MN MN - Belinda VanLith, 17, Little Eagle Lake, 15 June 1974

Richard

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 14, 2004
Messages
11,427
Reaction score
18,784
Belinda VanLith
Missing since June 15, 1974 from Little Eagle Lake, Wright County, Minnesota
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: May 20, 1957
Age at Time of Disappearance: 17 years old
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Long brown/bloned hair; blue eyes.
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 110 lbs.
Dentals: Available. No dental fillings.

Circumstances of Disappearance

Belinda VanLith was last seen house-sitting for a neighbour around 8 a.m. on June 15, 1974. She then disappeared from the property located on Little Eagle Lake, in Wright County, MN. Little Eagle Lake is located east of Eagle Lake in Silver Creek Township, northeast of Maple Lake.

Belinda’s family expected her to be home after a weekend of house-sitting for a neighbor in order to attend her sister’s graduation party. Belinda is described as a normal teen, who enjoyed gardening, had plenty of friends, and did a lot of baby-sitting.

Foul play is suspected.

Investigators

If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Wright County Sheriff Office
Detective Jake Hermansen #351
763-684-4530
Email: jake.hermansen@co.wright.mn.us

Agency Case #: 14558

NCIC #: M-957207907

Source Information:
MN BCA
The Doe Network: Case File 2665DFMN

LINK:

http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2665dfmn.html
 

Attachments

  • MBelindaVanLith_20090706100302_640_480.jpg
    MBelindaVanLith_20090706100302_640_480.jpg
    63.4 KB · Views: 90
Two cold cases, a single suspect

Pioneer Press - St. Paul,MN,USA
Police link St. Paul man to crimes two decades apart
By Richard Chin

A St. Paul man with a record of sexually assaulting a prostitute and a female hitchhiker is a suspect in the 1994 death of a prostitute and the 1974 disappearance of a woman in Wright County, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in Ramsey County District Court.

According to the warrant, Timothy Joseph Crosby, 53, is being investigated in the death of Victoria Marie Morris, who disappeared in late June or early July 1994, shortly after she was released from jail.

Morris, 25, was a drug user and prostitute, according to an investigation by St. Paul police, the search warrant said. Her remains were found Oct. 8, 1994, in St. Michael, Minn., in Wright County, according to the search warrant. Crosby's family owned a cabin near Eagle Lake in Wright County. (more...)

Source:

Unsolved - In the News: 07/15/09

LINK:

http://unsolveditn.blogspot.com/2009_07_15_archive.html
 
BELINDA VANLITH MISSING 38 YEARS on Playing Cards
Cold case playing cards feature Wright Co. victim

http://www.herald-journal.com/archives/2008/stories/cold.case.html

November 10, 2008




WRIGHT COUNTY, MN - A 17-year-old girl named Belinda VanLith from northern Wright County disappeared in 1974, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is making a new effort to find information about her case.

The bureau has released cold case playing cards that highlight VanLith’s case and 51 other cold cases. These cases include violent, unsolved homicides, missing persons and unidentified remains cases that have occurred throughout the state over the past 50 years.

“We’re trying to breathe some life into these cases,” said Special Agent Jeff Hansen, who is in charge of homicide cases at the St. Paul office of the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension.

VanLith was a normal teen. She enjoyed gardening, had plenty of friends, and she did a lot of baby-sitting, according to her mother, Beverly VanLith. Today, Belinda would be 51 years old.

Belinda’s family expected her to be home after a weekend of house-sitting for a neighbor in order to attend her sister’s graduation party.

“We kept calling the house on Saturday, but the phone lines were down,” Beverly said. On Sunday, Belinda’s family reported her as missing.

Like all of the cold case cards, Belinda’s card gives brief insight into her case, along with a tip line for anyone who has more information:

“Belinda VanLith: 17-year-old white female-Belinda VanLith was last seen house-sitting for a neighbor around 8 p.m., June 15th, 1974. She then disappeared from the property located on Little Eagle Lake in Wright County, MN. Foul play is suspected in her disappearance; she has not been seen or heard from since.”

Little Eagle Lake is located east of Eagle Lake in Silver Creek Township, northeast of Maple Lake.

