Aug. 4, 2025

Terrifying & True | Murder by Potatoes – The Unsolved Killing of Donna Doll and Illinois’ Strangest Cold Case

Terrifying & True | Murder by Potatoes – The Unsolved Killing of Donna Doll and Illinois’ Strangest Cold Case

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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🎵 Music by Ray Mattis 👉 Check out Ray’s incredible work here !
👨‍💼 Executive Producers: Rob Fields, Bobbletopia.com
🎥 Produced by: Daniel Wilder
🌐 Explore more terrifying tales at: WeeklySpooky.com
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In nineteen seventy, a brilliant college student vanished into the night.

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Nine days later, her body was found in a rural

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Illinois cornfield, fully clothed, shoeless, and with six pounds of

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potatoes in her stomach. Was it a crime of passion,

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a bizarre ritual or a killer covering their tracks?

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What you were about to beat Eastbury to be based

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on witness accounts, testimonies, and public record, this is terrifying

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and true.

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To call the Illinois. October nineteen seventy, a quiet college

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town is shaken when a young woman disappears after her

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library shift. Nine days later, her body is discovered in

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a cornfield, dressed in someone else's coat, her shoes missing,

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and her stomach filled with six pounds of boiled potatoes.

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Who killed Donna Doll? And why was it a jealous lover,

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a calculated abduction, or a crime staged to confuse investigators?

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Tonight we explore one of the most baffling unsolved murders

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in Illinois history, the strange case of Donna Doll. Right

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after this, on a chilly October evening in nineteen seven,

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darkness enveloped the cornfields just west of northern Illinois University.

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Three teenagers en route to a party on October eleventh

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pulled off along Nelson Road to retrieve a stash of

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beer they had hidden the week before. As one of

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them walked through the tall grass at dusk, he stumbled

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upon a horrifying sight, the partially decomposed body of a

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young woman lying on her back in a ditch beneath

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a tree. Startled and terrified, the teens raced to the

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Decal police station to report what they had found. When

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officers returned to the remote roadside with them, the grim

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discovery was confirmed. The dead woman was fully clothed, though

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her shoes were missing, and strangely, she was wearing a

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blue jacket that did not belong to her. By early

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the next morning, police had identified the victim as twenty

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one year old Donna Susan Dahl, a Northern Illinois University

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senior who had vanished without a trace nine days earlier.

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Donna Doll's death sent shockwaves through the quiet college town

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of Decal, Illinois. A week earlier, life on campus had

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seemed safe and routine. Donna was an honors student from Brookfield,

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Illinois studying Russian at an IU with dreams of becoming

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a teacher. Described by friends as smart, kind, and a

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bit sheltered, she had been never wild, unworldly, and innocent,

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according to her childhood friend, Donna Cherralot. In high school,

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Donna had juggled heavy responsibilities at home, often babysitting her

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younger siblings and tending to household chores, but college gave

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her new found independence. She earned a scholarship to NIU

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and spent summers in intensive language programs, even earning graduate

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credits at Middlebury College in nineteen sixty nine and nineteen seventy.

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By the fall of nineteen seventy, the diligent student was

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starting her senior year, working part time evenings at NIU's

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Sween Parson Library and living in an off campus rooming

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house on West Lincoln Highway. For the first time, Donna

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also had time for a social life. She was dating

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and staying in touch with her friends, like Cheery, who

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had recently gotten married. On Friday, October second, nineteen seventy,

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the night she disappeared, Donna had plans to meet Schar

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a Loot after her library shift for a chat and

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some coffee. It was to be the two friends first

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ketchup of the new semester, since Donna had spent the

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summer in Pennsylvania and cher Alot had been busy settling

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in to newlywed life. That evening, Donna clocked out of

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the campus library at nine fifty nine p m. Cher

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a Lot pulled up to the library shortly after and

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waited about twenty minutes, but Donna never emerged. Thinking she

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might have forgotten their meet up or been held up

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by something unexpected, cher Alt eventually left, assuming they would

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reconnect later. Unbeknownst to her, Donna Doll had already vanished

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into the night. When Donna failed to return home that

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Friday night, her three roommates initially weren't alarmed. They assumed

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Donna might have spontaneously gone out of town for the weekend,

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perhaps to visit the new boyfriend she'd mentioned from Pennsylvania.

