WI WI - Evelyn Hartley, 15, La Crosse, 24 Oct 1953

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joellegirl said:
Thanks for bumping !

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Evelyn is the top case I follow as one can see with all my postings over the years. I'm afraid that even though it is still an open case with the La Crosse PD, and many people still wonder about her, that unfortunately this case will probably never be solved as nothing can really be proved anymore. Evelyn appears to be forever gone, not leaving any trace at all.
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That's the thing about these cases though..We just never know. Someone out there may be cleaning out an old house and find that one clue that puts it all together...An ME's assistant may look through old files and----
We just never know. I guess that's what keeps me in it, the fact that there's always that chance. And, if nothing else, we honor them by remembering them, not letting them become lost in time.
 
That is true Shadowangel! There is always hope and there is still a chance. Just the right discovery, or the right person to open their mouth! I just get impatient sometimes! It is good there are people like us and Websleuths who keep these cases alive!
 
We've seen it many times here...Friends, family members of missing or murderered victims have checked online for information on their loved one and WS has been the only place they've found anything.
As I've said fairly often recently...I believe they speak to us, to our hearts and souls, and ask us to make sure they aren't forgotten.
 
I try to keep the faith too that there is always a chance something will be uncovered. The tapes that surfaced 50 yrs after the fact was totally unexpected but unfortunately didn't go to far. In the case of the missing NY Supreme Court Judge from the 1930's - 2005 a woman on her deathbed revealed and produced a letter stating her husband, a cab driver at the time, abducted and murdered him and buried him out where the NY Aquarium is now. Turns out when construction was being done to build the aquarium they did actually find human bones but for whatever reason they were never processed and they are now lost and it is not proven it was actually him but it sure is a coincidence if it wasn't. You never know, a clue, confession can surface years later. It COULD happen.

I get impatient too and angry that whoever did this and so many other unsolved cold cases got away with it and was able(presumably) to live out the rest of their lives. I try to hold on the (admittedly somewhat romantisized) idea of a deathbed confession. Why not? You are dying, you know you did this horrible thing and there are people out there who want to know. You have nothing to lose. Most likely anyone involved with Evelyn's disappearence is gone. The truth is that probably several people knew what happened to Evelyn and not a single one spoke up.

Joellegirl I understand your frustration with her siblings. Personally I cannot understand not wanting to find out what happened to my sister. Refusing to do something as simple as giving samples of your DNA in case something is found is beyond me. WHY NOT? If her remains are ever found (or for that matter, if they have been found and are labled as a Jane Doe somewhere) how could you not contribute what you could to help identify her? I do not understand and personally I cannot help but judge. It sounds to me like they just want to forget it ever happened and in order to do that (I am just being blatantly honest here) they have to forget that Evelyn existed and by not giving their DNA to identify her possible remains that is what they are doing.

Joellegirl since you followed this as closely as you have do you think there is much credibility to the tapes that surfaced a few years ago?
 
I think there is something to those tapes. From those tapes, they (law enforcement)even knew the exact house it was believed she was taken, and the possible area where she may have been buried (at least that is the impression I got). Interest was high, then it went down and no word since. Police say they are so backlogged with current cases that it takes time away from this. Come on-this is La Crosse's biggest mystery! Items were found days after the abduction along the road that heads towards La Farge from La Crosse. These items have always been believed to be Evelyn's and the abductors.

Who knows, maybe they are keeping it all secret for now. At least the police haven't closed the case, and seem interested when something comes up, but I wish it would take more priority!

I think if her siblings were involved it could get more attention. Former classmates, friends and random people like us wanting it resolved doesn't seem to get it to be more of a priority. I agree, I don't know why the siblings won't even leave a DNA sample. From what I've heard, they view the book that was written a few years back ("Where's Evelyn?" by Susan Hessel) and any mention of the case, whether it be an newspaper article or a documentary, as an invasion of their privacy and profiting off of their tragedy.

I wish they wouldn't see it like that. We care about what happened to Evelyn, we want this mystery solved.We want justice. Why did these killers get to get away with it? I would think they would want Evelyn to have a proper burial if she were ever found. Again, I hate to judge because maybe the only way they could deal with it was to accept she was gone and nothing could be done about it.

