A Killer Emerges
Christine Rothschild entered the University of Wisconsin in 1967 after having graduated with honors from Senn High School in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents and three sisters lived in a modest home on Chicago’s North Side, where her father worked as president of a local brokerage firm. Christine enjoyed her classes and had hopes of becoming a journalist upon graduation. She was an attractive young woman, with long blondish-brown hair and often spent her summers modeling for department store catalogs.
Rothschild’s body was found
(David Lohr)
During spring of 1968, the weather was miserably cold and wet, but Christine kept upbeat by looking forward to a long awaited visit with her family in Chicago. Unfortunately fate intervened and 18-year-old Christine became the first victim of the Capital City serial killer. On a dreary May evening in 1968, a male student discovered her body hidden behind some shrubbery outside of Sterling Hall, a mathematics building located on North Carter Street. After going over the crime scene, investigators theorized that Christine had been killed early that morning while out jogging. The coroner ruled that she had died as a result of at least 12 stab wounds to the chest. As the summer wore on, investigators looked into several suspects, but none proved to be the killer. At one point they offered a $5,000 reward for information relating to the murder, but that also proved to be futile. With no new suspects, a murder weapon, or any leads to follow, the case was placed into a “cold case” folder.
A year after the bombing of the UW Administration Building, on August 24, 1970 Sterling Hall, the building next to the spot where Christine Rothschild’s body was found, was bombed and a 33-year-old researcher died as a result of the blast. Soon investigators had four suspects in the crime and federal warrants were issued at Madison charging four men with sabotage, destruction of government property, and conspiracy. Three of the four were later arrested and convicted of the bombing.
Bennett’s body was found
(David Lohr)
As the years went by most people forgot about Christine Rothschilds murder, and those few who hadn’t simply chalked it up as an anomaly a freak incident unlikely to occur again. And so it would be until July 21, 1976 when the charred and decomposed remains of 20-year-old Debra Bennett were discovered by land assessors in a gully along Old Sauk Pass Road, approximately 14 miles from Madison in Western Dane County.
An autopsy, conducted by Dr. Billy Bauman, revealed that Debra had been dead for at least 10 days, but the exact cause of death was unknown. A fractured collarbone and dental records had enabled her identification. Soon after her discovery, investigators learned from friends that she had recently been evicted from her apartment and had been staying in a room at the Cardinal Hotel in downtown Madison. A native of Ridgeway in Iowa County, Debra had only lived in the area a short time. Investigators had no suspects and very little evidence to go on. In a mysterious twist, three weeks after her body was found, the key to her room was mailed to the hotel. There was no note, return address, or any identifying marks. Investigators have yet to release the postmark information or the results of the examination they conducted for latent prints. As with Christine Rothschilds murder, the case was eventually filed away in a folder pending future leads.
Two years would pass until another brutal discovery rocked the area. It was once again a summer day on which another young woman was found in a shallow grave along Woodland Road in Waunakee, just 14 miles from the city of Madison. The victim had been dead for at least three days and had apparently died as a result of blunt force trauma to the head. It took investigators nearly two days to identify the body as that of 18-year-old Julie Ann Hall. According to Halls friends, just weeks earlier on May 1, 1978, Julie had secured a job as a library assistant on the university campus. She was last seen on a Friday night when she went out to a local pub, Main King Tap, a short distance from Madisons Capital Square. Again, there were no suspects and no evidence pointing towards the killer.
Ann Hall’s body was found
(David Lohr)
Ann Hall’s body was found
(David Lohr)
On March 27, 1979, 20-year-old Julie Speerschneider mysteriously vanished. According to witnesses, she had spent most of the evening at the 602 Club, a bar at 602 University Avenue, when she decided to hitchhike to a friends house. Shortly after her disappearance, a man told police that he had picked up Julie, who he had recognized from media reports, along with a male companion and dropped them off at the corner of Johnson and Brearly. The witness gave a description of the man to investigators, but they were unable to identify him. Julie had many friends and at the time of her disappearance worked at the Red Caboose Day Care Center, where coworkers described her as a reliable and friendly employee. Friends and relatives offered a reward for information and at one point consulted a psychic in hopes of locating her.
and the corner of Johnson and
Brearly where she disappeared
Susan LeMahieu’s body was found
(David Lohr)
In April 1980, Julie Speerschneider was still missing when the body of 24-year-old Susan LeMahieu was found lying in the weeds near the Madison Arboretum. A 1974 graduate of Madisons East High School, Susan was mildly retarded and physically handicapped. While she had been reported missing on Dec. 15, police did not initially suspect foul play and had considered the possibility that she had run off or was wandering around confused as a result of her disabilities. An autopsy determined that she had died as a result of multiple stab wounds to the chest.
