The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages. Listener discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski. And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski. And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases. Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co-host, Eli. I just wanted to take a moment at the top to say thank you to all the people who have recently rated and reviewed our shows or have sent a kind message through our website. Thank you so much. I was just going to take a moment here to ask you to rate and review the podcast.
I know we normally do it at the end, but while I got you here and while I'm saying thank you, it really helps others find this podcast and get more traction on stories like the one we're going to tell today. Should we get into it? Yeah, let's just jump right in. Let's do it. So today we're covering a missing person case and we are covering the case of Ella Beth Mae Lodermeier. And this takes place in March of 1974 in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. But first a little bit about Ella Beth.
So Ella Beth, or Ellie, you'll hear me refer to her as both throughout the podcast today. She was 25 years old in 1974. She was in the process of getting divorced from her soon to be ex-husband, Gene Lodermeier. Everyone described Gene as her estranged ex-husband at this point in her life. She had filed for divorce a year earlier in 1973. Ella Beth's family never approved of their relationship.
Gene was controlling of Ellie, even going as far as disabling the brakes in her car so she couldn't attend college classes. When she filed for divorce, she said under oath that Gene was abusive to her, something that he later denied also under oath. Ella Beth was moving forward with her life. She had graduated from Augustana University with a degree in social work. Lodermeier and friends of Ellie said she was so easy to talk to and they thought that she would excel as a social worker.
She was living on Indiana Avenue by herself. She had a new boyfriend that also lived in Sioux Falls. She met her new boyfriend, Jerry, the night she filed for divorce from Gene, and the two quickly became enamored with each other. Jerry said years later, quote, She has a personality like you can't believe. We hit it off. I mean, we just flat hit it off. We liked each other immediately, end quote. Friends and family said that Ella Beth was a fun and carefree person.
She had a caring spirit and a way of making others feel seen. And now a timeline of events. So on March 6th, 1974, Ella Beth is last seen at her home on Indiana Avenue in the early evening hours. The home I believe was owned by Gene. At this time in 1974, he owned lots of rental properties around the area. The home was a two flat house and Ella was staying on the first floor and somebody else was renting the second floor.
The end of her divorce was finally in sight and she had a court date set in three weeks for it to be finalized. Ella Beth's boyfriend Jerry was out of town that evening, but he agreed to call her between nine and 930 p.m. He called three times between that time frame and each time the phone was picked up by the person who was renting the upstairs apartment.
There was a shared phone at the home that both the neighbor and Ella Beth had access to so it wasn't unusual that the neighbor would pick up the phone. She was last seen at her house wearing a blue peacoat, blue shirt and blue jeans. She was five foot one and 105 pounds with light brown hair and green eyes.
The next day, March 7th, Ella Beth was working at the community services office in Sioux Falls as a social worker when she failed to show up for work and she didn't call in sick, which was unusual for her. Her coworkers became worried and they called Gene as he was still legally her husband. Gene and a few coworkers go over to Ella Beth's home. They find the doors locked and her car is still in the driveway. gene was able to enter the home.
It's unclear how he did if he had to break in or if he had a spare key or access. It's unclear, but he is able to get in. When he enters the home, he finds a pizza with a single slice missing. Bread was left rising on the countertop and there was spilled flour on the floor. Ella Beth was nowhere in the apartment. The only two things missing were her purse and her jacket. Gene will report her missing to the police that day.
One of Ella Beth's friends will get a hold of Jerry to tell him that she was missing. Jerry said his first reaction was fear. He says, quote, I got in the car and headed straight to Sioux Falls. To me, it was obvious that she didn't just leave. There's no way it wouldn't happen. End quote. Years later, after he retired from the force, one of the original investigators of Ellie's case said, quote, it appears that she didn't disappear of her own volition. End quote. Jerry arrived back in town.
It's unclear if it was on the seventh or the eighth. He went straight to the police station where they immediately gave him a polygraph test. Police cleared Jerry immediately. He said, quote, when I walked out of the polygraph test, the guy that administered it said, this guy didn't have a damn thing to do with this. End quote. Police continue to search for Ella Beth over the next few days.
And a week after her disappearance on March 14, the police asked the community to check abandoned farm buildings on their properties or areas where a body could be concealed to help assist them in their search for Ella Beth.