Annasmom (mom of missing Anna Waters) calls us Websleuthers "Search Angels" She really appreciates how we have kept the case alive and have joined in her searching. I just wish Evelyn's brother and sister would see it that way. I realize it has to hurt bad, but I at least think if I were them, I wouldn't want Evelyn forgotten and the search to never end, and appreciate people trying to find answers.

It's not an impossibility that Evelyn may have even been found,but we don't know it because she could be a Jane Doe at some morgue. While the police have lots of evidence (including Evelyn's menstrual pads of all things..) there is nothing like a family member's DNA to help identify any remains.

Maybe the anniversary in October will get a interest going again. I wish those college students would continue with that documentary! They had interviews with Evelyn's classmates and friends, who aren't getting any younger so I hope they at least saved the footage if they ever decide to resume filming.

Hard to believe Evelyn would be turning 71 years old this November.
 
I found this brief article from a radio station in Wisconsin, 1410 WIZM, from January 2009. It doesn't say much but says police are getting new tips in the disappearance of Evelyn Hartley. It also talks about a recent book about Evelyn. I don't know if that is Where's Evelyn by Susan T. Hessel or if another book has been released. I thought it was interesting nonetheless that her disappearance was just mentioned recently.

http://www.1410wizm.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=2095
 
Thanks for posting this! It is good to see it mentioned that Evelyn's case is still being looked into. Hope we hear more soon, it has been quiet way too long.
 
joellegirl said:
Thanks for posting this! It is good to see it mentioned that Evelyn's case is still being looked into. Hope we hear more soon, it has been quiet way too long.
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joellegirl, I try to look up her name every now and then to see if there is anything new. This case frustrates me to no end. It just seems to me that it should have been solvable. It seems strange that they keep getting new tips though.

Do you know if there is another book besides Susan Hessel's that they may have been talking about in that article? To my knowledge, that was the only book written about the case. I'm also sorry that the film those 2 guys were making didn't pan out. :(
 
Bumping for Evelyn on the 56th anniversary of her disappearance. Wish there were some news....
 
Bumping this for the anniversary of Evelyn's attack.
 
Bumping original thread on Evelyn Hartley.
 
YouTube - Evelyn Trailer

I think I have mentioned this link before on one of the Evelyn threads but here it is again. These college students were working on a documentary about two years ago, but like everything else with this case, it looked like we were getting somewhere then it was all dropped. I hope they kept the footage, especially the interviews with Evelyn's friends and classmates. They won't be around forever, and the chance of talking to someone who knew her gets less and less every year.
 
joellegirl said:
YouTube - Evelyn Trailer

I think I have mentioned this link before on one of the Evelyn threads but here it is again. These college students were working on a documentary about two years ago, but like everything else with this case, it looked like we were getting somewhere then it was all dropped. I hope they kept the footage, especially the interviews with Evelyn's friends and classmates. They won't be around forever, and the chance of talking to someone who knew her gets less and less every year.
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Thanks for posting that link again, joellegirl. I remember when you posted it before, I bookmarked it and watched it occasionally, but when it became clear that it wasn't going to be followed through on, I deleted it from my favorites. I wonder why they dropped it? Probably couldn't get financing. But it's a shame because the footage is very compelling and it would have been a very good documentary.
 
I guess to get blood type? Did they know about DNA then? I think that is why they still have them today.
 
I also don't get why the people on that tape talking about Evelyn's disappearance in the Raven weren't arrested.
Do you think there is any connection to this case and that of the Grimes sisters?
 
Good question about the Grimes girls. Similar ages, four years later, in the Midwest. Hard to say. What is strange about the Grimes girls is they appeared to have died of hypothermia, no wounds or signs of violence. It sounds as if they were kept for awhile. Very sad.

About those guys on the tape made in 1968 at the Raven bar, I wish the guy who made that tape would have said something to authorities at that time, it may have gone somewhere. I believe I read somewhere LE did poke around La Farge at some point in the late 1960's, it seemed they did have a tip or a feeling but it looks like they didn't push things and nothing came of it. Ugh...I think there were maybe some chances it got close (to getting some answers) but for some reason or another the right questions weren't asked, or they didn't search enough....

I was reading about the solving of the Boulder Jane Doe, and how Harvey Glatman is thought to be her killer. I wonder if he was in La Crosse that October night in 1953. Small chance, but I wonder if it was ever looked into or even thought of.
 
That isn't really Harvey's MO, to take someone like that and I think he was kind of a short guy. Plus, he was big on using ropes to bind his prey.
 
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