In 1970, 21-year-old Donna Doll vanished from the Northern Illinois University campus. Nine days later, her body was found in a cornfield—with no signs of trauma, no shoes, and nearly six pounds of boiled potatoes in her stomach. Was it a crime of passion, a bizarre ritual, or something even stranger? In this gripping episode, we investigate one of Illinois’ most chilling and baffling unsolved murders.
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🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
In nineteen seventy, a brilliant college student vanished into the night.
Nine days later, her body was found in a rural
Illinois cornfield, fully clothed, shoeless, and with six pounds of
potatoes in her stomach. Was it a crime of passion,
(00:22):
a bizarre ritual or a killer covering their tracks?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What you were about to beat Eastbury to be based
on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record, this is terrifying
and true.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
To call the Illinois. October nineteen seventy, a quiet college
town is shaken when a young woman disappears after her
library shift. Nine days later, her body is discovered in
a cornfield, dressed in someone else's coat, her shoes missing,
(01:15):
and her stomach filled with six pounds of boiled potatoes.
Who killed Donna Doll? And why was it a jealous lover,
a calculated abduction, or a crime staged to confuse investigators?
Tonight we explore one of the most baffling unsolved murders
(01:38):
in Illinois history, the strange case of Donna Doll. Right
after this, on a chilly October evening in nineteen seven,
(02:00):
darkness enveloped the cornfields just west of northern Illinois University.
Three teenagers en route to a party on October eleventh
pulled off along Nelson Road to retrieve a stash of
beer they had hidden the week before. As one of
(02:21):
them walked through the tall grass at dusk, he stumbled
upon a horrifying sight, the partially decomposed body of a
young woman lying on her back in a ditch beneath
a tree. Startled and terrified, the teens raced to the
Decal police station to report what they had found. When
(02:46):
officers returned to the remote roadside with them, the grim
discovery was confirmed. The dead woman was fully clothed, though
her shoes were missing, and strangely, she was wearing a
blue jacket that did not belong to her. By early
(03:07):
the next morning, police had identified the victim as twenty
one year old Donna Susan Dahl, a Northern Illinois University
senior who had vanished without a trace nine days earlier.
Donna Doll's death sent shockwaves through the quiet college town
(03:29):
of Decal, Illinois. A week earlier, life on campus had
seemed safe and routine. Donna was an honors student from Brookfield,
Illinois studying Russian at an IU with dreams of becoming
a teacher. Described by friends as smart, kind, and a
(03:52):
bit sheltered, she had been never wild, unworldly, and innocent,
according to her childhood friend, Donna Cherralot. In high school,
Donna had juggled heavy responsibilities at home, often babysitting her
younger siblings and tending to household chores, but college gave
(04:16):
her new found independence. She earned a scholarship to NIU
and spent summers in intensive language programs, even earning graduate
credits at Middlebury College in nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy.
By the fall of nineteen seventy, the diligent student was
(04:37):
starting her senior year, working part time evenings at NIU's
Sween Parson Library and living in an off campus rooming
house on West Lincoln Highway. For the first time, Donna
also had time for a social life. She was dating
and staying in touch with her friends, like Cheery, who
(05:01):
had recently gotten married. On Friday, October second, nineteen seventy,
the night she disappeared, Donna had plans to meet Schar
a Loot after her library shift for a chat and
some coffee. It was to be the two friends first
ketchup of the new semester, since Donna had spent the
(05:23):
summer in Pennsylvania and cher Alot had been busy settling
in to newlywed life. That evening, Donna clocked out of
the campus library at nine fifty nine p m. Cher
a Lot pulled up to the library shortly after and
waited about twenty minutes, but Donna never emerged. Thinking she
(05:48):
might have forgotten their meet up or been held up
by something unexpected, cher Alt eventually left, assuming they would
reconnect later. Unbeknownst to her, Donna Doll had already vanished
into the night. When Donna failed to return home that
(06:10):
Friday night, her three roommates initially weren't alarmed. They assumed
Donna might have spontaneously gone out of town for the weekend,
perhaps to visit the new boyfriend she'd mentioned from Pennsylvania.
Over the summer, while studying at a language program in Pennsylvania,
(06:31):
Donna had met an older man from Pittsburgh who had
recently separated from his wife. She had confided in chier
a Lot in letters that she intended to break up
with her current boyfriend, Charles Burke to pursue this new romance.
In fact, the Pittsburgh man was planning to visit her
(06:53):
at NIU over Halloween, a detail Donna seemed excited about.
Given Donna's strict parents and the delicate situation of the
man only newly separated, Donna likely kept this relationship low key.
It wasn't unthinkable to her roommates or even the police
(07:16):
that Donna might have slipped away for a secret weekend
trip to see him, especially if she feared her family's
disapproval of an unchaperoned visit. After all, this was nineteen seventy,
a time without cell phones or instant communication, when college
(07:37):
students often came and went without notice. Maybe Donna just
needed a couple of days for herself, some thought. But
as the weekend went on with no sign of Donna,
those closest to her grew increasingly uneasy. By Sunday, October fourth,
(07:59):
Donna still hadn't returned or contacted anyone. Her roommates discovered
her clothes and suitcase were still in her room, along
with her last paycheck from the library uncashed, and even
her prescription allergy pills. These were red flags. Donna hadn't
(08:22):
packed any belongings for the trip. She had very little
cash on hand, likely no more than ten dollars, and
she would of course never travel without her necessary medication.