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Over the summer, while studying at a language program in Pennsylvania,

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Donna had met an older man from Pittsburgh who had

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recently separated from his wife. She had confided in chier

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a Lot in letters that she intended to break up

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with her current boyfriend, Charles Burke to pursue this new romance.

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In fact, the Pittsburgh man was planning to visit her

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at NIU over Halloween, a detail Donna seemed excited about.

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Given Donna's strict parents and the delicate situation of the

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man only newly separated, Donna likely kept this relationship low key.

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It wasn't unthinkable to her roommates or even the police

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that Donna might have slipped away for a secret weekend

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trip to see him, especially if she feared her family's

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disapproval of an unchaperoned visit. After all, this was nineteen seventy,

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a time without cell phones or instant communication, when college

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students often came and went without notice. Maybe Donna just

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needed a couple of days for herself, some thought. But

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as the weekend went on with no sign of Donna,

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those closest to her grew increasingly uneasy. By Sunday, October fourth,

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Donna still hadn't returned or contacted anyone. Her roommates discovered

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her clothes and suitcase were still in her room, along

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with her last paycheck from the library uncashed, and even

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her prescription allergy pills. These were red flags. Donna hadn't

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packed any belongings for the trip. She had very little

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cash on hand, likely no more than ten dollars, and

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she would of course never travel without her necessary medication.

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Late that Sunday night, at around eleven thirty p m.

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The concerned house parents of Donna's residence officially reported her

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missing to the DeKalb Police. Despite the worry from Donna's

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friends and family, the initial police response was subdued. Investigators

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had no immediate evidence of foul play and leaned on

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the theory that Donna had taken off on her own

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for personal reasons. Quote there was no abduction reported to us.

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Detective Don Burke later explained, noting the lack of any

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witness to a crime. In those first days, authorities remained

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optimistic that Donna would turn up. They reminded her anxious

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loved ones that a college student disappearing for a weekend

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wasn't unprecedented given the era's hang loose culture. Perhaps Donna

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was finding herself or enjoying a spontaneous adventure, the police suggested,

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and would be back on Monday as if nothing had happened.

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This optimistic outlook, however, would prove devastatingly wrong. While official

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efforts lagged, Donna's family and friends were in agony. Her

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parents in Brookfield were frantic, and at some point in

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the days following her disappearance, they began receiving chilling, anonymous

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phone calls at their home. Each time, the caller would sneer,

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I know where your daughter is and then abruptly hang up.

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The mysterious calls came six or seven times, tormenting the

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Dolls with fear and uncertainty. To this day, it's unclear

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who placed those calls, or if they were or genuinely

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from Donna's abductor or simply a cruel prankster taking advantage

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of the situation. But at the time, law enforcement still

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largely treated Donna as a possible runaway or missing person,

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not necessarily a crime victim. The result was that nine

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long days elapsed with little progress in finding her. That

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all changed with the discovery in the Cornfield on October eleventh.

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Nelson Road, where the body was found, is a quiet

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rural stretch about a mile west of campus, a spot

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popular among students in the seventies for parking and partying

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in their cars away from prying eyes. When the teenagers

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led police to the corpse at eight thirty p m Sunday,

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any hopes of Donna's safe return were shattered. Investigators observed

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that the deceased woman was lying on her back beneath

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a tree, fully dressed in the blouse and skirt Donna

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had been wearing on October second, but with notable oddities,

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she was no longer wearing the long black trench coat.

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Witnesses recalled her leaving work in that night, and in

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its place was a blue jacket that did not belong

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to her. Furthermore, her shoes and her brown leather purse

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were missing and never recovered, along with the original trench coat.