Speerschneider’s body was found
(David Lohr)
One year after the discovery of Susan LeMahieu, on April 1981 Charles Byrd, 16, was hiking along the Yahara River when he came across the skeletal remains of Julie Speerschneider. Because of the decomposed state in which she was found, investigators were unable to determine an exact cause of death. Three months later in July 1981, the body of 17-year-old Shirley Stewart was found in a wooded area north of Madison. The youngest of all the victims, she had been missing since January 2, 1980, after leaving her job at the Dean Clinic. Shirleys body was very decomposed and Deputy Coroner Donald Scullion was unable to establish the exact cause of death
It was nearly a year before another young woman was mysteriously killed in the Madison area. On July 2, 1982, 19-year-old Donna Mraz was stabbed repeatedly behind Camp Randall Stadium. Mraz was on her way home from State Street, where she earned tuition money as a waitress. The killer left behind her money, paycheck, and keys, and there was no indication of sexual assault. Lt. Gary Moore of UW Police told WICS TV, She never regained consciousness. For all intents and purposes, the young lady was dead when she hit the ground.” With no witnesses or motive, investigators were again stumped.
Stadium where her body was found,
Body of Mraz being removed, crime
scene
(David Lohr)
The final murder in this series took place on Nov. 17, 1984. Deer hunters in the town of Buena Vista found the body of a partially clad young woman in a wooded area southeast of Highway 54. The body was eventually identified as that of 20-year-old Janet M. Raasch, a University of Wisconsin student. A business major in her third year at UW, Raasch had worked at the DeBot Center on campus. Friends had reported her missing on Oct. 15, but she was last seen on Oct. 11, 1984, when a friend dropped her off on Highway 54 in the town of Buena Vista, about two miles west of where her body was found. Decomposition made it difficult to determine the exact cause of death and the coroner was unable to pinpoint the time of death, saying she could have died a week to 10 days before her body was found.
her body
(Portage County Gazette)
In Dec 1999, Capt. James Lamar of the Sheriff’s Department Operations Division in Portage County, Wisconsin discussed the murder of Janet Raasch with the Portage County Gazette. There’s not much investigators can do right now without new information. Lamar said. An investigator has been assigned to the case, which is literally a box of paperwork. It’s considered an open case here … we do periodically review it. We truly feel we have exhausted everything available at the time but again it’s subject to review.”
Police WISCTV
Detective Harlan Hetrick of the UW Police Department gave an interview to WISCTV on May 10, 2002 regarding the murder of Donna Mraz, in which he stated that she was a decent person, honorable person, not a person with a problem, just enjoying going to school doing a good job.” During that same segment, former UW Police Lt. Gary Moore said, “It isn’t just a job, it becomes an obsession, in ways … everybody who worked the case felt the same way. This case, really it haunts you. It really shook me to my core, that’s for sure.”
Deputy Coroner David Scullion gave an interview to the Portage County Gazette in which he said, I personally feel there are several similarities. The patterns are wooded areas, off the road aways in concealed area(s).
It is also interesting to note that each victim was young, wore her hair long and parted it in the same manner eerily reminiscent of Ted Bundys victims and all of the victims were found within a short distance of Madison. In addition, they were all somehow associated with the University of Wisconsin either through classes, employment or living at a campus residence.
At one point in 1984, serial killer Henry Lee Lucas confessed to several of the killings, but later recanted those confessions. Many of the original investigators still feel Lucas was responsible for some of the murders, but given his track record for false confessions and the fact that Lucas was in prison at the times many of the murders were committed, it is very doubtful that Lucas was involved.
When a series of murders stops, police and citizens alike are very relieved. Its not always clear that the murders have really stopped and the killer is not just in some cooling-off period or is perhaps disposing of the victims in a way that their remains will not be found. What is probably called for is a an additional two-pronged investigation to determine from missing persons reports whether the killer may still be active and covering up the evidence of his crimes and, if he is not determined to be active, what may account for the murders ending in November of 1984. A review of local suspects and violent offenders incarcerated in the mid-1980s could shed some light on the reason the murders stopped when they did.