Wilma June Nissen

Wilma June Nissen, Age 20, 1974

Wilma June Nissen

Homicide

Wilma June Nissen
23 YOA
Rock Rapids, Iowa
Lyon County, Iowa
Case Number: 78-06487
October 4, 1978

 

UPDATE

Suspect sought in 1978 cold case murder of Wilma Nissen

Lyon County Chief Deputy Jerry Birkey announced May 2, 2016, a major development in the 38-year-old cold case of Wilma June Nissen, the woman found in a country road ditch in October 1978.

Investigators released a photo of one of the women they believe is responsible for Wilma Nissen’s death.

“Our suspect was an escort, a prostitute, a dancer, who liked to rob other escorts, prostitutes and dancers,” Birkey said in a KSFY story that aired May 2, describing the motive for Wilma Nissen’s murder as robbery.


$10,000 Reward

There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for the death of Wilma June Nissen.

For more information, please visit Wilma’s page at the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office.


Lyon County in Iowa
Lyon County in Iowa
 
Rock Rapids in Lyon CountyRock Rapids in Lyon County

On Wednesday morning, Oct. 4, 1978, a telephone company employee laying cable along Highway 182 near West Lyon School in Lyon County, Iowa, stumbled upon a body.

Unrecognizable due to decomposition, the body lay in a ditch on the north side of the gravel road one mile south and one and one-half miles west of the school.

“Jane Doe” went unidentified for nearly three decades.

On Jan. 31, 2006, a Des Moines laboratory technician matched Jane Doe’s left thumbprint to a print card from the Los Angles Police Department, and Lyon County officials suddenly had a name — Wilma June Nissen.

don-wellington-nissen-LCSO Courtesy Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Donald Wellington in 2000. Though he is not a suspect in this case, investigators would like to speak to him if located. He is believed to be living in the Palmdale, Calif. area.

Lyon County officials have offered a $10,000 reward for information about Nissen’s homicide, and also have in-depth biographical details about Nissen’s life on their Wilma June Nissen web site.

Investigators would like to speak to one of Nissen’s ex-husbands, Donald Eugene Wellington (date of birth 5-10-48), about her case. Don is believed to be in the Palmdale, Calif. area, and although the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said he is not a suspect in the case, they would still like to speak to him if located.

Nissen’s other ex-husband, Michael Pizzaro Sr., died in 1989 in Key West, Fla.

The following September 2007 article by Dolly Butz, published in the Sioux City Journal, provides a comprehensive overview of Nissen’s still unsolved murder. The Journal has published numerous other articles on this case — including reports about the body’s exhumation in 2007 — which are listed at the bottom of this page.


From The Sioux City Journal

Looking for buried answers

Sunday, September 16, 2007

By Dolly A. Butz, Journal staff writer

Blythe Bloemendaal is on a mission.

For years, the Lyon County sheriff tried to identify Wilma June Nissen, a young woman who was brutally murdered in 1978 and left to rot in a rural Rock Rapids, Iowa, ditch. Now, having affixed a name to Nissen’s pink granite headstone, Bloemendaal is on the trail of her killer.

Nissen was known only as “Jane Doe” until Jan. 31, 2006, when a Des Moines laboratory technician found a match between her left thumbprint and a print card from the Los Angeles Police Department. Bloemendaal believes clues to how the 23-year-old died may lie in her coffin, buried deep in the earth. He hopes that after Nissen’s remains are exhumed Tuesday they will speak to a forensic anthropologist and help him bring justice to a woman he never met but whose life and death he can’t dismiss.

“Wilma was a human being and deserves to be handled that way, not just in life but now in death. Wilma deserves an end to this, and I am going to give that to her.”

Sheriff Blythe BloemendaalCourtesy photo Sioux City Journal
Lyon County Sheriff Blythe Bloemendaal examines photos from the Wilma June Nissen case.

Solving the nearly 29-year-old cold case has consumed Bloemendaal. Since he was elected sheriff in 2001, he has never closed the case file. Why does he care so much about a troubled young woman who may never have lived a day in his county?

The question brings a smile to Bloemendaal’s face. Chuckling, he pauses for a moment and looks down at the papers and empty coffee mugs strewn about his desk.

“It’s a homicide,” he says. “It happened in my county. This is my job, and I will not drop it.”

Bloemendaal admits there isn’t a day that goes by that he doesn’t think about the case. A paper timeline of Nissen’s life stretching across his office wall constantly reminds him of a murder unsolved.

