch, and extra shells were all found 4 miles south of town in an area (or on the route to an area) Dickie had hunted before.

What isn't clear is where exactly Dickie planned to hunt. His mother assumed it would be at the Heally farm. Chuck Heally recently stated that he had expected to hunt with Dickie that morning, but that he never arrived. The bicycle and supplies were found at the side of the road between the Huerkamp home in town and the Heally farm.

What did the three other hunting buddies (McGregor, Johnson, and Fitzgerald) tell investigators? They admitted to going to Dickie's house to get him, but that they then drove north to a park near Mankato to hunt squirrels. Did they go first to an area south of town? Where did they all originally plan to hunt geese? Was it at or near the Heally farm?

Dickie was reportedly very upset (crying) about missing his ride with the three guys. He evidently wanted very much to hunt with others, rather than simply hunt alone. Was it his plan to find the other guys at a pre planned place? Had he called Chuck Heally to make alternate hunting arrangements?

 

[GatorsNorth]

I am still going over this case with a fine-toothed comb.

Whatever happened (and I am still side-eyeing the parents), I’m glad that Dickie’s case is getting the attention it needs.