Late that Sunday night, at around eleven thirty p m.
The concerned house parents of Donna's residence officially reported her
(08:47):
missing to the DeKalb Police. Despite the worry from Donna's
friends and family, the initial police response was subdued. Investigators
had no immediate evidence of foul play and leaned on
the theory that Donna had taken off on her own
(09:10):
for personal reasons. Quote there was no abduction reported to us.
Detective Don Burke later explained, noting the lack of any
witness to a crime. In those first days, authorities remained
(09:34):
optimistic that Donna would turn up. They reminded her anxious
loved ones that a college student disappearing for a weekend
wasn't unprecedented given the era's hang loose culture. Perhaps Donna
was finding herself or enjoying a spontaneous adventure, the police suggested,
(10:00):
and would be back on Monday as if nothing had happened.
This optimistic outlook, however, would prove devastatingly wrong. While official
efforts lagged, Donna's family and friends were in agony. Her
(10:21):
parents in Brookfield were frantic, and at some point in
the days following her disappearance, they began receiving chilling, anonymous
phone calls at their home. Each time, the caller would sneer,
I know where your daughter is and then abruptly hang up.
(10:45):
The mysterious calls came six or seven times, tormenting the
Dolls with fear and uncertainty. To this day, it's unclear
who placed those calls, or if they were or genuinely
from Donna's abductor or simply a cruel prankster taking advantage
(11:07):
of the situation. But at the time, law enforcement still
largely treated Donna as a possible runaway or missing person,
not necessarily a crime victim. The result was that nine
long days elapsed with little progress in finding her. That
(11:30):
all changed with the discovery in the Cornfield on October eleventh.
Nelson Road, where the body was found, is a quiet
rural stretch about a mile west of campus, a spot
popular among students in the seventies for parking and partying
in their cars away from prying eyes. When the teenagers
(11:55):
led police to the corpse at eight thirty p m Sunday,
any hopes of Donna's safe return were shattered. Investigators observed
that the deceased woman was lying on her back beneath
a tree, fully dressed in the blouse and skirt Donna
(12:18):
had been wearing on October second, but with notable oddities,
she was no longer wearing the long black trench coat.
Witnesses recalled her leaving work in that night, and in
its place was a blue jacket that did not belong
to her. Furthermore, her shoes and her brown leather purse
(12:43):
were missing and never recovered, along with the original trench coat.
Despite these discrepancies, by three am on October twelve, the
body was positively identified as Donna Doll when her ex boyfriend,
twenty three year old Charles Burke, came to view the
(13:05):
remains and confirmed it was her. The peaceful college town
of De cob was plunged into panic and grief. Unexplained
homicides were so rare in the area that the county
didn't even have its own morgue at the time. Local
(13:26):
newspapers described an atmosphere of shock and dread after Donna's
body was found. If it could happen to a diligent,
innocent student like her who might be next quote. Everyone
was wondering, is there some type of serial killer roaming
(13:47):
the streets of rural de cob recalled Captain Jin Laban
of the Sheriff's police. Parents kept closer watch on their children,
and students locked their doors at night. In a town
where such precautions once felt unnecessary, the fear of a
murderer on the loose gripped the community, at least until
(14:12):
police announced they had a very specific theory of the crime.
From the moment Donna's death was confirmed, investigators gravitated toward
one primary suspect. They believed that whoever killed Donna likely
knew her well. There were no obvious signs of violence
(14:35):
on her body, no cuts, no bruises, no evidence of
sexual assault, which suggested a stealthy method of killing and
a victim who might not have seen it coming. There
was no violence in the death, no visible signs of violence,
(14:56):
which indicates they had to be close and know each other,
observed DCAB County Sheriff Roger Scott of the killer's probable
relationship to Donna. The autopsy result soon supported this initial hunch.
In Perplexing Ways County Coroner Paul Van Nada's examination determined
(15:20):
that Donna had been alive for at least forty eight
hours after she vanished on October second, meaning she was
kept alive until at least late Sunday, October fourth, before
being killed. The cause of death was ultimately ruled as suffocation,
(15:42):
likely by smothering with a pillow case or a plastic
bag over her nose and mouth. Tiny traces of aspirated
vomit were found in her lungs, consistent with asphyxiation, yet notably,
no fibers or fabric debris were present in her airways,
(16:04):
which would typically be expected if a cloth, pillow or
hand had been used. This detail hinted that perhaps a
plastic material like a bag was used to asphyxiate her,
leaving no fibers behind. There were other bizarre findings. The
(16:25):
coroner discovered that some kind of mystery substance had been
drizzled over parts of Donna's body. What this liquid was, chemicals, food,
or something else could not be determined, and it added
another layer of strangeness to the crime scene. Even more
(16:49):
shocking was what they found inside Donna's stomach. Some time
in the two days before she was killed, Donna Doll
had consumed an inordinate amount of potatoes, roughly five to
six pounds of boiled potatoes. Investigators were utterly baffled by
(17:12):
this detail. Why on earth would a young woman eat
such a massive quantity of potatoes in one sitting? Was
she force fed as some form of torture or control?