In April of 1974, Ellie's parents write a statement for the local paper begging the community for information about their daughter and to ask that the community talk to their public officials and the police so that way Ellie's case continues to get resources for the investigation. In June of 1974, Ellie has been missing for three months at this point. Gene is treated for a gunshot wound in his left hand. He told police that a man followed him home and pulled out a gun.
The man put the gun into Gene's stomach and the two started to scuffle. During that scuffle, Gene is shot in the hand. It's unclear, but it doesn't ever seem that anyone is arrested for this incident. As the months continue to drag on, in September of 1974, Ella Beth has been missing for six months now. A woman using the bathroom at the Canadian National Railway in Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada, the woman found three of Ella Beth's credit cards in the restroom.
Police scurry to try to find any evidence that Ella Beth was ever there, but they come up short. Police have no idea how her credit cards ended up 10 hours away in Canada. Years later, the current investigator, Detective Pat Martez, says, quote, it appears it was probably a red herring to throw investigators off, end quote. Ellie's family and friends believe that the worst has happened. From the beginning of her disappearance, they believed that Gene had a hand in it.
Nobody thinks that she got up and left on her own accord. It's unclear exactly when it happens, but police ultimately classified this case as a homicide. In 1978, so Ella has been missing for around four years now, Gene finally finishes the divorce from Ella Beth and it becomes legal. Gene also during this year files a lawsuit against the city of Sioux Falls, claiming that he was harassed and followed by police during their investigation of Ellie's disappearance.
Gene claims that in March of 1974, that's when Ellie disappeared, that police held him for questioning for 21 hours without being allowed to eat, sleep, or use a phone. He also claims that he was held in the Minnehaha County Jail for nine days. It'll take until 1980 for this lawsuit to finally go to trial and be presented in front of a jury, and in the end, the police were found not guilty of harassment.
I'm unclear exactly when it became official, but by 1986, Ella Beth was officially declared legally dead. She had been missing for 12 years at that point. In 1992, so it's been 18 years since Ella Beth vanished, a farmer was walking on the banks of the Big Sioux River, just east of Sioux Falls. The farmer found Ella Beth's purse, wallet, and checkbook on the banks of the river. According to reports, the purse and wallet were found in a hole along the banks of the river.
Investigators swarmed the area searching for Ella Beth's body, convinced that she must be nearby, but no other sign of her is found. In October of 2000, so it's been 26 years since Ella Beth vanished, and Gene takes out an advertisement in the local paper, but he just publishes a long letter asking for a fair trial. At this point in his life, he had been given a 45-year sentence for what he says is possession of stolen property.
However, local media describes his case as part of a grand theft case.
In this published letter, he also claims that Ella Beth's disappearance, quote, was directly connected to a police officer she worked with, and the fraudulent investigation that followed should no longer be kept secret, that a retired Sioux Falls detective supplemented that evidence, named persons involved, offered to supervise excavation by the police clubhouse where her purse was found, and pay expenses if her remains are not recovered, end quote.
Now, that statement didn't make a ton of sense to me, for example, he says offered to supervise excavation by the police clubhouse where her purse was found, but we know that her purse was found by a river. I don't believe it was by a police headquarters. I thought that maybe there was a typo. Since this was an advertisement, the newspaper wasn't proofreading, they just printed what he wrote. But that is his statement.
And then he goes further into describing his mistreatment by police over the years and his unfair sentence. But as of 2002, Gene is paroled from prison. Ultimately, he'll pass away in April of 2013. In 2016, police announced that they desperately want to close the case. Detective Pat Mertes says, quote, the main goal in this is to give the family closure, end quote. Police confirmed that the only person of interest in this case was Elibeth's estranged husband, Gene.
But as he died in 2013, he can't answer any more questions for police. Detective Mertes says, quote, he was never able to be 100% cleared, end quote. Other people of interest were investigated and cleared over the years. But the renewed energy around Ellie's case brings in 17 new tips. However, they all end up fizzling out.
In 2018, so it's been 44 years now since Elibeth disappeared, her niece, Elizabeth Crowe, still wants to find answers to what happened for herself and for her mother, Elibeth's sister. She says, quote, it's disappointing. Somebody has to know, I feel, but it's just getting them to come forward and say it. End quote. Jerry, that's Ellie's boyfriend at the time she disappeared, hopes that Ellie can be put to rest by her parents.
He says he goes to visit her parents' graves and leaves flowers and prayers once a year, quote, there's no place for Elibeth. It's like she didn't exist. But she did exist, and she was a beautiful person, end quote. In November of 2019, so it's been 45 years since Ellie disappeared, police bring in two cadaver dogs to search the area where her wallet was found for around three hours.
