|
DISAPPEARANCE HAS SIMILARITIES TO EICHSTEDT Published Thursday, September 8, 1994 (Madison Newspaper Archives) By Richard W. Jaeger Regional reporter While hundreds of volunteers searched the back roads of Waupaca County Wednesday for a missing child, Iowa County Sheriff Tom DeVoss sent deputies to a road and pasture near Spring Green. They were returning to the site where the body of another child, 10-year-old Ronelle Eichstedt of rural Ripon, was found two years ago. The Iowa County search was prompted by similarities between her case and that of Cora Jones, 12, of rural Waupaca, who disappeared Monday. Ronelle, who was known as Ronnie, also disappeared while riding her bicycle. "They (the cases) are so similar that you have to wonder," DeVoss said Wednesday. Ronelle disappeared on Aug. 23, 1992, near her rural Fond du Lac County home. Her body was found Sept. 30, 1992, nearly 100 miles away on High Point Road in the Iowa County town of Arena. "We have been in close contact with Waupaca and Fond du Lac. We are putting together all our notes on the similarities and have given Waupaca our list of suspects to make their own checks," DeVoss said. The Iowa County sheriff said state and local investigators have a "short list" of suspects who have been unable to verify their whereabouts on the day Ronelle disappeared. He said reports from Waupaca investigators promted him to send deputies to the scene where Ronelle's body was found, about a mile from the popular American Players Theater. "We didn't want to take any chances that it might be the same person who killed Eichstedt who would come this way again," DeVoss said. His investigators found no clues. DeVoss said one detective in his 21-member department continues to work on the Eichstedt killing. "We are still very active. We get something almost every week that needs to be checked out," DeVoss said. "And we are still questioning suspects and checking their alibies." Most leads concerning Ronelle's murder are from out-of-state cases involving missing children or people arrested in similar cases. "We do background checks on each lead, seeing if any of the suspects have been in Wisconsin or have passed through the state at the time of the disappearance," DeVoss said. "I hope this latest incident does not have the same outcome," he added. |