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Despite these discrepancies, by three am on October twelve, the

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body was positively identified as Donna Doll when her ex boyfriend,

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twenty three year old Charles Burke, came to view the

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remains and confirmed it was her. The peaceful college town

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of De cob was plunged into panic and grief. Unexplained

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homicides were so rare in the area that the county

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didn't even have its own morgue at the time. Local

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newspapers described an atmosphere of shock and dread after Donna's

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body was found. If it could happen to a diligent,

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innocent student like her who might be next quote. Everyone

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was wondering, is there some type of serial killer roaming

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the streets of rural de cob recalled Captain Jin Laban

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of the Sheriff's police. Parents kept closer watch on their children,

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and students locked their doors at night. In a town

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where such precautions once felt unnecessary, the fear of a

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murderer on the loose gripped the community, at least until

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police announced they had a very specific theory of the crime.

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From the moment Donna's death was confirmed, investigators gravitated toward

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one primary suspect. They believed that whoever killed Donna likely

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knew her well. There were no obvious signs of violence

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on her body, no cuts, no bruises, no evidence of

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sexual assault, which suggested a stealthy method of killing and

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a victim who might not have seen it coming. There

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was no violence in the death, no visible signs of violence,

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which indicates they had to be close and know each other,

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observed DCAB County Sheriff Roger Scott of the killer's probable

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relationship to Donna. The autopsy result soon supported this initial hunch.

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In Perplexing Ways County Coroner Paul Van Nada's examination determined

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that Donna had been alive for at least forty eight

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hours after she vanished on October second, meaning she was

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kept alive until at least late Sunday, October fourth, before

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being killed. The cause of death was ultimately ruled as suffocation,

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likely by smothering with a pillow case or a plastic

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bag over her nose and mouth. Tiny traces of aspirated

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vomit were found in her lungs, consistent with asphyxiation, yet notably,

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no fibers or fabric debris were present in her airways,

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which would typically be expected if a cloth, pillow or

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hand had been used. This detail hinted that perhaps a

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plastic material like a bag was used to asphyxiate her,

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leaving no fibers behind. There were other bizarre findings. The

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coroner discovered that some kind of mystery substance had been

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drizzled over parts of Donna's body. What this liquid was, chemicals, food,

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or something else could not be determined, and it added

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another layer of strangeness to the crime scene. Even more

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shocking was what they found inside Donna's stomach. Some time

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in the two days before she was killed, Donna Doll

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had consumed an inordinate amount of potatoes, roughly five to

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six pounds of boiled potatoes. Investigators were utterly baffled by

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this detail. Why on earth would a young woman eat

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such a massive quantity of potatoes in one sitting? Was

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she force fed as some form of torture or control?

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Did the potatoes contain a sedative or a poison to incapacitator.

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Had Donna herself desperately eaten something peculiar under duress. The

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source and reason for the potato binge were never established,

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leaving behind a haunting question mark at the center of

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the case. Combined with the changed coat, the missing personal items,

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and the unidentified liquid the potatoes, made it clear whoever

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killed Donna had gone to elaborate perplexing lengths far beyond

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a simple murder. Still, in the midst of these puzzles,

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detectives focused on the most straightforward explanation, Donna's recent ex boyfriend,

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Charles Burke. Charles was well known to Donna's friends and family.

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He was her first serious boyfriend, a graduate student in

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mathematics at NIU, and the very person who had identified

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her body for the police. The two had dated on

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and off, but by the autumn of nineteen seventy their

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relationship was in turmoil. Donna had told friends that Charles

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was extremely possessive and that she she felt smothered by him.

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Je Alot bluntly described Charles as a possessive jerk who

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wasn't intellectually on Donna's level. Learning of Donna's interest in

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another man could well have enraged Charles, police considered the

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classic motive of jealousy. Donna was planning to leave him

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and he couldn't bear it. In the eyes of investigators,

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this scenario spurned lover Kill's girlfriend fit far more neatly

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than any far fetched theories about random killers with potato

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fetishes or satanic cults in cornfields. As one officer later

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remarked about alternate theories, quote, there was nothing else that

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made sense beyond a personal cause. Circumstantial evidence supporting the

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Charles theory began to stack up. Charles Burke lived alone

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in an apartment at suburban Estates, an area very close

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to where Donna's body was dumped on Nelson Road. He