Police tell the paper that Gene had connection with the area where the wallet was found, but they don't elaborate on what that connection is. But Gene did own a lot of property in Sioux Falls when Ellie disappeared. The search resulted in some areas of interest for investigators, but as of 2024, it does not appear that any additional information was uncovered as a result of this search. So March 2024, just this past month at the time of recording, it's been 50 years since Elibeth went missing.
Police still want to bring Elibeth home and give answers to her family. Detective Pat Mertes is still working the case and asked that anyone with information about Elibeth or about any unusual habits or activity Gene may have had in the past to please come forward. You can reach Detective Pat Mertes directly at 605-978-6797.
Or if you want to submit a tip anonymously, you can call Crime Stoppers Sioux Empire at 1-877-367-7007 and the sources for the timeline today come from Argus Leader, The Sioux City Journal, SDPB Radio, and The Charlie Project. So that is the case of Ellabeth Lodermeier. When I was listening to you tell Ellie's story and the details started to unfold, my heart sank a little bit because of the time period that it takes place in.
And I think if you have an interest in true crime or have been engaging with true crime stories in the way that maybe Ellie and I have, you know that the 70s was a particularly violent time in, I'm sure, world history, but more locally, American history. You know, a lot of serial killers came out of that time period. So my heart just like breaks for that time and including in this case and not to disparage the dead. But in these cases, you always look at the husband. I say that as a husband.
You always look at the husband or the boyfriend and his track record wasn't great. Then just sounded like a scuzzball. I guess we know he was abusive, so maybe I don't need to be as eloquent in speaking about him. The guy was a piece of shit. I can't even feel myself getting sweaty talking about this because I'm just angry that there's just another case like this of another woman who is just lost to history and time. It's really, it's just really sad.
I'd love to just hear your thoughts and feelings. Well, one thing I just kind of wanted to say at the top is I was really conflicted about using her last name as Lodermeier because at the time of her disappearance, she was three weeks away from finalizing her divorce. She was thinking of herself already as a divorced woman, as a single woman. I really kind of struggled with if I should use that name, but that's what all of her information is linked to.
So if other people want to look into her case or talk about it or submit a tip, it is under the last name Lodermeier. That is ultimately why I chose to do that. I did kind of wrestle with that, especially because she says under oath that he was abusive. I'm not defending Gene at all. I agree with you. I definitely think that he is a scumbag and was not a good guy. But there's also this part of me that wouldn't be surprised as he claims, oh, the police were involved and they railroaded me.
That wouldn't surprise me either for that time period. If it came out in a Netflix documentary, this is what happens. Can you believe? It's like, yes, I can. We've seen it happen in other jurisdictions. But ultimately, I just really feel for her family. Her parents were writing letters in the newspaper begging for information and her sisters never gave up searching for them.
A lot of them have passed away and now her nieces and nephews have all taken up the mission of finding out what happened to her and try to bring her home and give answers not just for themselves, but also to honor all that time spent of their loved ones who have already passed on. Yeah, I'd also love an opportunity to change my tone just a little bit and not necessarily to oppose myself.
But I did have that thought about Gene of, yeah, cops have been known to do that, especially in that time period when you could get away with more wild behavior that was monitored or not monitored, but certainly acceptable. So I did think about that and feel for him. But I've also heard a lot of cases where, you know, we listen to a lot of true crime podcasts where people are interviewed, people who have been railroaded.
And I would say almost every time those people say, like, yes, this was terrible for me to go through, especially to be treated like a criminal or like the accused by law enforcement. But I can't imagine what the family is going through. And his continued pursuit, even like with the where he took out the thing in the paper, I just I mean, it was self serving. It wasn't about her. It was about him. Yeah, I totally agree with you. The ad was really self serving.
It's a really long read with really tiny font. And he does he mentions Ellie's case kind of at the beginning, like basically that quote that I read is the long and short of it. And then it gets into, you know, the harassment he says he faced by police, which a jury later says, you know, the police were not guilty. So it it was self serving. And I didn't mention this in the timeline because I wanted to stay focused on Ellie. But, you know, he kind of had a string of things follow him.
For example, he was seen smashing windows at a department store by an officer. And a year later, that officer had a car bomb placed in his car. And Gene was a main suspect in that he was never charged with the car bombing. And he was never charged in Ellie's case, just to be clear. But he was heavily suspected in both of them. And you know, the the detective that's on the case currently, Detective Mertes, seems very dedicated to Ellie's case and getting answers.