“So many cases like this become difficult, and you feel like you’re beating your head against a wall,” he says. “You have a tendency to put it in a drawer and there it will sit for months and years and never get looked at. It’s on my wall. I can’t allow that to happen.”

There is no doubt this case is personal to Bloemendaal. From researching Nissen’s life, he feels as if he knew her.

“You just get to a point in time where you think you know them well enough that you can almost describe how they feel on a certain day,” he says. “You just get to a point where you think you actually know her.”

The details of Nissen’s life are sketchy, but some fragments have emerged. She was born Oct. 19, 1954, in San Francisco to Charles and June Nissen. When Nissen was 8 years old, her mother abandoned her and her sister Mona, who is unable to hear or speak.

While in their father’s custody, the girls were neglected. They did not attend school and were locked in a bedroom closet while their father worked. At age 10 Nissen could not read, write or eat with a fork.

wilma-june-nissen-rewardWhen Nissen’s father lost his job the neglect escalated. The family moved into a car. While Nissen scoured the streets for food, Mona was confined to the car’s trunk.

“This girl, if it wasn’t for bad luck wouldn’t have any luck,” Bloemendaal says. “If Wilma was here today growing up as a child, you would feel so sorry for her. You’d want to just pick her up and take her home.”

In 1964, California authorities removed Nissen and her sister from their father’s care. Nissen traveled to a handful of foster homes in search of a loving family. She lived with her final foster family for several years.

As a young adult, Nissen, whose nickname was “Boots,” hitchhiked from place to place. She resorted to prostitution as a means of survival when she is believed to have been married to Donald Wellington. In the summer of 1977 Nissen married Robert Irvin and gave birth to a daughter, Crystal Joy Irvin. In February of 1978 Nissen left California and was living in another state, Georgia, for the first time. She traveled to Atlanta with a 54-year-old man named Charles Inman Belt. Belt, the last known person to have seen Nissen alive, told detectives Nissen left his mother’s apartment just a few days after arriving in Atlanta. On Oct. 4, 1978, Nissen’s body was found in Lyon County.

When discussing Nissen’s lifestyle, Bloemendaal presses his fingertips together. His words are firm. His gaze is intent. In Bloemendaal’s office, justice does not discriminate.

“A crime is a crime, regardless of who the victim is, regardless of who the bad guy is,” he says. “They all deserve your best effort. And this will get our best effort come hell or high water. And as far as I’m concerned, come hell or high water this will get solved, period. I accept nothing less.”

The crime scene

A woman lies face down in a grassy ditch approximately 20 feet from a rural gravel road. Tall browning weeds conceal her decaying body. She is wearing light green denim pants, bikini style underwear, white patent leather calf-length boots and a silver ring with gold indentation on her right ring finger. She is naked from the waist up. Her feet are tied together with a braided hemp rope.

Searching crime scene area Courtesy photo Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
A crime scene team searches the surrounding area for Nissen’s missing jaw and teeth and other belongings.

On the morning of Oct. 4, 1978, a telephone company employee stumbled upon Wilma June Nissen’s body while laying cable near West Lyon School, on Highway 182. The body was found one mile south and one and a half miles west of the school on the north side of the gravel road.

Nissen’s body, which investigators believe was dumped between July and August of that year, was so severely decomposed that her face was unrecognizable. Her lower jaw was missing, and only two whole teeth remained in her skull.

A crime scene search team scoured the road and the surrounding area for Nissen’s clothing and belongings and sifted the dirt in the ditch for her missing jaw and teeth, but officers found nothing of an evidentiary nature.

“In every crime scene something is taken and something is left behind,” Bloemendaal says. “At this crime scene, everything left behind seems to be personal to Wilma, not personal to the killer.”

Today, Nissen’s remains will have to tell the story of how she died and who killed her. No evidence was present at the scene except for her body, her clothing and a rope, a fact Bloemendaal has not made public until now. Based on the position of Nissen’s body, he believes the rope was used to pull her into the ditch from a nearby area or a vehicle. Bloemendaal says she was not killed at that particular spot.

“That’s why her arms come forward, her hands are forward and her hair is forward,” he says. “The body is being drug by the feet into the ditch. To me it’s an obvious sign that the body is deceased, being drug face down.”

In the 1978 autopsy report, a medical examiner noted a dislocation of Nissen’s right elbow and a “suggestion” of a dislocation of her cervical vertebra, which could have occurred after death. This information is significant to Bloemendaal because he believes it shows Nissen may have struggled with her killer.

“I think that the possibility is high by the dislocation, by the fact that her hands are free,” he says. “If this is a person capable of fighting back, there may be DNA under (her fingernails).”

