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. Welcome back, everyone, and welcome back to me. I'm back this week to co -host with my lovely, intelligent, incredible wife, and we've got a new case for you this week. That's right. I am back from my work travel, so we're in the same space, in the same house again, and we're ready to bring you this new case. That's right. We are on a missing person case this week. And this is going to be episode 147. All right, let's get into it. Let's
do it. Today, we are talking about the missing person case of Willie Ann Rucker. And this takes place in April of 1979 in Waterloo, Iowa. But first, a little bit about Willie Ann. Willie Ann Rucker was just 27 years old when she disappeared. By all accounts, it seems like she mostly went by her middle name Ann, so you'll hear me kind of flip back and forth between those two names. She was a young mother of three, two daughters, ages 10 and 9, and a baby boy who was just over
a year old in 1979. Her loved ones described her as kind and hardworking, someone who always put her children first. She was a wonderful mother. At the time, Ann had recently gone through a divorce and was doing her best to rebuild her life on her own. She stood about 5 '3 and weighed around 110 pounds. Small in stature, but strong. She worked long hours to provide for her family. Willie Ann worked as a cocktail waitress at Riddell's Living Room Lounge, located at 1428 East 4th
Street in Waterloo, Iowa. Today, the building still stands, but it's vacant. She lived in an apartment at 429 West Donald Street, apartment 103, which was only about five minutes away from where she worked. In the days leading up to her disappearance, Ann had reached out to police. She told them that her ex had been frightening her and that he was stalking her. She was scared, but she reached out and asked for help. And now a timeline of events. Sunday, April 8th, 1979.
That Sunday, Ann had spent part of the day with her sister, Mary Lee, as she got ready for work. It was a regular shift for Willie Ann at Riddell's Lounge. There aren't any reports about anything unusual happening during her shift. After the bar closed, she called Mary Lee from a grocery store. and asked if their brother could pick up the kids and bring them back to her apartment. Now, from here, there are a couple of different
things that are reported over the years. There is one mention that a few minutes later, Willie Ann calls her sister again. In this report, it says that Willie Ann called her sister Mary Lee again, but this time she was actually at her apartment, and she called to ask where the kids were at. her sister told her that her brother was still bringing them over to her apartment. But during that call, Ann said something that was terrifying. She told her sister that her
ex was trying to break into the apartment. Now, over the years, that second phone call where she says that her ex is breaking into the apartment has dropped out of the reporting. The story that's told today and most often in the reports is that the children arrived at the apartment. but their mother never did. That was the last time that anyone in Ann's family ever heard from her. It's unclear exactly what was done searching for Willie Ann over the next couple days. We
know that her family noticed right away. Of course, her sister did, and her children, of course, noticed that she was missing. But it's not until four days later, on Thursday, April 12th, that she's officially reported missing to the police. It's unclear if this is when the family wanted to report it or if this is the first time the police would take the report, because it does seem like the family was aware she was missing
and was worried about it right away. On Sunday, April 15th, so it's a full week now since anybody has seen Willian, and police began actively searching for her, so they're a week behind. Her family told investigators that it was completely out of character for her to leave without a word. She loved her children deeply. There was no way she would abandon them. And it didn't really
add up. Why would Willie Ann call and ask for her children to be brought to her apartment if she was just going to leave suddenly and unexpectedly? Why would she do that? Police begin looking into it, but pretty quickly, they run into dead ends. On Tuesday, April 17th, so this is nine days after Willie Ann was last heard from, Police ask the public for help in finding the young mother. Police say they don't have any leads
at this point. The next week, on Sunday, April 22nd, so this has now been two weeks since Willie Ann vanished, and police learned that someone had broken into her apartment. Police say that the lock had been picked and that the only thing stolen from the apartment was one of Ann's warm -up suits. Nothing else was reported missing. Investigators publicly stated that they didn't believe the break -in was related to her disappearance. By early May, approaching a month since Willie