Did the potatoes contain a sedative or a poison to incapacitator.
(17:38):
Had Donna herself desperately eaten something peculiar under duress. The
source and reason for the potato binge were never established,
leaving behind a haunting question mark at the center of
the case. Combined with the changed coat, the missing personal items,
(18:02):
and the unidentified liquid the potatoes, made it clear whoever
killed Donna had gone to elaborate perplexing lengths far beyond
a simple murder. Still, in the midst of these puzzles,
detectives focused on the most straightforward explanation, Donna's recent ex boyfriend,
(18:27):
Charles Burke. Charles was well known to Donna's friends and family.
He was her first serious boyfriend, a graduate student in
mathematics at NIU, and the very person who had identified
her body for the police. The two had dated on
and off, but by the autumn of nineteen seventy their
(18:51):
relationship was in turmoil. Donna had told friends that Charles
was extremely possessive and that she she felt smothered by him.
Je Alot bluntly described Charles as a possessive jerk who
wasn't intellectually on Donna's level. Learning of Donna's interest in
(19:13):
another man could well have enraged Charles, police considered the
classic motive of jealousy. Donna was planning to leave him
and he couldn't bear it. In the eyes of investigators,
this scenario spurned lover Kill's girlfriend fit far more neatly
(19:36):
than any far fetched theories about random killers with potato
fetishes or satanic cults in cornfields. As one officer later
remarked about alternate theories, quote, there was nothing else that
made sense beyond a personal cause. Circumstantial evidence supporting the
(20:00):
Charles theory began to stack up. Charles Burke lived alone
in an apartment at suburban Estates, an area very close
to where Donna's body was dumped on Nelson Road. He
had even organized and led a search party of Donna's
friends in the days she was missing, a search that
(20:24):
ironically combed an area only a quarter mile from the
spot where her body would later be found. If Charles
had been involved orchestrating a nearly successful search that just
barely missed the corpse is an unnerving detail. Moreover, the
(20:45):
fact that Donna showed no defensive wounds or signs of
struggle made detective suspect she initially trusted her assailant enough
to be in close quarters with him. Perhaps someone had
lured her into a car or home under friendly pretenses,
then held her captive. The timeline from the autopsy suggested
(21:09):
Donna was alive for a couple of days after her disappearance,
which aligns with the idea that her killer kept her
hidden before ultimately suffocating her. Such behavior, restraining a victim
without immediate violence, seemed more likely the work of a
jilted acquaintance than a random predator. When authorities publicly revealed
(21:36):
that Charles Burke was their prime suspect, his reaction only
intensified suspicions. On October twentieth, nineteen seventy, the Decab County
Sheriff announced to the press that a certain individual, never
officially named in the newspapers, but clearly referring to Charles,
(21:58):
was under scrutiny in the US Dull case. That very night,
Charles attempted to take his own life by slashing his wrists.
He survived with only superficial wounds, and before even being
discharged from the University health clinic, he secured an attorney,
(22:19):
Edward Dietrich. Dietrich later told the press that his client
had been quite emotionally disturbed by Donna's death and stressed
that Charles was being extremely cooperative with investigators, spending twenty
out of twenty four hours working with the police and
(22:41):
even volunteering to take a polygraph test to assert his innocence. Indeed,
Charles was never charged due to lack of hard evidence
tying him to the crime. Investigators had hunches and circumstantial clues,
but no eye witness, no murder weapon, no forensic proof
(23:03):
that definitively implicated him. In an eerie PostScript to their relationship,
Charles Burke served as a pallbearer at Donna's funeral, and
she was buried wearing a pair of ear rings he
had given her To those who suspected him. It was
a chilling sight, the alleged killer helping carry his victim's casket,
(23:28):
the woman he could not let go of, even in death.
Charles later moved away from decabre and eventually built a
successful career as a financial consultant in Chicago. Decades after
the murder, a reporter managed to contact him for comment.
(23:49):
Charles tersely replied, quote, I have no comment, before hanging
up the phone. Officially, he remains the only only publicly
identified suspect in Donna Doll's murder, though he has maintained
his innocence and authorities never found enough evidence to arrest him.
(24:13):
If Charles wasn't Donna's killer, then who was. Over the years,
a few alternative theories have surfaced, but none have been corroborated.
The man from Pittsburgh, Donna's would be new boyfriend, was
questioned and had a solid alibi, as he hadn't even
(24:35):
been in Illinois at the time. Some have speculated about
a possible connection to another unsolved case, for instance, the
bizarre death of Elizabeth Lightfoot in nineteen seventy five, who
also had an unexplained large quantity of potatoes in her stomach,
(24:56):
but there is no hard evidence linking the two incidents
beyond the very strange coincidence. By all accounts, Donna's murder
appeared to be a singular tragedy, not the work of
a serial offender. The phantom phone calls to her parents
suggest someone was taunting the family, possibly the killer himself,
(25:21):
but even those calls stopped after her body was found,
and investigators could never trace them. Critical pieces of the puzzle,
like Donna's missing trench coat, shoes, and purse, have never
(25:42):
been recovered. Why would a killer take those items, perhaps
as trophies or to hide the evidence? For instance, if
the coat or purse had blood or fibers on them.