The fact that Nissen’s pants and underwear were wrapped around her left leg indicts that a sex act may have occurred before she died, according to Bloemendaal. Taking Nissen’s life into account, as well as the crime scene, he contends the sex act may have been willing in the beginning but then turned violent. If such an event did occur, investigators also have a chance of collecting DNA when Nissen’s body is exhumed.

“This has a sexual assault or rape atmosphere to it, which means, if in fact that rape did occur, the deposit of DNA was made,” Bloemendaal says. “Now it’s a matter of, did the elements in the length of time of her being there prevent us from finding it now?”

Exhuming Wilma's body Courtesy Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Nissen’s body was exhumed in September 2007 with hopes that DNA testing would reveal more about her death.

If a forensic anthropologist can determine a cause of death, a nationwide data information center called VICAP, or Violent Criminal Apprehension Program, could aid investigators in finding Nissen’s killer.

After Nissen was identified in January 2006, Bloemendaal submitted information about her murder to VICAP, which collects, collates and analyzes violent crimes for similarities. With a cause of death, Bloemendaal says, VICAP could narrow or grow his list of eight suspects.

“It will open up the field for us for how many people committed crimes that have similar consistencies, so how she was killed is now very important so that we can open that database for other people for us to look at,” he says.

The VICAP submission also led Bloemendaal to seek the assistance of an FBI profiler. The case file is currently in the hands of a profiler who is working to identify characteristics of the killer based on the crime scene and the manner of death. Bloemendaal says discussions with the profiler pushed him to exhume Nissen’s body. He also asked the profiler to have the FBI laboratory in Quantico, Va., conduct DNA testing on Nissen’s clothing and the rope tied around her feet.

“I think that you and I have a better chance at winning the lotto than us getting DNA, but I also know that I had to do it,” he says. “You can’t just not do it.”

Traces of a killer

In the basement of the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, Bloemendaal slides a pair of blue latex gloves over his hands. He opens a freezer door and removes a package wrapped in crinkled white paper. His footsteps echo as he walks to a makeshift table and gently unfolds the stained, tattered and torn pants Nissen was wearing when her body was found lying in the ditch. A musty odor fills the air. It is the smell of death.

Although evidence personal to the killer was washed away from the crime scene by rain or blown away by wind, Bloemendaal continues the search for traces of Nissen’s killer on her clothing and her body.

“I think DNA may become a larger factor here in the near future if we’re capable of pulling off some DNA tests that we’ve asked to have conducted,” he says. “It may play a huge role in this case.”

Crystal Haas visits her mother's graveCourtesy photo Sioux City Journal
Nissen’s daughter, Crystal Haas, arranges flowers at her mother’s gravesite.

The odds of finding a biological blueprint of the killer will depend upon the condition of Nissen’s remains, according to Deputy Iowa State Medical Examiner Dennis Klein.

“It would really depend on what you’re looking for and, say, in an exhumation, what the condition of the remains are when it is recovered,” he says. “If it’s dry, versus being wet, it would make a huge difference.”

Klein says samples of DNA from Nissen’s remains will be collected just like trace evidence is collected from a crime scene. The material will be swabbed, preserved and processed at the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) Criminalistics Laboratory in Ankeny. If the DNA is viable, the laboratory will then create a profile.

That DNA profile can be entered into the FBI laboratory’s Combined DNA Index System, CODIS, which generates leads from biological evidence collected at crime scenes. A DNA match in the CODIS offender index, which contains the DNA profiles of convicted sex offenders, could identify Nissen’s killer.

Nissen’s pants and underwear were previously tested for blood and semen, and DCI laboratory technicians were unable to identify either. Her fingernails were recently removed from her preserved hands and sent to the DCI laboratory for testing, which has not been completed.

“The DNA under her fingernails would be gigantic, and would take us so much closer,” Bloemendaal says. “We’ll probably need just a little more to be making an arrest, but it will have taken us miles versus inches.”

No matter what, Bloemendaal will go forward.

Who killed Wilma June Nissen?
John Van GammerenCourtesy photo Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
John VanGammeren, 82, of Inwood, Iowa was arrested in August 2009 and charged with six counts of perjury for lying to investigators about transporting strippers and prostitutes from Sioux Falls to his home. Nissen’s body was found in the ditch near 190th and Cherry streets near Inwood. The charges were later dismissed after VanGammeren provided truthful statements under oath.