Ann vanished, police had very few clues. They suspected foul play and revealed that they were looking for a man. However, detectives fear that this man that they're looking for has fled the state. Police never publicly name him in the paper he's just kind of referred to as an ex of hers. Ann's family still holds out hope that she's alive and that maybe she had gone to Arkansas,
where her mother and father lived. The family thought that maybe she had gone out there to lay low if she was experiencing trouble with this ex, but none of the family in Arkansas had heard from her in the month or seen her. Pretty quickly, After this, the case goes cold. It doesn't seem like police ever find the person who broke into her apartment, and they certainly don't find Willie Ann or the person responsible for her vanishing. In 1992, so 13 years had passed,
and there were still no answers. Police admitted that they still had no leads. They said at this point, they have entered her information into national databases. hoping that if she ever was pulled over or identified anywhere in the country, it would alert law enforcement that this person was missing and they could get back to Waterloo police. But that never happened. Willie Ann never requested a driver's license. Her social security was never active. There was no movement on any
of her information. Sergeant Paul Fitzgerald told the press, quote, And by this time, 13 years later, Willie Ann's three children were either grown adults or they had moved in with her mother in Arkansas. Decades will continue to pass. In 2001, so more than two decades after her disappearance, Willie Ann's name would resurface from time to time in the media whenever they were talking about other missing person cases in the area, but there were never any leads or new information
in her case. Her family accepted what their hearts felt, that there was a chance that Willie Ann was never coming home alive. Her cousin, Corla Rucker, who was just seven or eight when Willie Ann vanished, told the paper, quote, I thought the same thing I think with Ann. that she's dead. She has kids and she hasn't tried to make any kind of contact with them. If she was alive, she would have tried to make contact with her children. Over the years, Willie Ann's children
grew up. Her daughters shielded their little brother from the truth, telling him that their mother had died in a car accident. Her son, David Barrett, didn't learn what had actually happened until he was in his 20s. It was at a family reunion around the year 2000, an uncle accidentally let it slip that his mother had actually disappeared and that no one knew what happened to her. David later said, quote, it was a shocker. I had gone all my life trying to figure out what actually
happened. Every time I'd ask somebody, they'd be like, go ask him, go ask her. They kept pushing it around. David and his sisters had been raised by their grandparents, Willie Ann's parents. When his older sister finished her undergraduate degree, she became David's legal guardian and moved him to her house. It was there that David met his high school football coach, Clinton Gore,
the man who would help launch his career. David Barrett would go on to be drafted by the Arizona Cardinals in the fourth round of the NFL draft. He later became a starting cornerback for the New York Jets. As he traveled across the country, playing in stadiums packed with thousands of people, he said he had always hoped that maybe one day his mother would show up at one of his games. In 2007, nearly three decades after she vanished, Ann's family is still searching for
the truth. Her daughter Kim told reporters, quote, We've had private investigators work on the case. We think it was an ex -boyfriend who killed her, but we've never been able to prove it. As of 2025, it's been 46 years since Willie Ann Rucker disappeared. She was a young mother, a sister, and a daughter, a woman doing her best to raise her kids and move forward after a difficult divorce. She asked for help when she was scared, and she
deserved protection and safety. Her children grew up without answers and her family has spent nearly five decades wondering what happened to her that night in April of 1979. So if you have any information about the disappearance of Willie Ann Rucker or her whereabouts today, please call the Waterloo Police Department at 319 -291 -2515. or the Missing Person Information Clearinghouse, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515 -725 -6036. So that is the missing person case
of Willie Ann Rucker. Um, first of all, I just love her name. It's such a cool name and such a unique name that I'm sad I didn't hear it until today. There's so much behind this case. There's a lot of missing pieces. It goes back and forth, the timeline. I have a lot of clarifying questions. But first, just to speak on Willie Ann, the description of her being small but mighty or brave. I definitely align with that. I'm a small guy. I still feel very powerful and empowered even in my size.