And what about the clean blue jacket she was found wearing.
Did the murderer dress her in it after killing her,
(26:05):
and if so, for what purpose? Each unanswered question only
deepens the darkness surrounding the case. In the absence of
definitive proof, speculation must be clearly separated from fact. The
fact is that Donna Dahl was suffocated to death and
(26:28):
left in a cornfield after apparently being held for a
short period and fed an unusual last meal of potatoes.
The fact is that police strongly suspected her ex boyfriend,
but could not prove their case. Anything beyond that motives
detailed scenarios of how the crime unfolded. It all remains conjecture.
(26:54):
Perhaps Charles committed the perfect crime of passion, or perhaps
someone else close to Donna saw an opportunity and acted
on it, disguising their deed with bizarre flourishes to mislead investigators.
All we know for sure is that Donna did not
(27:16):
go gently. Suffocation is a long, terrifying way to die.
It can take minutes of desperate struggle as the victim's
air supply is cut off. It's a crime that often
points to intimate personal anger, as it requires subduing someone
(27:38):
at close range. If Donna's killer truly forced her to
eat pounds of potatoes beforehand, one can only imagine the
torment and fear she endured in her final hours. More
than half a century has now passed since that autumn
night and the murder by Potato's case, as it's become
(28:01):
known in lurid true crime lore, it remains unsolved. The
file on Donna dol sits in the Decab County Sheriff's Office,
encapsulated in binders and boxes, awaiting a break that has
yet to come. Over the years, investigators have periodically reopened
(28:26):
the case, hoping new forensic techniques or a long burdened
conscience might yield fresh evidence. So far, nothing definitive has surfaced.
Donna's story continues to haunt those who remember her. In
a twenty ten interview marking forty years since the murder,
(28:49):
Donna Sherlot, then sixty one years old, said she still
sometimes thought she spotted her friend's face in crowds, flashes
of the woman Donna might have grown up to be.
She imagined that Donna would have fulfilled her dream of
becoming an inspiring teacher and leading a happy, productive life
(29:12):
had fate not intervened, the pain of not knowing what
really happened or seeing justice done has lingered for Donna's
family and friends. Her parents went to their graves without answers. Today,
the legacy of the Donna Doll case endures as a
(29:34):
cautionary tale and a cold case mystery. It's a story
retold in hushed tones on campus and examined by Internet
sleuths and podcasters drawn to its unsettling details. The phrase
murder by potatoes sounds almost absurd until you learn what
(29:57):
it signifies. Then it becomes chilling. One of the few
theories about why the potatoes were there in the first
place suggests that a killer had used the potatoes in
order to obscure the time of death, since at the time,
stomach contents were often used to calculate how long since
(30:22):
the person had passed away. The bizarre clues, the small
town setting, and the image of a bright young woman's
life cut short combine into a narrative that is both
tragic and eerily compelling. For the people of Dacabre, nineteen
seventy will forever be remembered as the year innocence was
(30:44):
lost in their farm country college town, and for true
crime officionados, the question will always remain who killed Donna
Doll and why? Until that question is answered, Donna's case
remains an open wound. Detectives still hold out hope that
(31:08):
someone somewhere will come forward with information to crack the case,
even after all these years, But as of twenty twenty five,
after fifty five years of silence, Donna's killer is still
at large and her story is left without an ending.
(31:31):
Each passing Halloween, the time when Donna expected a special
visitor from Pittsburgh. Serves as a grim reminder of a
promise unfulfilled, a life that ended in mystery, and a
puzzle that continues to confound Donna. Dol's memory lives on
(31:53):
in the hearts of those who knew her, and her
case stands as one of Illinois's most perplexing unsolved murders.
In the end, we are left with only the facts
and the questions. A devoted student disappeared into the night.
Nine days later, she was found dead with six pounds
(32:15):
of potatoes in her stomach and not a single answer
as to what happened. The truth, buried as deeply as
Donna's secrets, remains locked away, perhaps known only to Donna
and her killer. For now, all anyone can do is remember, wonder,
(32:38):
and hope that someday this eerie tale of Murder by
Potatoes will finally reach its conclusion. Terrifying and True as
narrated by Enrique Kuto, its executive produced by Rob Fields
and bobble Topia dot Com, and produced by Dan Wilder
with original theme music by Mattis. If you have a
(33:01):
story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,
send us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,
and if you want to support us for as little
as one dollar a month, go to Weeklyspooky dot com
slash join. Your support for as little as one dollar
a month keeps the show going. And speaking of I
want to say an extra special thank you to our
Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit more
(33:23):
to hear their name at the end of the show.