“There is nothing to make us believe she was a runaway,” Lieutenant Todd Hoffman of Wright County Sheriff’s Department said, explaining that her behavior the days before the disappearance didn’t line up with the profile of a runaway.

The cold case cards were only handed out to prison inmates and the families of the victims. The aim in handing out the cards to prisoners is to locate a criminal who may have information about the case and is willing to come to the police.

“Since we handed out these cards a week ago, we have already had over 20 leads on different cases,” Hansen said.

He said that the leads were coming from prison inmates and the general public who had viewed the cards online.

“Sometimes you can have a lead and then you don’t hear anything for five years,” Beverly said, speaking of the pain that a victim’s family goes through when leads don’t get the police any closer to solving the crime. She thinks that the cold case cards are a good idea.

The idea for the cards came out of Florida. In handing out Florida cold case cards to the state’s prison inmates, several cases were solved when various criminals and the general public volunteered information.

Jacob Wetterling, and the Reker sisters are among some of the faces on the cards. Wetterling disappeared from St. Joseph, MN in 1989 at age 11, and the Reker sisters Mary, 15, and Susan, 12, were stabbed to death in St. Cloud in 1974.

The anniversary of Wetterling’s disappearance was Wednesday, Oct. 22, 1989. Today, Wetterling would be 30 years old.

Mary and Susan Reker’s killer was never found. The girls were last seen alive leaving their residence in St. Cloud, and their bodies were not found until 26 days later, three miles outside of St. Cloud in a quarry.

At present, the card decks have been distributed to all 515 police departments and sheriff’s offices within Minnesota, as well as 75 countywide jail and annex facilities. In addition, over 10,000 decks have been supplied to Minnesota state prison inmates.

The 52 cases featured on the cards are only some of the cold cases in Minnesota. “We picked some of the toughest cases for the cards,” Hoffman said, optimistic that some of the cases would be solved because of the cards.

To view the cold case cards online

The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension encourages the public to view the cold case playing cards on its web site:

www.bca.state.mn.us/coldcase.coldcase.asp

The bureau asks that anyone who has information about any of these cases, call the tip line at 1-877-996-6222.
 
The Inmate Playing Cards mentioned above were iniated by the founders of 'The Center for Hope', Mary & Doug Lyalls; parents of missing Suzanne Lyall(Albany, NY-03/02/1998), and longtime members of CUE/NC. The Lyalls were one of the catalyst for the 2002 Federal Suzanne's Law..Their achievements are too many to list..The Lyalls will never, ever give up on their missing daughter, and do not know the meaning of quitting...They are warriors for all the missing/murdered victims across the US & beyond...

http://www.startribune.com/local/west/202374141.html?refer=y


Article by: PAUL WALSH , Star Tribune Updated: April 10, 2013 - 11:23 PM

Seeing foul play, Wright County reopens 1974 missing teen case


Authorities in Wright County are starting anew in trying to determine the fate of Belinda VanLith, the 17-year-old who disappeared nearly 39 years ago while housesitting west of Monticello and is believed to be the victim of foul play.

“The current sheriff [Joe Hagerty] pulled up the file and said, ‘Let’s take another run at this,’ ” sheriff’s Capt. Greg Howell said Wednesday.
read more-
 
I am so glad to hear this is being reopened, maybe then they will find answers. Also, where is Eagle Lake located in MN?
 


Saw that you were from Albany, NY, rosario.. Were you able to attend the 12th annual New York State Missing Persons Day?

http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Photos-Missing-persons-remembered-4414938.php#photo-4432820

The 12th annual New York State Missing Persons Day took place Saturday at Madison Avenue and Swan Street in Albany. The commemoration included discussions and presentations. Doug and Mary Lyall, whose daughter Suzanne Lyall vanished in 1998, and who founded the Center for HOPE on Prospect Street in Ballston Spa, organized the event.


Photos: Missing persons remembered
Published 5:06 pm, Saturday, April 6, 2013
 

vanlith_belinda.jpg

photo from charleyproject.org
Bumping for 40 years today.
 
