Cold Cases in Wisconsin
ColdCaseIndex documents 10 cases in Wisconsin, dated 1953 to 2024. 5 are recorded as unsolved. The earliest is Evelyn Hartley (1953) and the most recent is Elijah Vue (2024).
- Unsolved 5 (50%)
- Charges or trial pending 1 (10%)
- Solved or convicted 4 (40%)
Homicide clearance in Wisconsin, 1965 to 2024
A homicide is "cleared" when police make an arrest or close it by exceptional means, so an uncleared case is not always an unsolved one. Source: Murder Accountability Project analysis of FBI Uniform Crime Report data, as published by Project: Cold Case. These are statewide totals and are separate from the ColdCaseIndex entries listed below.
By type
All Wisconsin cases
Elijah Vue
Three-year-old Elijah Vue was reported missing from Two Rivers, Wisconsin, on February 20, 2024, and his remains were found in a wooded area on September 7, 2024.
Jayme Closs
Thirteen-year-old Jayme Closs was kidnapped after her parents were murdered in Barron, Wisconsin. She escaped 88 days later. Jake Patterson was sentenced to life in prison.
Kayla Berg
Kayla Berg, a 15-year-old from Antigo, Wisconsin, vanished on August 11, 2009, after an acquaintance said he dropped her off at a boyfriend's house in Wausau.
Teresa Halbach
Freelance photographer Teresa Halbach disappeared after photographing a vehicle at the Avery Salvage Yard. Her remains were found on the property. Steven Avery and his nephew Brendan Dassey were both convicted of murder.
Alexis Patterson
Seven-year-old Alexis Patterson vanished on the morning of May 3, 2002, after her stepfather walked her toward Hi-Mount Community School in Milwaukee, a short distance from her home. She never reached her classroom.
Peggy Lynn Johnson (Racine County Jane Doe)
The battered body of a young woman was found in a cornfield in Raymond, Racine County, Wisconsin, in July 1999, and she was known only as "Racine County Jane Doe" for two decades.
Vernon County Jane Doe
On May 4, 1984, three teenagers found the body of an unidentified middle-aged woman beside a rural road near Westby, Wisconsin. She had been beaten to death and both of her hands had been removed, apparently to prevent…
Jeffrey Dahmer Victims
Jeffrey Dahmer murdered 17 young men and boys in Wisconsin and Ohio, engaging in necrophilia and cannibalism. He was convicted of 15 murders in Wisconsin and sentenced to 15 life terms.
Lisa Christine Staes
On January 24, 1976, a fisherman found the nude, frozen body of a young woman under the Mirror Lake Road bridge near Lake Delton in Sauk County, Wisconsin.
Evelyn Hartley
Fifteen-year-old babysitter Evelyn Hartley was abducted from a La Crosse, Wisconsin home while watching a professor's daughter. Blood, a shoe, and her broken glasses were found at the scene.