[APRIL 20, 2006]
Advancements in technology allowed the reopening
of a local missing person investigation. The Lincoln Police
Department Criminal Investigation Division applied current
technology and other means in the hopes of finding the missing
remains of former Lincoln resident Ruth Martin.
Rolling Meadows Police Department and several Illinois agencies
joined in the cold-case investigation.
Lincoln Police Department detectives reviewed the casework
performed by detectives in 1976 to 1980. There was information in
the files that indicated possible locations where Martin's body may
have been placed or buried.
The current investigation used cadaver dogs from
Illinois Search Dogs, a
nonprofit agency that assists law enforcement.
On March 24, Joan Brehm of Illinois Search Dogs arrived with her
K-9 named Chief. Chief indicated a small area near the maintenance
area on Immanuel Lutheran Church property, which was consistent with
the information that detectives received in 1976. The detectives had
searched this area with probes in 1976 but were unable to locate the
possibly buried body.
Next the Lincoln Criminal Investigation Division called in the
Illinois State Geological Survey. They are experts at using
ground-penetrating radar, known as GPR.
The GPR is based on the same type of technology as the National
Weather Service's Doppler radar. The GPR sends radio waves into the
ground and reads their return. The GPR measures soil density and
will indicate more or less dense items in the ground, like rocks.
On April 5, Tim Larson donated his time and expertise and
assisted with locating the possible burial place. In the soil,
Larson found a spot that would be consistent with the burial of a
nonmetallic object of a size consistent with a human body.
The Lincoln Police Department contacted the Illinois State Police
Crime Scene Command, and they sent Sgt. Matthew Davis, an
anthropologist with the state police. Several crime scene
technicians assisted Davis in the excavation.
Excavation of the area that Larson had indicated began at
approximately 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday.
"We dug two 2-foot-deep test pits in the location and found
'clink,' which is the after-product of burnt coal that may have been
possibly buried," reported Sgt. Paul Adams, detective with the
Lincoln Police Department. Several inches of the topsoil were then
removed in a further attempt to find evidence, but no evidence of
human remains was found.
The investigation is still open, "and we will
pursue any leads that may arise," Adams said. Many new technologies
that did not exist in 1976 may be useful in this case, and the hope
is to find the one piece of technology that will close the case and
bring closure to all involved. As in other investigations, sometimes
hot leads turn cold quickly, like happened yesterday. It is our
obligation, at the least, to try, he said.
History
Martin was believed to have been by murdered Russell Smrekar.
Smrekar, from Joliet, was a college student in Lincoln.
Martin went missing on June 2, 1976. She was to have been a minor
witness against Smrekar for a theft from a local grocery store.
According to the Doe Network, Martin was last seen at her home in
Lincoln. Her car was found abandoned with a flat tire at the parking
lot of the Holiday Inn in Bloomington. Police ruled out that Martin
had stayed at the inn.
Six months earlier, on Dec. 31, 1975, Lincoln College student
Mike Mansfield from Rolling Meadows had also gone missing. It was
six days before he was to testify against Smrekar for stealing a
guitar from the college.
In October of 1976, a couple months after Martin went missing,
Smrekar shot and killed a Lincoln bait shop owner, Jay Fry, and his
pregnant wife, Robin. Jay was to testify against Smrekar in the
grocery incident.
Smrekar was convicted of the Fry slayings, but his first two
suspected victims, Martin and Mansfield, remain unfound.
Smrekar is serving 200 to 600 years in Illinois' toughest prison,
Stateville. He came from Joliet and he was returned there.
[News release from the Lincoln Police Department; Paul Adams,
detective;
Jan
Youngquist]
