Thursday, April 20

Police search for body on Immanuel Lutheran Church grounds          Send a link to a friend

Cold-case file of Ruth Martin reinvestigated

[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.

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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]

Other links that may be of interest:

The prosecuting assistant state's attorney in the Smrekar case, Bonnie J. Thompson, wrote an original screenplay, based on the true story, entitled "Process of Elimination, A Midwestern Murder Mystery."

Could the future of solving crimes be in "brain fingerprinting"? [Brain fingerprinting summary]

           

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