Murder of Betty Rolf: Gene C Meyer charged with 1988 slaying of mom who was found dead on way to work
OUTAGAMIE COUNTY, WISCONSIN: Gene C Meyer, 66, was arrested for the murder of 60-year-old Wisconsin woman Betty Rolf. Meyer was charged in Outagamie County court with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with the use of a deadly weapon. The Washington state man committed the crime in Wisconsin in 1988 and was found through a "familial DNA search," which examined records of people possibly connected to the suspect.
Meyer lived just outside Appleton, Wisconsin, about a mile from where Rolf's body was discovered on the railroad crossing and bridge of W Spencer Street in Grand Chuteon on November 7, 1988. After the murder, Meyer allegedly traveled to Washington, according to the lawsuit. He now resides in Eatonville. Rolf had been sexually assaulted, beaten, and strangled.
READ MORE
Joseph Augustus Zarelli: Philadelphia's 'Boy in the Box' murdered 65 years ago is identified
According to the criminal complaint, investigators used a DNA profile from a sample taken during an autopsy of Rolf's body to search a database for close biological relatives of the suspect. Police concluded after that search that Meyer or his brother were the only suspects, WBAY reports. Meyer was arrested Wednesday with the help of the FBI, the sheriff's department in Outagamie County, Wisconsin, announced. He was taken into custody in Washington and is awaiting extradition to Wisconsin.
There is a sense of closure in Rolf's family, who have waited three decades for to know the man behind her killing, “Shock. Definitely some shock,” Rolf’s granddaughter, Sue Srnka, said. “We didn’t know if this person was deceased or this person had other crimes. We just didn’t know,” she was quoted in the report. “She was a beautiful lady. Good cook, great artist -- she was a mom,” Rolf’s daughter, Sheila Wurm said.
Sheila recalled the morning her mother was last seen alive, “She was walking to work. She worked at the Country Aire [banquet hall]. She never made it there. See, it had snowed out that morning. My mother had a fear of snow. She did not drive. My mother was a driver, but she walked everywhere she went. But she wasn’t going to work that way, and my brother usually gave her a ride but wasn’t going in that day that early. So she decided to walk, and she never made it there.” After learning of Meyer’s arrest, the family went to the scene of the crime and placed a cross on the bridge above where her body was found. “She was a beautiful soul,” her daughter said as per the report.
A forensic pathologist discovered signs of ligature strangling, several skin abrasions, and blunt head trauma during the autopsy. Homicide was declared the cause of death. The victim's swabs were taken by the pathologist, but in 1988 the Wisconsin Crime Lab was unable to do DNA analysis.