And they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,
Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansburg, Karen Wee, Met Jack Kerr,
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank
you for listening. We'll see you all right here next
time on Terrifying and True
In nineteen seventy, a brilliant college student vanished into the night.
Nine days later, her body was found in a rural
Illinois cornfield, fully clothed, shoeless, and with six pounds of
potatoes in her stomach. Was it a crime of passion,
(00:22):
a bizarre ritual or a killer covering their tracks?
Speaker 2 (00:28):
What you were about to beat Eastbury to be based
on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record, this is terrifying
and true.
Speaker 1 (00:53):
To call the Illinois. October nineteen seventy, a quiet college
town is shaken when a young woman disappears after her
library shift. Nine days later, her body is discovered in
a cornfield, dressed in someone else's coat, her shoes missing,
(01:15):
and her stomach filled with six pounds of boiled potatoes.
Who killed Donna Doll? And why was it a jealous lover,
a calculated abduction, or a crime staged to confuse investigators?
Tonight we explore one of the most baffling unsolved murders
(01:38):
in Illinois history, the strange case of Donna Doll. Right
after this, on a chilly October evening in nineteen seven,
(02:00):
darkness enveloped the cornfields just west of northern Illinois University.
Three teenagers en route to a party on October eleventh
pulled off along Nelson Road to retrieve a stash of
beer they had hidden the week before. As one of
(02:21):
them walked through the tall grass at dusk, he stumbled
upon a horrifying sight, the partially decomposed body of a
young woman lying on her back in a ditch beneath
a tree. Startled and terrified, the teens raced to the
Decal police station to report what they had found. When
(02:46):
officers returned to the remote roadside with them, the grim
discovery was confirmed. The dead woman was fully clothed, though
her shoes were missing, and strangely, she was wearing a
blue jacket that did not belong to her. By early
(03:07):
the next morning, police had identified the victim as twenty
one year old Donna Susan Dahl, a Northern Illinois University
senior who had vanished without a trace nine days earlier.
Donna Doll's death sent shockwaves through the quiet college town
(03:29):
of Decal, Illinois. A week earlier, life on campus had
seemed safe and routine. Donna was an honors student from Brookfield,
Illinois studying Russian at an IU with dreams of becoming
a teacher. Described by friends as smart, kind, and a
(03:52):
bit sheltered, she had been never wild, unworldly, and innocent,
according to her childhood friend, Donna Cherralot. In high school,
Donna had juggled heavy responsibilities at home, often babysitting her
younger siblings and tending to household chores, but college gave
(04:16):
her new found independence. She earned a scholarship to NIU
and spent summers in intensive language programs, even earning graduate
credits at Middlebury College in nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy.
By the fall of nineteen seventy, the diligent student was
(04:37):
starting her senior year, working part time evenings at NIU's
Sween Parson Library and living in an off campus rooming
house on West Lincoln Highway. For the first time, Donna
also had time for a social life. She was dating
and staying in touch with her friends, like Cheery, who
(05:01):
had recently gotten married. On Friday, October second, nineteen seventy,
the night she disappeared, Donna had plans to meet Schar
a Loot after her library shift for a chat and
some coffee. It was to be the two friends first
ketchup of the new semester, since Donna had spent the
(05:23):
summer in Pennsylvania and cher Alot had been busy settling
in to newlywed life. That evening, Donna clocked out of
the campus library at nine fifty nine p m. Cher
a Lot pulled up to the library shortly after and
waited about twenty minutes, but Donna never emerged. Thinking she
(05:48):
might have forgotten their meet up or been held up
by something unexpected, cher Alt eventually left, assuming they would
reconnect later. Unbeknownst to her, Donna Doll had already vanished
into the night. When Donna failed to return home that
(06:10):
Friday night, her three roommates initially weren't alarmed. They assumed
Donna might have spontaneously gone out of town for the weekend,
perhaps to visit the new boyfriend she'd mentioned from Pennsylvania.
Over the summer, while studying at a language program in Pennsylvania,
(06:31):
Donna had met an older man from Pittsburgh who had
recently separated from his wife. She had confided in chier
a Lot in letters that she intended to break up
with her current boyfriend, Charles Burke to pursue this new romance.
In fact, the Pittsburgh man was planning to visit her
(06:53):
at NIU over Halloween, a detail Donna seemed excited about.
Given Donna's strict parents and the delicate situation of the
man only newly separated, Donna likely kept this relationship low key.
It wasn't unthinkable to her roommates or even the police
(07:16):
that Donna might have slipped away for a secret weekend
trip to see him, especially if she feared her family's
disapproval of an unchaperoned visit. After all, this was nineteen seventy,
a time without cell phones or instant communication, when college
(07:37):
students often came and went without notice. Maybe Donna just
needed a couple of days for herself, some thought. But
as the weekend went on with no sign of Donna,
those closest to her grew increasingly uneasy. By Sunday, October fourth,
(07:59):
Donna still hadn't returned or contacted anyone. Her roommates discovered
her clothes and suitcase were still in her room, along
with her last paycheck from the library uncashed, and even
her prescription allergy pills. These were red flags. Donna hadn't
(08:22):
packed any belongings for the trip. She had very little
cash on hand, likely no more than ten dollars, and
she would of course never travel without her necessary medication.