Sheriff Bloemendaal holds a suspect list containing eight names. All eight suspects are alive; several are incarcerated. Of the suspects not currently incarcerated, all but two have a criminal background. Bloemendaal said the list was compiled over the years in a number of ways.

Throughout the investigation, Bloemendaal said, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office has been in contact with other law enforcement agencies working on similar crimes.

“Those (suspects), if they were in this region, were looked at because of the proximity to where their crime was in relationship to could they have been in this area,” he said.

Bloemendaal said investigators also studied associates of Nissen, as well as anyone who could have come into contact with her on the road from Atlanta to Lyon County.

He hopes determining a cause of death or finding the killer’s DNA will help him narrow or add to his suspect list.

Copyright © 2009 siouxcityjournal.com

When the Iowa DCI established a Cold Case Unit in 2009, Wilma Nissen’s murder was one of approximately 150 cases listed on the Cold Case Unit’s new website as those the DCI hoped to solve using latest advancements in DNA technology.

suspect-in-wilma-nissen-caseCourtesy Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office released this photo May 2, 2016, of the woman they believe is responsible for killing Wilma June Nissen.

Although federal grant funding for the DCI Cold Case Unit was exhausted in December 2011, the DCI continues to assign agents to investigate cold cases as new leads develop or as technological advances allow for additional forensic testing of original evidence.

The DCI remains committed to the resolution of Iowa’s cold cases and will continue to work diligently with local law enforcement partners to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice for the victims and their families.

Lyon County Chief Deputy Jerry Birkey announced May 2, 2016, a major development in the 38-year-old cold case of Wilma June Nissen, the woman found in a country road ditch in October 1978.

Investigators released a photo of one of the women they believe is responsible for Wilma Nissen’s death.

“Our suspect was an escort, a prostitute, a dancer, who liked to rob other escorts, prostitutes and dancers,” Birkey said in a KSFY story that aired May 2, describing the motive for Wilma Nissen’s murder as robbery. Visit KSFY.com for the whole story and video.

KELO-TV reports on the arrest of John VanGammeren, 82, of Inwood, Iowa, for lying to investigators while being questioned about the unsolved murder of Wilma June Nissen. Air Date: August 28, 2009

About Wilma June Nissen

Wilma June Nissen was born to Charles Clarence Nissen and June Simmons Bradford in San Francisco on Oct. 19, 1954.

wilma-nissen-donald-wellington-LCSO
Courtesy photo Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Wilma and Donald Wellington on their wedding day in August 1973.

Wilma’s father died in 1986, and June married several times and had the last names of Cummings, Anderson, and Long prior to her death in 2003 in Magna, Utah.

Wilma lived with Marshall and Maxine Holte in Anaheim, Calif., in 1964 until 1966. She was placed in several other foster homes until 1967 when she went to live with Vincent and Alice Haas — her final foster parents — in Seal Beach, Calif.

Wilma married Donald Eugene Wellington in Calif. on Aug. 5, 1973, and they lived in the Hollywood area.

On May 10, 1974, Wilma gave birth to Michael Pizzaro Jr. in San Diego.

She gave birth to Donald Wellington Jr. on Dec. 12, 1974.

wilma-nissen-michael-pizzaro-sr-LCSOCourtesy photo Lyon County Sheriff’s Office
Wilma and Michael Pizzaro Sr. with newborn son Michael Pizzaro Jr. in 1974.

Investigators believe Wilma was living with Don Wellington until October 1975, at which time she was living in Long Beach with Robert Irvin.

On May 11, 1976, Wilma and Robert Irvin lived at 4922 Paramount in Lakewood, Calif. On Jan. 7, 1977, they were residing at 725 East 6th St. in Long Beach.

Wilma and Robert married on June 21, 1977, and were living and working at a shop located at the intersection of Bellflower and Artesia in Bellflower, Calif.

Wilma gave birth to Crystal (Irvin) Haas at a Long Beach hospital on Aug. 18, 1977. Vince and Alice Haas adopted Crystal (Krissi) shortly after her birth.

After Crystal’s birth, investigators believe Wilma went to San Diego, where for a short time she lived in a camper parked on the street near 751 5th Ave. and also met Charles Inman Belt. By Feb. 17, 1978, Wilma and Charles were living with Charles’ mother, Juanita Belt, at 582 Techwood Drive (Roosevelt House) in Atlanta, Ga.

Inman, who currently resides in Tijuana, Mexico, told investigators that Wilma left his residence and he never saw her again. He said he thought she went back to the San Diego area, although investigators were unable to confirm it.