I can't speak much to like the investigators at the time. I don't really know what they did and didn't do. If it was talked about in the paper, I couldn't find them or those. I just didn't have access to them, but I couldn't really find much along the lines of searches in the neighborhood. Or you know, obviously, they weren't collecting evidence or doing crime scene evidence collection like they do today.
So, you know, police later talk about DNA and if that had been a thing or something that they had thought about when collecting evidence, if they could have solved the case with DNA. But it's pretty clear that they don't have DNA based off of those comments, I presume. Some of my like burning questions in this case.
If I could have one thing answered for me, it would be what was the condition of like her wallet, her purse, like those items that were found, I believe it was 19 years later after she had disappeared in the hole by the river. I wonder what like what condition were those in? Do police think that those have been there since 1974? Or were they maybe put there more recently? I just would be so curious as to know the condition of what those items were.
Yeah, the sudden appearance or finding of those items was very interesting to me. And you know, it could be a bunch of different things. But to me, you know, the first like couple things I thought of those discarded items is they they were placed there or discarded there by someone who was on the run or in a hurry to get rid of stuff. Yeah, because I kind of took those items as like somebody took the time to bury it.
So like, not necessarily somebody that was on the run, but like, I do see that as well. But it's like this is, to me, my first knee jerk was like, Oh, somebody took the time to bury this. But it's not near her body. We know that like police searched that area and she wasn't there. So it's like, why that spot? Why that area? Why not throw it in the river that's right there? Like, there's so many questions. Why bury it? And yeah, there's a lot of questions around that.
There is always the I mean, the age old they they walked away and started a new life. And I would say that I mean that in like, you know, sometimes with these cases, people will say, well, maybe they just ran away and they were never seen from again. And in this case, I do think there is argument for that possibility, except for the boyfriend that she seemed to be very like, excited about this, you know, nice new man in her life that was loving her in the way that you should.
And that her divorce was done like there she was excited. And you don't walk away from a life that you are excited about. So that's I don't know if that ever came up. I hope that's what happened in this case. I hope that she just planned it out, figured out a plan. She was going to put her credit cards in Canada and her wallet near a river and walk away and completely start over, start a new life. She was 25. Let's go. I really hope that's what happened.
And she's lived a very long and meaningful and purposeful life. But if that's not what happens, then I really do hope that we can get her home. We may never have satisfactory answers as to what happened to her. But I think that kind of quote that her boyfriend said, you know, years later, he was in his seventies when he was being interviewed by the paper. But I've just, you know, she mattered. She was here, you know, just a place for other people to come and leave flowers and prayers for her.
I really hope that the family gets that and they get that closure to this chapter that it seems like they are seeking. And maybe closure is not the right word, but they just get to bring her home. Yeah, the way that her family has continued to both love and search for her is, I mean, it is, it's so beautiful, but it's also just, it's always so heartbreaking.
And I can't help but think about the familial trauma that that is in that family of, you know, you said the nieces and nephews of like, what's born into those people of what I imagine a natural sorrow that is very much a part of their like family tree now. And it's really sad, like that, that missing part of that family tree, like deserves to be in full bloom again. And I think that full bloom means some answers that are very possible in a case like this, at least I really hope so.
Again, if you know anything about the disappearance of Ella Beth in March of 1974, or her whereabouts today, you're encouraged to call Detective Pat Mertes directly at 605-978-6797. Or to submit a tip anonymously, please call the Crime Stopper Sue Empire at 1-877-367-7007.
My lovely wife hit you guys with this when we started in the beginning, but please, please, if you could while you are here in whatever your podcast app, rate, review, Apple podcasts, a five star written review is always appreciated. We hope that if you are here and are listening and have been listening that you are one of the folks who hopefully this week leaves us a written and rated review, we would love to hear from you.
You can also access our show notes and the show transcribed itself at coldandmissing.com. And of course, we'll have photos of Ella Beth posted on our Instagram. So please follow us there. And we also post in our stories about current cases that are happening, current missing people. It's a great resource. And I hope you follow us there. Also if there's any updates or changes in the show, kind of last minute, those are all announced on our Instagram as well.
So make sure you're following us to be up to date. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Allie. And I'm your co-host, Eli. Have a good week and stay safe, y'all. Stay safe, y'all.