Late that Sunday night, at around eleven thirty p m.
The concerned house parents of Donna's residence officially reported her
(08:47):
missing to the DeKalb Police. Despite the worry from Donna's
friends and family, the initial police response was subdued. Investigators
had no immediate evidence of foul play and leaned on
the theory that Donna had taken off on her own
(09:10):
for personal reasons. Quote there was no abduction reported to us.
Detective Don Burke later explained, noting the lack of any
witness to a crime. In those first days, authorities remained
(09:34):
optimistic that Donna would turn up. They reminded her anxious
loved ones that a college student disappearing for a weekend
wasn't unprecedented given the era's hang loose culture. Perhaps Donna
was finding herself or enjoying a spontaneous adventure, the police suggested,
(10:00):
and would be back on Monday as if nothing had happened.
This optimistic outlook, however, would prove devastatingly wrong. While official
efforts lagged, Donna's family and friends were in agony. Her
(10:21):
parents in Brookfield were frantic, and at some point in
the days following her disappearance, they began receiving chilling, anonymous
phone calls at their home. Each time, the caller would sneer,
I know where your daughter is and then abruptly hang up.
(10:45):
The mysterious calls came six or seven times, tormenting the
Dolls with fear and uncertainty. To this day, it's unclear
who placed those calls, or if they were or genuinely
from Donna's abductor or simply a cruel prankster taking advantage
(11:07):
of the situation. But at the time, law enforcement still
largely treated Donna as a possible runaway or missing person,
not necessarily a crime victim. The result was that nine
long days elapsed with little progress in finding her. That
(11:30):
all changed with the discovery in the Cornfield on October eleventh.
Nelson Road, where the body was found, is a quiet
rural stretch about a mile west of campus, a spot
popular among students in the seventies for parking and partying
in their cars away from prying eyes. When the teenagers
(11:55):
led police to the corpse at eight thirty p m Sunday,
any hopes of Donna's safe return were shattered. Investigators observed
that the deceased woman was lying on her back beneath
a tree, fully dressed in the blouse and skirt Donna
(12:18):
had been wearing on October second, but with notable oddities,
she was no longer wearing the long black trench coat.
Witnesses recalled her leaving work in that night, and in
its place was a blue jacket that did not belong
to her. Furthermore, her shoes and her brown leather purse
(12:43):
were missing and never recovered, along with the original trench coat.
Despite these discrepancies, by three am on October twelve, the
body was positively identified as Donna Doll when her ex boyfriend,
twenty three year old Charles Burke, came to view the
(13:05):
remains and confirmed it was her. The peaceful college town
of De cob was plunged into panic and grief. Unexplained
homicides were so rare in the area that the county
didn't even have its own morgue at the time. Local
(13:26):
newspapers described an atmosphere of shock and dread after Donna's
body was found. If it could happen to a diligent,
innocent student like her who might be next quote. Everyone
was wondering, is there some type of serial killer roaming
(13:47):
the streets of rural de cob recalled Captain Jin Laban
of the Sheriff's police. Parents kept closer watch on their children,
and students locked their doors at night. In a town
where such precautions once felt unnecessary, the fear of a
murderer on the loose gripped the community, at least until
(14:12):
police announced they had a very specific theory of the crime.
From the moment Donna's death was confirmed, investigators gravitated toward
one primary suspect. They believed that whoever killed Donna likely
knew her well. There were no obvious signs of violence
(14:35):
on her body, no cuts, no bruises, no evidence of
sexual assault, which suggested a stealthy method of killing and
a victim who might not have seen it coming. There
was no violence in the death, no visible signs of violence,
(14:56):
which indicates they had to be close and know each other,
observed DCAB County Sheriff Roger Scott of the killer's probable
relationship to Donna. The autopsy result soon supported this initial hunch.
In Perplexing Ways County Coroner Paul Van Nada's examination determined
(15:20):
that Donna had been alive for at least forty eight
hours after she vanished on October second, meaning she was
kept alive until at least late Sunday, October fourth, before
being killed. The cause of death was ultimately ruled as suffocation,
(15:42):
likely by smothering with a pillow case or a plastic
bag over her nose and mouth. Tiny traces of aspirated
vomit were found in her lungs, consistent with asphyxiation, yet notably,
no fibers or fabric debris were present in her airways,
(16:04):
which would typically be expected if a cloth, pillow or
hand had been used. This detail hinted that perhaps a
plastic material like a bag was used to asphyxiate her,
leaving no fibers behind. There were other bizarre findings. The
(16:25):
coroner discovered that some kind of mystery substance had been
drizzled over parts of Donna's body. What this liquid was, chemicals, food,
or something else could not be determined, and it added
another layer of strangeness to the crime scene. Even more
(16:49):
shocking was what they found inside Donna's stomach. Some time
in the two days before she was killed, Donna Doll
had consumed an inordinate amount of potatoes, roughly five to
six pounds of boiled potatoes. Investigators were utterly baffled by
(17:12):
this detail. Why on earth would a young woman eat
such a massive quantity of potatoes in one sitting? Was
she force fed as some form of torture or control?