So it always feels comforting to hear someone else described like that. But all the more heartbreaking to know her size and that maybe in this case she was harmed or taken advantage of or much worse. And I'm just really looking forward to talking about this case with you. Yeah. Willie Ann seems like a very tough woman. You know, she's 27 years old. She has these three young kids that she's taking care of by herself. And she's working as a cocktail waitress, which is
a tough job. Working as a cocktail waitress, I personally have never done it, but I know my mother has. And I know it's tough work and you got to be tough to do it. Yeah, I mean, statistically and especially during that time, Not that a ton has changed in behaviors everywhere, but I think being a woman in that environment while you're trying to do your job and being surrounded by people who have been drinking, mostly men, you're putting up with a lot, a lot of what I imagine
bullshit and misogyny. Just not easy shifts. So it was very easy for me to picture her. And especially after I did look at her picture, I could picture her in that environment and like running it the way that she was described. So, yeah, I totally agree. She sounded tough and like a badass. Completely agree. Yeah. I do want to move into the timeline a little bit and particularly starting with. Her fear surrounding her ex, either
it's her husband or ex -boyfriend. Maybe we can get some clarity on that, but I also know that maybe you might not be sure with the information out there. Yes, it is very thin. You know, the reports back in 1979, the media coverage is very thin in Willian's case. So there were reports that she had gone through a divorce recently. But then, you know, her family talks about an ex -boyfriend. Maybe it wasn't a divorce per
se. Maybe it was, you know, a breakup where they had lived together for a long time and it just felt more like a divorce. But it does seem like she had separated from somebody recently and that was causing issues in her life. Yeah. Hearing that instantly, my body was shaking. I just was so... angry because time and time again, we have heard cases like this and almost always women and specifically women of color are failed in
these instances over and over again. Like the fact that there is mismatching information around this case is unforgivable. And just heartbreaking because she did reach out. She did say something. And for it to not be taken seriously, for it to not be looked at more closely. Yeah, I mean, I know I could maybe be maybe I'm speaking in an echo chamber right now, but it was painful, painful to listen to because instantly I knew that the system was failing her. Yeah, it is.
It is really frustrating that. Here she is raising the alarm days before she disappears that, you know, somebody is stalking her, somebody is harassing her. She has these three young kids. She's by herself. It's really frustrating to think that she raised this alarm, had these concerns, her family knew about these concerns, and yet police don't know who did this to her. You know, to me, it seems, you know, what the family thinks, you know, that an ex -boyfriend is involved.
You know, a lot of evidence seems to point that way with her sounding the alarm, being stalked, being harassed. Like, that's all a recipe for disaster. And it's painful to think that she was trying to stop it from happening and nothing she did, you know, prevented it. Nobody, you know, the police didn't step in and stop it. And not to mention just, you know, prior to her
disappearance. or foul play with her disappearance, the toll that that takes on a person of constantly worrying and looking over your shoulder and living life in survival mode and in pure fear is exhausting. And she was doing this as a single parent to not one, not two, but three kids. And I know I've said it before, but like for the love of
God, like why did no one help her? I'm really glad that you brought this case here today because it feels like we can maybe be even just a little bit helpful with getting her name back out there. And I do want to circle back to the first 72 hours or the way. Her being reported missing happened and how law enforcement handled it. We know if you're interested in true crime or engage with it, that the first 72 hours are critical in a missing person case. And that window of
time just fucking flew by. And it was a week, I think you said, until they started looking for her. And it's like, I never want to say it's too late, but the ball was dropped. And again, this woman, Willie Ann, was failed. Yeah. So she officially gets reported four days after she went missing. So she goes missing late Sunday, early Monday morning. She's reported missing that Thursday. But police don't start looking for her officially, it seems like, until that
Sunday. I don't know for sure the reasoning. You know, they never came out and said this is why we waited. I imagine they assumed that, you know, she would show up, she would turn up, she'd call somebody, she just needs to get away. You know, we see that again and again, and especially in older missing person cases. But it seems like at one week when nobody had heard from her, when her family insists how strange that is, that's when they finally start to take her disappearance
seriously. But like you said, they're a week behind, you know, the trails. already cold at that point. They're not hot on the trail. They're a week behind it. So it's difficult to come back from that. Well, you bringing this case to us means that we are taking it seriously. So I do want to get into some of the details and just clarify some of them. I want to just recap or go back to the section of the phone calls and what happened, what was said about the kids.
So the phone calls. So these all take place late Sunday, early Monday morning. We don't have exact times of them, but it's after she works her shift at Riddell's lounge, living room lounge. So after she works her shift, we know for sure she calls her sister from a grocery store and asks that the kids be brought to her apartment. You know, she's headed that way. Go ahead and bring the kids home. So that phone call. for sure has happened. The second phone call is the one that I question.