Thinking of Belinda. Her case reminds me of that of Colleen Simpson, a teen girl who vanished while baby-sitting in Iowa. She vanished in October of 1975 from Clearfield, Iowa, just a little over a year after Belinda went missing while baby-sitting. Although Crosby is a suspect in Belinda's disappearance, Colleen does not have any suspect mentioned. I wonder if Crosby was ever in Iowa?
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/simpson_colleen.html
 
Investigator updates Monticello cold case that’s 42 years old

http://monticellotimes.com/2016/09/15/investigator-updates-monticello-cold-case-thats-42-years-old/

Seventeen-year-old Belinda VanLith was last heard from in the morning hours of June 15, 1974, while house-sitting at a residence on the northern edge of Eagle Lake in Wright County, approximately 6 miles west of Monticello.

Her disappearance is believed to be the result of foul play. The Wright County Sheriff’s Office reassigned deputies to the case in April 2013.

According to Lt. Albert Lutgens, the VanLith case has been reviewed several times throughout the last 42 years and has remained unsolved.

“We consider this one ours,” Lutgens said. “It remains open. Unfortunately, we don’t get a lot of leads.”

Lutgens and other investigators would like former classmates of Belinda’s to come forward. “I’d be interested in talking to her close friends, those who she went to high school with and those she hung out with,” he said. “That was one thing I focused on in 2013, trying to find her old classmates.”

Lutgens said the VanLith case will continue to recieve law enforcement attention.

“It won’t go away,” he said. “And as much as you might try, you can get emotionally involved. It’s tough. On one hand, you really hope you are able to solve it, but on the other hand, sometimes when you solve it, it brings more hurt. Those officers and investigators who have worked with Patty Wetterling probably know her better than anybody, even her own family.”
 
Sadly it seems overwhelmingly probable that she was killed by Timothy James Crosby. The most telling evidence can be found at http://caselaw.findlaw.com/mn-court-of-appeals/1620034.htmlwhich is a summary of Crosby’s appeal to the courts against his civil commitment as a sexual psychopath. The summary includes details of his previous crimes,including the abduction and rape of a 20 year old hitchhiker in December 1974, a few months after Belinda went missing. It includes the statement that “During the drive he told the victim about a girl who had recently been raped and murdered and dismembered, stating, “Why should I start caring now, you're no different.”The implication is that he committed this offence but I can find no more details suggesting it was resolved.
Even if he did not commit the prior rape/murder referred to in the court case, the combination of his past crimes, the timeline of his offending and his proximity to Belinda at the time she went missing seems to make for as strong a circumstantial case as is possible. Clearly he should only ever be released again if he is to infirm to act.
 
The Doe Network:
Case File 2665DFMN

BVanLith.jpg

Belinda VanLith

Missing since June 15, 1974 from Little Eagle Lake, Wright County, Minnesota
Classification: Endangered Missing

Vital Statistics

  • [*]Date Of Birth: May 20, 1957
    [*]Age at Time of Disappearance: 17 years old
  • Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Long brown/blond hair; blue eyes.
  • Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'5"; 110 lbs.
  • Dentals: Available. No dental fillings.
  • DNA: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Belinda VanLith was last seen house-sitting for a neighbor around 8 a.m. on June 15, 1974. She then disappeared from the property located on Little Eagle Lake, in Wright County, MN. Little Eagle Lake is located east of Eagle Lake in Silver Creek Township, northeast of Maple Lake.
Belinda's family expected her to be home after a weekend of house-sitting for a neighbor in order to attend her sister's graduation party.
Belinda is described as a normal teen, who enjoyed gardening, had plenty of friends, and did a lot of babysitting.
Foul play is suspected.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Wright County Sheriff Office
Detective Jake Hermansen #351
763-684-4530
Email
Agency Case Number: 14558/
NamUs MP #4664
NCIC Number: M957207907

Source Information:
MN BCA
Doe Network link case
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2665dfmn.html

















http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/2665dfmn.html






 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
174
Guests online
1,146
Total visitors
1,320

Forum statistics

Threads
589,942
Messages
17,928,003
Members
228,009
Latest member
chrsrb10
Back
Top