AZ AZ - Diane Van Reeth, 35, Winterhaven, 10 Aug 1995

The Doe Network:
Case File 1449DFAZ

Diane Van Reeth
Missing since August 10, 1995 from Winterhaven, Arizona.
Classification: Endangered Missing



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Vital Statistics
•Date Of Birth: February 2, 1960
•Age at Time of Disappearance: 35 years old
•Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'7"; 140 lbs.
•Distinguishing Characteristics: White female. Medium length, dark brown hair; brown eyes.



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Circumstances of Disappearance
Diane Van Reeth disappeared August 10, 1995, after she left her Winterhaven home for work. She never arrived at TEP, where she was a research coordinator in the tax services office.
Tucson police recovered Van Reeth's maroon 1992 Ford Aerostar van about two blocks from her home in a parking lot near East Fort Lowell and North Country Club roads. Her keys were not in the van, and there were no signs of a struggle in the vehicle.

Her husband, John Joseph Kalhauser, was arrested on fugitive and forgery charges, and also faces a 1980 attempted-murder charge in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Kalhauser's initial explanation for the disappearance of the mother of two was that she ran off with another man.

Kalhauser, who used the alias Stecchi while he was on the run from a 1979 murder attempt in Massachusetts, and van Reeth married in 1986. She filed for divorce in July 1995 and disappeared the next month, after her attorney told Kalhauser that she wanted sole custody of their children and that he should move out. Van Reeth's identification cards were found wrapped in a red cloth behind a metal cabinet at the manufacturing firm where Kalhauser once worked. The discovery was made as the firm was moving to a new shop.

Kalhauser maintains it is unknown whether van Reeth is dead. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1999. Kalhauser talked about dumping his wife's body in a Mount Lemmon mine shaft. A Massachusetts jury convicted him in 1996 for shooting his former fiance's boyfriend. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Kalhauser also was convicted of manslaughter in 1971 for killing a 52-year-old man. Kalhauser, then 17, spent a year in prison for the slaying before he was released.

After her disappearance Van Reeth's mother obtained legal custody of the couple's two young sons.
Van Reeth is a native Tucsonan who graduated from Cholla High School. She is a certified public accountant, and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1988 with a degree in accounting. She was hired by TEP in March 1991.



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

Tucson Police Department
520-791-5700


http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vanreeth_diane.html
Diane's Husband, who was living in AZ under an assumed name was convicted of her murder, absent her remains.

There are quite a few articles available for Diane in the archives.

I do not find Diane listed in NamUs at this time.

Diane has been gone 15 years today. Come home soon.

Looks like Kalhauser may also be connected to another young woman's death:

http://www.wcvb.com/news/police-seek-help-in-cold-case-with-mass-ties/30092530

Police released a photo Friday depicting a blonde woman they believe was taken in the Chelmsford, MA, area between 1979 and 1981. The woman could be the victim in a 1981 Arizona homicide in which victim and suspect have yet to be identified, according to police.

The photo was recently found in possession of John Kalhauser, a convicted murderer, who refused to identify the woman pictured, according to police...

The body of an unidentified female was found in a small drainage wash on April 8, 1981, in Tuscon, Arizona. Police believe she was deceased two days prior to the discovery of her body.

Click to expand...

2015:

“We've been able to identify Jane Doe as Brenda Gerow. She was born and raised in Nashua, New Hampshire," said Det. Mark O'Dell, who had been working the case since 2012. "[She was] about the age of 20 [when] she left Nashua with John Kalhauser.”..

“John Kalhauser is a person of interest in this case,” he said.

Kalhauser, 61, is currently serving time for the murder of his estranged wife, Diane Van Reeth. She disappeared in 1995...

A photograph of Brenda Gerow was a huge break in the case...

They sent two pictures to law enforcement agencies, who put it out on Facebook.

“Social media was a big help in helping us identify Brenda," said O’Dell.

Click to expand...

http://www.kvoa.com/story/30136315/...from-1981-identified-person-of-interest-named

I was reading about this case after the recent Who Killed Jane Doe? episode about Brenda Gerow. Reading the online information about Diane (including the title of this thread) makes me wonder how that information is gathered and how much effect it can have on finding people. In this case, I have found multiple sources stating that Diane disappeared from "Winterhaven, AZ". Winterhaven is simply a neighborhood in Tucson, not a city in its own right. It would be like saying someone disappeared from Bernal Heights, CA or Mission District, CA, instead of San Francisco. Not sure how that information made its way onto the Doe Network page and elsewhere, and wondered if that happens regularly.

I am glad that there was some measure of justice for Diane, although I fear that her killer will walk the streets again. I hope the Gerow case is finally what puts him in Florence, whether for life or death.

Sent from my SM-J700T using Tapatalk

Diane is in NAMUS: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)



Circumstances
Date of Last Contact August 10, 1995
NamUs Case Created September 27, 2016
Last Known Location Map
Location Tucson, Arizona
Pima County

Circumstances of Disappearance
Diane last seen August 10, 1995 en route to her job at Tucson Electric Power. She never arrived as expected and has never been heard from again. Her vehicle was found abandoned two days after her disappearance with her keys still inside and no sign of foul play.