Did the potatoes contain a sedative or a poison to incapacitator.
(17:38):
Had Donna herself desperately eaten something peculiar under duress. The
source and reason for the potato binge were never established,
leaving behind a haunting question mark at the center of
the case. Combined with the changed coat, the missing personal items,
(18:02):
and the unidentified liquid the potatoes, made it clear whoever
killed Donna had gone to elaborate perplexing lengths far beyond
a simple murder. Still, in the midst of these puzzles,
detectives focused on the most straightforward explanation, Donna's recent ex boyfriend,
(18:27):
Charles Burke. Charles was well known to Donna's friends and family.
He was her first serious boyfriend, a graduate student in
mathematics at NIU, and the very person who had identified
her body for the police. The two had dated on
and off, but by the autumn of nineteen seventy their
(18:51):
relationship was in turmoil. Donna had told friends that Charles
was extremely possessive and that she she felt smothered by him.
Je Alot bluntly described Charles as a possessive jerk who
wasn't intellectually on Donna's level. Learning of Donna's interest in
(19:13):
another man could well have enraged Charles, police considered the
classic motive of jealousy. Donna was planning to leave him
and he couldn't bear it. In the eyes of investigators,
this scenario spurned lover Kill's girlfriend fit far more neatly
(19:36):
than any far fetched theories about random killers with potato
fetishes or satanic cults in cornfields. As one officer later
remarked about alternate theories, quote, there was nothing else that
made sense beyond a personal cause. Circumstantial evidence supporting the
(20:00):
Charles theory began to stack up. Charles Burke lived alone
in an apartment at suburban Estates, an area very close
to where Donna's body was dumped on Nelson Road. He
had even organized and led a search party of Donna's
friends in the days she was missing, a search that
(20:24):
ironically combed an area only a quarter mile from the
spot where her body would later be found. If Charles
had been involved orchestrating a nearly successful search that just
barely missed the corpse is an unnerving detail. Moreover, the
(20:45):
fact that Donna showed no defensive wounds or signs of
struggle made detective suspect she initially trusted her assailant enough
to be in close quarters with him. Perhaps someone had
lured her into a car or home under friendly pretenses,
then held her captive. The timeline from the autopsy suggested
(21:09):
Donna was alive for a couple of days after her disappearance,
which aligns with the idea that her killer kept her
hidden before ultimately suffocating her. Such behavior, restraining a victim
without immediate violence, seemed more likely the work of a
jilted acquaintance than a random predator. When authorities publicly revealed
(21:36):
that Charles Burke was their prime suspect, his reaction only
intensified suspicions. On October twentieth, nineteen seventy, the Decab County
Sheriff announced to the press that a certain individual, never
officially named in the newspapers, but clearly referring to Charles,
(21:58):
was under scrutiny in the US Dull case. That very night,
Charles attempted to take his own life by slashing his wrists.
He survived with only superficial wounds, and before even being
discharged from the University health clinic, he secured an attorney,
(22:19):
Edward Dietrich. Dietrich later told the press that his client
had been quite emotionally disturbed by Donna's death and stressed
that Charles was being extremely cooperative with investigators, spending twenty
out of twenty four hours working with the police and
(22:41):
even volunteering to take a polygraph test to assert his innocence. Indeed,
Charles was never charged due to lack of hard evidence
tying him to the crime. Investigators had hunches and circumstantial clues,
but no eye witness, no murder weapon, no forensic proof
(23:03):
that definitively implicated him. In an eerie PostScript to their relationship,
Charles Burke served as a pallbearer at Donna's funeral, and
she was buried wearing a pair of ear rings he
had given her To those who suspected him. It was
a chilling sight, the alleged killer helping carry his victim's casket,
(23:28):
the woman he could not let go of, even in death.
Charles later moved away from decabre and eventually built a
successful career as a financial consultant in Chicago. Decades after
the murder, a reporter managed to contact him for comment.
(23:49):
Charles tersely replied, quote, I have no comment, before hanging
up the phone. Officially, he remains the only only publicly
identified suspect in Donna Doll's murder, though he has maintained
his innocence and authorities never found enough evidence to arrest him.
(24:13):
If Charles wasn't Donna's killer, then who was. Over the years,
a few alternative theories have surfaced, but none have been corroborated.
The man from Pittsburgh, Donna's would be new boyfriend, was
questioned and had a solid alibi, as he hadn't even
(24:35):
been in Illinois at the time. Some have speculated about
a possible connection to another unsolved case, for instance, the
bizarre death of Elizabeth Lightfoot in nineteen seventy five, who
also had an unexplained large quantity of potatoes in her stomach,
(24:56):
but there is no hard evidence linking the two incidents
beyond the very strange coincidence. By all accounts, Donna's murder
appeared to be a singular tragedy, not the work of
a serial offender. The phantom phone calls to her parents
suggest someone was taunting the family, possibly the killer himself,
(25:21):
but even those calls stopped after her body was found,
and investigators could never trace them. Critical pieces of the puzzle,
like Donna's missing trench coat, shoes, and purse, have never
(25:42):
been recovered. Why would a killer take those items, perhaps
as trophies or to hide the evidence? For instance, if
the coat or purse had blood or fibers on them.
