WI WI - Stephanie Casberg, 17, Racine County, 6 July 1969

[Quoththeraven]

The article shows the extent of the 'investigation' of this suspect.

"Heck said the man was not questioned nor contacted by Honolulu police because of his clean (adult) record." (Note: The BTK killer was widely regarded in his community as "normal", "polite", and "well mannered")

Since when does not having an (adult) record exempt you from being questioned for a murder, especially after someone says that you and several other people related to the suspect lied to investigators during the original investigation?

 

[Richard]

The article shows the extent of the 'investigation' of this suspect.

"Heck said the man was not questioned nor contacted by Honolulu police because of his clean (adult) record." (Note: The BTK killer was widely regarded in his community as "normal", "polite", and "well mannered")

Since when does not having an (adult) record exempt you from being questioned for a murder, especially after someone says that you and several other people related to the suspect lied to investigators during the original investigation?

The earliest newspaper stories about this crime, in 1969, spoke of a 17 year old who was known to have attacked women, and who was possibly a person who attacked a co-worker of Stephanie a few months before she was abducted and murdered. The person was never named by police or press, but could this 1988 lead have been related?

Supposedly the brother (a resident of Hawaii) of the tipster was a teenager and a restaurant employee at the time of Stephanie's death.

The Hawaii PD's excuse for not contacting or questioning the potential suspect sounds pretty lame. But it is in line with the saying; "Any excuse is a good one, when you don't want to do something."

 

[Quoththeraven]

The earliest newspaper stories about this crime, in 1969, spoke of a 17 year old who was known to have attacked women, and who was possibly a person who attacked a co-worker of Stephanie a few months before she was abducted and murdered. The person was never named by police or press, but could this 1988 lead have been related?

The 17 year old was a suspect but was cleared of any connection to the Casberg case. He worked in a restaurant on the southside. Marc's Big Boy was on the upper east side. I don't think there was any relationship to the 1988 lead. The tipster/sister is deceased, btw. The officers who interviewed her were Det. Luedtke, Racine Sheriff's Dept. & Det's. Skip Blazer & Erv Krause, Milwaukee Police Dept., 5th Precinct.

Supposedly the brother (a resident of Hawaii) of the tipster was a teenager and a restaurant employee at the time of Stephanie's death.

The brother of the tipster was 21 at the time but was not living in Hawaii at the time of the Casberg murder. He was Casberg's co-worker. If I'm not mistaken he never went to Hawaii on July 15 but visited a friend in another state. The 20 year old mentioned in the second article (from the La Crosse Tribune) was referring to the man who had attacked the 51 year old waitress. I think he was also involved in the murder or knew about it based on his actions right after the murder. I also believe that another coworker at the restaurant was an accessory after the fact based on a statement that person had made to four people (actually five people) in 1975. All are still living except for one. That person also knew about the murder and is mentioned in the above article from the Journal Times 23 Mar 1988.

The third attached article from the Journal Times mentions an 18 year old poi who was also cleared. I wasn't aware he lived near Casberg.

 

[Richard]

The 17 year old was a suspect but was cleared of any connection to the Casberg case. He worked in a restaurant on the southside. Marc's Big Boy was on the upper east side. I don't think there was any relationship to the 1988 lead. The tipster/sister is deceased, btw. The officers who interviewed her were Det. Luedtke, Racine Sheriff's Dept. & Det's. Skip Blazer & Erv Krause, Milwaukee Police Dept., 5th Precinct.



The brother of the tipster was 21 at the time but was not living in Hawaii at the time of the Casberg murder. He was Casberg's co-worker. If I'm not mistaken he never went to Hawaii on July 15 but visited a friend in another state. The 20 year old mentioned in the second article (from the La Crosse Tribune) was referring to the man who had attacked the 51 year old waitress. I think he was also involved in the murder or knew about it based on his actions right after the murder. I also believe that another coworker at the restaurant was an accessory after the fact based on a statement that person had made to four people (actually five people) in 1975. All are still living except for one. That person also knew about the murder and is mentioned in the above article from the Journal Times 23 Mar 1988.

The third attached article from the Journal Times mentions an 18 year old poi who was also cleared. I wasn't aware he lived near Casberg.