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had even organized and led a search party of Donna's

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friends in the days she was missing, a search that

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ironically combed an area only a quarter mile from the

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spot where her body would later be found. If Charles

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had been involved orchestrating a nearly successful search that just

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barely missed the corpse is an unnerving detail. Moreover, the

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fact that Donna showed no defensive wounds or signs of

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struggle made detective suspect she initially trusted her assailant enough

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to be in close quarters with him. Perhaps someone had

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lured her into a car or home under friendly pretenses,

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then held her captive. The timeline from the autopsy suggested

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Donna was alive for a couple of days after her disappearance,

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which aligns with the idea that her killer kept her

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hidden before ultimately suffocating her. Such behavior, restraining a victim

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without immediate violence, seemed more likely the work of a

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jilted acquaintance than a random predator. When authorities publicly revealed

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that Charles Burke was their prime suspect, his reaction only

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intensified suspicions. On October twentieth, nineteen seventy, the Decab County

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Sheriff announced to the press that a certain individual, never

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officially named in the newspapers, but clearly referring to Charles,

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was under scrutiny in the US Dull case. That very night,

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Charles attempted to take his own life by slashing his wrists.

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He survived with only superficial wounds, and before even being

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discharged from the University health clinic, he secured an attorney,

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Edward Dietrich. Dietrich later told the press that his client

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had been quite emotionally disturbed by Donna's death and stressed

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that Charles was being extremely cooperative with investigators, spending twenty

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out of twenty four hours working with the police and

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even volunteering to take a polygraph test to assert his innocence. Indeed,

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Charles was never charged due to lack of hard evidence

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tying him to the crime. Investigators had hunches and circumstantial clues,

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but no eye witness, no murder weapon, no forensic proof

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that definitively implicated him. In an eerie PostScript to their relationship,

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Charles Burke served as a pallbearer at Donna's funeral, and

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she was buried wearing a pair of ear rings he

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had given her To those who suspected him. It was

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a chilling sight, the alleged killer helping carry his victim's casket,

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the woman he could not let go of, even in death.

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Charles later moved away from decabre and eventually built a

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successful career as a financial consultant in Chicago. Decades after

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the murder, a reporter managed to contact him for comment.

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Charles tersely replied, quote, I have no comment, before hanging

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up the phone. Officially, he remains the only only publicly

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identified suspect in Donna Doll's murder, though he has maintained

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his innocence and authorities never found enough evidence to arrest him.

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If Charles wasn't Donna's killer, then who was. Over the years,

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a few alternative theories have surfaced, but none have been corroborated.

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The man from Pittsburgh, Donna's would be new boyfriend, was

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questioned and had a solid alibi, as he hadn't even

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been in Illinois at the time. Some have speculated about

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a possible connection to another unsolved case, for instance, the

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bizarre death of Elizabeth Lightfoot in nineteen seventy five, who

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also had an unexplained large quantity of potatoes in her stomach,

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but there is no hard evidence linking the two incidents

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beyond the very strange coincidence. By all accounts, Donna's murder

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appeared to be a singular tragedy, not the work of

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a serial offender. The phantom phone calls to her parents

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suggest someone was taunting the family, possibly the killer himself,

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but even those calls stopped after her body was found,

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and investigators could never trace them. Critical pieces of the puzzle,

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like Donna's missing trench coat, shoes, and purse, have never

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been recovered. Why would a killer take those items, perhaps

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as trophies or to hide the evidence? For instance, if

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the coat or purse had blood or fibers on them.

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And what about the clean blue jacket she was found wearing.

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Did the murderer dress her in it after killing her,

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and if so, for what purpose? Each unanswered question only

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deepens the darkness surrounding the case. In the absence of

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definitive proof, speculation must be clearly separated from fact. The

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fact is that Donna Dahl was suffocated to death and

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left in a cornfield after apparently being held for a

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short period and fed an unusual last meal of potatoes.

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The fact is that police strongly suspected her ex boyfriend,

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but could not prove their case. Anything beyond that motives

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detailed scenarios of how the crime unfolded. It all remains conjecture.

