On Sunday, June 11, 1972,
Cynthia Jane Allen, age 17, daughter of Mr. & Mrs. Alvin H. Allen, 90 N. Raymond Street, Marinette, (Marinette County) WI was attending a dance at
Marinette Catholic Central High School, 1200 Main St., now known as St. Thomas Aquinas Academy High School. Sometime during or after the dance, she left the dance, either alone or with others, walking west on Main St., assumably toward her home, 90 N. Raymond St. This would have been a 30 minute walk. (1.4 miles), according to Google Maps.
The newspapers reported that she was found
Saturday, July 1, 1972 in a wooded area at the edge of a field in the
Town of Grover, Marinette County, WI. The field in the Town of Grover is about four miles west of Peshtigo, WI and 7.7 miles west of Marinette, WI. The newspapers
never mentioned the exact location where the body was found.
The coroner said that Cynthia Allen had only been
dead for several days. That means
she was held alive in an unknown location for about 17 days before she was killed. The papers never said whether she was killed where her body was found or elsewhere.
It was reported that she was stabbed an unreleased-to-the-press number of times or several times with the
fatal stab wound being between her left shoulder and neck. Various news accounts stated she was found nude and others stated partially dressed, with
a jacket and/or other clothing items hanging from nearby tree branches.
One article said she was found by a Michael Schneider feeding raccoons and others said a Douglas Schroeder found her. When the person (whoever he was) who found her noticed the jacket hanging in a tree, he went over to investigate and found her (and other clothing on several tree branches) body which had been
partially hidden under several branches. She was found at 5:30 pm in the afternoon.
Four suspects were cleared of suspicion by lie detector tests and about 1,000 people have been interviewed since the murder. Her body was examined in Beaver Dam, WI.
Cynthia was one of 10 ten children in the family. She was buried in Forest Home Cemetery in Marinette, WI. She would have entered 12th grade the following school year.
The above information was gleaned and compiled from online newspapers, FamilySearch and Google Maps. If anyone notices any glaring errors or has more information to add to this forum, feel free to do so. I would think that local newspapers and local libraries, where the girl was kidnapped and where she was found murdered and which are not online, would provide a wealth of additional information that could also be posted here.
This and other unsolved murders in Marinette County are reported in this article from a Nov 7, 1977 Milwaukee Sentinel article:
http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19771107&id=WXpIAAAAIBAJ&sjid=7REEAAAAIBAJ&pg=6829,1112288
I think authorities need to release more information to the public and do
DNA testing to help solve this
42 year old murder. Surely they must still have evidence from the crime scene in their evidence room. I think with additional information, this crime could be solved.