Thanks for the clarification and for the links. It would seem then, that police questioned a number of different possible suspects without ever naming any of them publicly.

 

[Richard]

51-Year-Old Murder of Milwaukee Teenager Stephanie Casberg Still Unsolved
December 03, 2021


Who Was Stephanie Casberg?

Stephanie Marie Casberg was born on July 11, 1951, to Charles and Janice Casberg in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

In 1957, the Casberg family moved to Wisconsin, where Stephanie graduated from Milwaukee’s Riverside High School in June 1969. While in high school, Stephanie was a member of the A Capella Singers and the Madrigal Choir. She resided with her parents and brothers in an East Side duplex in Milwaukee.

Stephanie was a beautiful girl with long red hair and freckles. She was popular, well-liked, happy, playful, and outgoing. She loved attending dances and lived for fun and excitement.

The teenager held a waitress job at Marc’s Big Boy Restaurant, now a shopping center, on Van Buren Street in Milwaukee. On Sunday, July 6, 1969, a witness saw Stephanie getting into a yellow convertible on her way to work. It was her last day before a one-week vacation.

Stephanie Casberg was never seen alive again.

The Murder of Stephanie Casberg

On Wednesday, July 9, 1969, an 8-year-old boy fishing with his father and brother near a closed and condemned bridge on the Root River discovered something wrapped in a Milwaukee newspaper dated June 24, 1969.

It was Stephanie Casberg’s right leg.

The boy’s father called the Racine County Sheriff’s Office. A subsequent search of the area resulted in finding Stephanie’s arms, head, and right leg.

Searchers also found Stephanie’s purse; it contained cards, earrings, and pictures. A small, ripped photograph of the teenage girl was found on a street in Franklin, WI.

According to an early report dated July 23, 1969, the police also found bones from a leg and the abdomen discarded in a cardboard box not far from the Root River location where they located the other parts.

Pathologist Dr. Myron Schuster said Stephanie had been dead “a day or two,” and the limbs had been “cut cleanly from the body with a sharp instrument.” There were no bruises or broken bones.

Then-Racine County Sheriff Joseph Blessinger stated the dismemberment looked like “a butcher had done it” and called it “the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen in my 30 years” in office.

The area where searchers found the first set of body parts was isolated and hard to get to, but not heavily wooded. Sheriff Blessinger said whoever killed Stephanie Casberg was familiar with the area.

It is unclear how and where Stephanie Casberg was killed...

LINK:

51-Year-Old Murder of Milwaukee Teenager Stephanie Casberg Still Unsolved

 

[Quoththeraven]

It would seem then, that police questioned a number of different possible suspects without ever naming any of them publicly.

Right. They questioned a lot of people except for the actual suspect. The only good lead they had in 18 years and Hawaii Five-O didn't pursue it because he had a clean record. And then they publicly reveal her identity? She had also told investigators that a relative of theirs (B) lived just south of where Casberg was found (A) and that her brother hunted the land in between the two (A & B) locations. (Manheim Milwaukee wasn't there in 1969)

What are the odds of a body being disposed of 22 miles away in a random spot from where someone disappeared at a restaurant and a coworker just happened to have hunted there and also had a relative living near that random spot?

According to former Racine County Sheriff Joseph J. Blessinger, "Whoever dumped the body parts here would have to know his way around. This is such an isolated spot that it would be difficult for the killer to get to unless he knew the area."

Couple that with the coworker leaving town before questioning and another family member lying for him. And, to this day, no one has really figured out which day the victim last worked or who last saw her. Or they just don't want to reveal those facts. Her schedule was from 6:30 pm to 12:30 am, so, if she had been on vacation, why did she disappear from the restaurant at 12:30 am? I doubt she would have gone there by bus at that time just to check her schedule or some other frivolous reason. It's fairly obvious she got off work that morning and someone(s) saw her. So, who were they and why has it never been even mentioned that someone did see her leave work that night? Why all the confusion?