It's only mentioned once in newspaper reports that Willian called again. And this time she was at her apartment, not at the grocery store, at her apartment asking where the kids were. And her sister says that, you know, her brother is bringing them. They're not there yet. They're still there. And Willian says that somebody's breaking into the apartment. She says her ex -boyfriend. Again, he's not named, but I assume she knows who it is and names the person to her
sister. So that phone call, that second phone call, drops out of the timeline later. And when this case is reported today, when it's talked about today, that second phone call is not mentioned. So I don't know if it didn't happen, but it seems so specific for it not to have happened, for it to be reported on, or if it just kind of got brought out of the timeline. in the official media report because police wanted to keep that detail closer to the vest. I'm not sure about
the second phone call. But today when we talk about Willie Ann's case, they say the phone call at the grocery store happened and then the kids arrive at the apartment, but Willie Ann never shows up. So that is the official statement of events today. Okay, thank you for compiling that.
I know it's hard for it to be. because it's just not, but I have a much greater understanding of what happened during that section of the timeline, which begs the question, I don't understand how that conclusion wasn't drawn, that the break -in that did actually happen, whether she said it in a phone call or not, we can confirm that that did happen. How the robbery... And her disappearance were not linked at all or wasn't even looked at. I don't know what to say on that. I was baffled.
The break -in is a very strange detail in this case and one that I don't think is talked about enough. So the break -in seems to happen weeks after Willie Ann goes missing, maybe a week and a half, two weeks after she goes missing in the timeline. That maybe second phone call where she says an ex is trying to break in. In that scenario, she's in the apartment while it's happening. This, however, police discover it later. And the only thing missing, they say, is a warm -up
suit. So I interpret that as like a track suit. Why is that the only thing missing? Why is that the thing missing? No money, no cash. A jogging suit? Why? I have so many questions around that, and I agree. To me, it seems so strange for this woman to go missing and then an article of clothing be stolen from her apartment and nothing else. It seems very suspicious to me and strange that they wouldn't be connected. And if they're not connected, show me the math on how they're not.
Like, who did the break -in? And why did they do it? And how do you know they had nothing to do with the disappearance? Like show me how that all works out. Because to me, I have huge questions around the break -in. Thank you again for clarifying that the two are separate and that one may be conflated and kind of does and does not exist in the timeline. Certainly not confirmed. I do understand that the two are separate and that
one may not have happened. Even still, after a woman goes missing and someone breaks into the house and steals something personal, there's no link? Come on. What? Like, what? And again, where the math doesn't make sense here, with how you described her, the way her family described her, She does not seem like someone who would leave her children behind unprotected with no
plan. I think in these instances where you are maybe trying to run from someone who is causing you great harm and or fear, there is often, if there can be, a plan in place. Maybe someone in your family also knows about it and is helping you. I that does not seem like what was happening here. And the family, you know, never says anything about that. All they say over and over again is this is odd. This is outside of her behavior.
So a lot of things don't add up here. And I really hope that with people hearing this case, some things start to come to the forefront and we can make sense of some of the timeline and just justice for her. Yeah, I really hope that we can get some energy in Willie -Ann's case and get answers for her children, get answers for her family. I know her children, you know, they've talked about it. They've hired a private investigator
over the years. They've spent their own money trying to figure out what happened to their mother. And they still don't have answers. And I agree with what you said. And from everything the family said, that was... The thing that was most concerning is that she would never leave her children. She would never abandon them. She would never run away without contacting them. Like, so the fact that after all these years, she has never reached
out to her children. She had a son who was in the NFL and never reached out, never tried to contact. It makes me believe that she's unable to contact them. Like, Willie Ann would have found a way to get to her children if she could. And the fact that she hasn't. after all these years is not OK. And somebody needs to answer for what happened here. Somebody knows. Somebody did something. Somebody made it so that way this
mother could not get back to her children. And they should have to answer for that and have to tell her children what happened if they want to know what happened. So I really hope we can get energy in William's case because it feels solvable. It feels like there's some really good leads. Police say they don't have any. And it's like their feet. There feels like there's some good ones here, some good suspects to look into. And if police have, let's get that out there.
Let's say ex -husband, ex -boyfriends have all been ruled out. So that way, more people can rack their brains and focus somewhere else. Because we need answers here. Willie Ann deserves justice. And more people should be talking about her case, I feel like. So again, if you have any information about the disappearance of Willie Ann Rucker, As always, I will be providing graphics for Willian's case and those will be... on our Instagram at
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thank you so much. Appreciate it. And if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, we do have official transcripts on our website, www .coldandmissing .com. So if you need those, you can follow along there. And it has all of our old episodes. If you're looking for the backlog, you can find it all there. That is all I have for you this week, though. Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good
week and stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe y 'all.