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Perhaps Charles committed the perfect crime of passion, or perhaps

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someone else close to Donna saw an opportunity and acted

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on it, disguising their deed with bizarre flourishes to mislead investigators.

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All we know for sure is that Donna did not

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go gently. Suffocation is a long, terrifying way to die.

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It can take minutes of desperate struggle as the victim's

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air supply is cut off. It's a crime that often

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points to intimate personal anger, as it requires subduing someone

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at close range. If Donna's killer truly forced her to

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eat pounds of potatoes beforehand, one can only imagine the

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torment and fear she endured in her final hours. More

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than half a century has now passed since that autumn

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night and the murder by Potato's case, as it's become

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known in lurid true crime lore, it remains unsolved. The

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file on Donna dol sits in the Decab County Sheriff's Office,

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encapsulated in binders and boxes, awaiting a break that has

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yet to come. Over the years, investigators have periodically reopened

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the case, hoping new forensic techniques or a long burdened

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conscience might yield fresh evidence. So far, nothing definitive has surfaced.

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Donna's story continues to haunt those who remember her. In

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a twenty ten interview marking forty years since the murder,

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Donna Sherlot, then sixty one years old, said she still

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sometimes thought she spotted her friend's face in crowds, flashes

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of the woman Donna might have grown up to be.

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She imagined that Donna would have fulfilled her dream of

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becoming an inspiring teacher and leading a happy, productive life

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had fate not intervened, the pain of not knowing what

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really happened or seeing justice done has lingered for Donna's

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family and friends. Her parents went to their graves without answers. Today,

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the legacy of the Donna Doll case endures as a

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cautionary tale and a cold case mystery. It's a story

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retold in hushed tones on campus and examined by Internet

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sleuths and podcasters drawn to its unsettling details. The phrase

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murder by potatoes sounds almost absurd until you learn what

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it signifies. Then it becomes chilling. One of the few

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theories about why the potatoes were there in the first

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place suggests that a killer had used the potatoes in

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order to obscure the time of death, since at the time,

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stomach contents were often used to calculate how long since

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the person had passed away. The bizarre clues, the small

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town setting, and the image of a bright young woman's

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life cut short combine into a narrative that is both

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tragic and eerily compelling. For the people of Dacabre, nineteen

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seventy will forever be remembered as the year innocence was

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lost in their farm country college town, and for true

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crime officionados, the question will always remain who killed Donna

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Doll and why? Until that question is answered, Donna's case

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remains an open wound. Detectives still hold out hope that

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someone somewhere will come forward with information to crack the case,

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even after all these years, But as of twenty twenty five,

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after fifty five years of silence, Donna's killer is still

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at large and her story is left without an ending.

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Each passing Halloween, the time when Donna expected a special

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visitor from Pittsburgh. Serves as a grim reminder of a

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promise unfulfilled, a life that ended in mystery, and a

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puzzle that continues to confound Donna. Dol's memory lives on

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in the hearts of those who knew her, and her

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case stands as one of Illinois's most perplexing unsolved murders.

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In the end, we are left with only the facts

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and the questions. A devoted student disappeared into the night.

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Nine days later, she was found dead with six pounds

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of potatoes in her stomach and not a single answer

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as to what happened. The truth, buried as deeply as

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Donna's secrets, remains locked away, perhaps known only to Donna

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and her killer. For now, all anyone can do is remember, wonder,

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and hope that someday this eerie tale of Murder by

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Potatoes will finally reach its conclusion. Terrifying and True as

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narrated by Enrique Kuto, its executive produced by Rob Fields

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00:32:54.680 --> 00:32:58.319
and bobble Topia dot Com, and produced by Dan Wilder

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00:32:58.440 --> 00:33:01.599
with original theme music by Mattis. If you have a

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story you think we should cover on Terrifying and True,

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send us an email at Weekly Spooky at gmail dot com,

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And they are Johnny Nix, Kate and Lulu, Jessica Fuller,

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and Craig Cohen. Thank you all so much and thank

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you for listening. We'll see you all right here next

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time on Terrifying and True