The missing: A look at long-term missing-persons cases from Ramsey, Dakota, Washington counties

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press
·7 min read

A list of missing people from the east metro ranges from cases less than two years old to more than 50 years old.

The Minnesota Missing and Unidentified Persons Clearinghouse is based on information from local law enforcement. Authorities ask anyone with tips to call the investigating agency or the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at 877-996-6222.

You can look up missing person bulletins at bit.ly/MnMissing.

Long-term missing-person cases from Ramsey, Dakota and Washington counties include:

Kayode Awode, Inver Grove Heights

Inver Grove Heights police asked for the public’s help in May 2021 to find Awode, of Inver Grove Heights, who was then 28. He was last seen on April 28, 2021, at the Dar Al Farooq Center in Bloomington.

Awode’s vehicle was involved in a hit-and-run crash in Richfield on May 1, 2021, though it’s not known if he was the driver, according to a missing-persons bulletin from the time. His vehicle was found, police said recently. Awode had no phone, identification or money with him. He has ties to the Moorhead, Minn., area.

Haley Aymar, Mounds View

Aymar was last heard from Dec. 3, 2015, when she was 24. Her mother reported her missing at the time. Mounds View police have asked anyone with information to come forward.

Toni Bachman, White Bear Township

Bachman disappeared from her White Bear Township home in 1997. Her husband admitted in 2015 that he killed and dismembered her, and he was sentenced to prison. But the 37-year-old Bachman’s body hasn’t been found.

Cindy Brown (also spelled Cindi), Roseville

Brown, 22, was living with Patrick Thomas Walsh in Roseville when she disappeared in 1980. When Roseville police investigated at the time, they learned Brown had told her supervisor at a Kmart store that she was leaving town and police thought she’d left of her own free will.

Walsh was arrested in the 1991 killing of 35-year-old Pamela Sue Sweeney, who was his co-worker, which led police to look at Brown’s case as a possible homicide, according to news articles from the time. Brown remains missing. Walsh is still in prison for Sweeney’s killing.

Nathan Edberg, Vadnais Heights

Edberg, 21, was last seen at Decoy’s Bar in White Bear Lake on April 14, 1999. His vehicle was found in a ditch near Interstates 694 and 35 with its lights off and doors locked. It’s not known what happened to Edberg.

Corrine Erstad, Inver Grove Heights

Erstad, 5, disappeared from Inver Grove Heights on June 1, 1992, and was never seen again. A former family friend, Robert Guevara, was acquitted on all charges in the case, including kidnapping, sexual assault and murder.

Laurie Ann Feiner, St. Paul

Feiner was 29 when she was last seen May 9, 1992, outside of Chuck’s Bar on St. Paul’s Payne Avenue. Witnesses saw her talking with a man who she’d been dancing with in the bar.

Feiner was from Oakdale, and Oakdale police said in 2002 that her case was being investigated as a homicide.

Roseanna Forcum and April Geyer, St. Paul

Forcum, 15, and Geyer, 21, were friends who attended a party in St. Paul in August 1998. Neither of the young women have been heard from since.

Forcum was from St. Cloud and her family last had contact with her Aug. 10, 1998. Geyer’s family in Mille Lacs County reported her disappearance Aug. 14, 1998.

Todd Hanson, South St. Paul

Hanson, then 25, and his friend, Chad Birkeland, went missing from South St. Paul on May 2, 1993. Birkeland’s body was found in the Mississippi River near Hastings on May 13, 1993. Hanson remains missing and the case is under investigation by the Washington County sheriff’s office.

Hanson’s sister wrote in a 2022 letter to the public: “29 years ago today we started on a long, sad & bittersweet journey that I would never wish on anyone.” She asked anyone with information to come forward and wrote, “So many hearts have been hurting for so very long, we just want some closure.”

Bernard Hudalla, St. Paul

Hudalla was 21 when he left home in St. Paul without his wallet or car on March 3, 1983, and he hasn’t been heard from since. He may have been suicidal when he disappeared, according to a missing-persons bulletin.

Jermaine Hunter, Forest Lake

Hunter’s family last heard from him in April 2012 when he was 39. He’d been living in Forest Lake with his girlfriend, but she told police they’d broken up and she hadn’t heard from him in weeks.

Soon after, a backpack containing documents with Hunter’s name on them was found in a trash bin in Lino Lakes. Hunter’s ex-girlfriend said she put it there because she was concerned about identity theft, according to a search warrant affidavit.

Police classified Hunter’s disappearance as suspicious, according to an article published in 2014.

Christopher Kerze, Eagan

Kerze was 17 when he told his parents he needed to stay home sick from school on April 20, 1990. He left his Eagan home in his parents’ minivan and never returned. Although he sent his parents a suicide note, his body wasn’t found. Their vehicle was found about 20 miles north of Grand Rapids, Minn.

Kerze’s father said in 2016 that he believed his son was still alive — “In the absence of evidence of the contrary, you have to,” he said.

Richard Koch, Maplewood

Koch left his Maplewood residence on June 27, 1989, when he was 60. He had planned to travel to the Bemidji area. He hasn’t been seen or heard from since. A 1996 article said authorities suspected he met foul play.

Hang Lee, St. Paul

Lee, 17, left her family’s apartment on Jan. 12, 1993, and went to a job interview at a man’s business. He said he dropped her off, but she was never seen again. Police have said the man, who is a convicted sex offender, is a person of interest in the case.

Michelle Meiser, St. Paul

Meiser was 22 when she went out the night of March 11, 1977, and never returned. The circumstances of her disappearance weren’t clear, a missing-persons bulletin said.

Eric Michael Peterson, Lakeville

Peterson’s family last saw him Jan. 19, 2010, when he was 24. His vehicle was found two days later in Bloomington near the Minnesota River and his valuables remained in the vehicle. Lakeville police are the investigating agency.

Harold Schroetter, Falcon Heights

Schroetter, of Falcon Heights, was supposed to meet with an attorney on Feb. 26, 2009, but never arrived. The 56-year-old was in the process of breaking up with his live-in girlfriend and was removing her from his will.

Schroetter worked for the U.S. Postal Service for 10 years and “never missed a day of work,” his son said.

Schroetter’s vehicle was found under suspicious circumstances in the area of Arlington Avenue and Jackson Street in St. Paul on March 1, 2009. Authorities discovered Schroetter’s blood in the trunk of his girlfriend’s car. They believe foul play was involved and Schroetter is deceased, but his body hasn’t been found, according to a missing-persons bulletin.

Philip Sherwood, White Bear Lake

Sherwood, then 69, was last seen in Stillwater on Feb. 1, 2019. The circumstances of his disappearance are unclear, a missing-persons bulletin said.

Susan Swedell, Lake Elmo

Swedell, 19, finished her shift at Kmart in Oak Park Heights on Jan. 19, 1988, and headed home to Lake Elmo. A gas-station attendant gave her permission to leave her overheated car at the station a mile from home. The clerk reported seeing Swedell get into another car with a man and she hasn’t been seen since.

William Squire Jr., Hastings

Squire left his Hastings residence the morning of Oct. 25, 1982, and it was the last time he was seen. The 27-year-old was driving a gray, two-door 1972 Pontiac Catalina.

Helen Ulvi, St. Paul

Ulvi was 59 when she left a halfway house after dinner. It was an unseasonably cold night on Oct. 21, 1978, and Ulvi departed without a coat, purse or personal belongings. She never returned home.

William Underhill, St. Paul/Minneapolis

A University of Minnesota student, Underhill was last known to be at a party on the U’s West Bank in March 1969. He wasn’t seen again. The 20-year-old lived in St. Paul.

Related Articles