Although Wilma’s remains were discovered Oct. 4, 1978, investigators believe she was killed and placed at the scene in June or July of 1978. The Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said it is imperative that investigators find information regarding Wilma for the months between February and July of 1978.

Wilma’s ex-husband, Donald Wellington, is not a suspect in the case but investigators would like to speak to him. They believe he is living in the Palmdale, Calif., area.

wilma-nissen-gravestoneCourtesy photo Kathy Bingner-Koehn, findagrave.com
Wilma Nissen is buried in the Riverview Cemetery in Rock Rapids in Lyon County, Iowa.

In addition to her married names of Wilma Wellington and Wilma Irvin, Wilma would sometimes use aliases including Amy Irvin, Amy Belt, Wilma Belt, or Amy Nissen, the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office said.

Memorial services for Wilma June Nissen were held June 3, 2006, at Riverview Cemetery in Rock Rapids, Iowa. Father Jeff Schleisman, pastor at Holy Name in Rock Rapids and St. Mary’s in Larchwood, presided.

Wilma’s former foster parents, Marshall and Maxine Holte, attended the service, as did Craig Binson, the Lyon County sheriff when Nissen was found.

Reward Offered for Information

There is a $10,000 reward offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction of the person or persons responsible for Wilma Nissen’s death.

The ANONYMOUS HOTLINE is 712-472-8334.

Additional Contact Information:

  • Detective Jerry Birkey, Lyon County Sheriff’s Office, (712) 472-8300
  • Special Agent J.R. Mathis, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, (712) 252-0507

Please visit Lyon County’s Wilma June Nissen Web site for more details about the case and the reward.

Sources and Additional References:

14 Responses to Wilma June Nissen

  1. Laura Benson says:

    I found this on a list on a website called
    THE LINEUP. Thought the peach tattoo might be significant

    6. Girl with the Peach Tattoo
    The body of this murdered woman was found by a hiker in a wooded section of Long Island, New York in 1997. It was missing both arms, both feet and its head. But there was one very identifiable mark: a tattoo on the left breast. It showed a heart-shaped peach with a bite taken out of it and two drops of juice.
    Police published a picture of the tattoo and a tattoo artist came forward to say he remembered giving it to a young woman from the New York area. In 2016, investigators linked other skeletal remains found on Long Island to the torso with the peach tatton It is now believed she may have been an es
    Top
    victim of the Long Island Serial Killer, also remains unidentified.
    the-line-up.com

  2. Rick Hilmer says:

    Around 1966, I spent three days in the San Francisco Children’s Hospital for a tonsillectomy (yes, that was a three day thing back then). Wilma’s sister Mona was there at the same time. I was totally transfixed by her just sitting there in a wheelchair, just staring off into space most of the time. The nurses told me that she “lived” at the hospital and I tried to talk my parents into adopting her. I never forgot her and was shocked when I heard Wilma’s story on “The Trail Went Cold.” I reached out to Robin Warder about this and he told me that Mona ended up living in a group home in Southern California for her adult life. What a sad story.

  3. Phyllis McGowan says:

    Sweet heart I pray you get the answers you are looking for there’s Way to many lost.out there God be with you

  4. Jeremiah Baustian says:

    The Trail Went Cold just did in episode in March on this case. I guess her daughter has been very active on Reddit and with reaching out to podcasts to garner attention for her mom’s case.

  5. Patrick Kerrigan says:

    CJ, thanks for the update. I wonder if the Lyons County Sheriff, ever posted the picture of their suspect to other agencies around the country. I am sure some agency dealt with her based on her background.

  6. Patrick Kerrigan says:

    It appears from some online records that Donald Eugene Wellington, may be deceased, but others show him as being 70 years old, with addresses in Palmdale and Pleasanton, California. So, which one is correct.

    • CJ says:

      He is deceased.. since 09..there is more than one person with that name in that same area. I verified by his dob that it was him.

  7. Patrick Kerrigan says:

    I wonder if they ever tracked down her ex-husband Donald Wellington. I am impressed t that Sheriff Bloemendaalm took the bull by the horn to solve this case. It’s important to someone and sends a message that his department will take the necessary actions to find and charge the offender in this case.

  8. Diana Wilson says:

    I remember reading about her. Thank you for considering her worth your time.

  9. Sandy R says:

    I’m confused about the births of her sons..both in the same year, 7 months apart?

  10. Dezirae says:

    Faceboo.com/donwellington1 looks like the same guy possibly

  11. Lisa Kuzela says:

    Interesting case! Wondering if the dates of her two births in 1974 are correct.

  12. I am so sorry prayers all the way. U wish i could help.

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