Found Deceased WI - Kathleen Ryan, adult, teacher, car found burned with body inside, St. Francis, 2 Feb 2019

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Jumping in late. How far away from her house was her car discovered. Did she even make it out of town? Do we have any information on her phone?
 
She was missing for, tops, 10 hours. Media accounts say she talked/FaceTimed with her adult son around 12/12:30 in the afternoon, when she left her home in St. Francis, WI. Her car was found burning around 10pm that same day.

Ah! Thank you for clarifying! I had misunderstood the dates.

Ok then I think a carjacking is a possibility.
 
Jumping in late. How far away from her house was her car discovered. Did she even make it out of town? Do we have any information on her phone?

Approximately 50 miles.
I haven’t heard anything about her phone, although she must have had one — likely an iPhone, since aren’t they the only ones with FaceTime? — because she talked to her son (I believe via FaceTime, per various news articles & videos I’ve watched) at around 12/12:30pm.
 

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All - as some know, I'm from MN and we know the Ryan family. My brother played basketball in high school against Zack when he was at Tartan in Oakdale, MN and remained friendly with him after graduating. They are really good people and my heart breaks for them. Zack was your all-American kid in HS, multiple sport captain but a down to earth nice guy who worked his tail off and was a leader in every sense. It's not a surprise he is a head basketball coach now. I never talked with KR much but have always heard she was very nice.

Really hoping for a positive outcome on this but Occam's Razor isn't letting me entertain many good thoughts. Prayers for the Ryan family right now. :(

I don’t know the family personally, but I have several mutual friends. And, I agree with everything you said - I have heard nothing but glowing, positive things about her & her family. That’s what makes me feel sick inside, thinking it was some random psycho who happened upon this poor woman as she went about her daily life.

I really can’t get her out of my mind. My prayers are with the Ryan family & investigators.
 
Sadly, I’m thinking along the same lines, that a nefarious stranger forced himself into her car at some point along her route, when/if she stopped for whatever reason. It was broad daylight & a generally well-traveled route, which is terrifying to think about. Because of the burned car, my jaded Websleuth brain wonders if something worse than carjacking/stealing money from an ATM didn’t happen. (All IMO, as nothing has been released by LE, yet.)

I’m sure the police have a better idea of her route, any stops, & if her bank cards have been used, etc. I hope CCTV footage is found that reveals evidence.

RBBM

Thinking along those lines as well.

Still holding out hope that it's not Kathleen . . .
 
Sad story and one that likely may never find the manner and cause of death of the person who was found inside the car.

With the extreme burning of the body it will be hard if not impossible to determine if this was a murder or suicide, unless possibly a bullet was found inside the car or there was damage to bones from a gunshot. If this person was strangled there would be no evidence of that. Stabbing would only be known if there were knife marks left on bones, which could have been too damaged by the fire to even determine that.

If this person perhaps overdosed as a way to commit suicide it may be hard to run a toxicology screen with the condition of the body being reported as cremated and reduced to ash and bones.

One scenario is manner of death suicide and cause of death by carbon monoxide produced by burning one or more candles inside the car and the resulting fire from the candle once the candle burned down to to the point the flame start material in the car on fire. This could explain the lapse in time from when Kathleen left her home until the fire was reported if the body found inside the car turns out to be Kathleen, which I have a hunch it will. It may be hard to determine if any candles were burnt inside the car also.

Of course if there is suspicious activity on a bank account then that may suggest foul play which would then lend one to suspect murder.

JMO
 
I don’t know the family personally, but I have several mutual friends. And, I agree with everything you said - I have heard nothing but glowing, positive things about her & her family. That’s what makes me feel sick inside, thinking it was some random psycho who happened upon this poor woman as she went about her daily life.

I really can’t get her out of my mind. My prayers are with the Ryan family & investigators.

Kathleen sounds like a lovely person. Adding my prayers again as well.

rainbowPutti.jpg
 
Would the pings in the area of the car identify possible individuals who were in that area around the time of the car burning?

Perhaps this will be the only way they will be able to "identify" who was in the car.

These are only my thoughts.
 
I just do not believe this has anything to do with a suicide.

I've seen nothing that's shows me anything other than a very lovely devoted loving mother who was on her way to see her family just like she had done thousands of times before.

Imo someone has killed this sweet woman.

I don't think the motive was to hijack her vehicle.

I think this is someone who saw her driving by herself and when she stopped somewhere they forced entry into her vehicle.

It will take time to gather all of her financial activity.

While her body was burned beyond facial recognition that doesnt mean all of her was completely burned up.

The experts who deal in burned bodies can still tell quite a lot even in this condition.

I pray as they retrace her route they will be able to find various camera footage along the way. That also can be timing consuming.

I have faith they will find who did this.
 
I just do not believe this has anything to do with a suicide.

I've seen nothing that's shows me anything other than a very lovely devoted loving mother who was on her way to see her family just like she had done thousands of times before.

Imo someone has killed this sweet woman.

I don't think the motive was to hijack her vehicle.

I think this is someone who saw her driving by herself and when she stopped somewhere they forced entry into her vehicle.

It will take time to gather all of her financial activity.

While her body was burned beyond facial recognition that doesnt mean all of her was completely burned up.

The experts who deal in burned bodies can still tell quite a lot even in this condition.

I pray as they retrace her route they will be able to find various camera footage along the way. That also can be timing consuming.

I have faith they will find who did this.

I sadly have the same feelings...I pray there were cameras capturing whatever happened, or at least, who may be responsible.
The media has said the body was burned beyond even telling if it was male or female, & was essentially cremated & crumbling apart, making it hard to determine what was body & what was car. I didn’t know a car fire could burn that hot that quickly, assuming it wasn’t burning terribly long before someone had to have noticed fire in the darkness (9:50pm in someone’s driveway, along a highway). Who knows how long it was burning, but IMO (not an expert), it sounds like accelerant was used. JMO
 
As @GraceG was saying, women do not tend to commit suicide in such a manner. The psychology being they do not want to make a mess in death. For lack of better wording at the moment.
They do not want their appearance marred.
You will see that not many women will use a firearm and shoot themselves in the face or head. They will shoot themselves in the chest.
So, setting yourself on fire would be more rare for a female.
Sorry if I grossed anyone out! I am just added my first hand experience info.
 
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