In 1953, This Wisconsin Teen Left For A Babysitting Gig And Vanished, And Then Her Broken Glasses, As Well As Her Shoes, Were Later Found
In 1953, Evelyn Grace Hartley was a 15-year-old sophomore attending Central High School in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Her mother, Ethel, was a stay-at-home mom; meanwhile, her father, Richard, was a professor of biology at La Crosse State College.
And on the evening of October 24, 1953, Evelyn was asked to babysit a 20-month-old baby for another college professor named Viggo Rasmusen.
So, the 15-year-old headed out, wearing a white blouse, red jeans, white bobby socks, and her glasses.
Evelyn was not new to babysitting and would usually phone her parents to check in during her gigs. That night, though, she did not call home, and after some time passed, her father began to worry.
Richard eventually decided to call Rasmusen’s home phone himself but ultimately received no answer. So, he decided to drive to the residence to check in on his daughter.
Upon arrival, Richard realized that the home was locked. This forced him to repeatedly knock on the front door to get his daughter’s attention, but she never came to the door.
Puzzled, he began to look around the property. And after a few minutes, Richard realized a basement window had been left open– allowing him to climb inside the house.
To his complete surprise, though, he realized his daughter was not there. No one else was, either. Instead, only the Rasmusen’s baby was home– sleeping in an upstairs bedroom.
Upon making this discovery, Richard immediately contacted the police. Then, once officers arrived and searched the home, they found Evelyn’s broken glasses and one of her shoes.
The Doe Network – pictured above is Evelyn
Later, the teen’s other shoe was discovered as well. But it had been in a separate part of the house, and there was blood inside.
Investigators subsequently launched a perimeter search, which uncovered bloody handprints on the garage and blood stains in the yard. Bloodhounds were then tasked with tracking the scent and ultimately brought the authorities back to the street.
This pushed the investigators to believe that Evelyn had been placed into a vehicle and driven away.
The theory prompted a widespread search effort to commence– with volunteers searching the town on foot while the Air Force, Civic Air Patrol, and National Guard combed the region from overhead.
Boaters also took to the waterways; meanwhile, countless high school and college students joined forces to look for Evelyn. So, within the days following the teen’s disappearance, over 2,000 community members helped search for Evelyn.
In the meantime, police instructed deer and squirrel hunters to remain alert. Farmers were also instructed to check their land for any freshly disturbed ground.
It was even announced that all vehicles would be checked for evidence. Authorities’ main goal was to ensure that the trunk and back seat of every car in the country would be inspected for blood stains.
So, the police printed 40,000 stickers that read, “MY CAR IS OK.” Then, after a police officer checked and cleared a vehicle, they would place the sticker on each car.
All gas station attendants were instructed to report suspicious vehicles, as well as the license plate numbers of any drivers who refused to have their cars searched.
During this time, Evelyn’s parents, Richard and Ethel, issued numerous pleas to the public– begging for any information or answers.
Shortly afterward, the parents received two phone calls from a man who wanted $500 in exchange for information about Evelyn. Authorities ultimately set up a trap for the caller, though, and they learned it was a 20-year-old named Jack Duffrin.
Jack had no information about Evelyn’s case, although he went to prison for attempted extortion.
And by the time one year had passed since the teen’s disappearance, Sheriff Robert Scullin believed the police department had questioned about 1,200 people. Detective Captain Leo Kihm, who led the investigation, claimed that the number was even higher– estimating about 3,500 interviews.
In spite of these diligent efforts, though, no concrete leads ever surfaced.
Eventually, the case was handed over to a La Crosse County criminal investigator named A.M. Josephson– who subsequently worked the case for years and focused on two specific pieces of evidence.
The first was a pair of tennis shoes that had been found off Highway 14, approximately 10 miles away from La Crosse. The shoes reportedly had a distinct tread on the bottom that would produce a specific pattern when pressed into the mud.
Investigators also found a chunk of dirt on the living room floor of the Rasmusen home, which matched the shoe tread pattern. Additionally, footprints with the same pattern were discovered outside the property.
The second piece of evidence was a denim jacket recovered near the tennis shoes. It had been stained with blood, leading investigators to believe it was connected to Evelyn’s disappearance.
The tennis shoes ultimately led Josephson to another lead, too– after he realized that the wear pattern on the soles was consistent with riding a Whizzer motorbike.
So, for months, he combed through sale records and receipts and even went so far as to hunt down past and present Whizzer motorbike owners. Unfortunately, though, these efforts never produced any suspects.
Instead, the tennis shoes and denim jacket were placed on display throughout the area in hopes of gaining information from anyone who recognized them. This led to even more tips flooding the police department, none of which ever amounted to concrete leads.
As time went on, though, most investigators came to believe that the two pieces of evidence were insignificant. Primarily because the jacket was a size small 36; meanwhile, the tennis shoes were a size large 11.
But, while these facts led most investigators to think the two clothing items were not connected, Josephson took it as a sign that two suspects were behind Evelyn’s disappearance.
He continued his search efforts but never uncovered any new information. By 1957, though, there was renewed hope in finally closing the teen’s case. That year, a killer named Ed Gein confessed to taking the lives of two women and making trophies out of human remains.
It was also uncovered that Gein had been visiting family members in La Crosse when Evelyn vanished– making him a suspect in the case. After authorities searched the killer’s property, though, no sign of Evelyn was ever discovered. Gein was also able to pass two separate polygraph tests and maintained that he was not involved in her case.
So, investigators eventually declared that he was not connected to Evelyn’s disappearance. And after the last investigative efforts fizzled out in 1959, her case tragically went cold.
As the years passed by, several people decided to come forward and confess to the crime. Authorities investigated every claim, though, and they were all determined to be false.
What happened on the evening of October 24, 1953, remains a mystery, and Evelyn’s case tragically remains unsolved.
If you have any information, you are urged to contact La Crosse Police Department at (608) 785-5962.
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