And what about the clean blue jacket she was found wearing.
Did the murderer dress her in it after killing her,
(26:05):
and if so, for what purpose? Each unanswered question only
deepens the darkness surrounding the case. In the absence of
definitive proof, speculation must be clearly separated from fact. The
fact is that Donna Dahl was suffocated to death and
(26:28):
left in a cornfield after apparently being held for a
short period and fed an unusual last meal of potatoes.
The fact is that police strongly suspected her ex boyfriend,
but could not prove their case. Anything beyond that motives
detailed scenarios of how the crime unfolded. It all remains conjecture.
(26:54):
Perhaps Charles committed the perfect crime of passion, or perhaps
someone else close to Donna saw an opportunity and acted
on it, disguising their deed with bizarre flourishes to mislead investigators.
All we know for sure is that Donna did not
(27:16):
go gently. Suffocation is a long, terrifying way to die.
It can take minutes of desperate struggle as the victim's
air supply is cut off. It's a crime that often
points to intimate personal anger, as it requires subduing someone
(27:38):
at close range. If Donna's killer truly forced her to
eat pounds of potatoes beforehand, one can only imagine the
torment and fear she endured in her final hours. More
than half a century has now passed since that autumn
night and the murder by Potato's case, as it's become
(28:01):
known in lurid true crime lore, it remains unsolved. The
file on Donna dol sits in the Decab County Sheriff's Office,
encapsulated in binders and boxes, awaiting a break that has
yet to come. Over the years, investigators have periodically reopened
(28:26):
the case, hoping new forensic techniques or a long burdened
conscience might yield fresh evidence. So far, nothing definitive has surfaced.
Donna's story continues to haunt those who remember her. In
a twenty ten interview marking forty years since the murder,
(28:49):
Donna Sherlot, then sixty one years old, said she still
sometimes thought she spotted her friend's face in crowds, flashes
of the woman Donna might have grown up to be.
She imagined that Donna would have fulfilled her dream of
becoming an inspiring teacher and leading a happy, productive life
(29:12):
had fate not intervened, the pain of not knowing what
really happened or seeing justice done has lingered for Donna's
family and friends. Her parents went to their graves without answers. Today,
the legacy of the Donna Doll case endures as a
(29:34):
cautionary tale and a cold case mystery. It's a story
retold in hushed tones on campus and examined by Internet
sleuths and podcasters drawn to its unsettling details. The phrase
murder by potatoes sounds almost absurd until you learn what
(29:57):
it signifies. Then it becomes chilling. One of the few
theories about why the potatoes were there in the first
place suggests that a killer had used the potatoes in
order to obscure the time of death, since at the time,
stomach contents were often used to calculate how long since
(30:22):
the person had passed away. The bizarre clues, the small
town setting, and the image of a bright young woman's
life cut short combine into a narrative that is both
tragic and eerily compelling. For the people of Dacabre, nineteen
seventy will forever be remembered as the year innocence was
(30:44):
lost in their farm country college town, and for true
crime officionados, the question will always remain who killed Donna
Doll and why? Until that question is answered, Donna's case
remains an open wound. Detectives still hold out hope that
(31:08):
someone somewhere will come forward with information to crack the case,
even after all these years, But as of twenty twenty five,
after fifty five years of silence, Donna's killer is still
at large and her story is left without an ending.
(31:31):
Each passing Halloween, the time when Donna expected a special
visitor from Pittsburgh. Serves as a grim reminder of a
promise unfulfilled, a life that ended in mystery, and a
puzzle that continues to confound Donna. Dol's memory lives on
(31:53):
in the hearts of those who knew her, and her
case stands as one of Illinois's most perplexing unsolved murders.
In the end, we are left with only the facts
and the questions. A devoted student disappeared into the night.
Nine days later, she was found dead with six pounds
(32:15):
of potatoes in her stomach and not a single answer
as to what happened. The truth, buried as deeply as
Donna's secrets, remains locked away, perhaps known only to Donna
and her killer. For now, all anyone can do is remember, wonder,
(32:38):
and hope that someday this eerie tale of Murder by
Potatoes will finally reach its conclusion. Terrifying and True as
narrated by Enrique Kuto, its executive produced by Rob Fields
and bobble Topia dot Com, and produced by Dan Wilder
with original theme music by Mattis. If you have a
(33:01):
story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,
send us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,
and if you want to support us for as little
as one dollar a month, go to Weeklyspooky dot com
slash join. Your support for as little as one dollar
a month keeps the show going. And speaking of I
want to say an extra special thank you to our
Patreon podcast boosters, folks who pay a little bit more
(33:23):
to hear their name at the end of the show.
And they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,
Mike Escuey, Jenny Green, Amber Hansburg, Karen Wee, Met Jack Kerr,
and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank
you for listening. We'll see you all right here next
time on Terrifying and True
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