Was the restaurant searched for any evidence of it being the murder scene? Blood spatter, bloody clothing, etc. Did they ever bring in a cadaver dog? I know that cadaver dogs were first used in 1970, but there's no reason why they couldn't have been used since then. The scent would probably still be there. What about the pink blanket that her father identified as hers? If the scent was picked up on the blanket (or purse for that matter) that would be a clue. (What perplexes me is why the blanket and purse were found upriver from where the body parts were found. You'd think they would have been tossed with the body parts. Her shoe was found by the body parts. Where did the other one go and where did her clothes go?) Also, if enough evidence pointed to the coworker being a suspect, they could have a cadaver dog go to his former residence. The scent would still be there. Luminol could also be used to find blood evidence.

And speaking of evidence, other than body parts, there's a shoe, purse, purse items, torn photo, a Sunkist cardboard box, newspapers and a brown paper bag all found at the two known crime scenes. There was no DNA evidence found on any of those items? Did they even test them? Are those items even still in the evidence locker?

Stephanie Casberg

MPD Cold Case

Anyone with information is asked to call Cold Case Unit Detectives Jeremiah Jacks and Timothy Keller at 414-935-7360. You can also do so anonymously.

Stephanie Casberg

"July 9, 1969

Stephanie’s dismembered body was found on the south side of the Root River at the Racine/Milwaukee County line, near a bridge just west of I-94 on July 9, 1969. She was last seen leaving work at Marc’s Big Boy Restaurant on N. Van Buren Street in Milwaukee in the early morning hours of July 7, 1969."

A former cold case investigator who investigated the Casberg murder:

Detective Steve spingola - Eat,Sleep,Investigate!

 

[Richard]

[QUOTE ... A subsequent search of the area resulted in finding Stephanie’s arms, head, and right leg.... the police also found bones from a leg and the abdomen discarded in a cardboard box not far from the Root River location where they located the other parts.

Pathologist Dr. Myron Schuster said Stephanie had been dead “a day or two,” and the limbs had been “cut cleanly from the body with a sharp instrument.” There were no bruises or broken bones.

Then-Racine County Sheriff Joseph Blessinger stated the dismemberment looked like “a butcher had done it” and called it “the most gruesome thing I’ve ever seen in my 30 years” in office.

The area where searchers found the first set of body parts was isolated and hard to get to, but not heavily wooded. Sheriff Blessinger said whoever killed Stephanie Casberg was familiar with the area.

It is unclear how and where Stephanie Casberg was killed...

LINK:

51-Year-Old Murder of Milwaukee Teenager Stephanie Casberg Still Unsolved[/QUOTE]

Often stated in cases involving a body being dismembered is that it might have been done by a surgeon or a butcher. But another real possibility would be that it was done by a hunter who was experienced in the skinning and quartering of large game animals, such as deer.

After a deer is killed, the hunter "dresses it out" in the field (often near the site of the kill) by disemboweling it - that is removing all of the innards. The deer is then either taken to a butcher for further processing - or the hunter, himself, has to deal with it. This involves removing the skin, lower legs and head of the animal, and then dividing the carcass into smaller sections for further cutting into various butcher cuts for wrapping and freezing.

Done correctly, no bones are sawed or broken in this process. Very sharp, good quality knives are needed for this.

These necessary skills, as well as the comments regarding someone being familiar with the isolated location where the body parts were found, point to someone from the area who had previous hunting experience - and experience in butchering his own deer.

 

[Richard]

Bumping...

 

[dotr]

Feb 2023

Maine author Cathie Pelletier seeks the cold, hard truth

After 12 novels, the Allagash-based author has developed a passion for narrative nonfiction and the research that goes with it. Her latest book, 'Northeaster,' follows the stories of a dozen or so people impacted by a huge Maine storm in 1952.

www.pressherald.com

''She says her next book might be about a cold case. It’s about the murder of 17-year-old Stephanie Casberg of Milwaukee, who was killed in 1969 and was last seen working her job at a Big Boy restaurant. Her body was dismembered and found in pieces several miles from her home.

Pelletier’s interest in the case stems at least partly from the fact that she and Casberg both finished high school in 1969 and both came of age in the ’60s. Beyond that, she’s fascinated with piecing together facts and trying to figure out how people think.

“I think I would have loved to be an FBI profiler,” Pelletier said.''

 

[Richard]

54 years ago...

Stephanie Marie Casberg, 17
Murdered 7 July 1969

 

[Richard]

Bumping this thread up.