On the last day of 1975, a 19-year-old college student named Michael Mansfield was at his parents' home in Rolling Meadows, Illinois, for the holiday break. A 1974 graduate of Rolling Meadows High School, Michael was studying at Lincoln College where he worked at the campus radio station and dreamed of becoming a music director. He was known to frequent record stores in the area. That afternoon, at approximately 2:00 p.m., the phone rang at his family's residence in the 3900 block of Gull Court. After the call, Michael told his mother he was going out to visit a friend in Arlington Heights and would be back in about an hour. He left the house wearing a tan buckskin coat with a fleece collar, a brown print shirt, blue jeans or light brown pants, and white tennis shoes, leaving his wallet behind. Michael Mansfield was never seen or heard from again.
Michael's disappearance occurred just six days before he was scheduled to testify in court against his former college roommate, Russell Smrekar. Smrekar had been charged with burglary and petty theft, accused of stealing a guitar and 80 record albums from a women's dormitory at Lincoln College. Michael was a key witness in the case, as he had seen Smrekar with the stolen items in their shared room. Fearing he might be implicated, Michael had initially hidden the items. While he was at first charged with hiding evidence, the charges were dropped in exchange for his testimony against Smrekar. Michael had already testified before the college's judicial board, which resulted in Smrekar's expulsion.
For decades, Michael's family was left without answers. His parents eventually moved to Florida, and his mother passed away in 2014, never knowing what became of her son. The case took a significant turn in October 2011 when Russell Smrekar, who was by then serving a lengthy prison sentence for a 1976 double murder, made a deathbed confession. Shortly before dying of a terminal illness, Smrekar admitted to killing both Michael Mansfield and another witness, Ruth Martin, who also disappeared before she could testify against him in a separate case. Following Smrekar's confession, investigators closed the missing persons cases for both Mansfield and Martin, although Smrekar did not reveal the location of their remains. In early 2017, based on credible leads, police conducted an extensive search of a residential property in Will County connected to Smrekar's relatives, but no human remains were found. Despite the confession, the body of Michael Mansfield has never been recovered, leaving his loved ones with an incomplete and painful sense of closure.Last Seen: Dec 31, 1975
