In the late summer of 2007, the quiet life of 66-year-old Donald 'Don' Leo Dietz was drawing to an unsettling close. A resident of Saranac, Michigan, Don was a man of simple habits and predictable routines. Known affectionately by locals as the 'Bicycle Man,' he was a familiar sight, pedaling his way through town for errands, regardless of the season. Don lived a frugal and solitary existence in a trailer nestled on a remote 20-acre property near the Ionia State Game Area. Despite having amassed a significant amount of money in his bank accounts, he lived modestly, even patching his shoes with duct tape. The last confirmed sighting of this gentle and unassuming man was on September 8, 2007, when he was seen riding his bicycle home from a Meijer store. The official date of his last contact is listed as September 10, 2007, but the days surrounding his disappearance are shrouded in vagueness. It is believed he was abducted from his secluded home, a place that should have been his sanctuary. His family noted that he was a shy and vulnerable individual, possibly autistic though never diagnosed, who generally avoided close contact with others.
The circumstances leading up to Don's disappearance painted a grim picture. In the week before he vanished, he confided in his barber, expressing a palpable fear for his life. He spoke of a man who was aggressively pressuring him to invest his money, someone who wouldn't take no for an answer and had become threatening. Don revealed that he had given this person access to his bank accounts and that the man had even visited his home, leaving Don with the terrifying feeling of being followed. When his family checked his trailer after he went missing, they found nothing out of place except for some of his financial papers. Worryingly, his prescription eyeglasses, a daily necessity, had been left behind. The investigation into his disappearance soon uncovered a sinister plot to steal his identity and life savings.
The investigation led authorities to two individuals, Rami Saba and his friend, Raogo Ouedraogo. It was discovered that Saba had been stealing Don's identity, cashing checks in his name and attempting to transfer nearly half a million dollars from Don's account to an account in Lebanon. A disturbing phone call was made to Don's brother on September 30, where a man with a foreign accent, pretending to be Don, spun a tale about getting a girl pregnant and having a stroke, all in an effort to get help accessing Don's money. The call ended abruptly when the imposter couldn't answer a simple security question. Both Saba and Ouedraogo were eventually charged in connection with Don's disappearance and presumed murder. Saba was convicted on multiple counts, including bank fraud and identity theft, and sentenced to a lengthy prison term. Ouedraogo's legal journey was more complex; he was initially convicted of murder, but the verdict was later overturned by a judge, though he was sentenced to five years for conspiracy to commit murder-for-hire. Despite these convictions and the strong belief that he was kidnapped and murdered, Donald Dietz's body has never been found, and he was legally declared dead in 2010. The case remains a painful open wound for his family, who continue to hope for the day they can bring him home for a proper burial.
Donald Leo “Don” Dietz was a 66-year-old man who disappeared from the Saranac, Michigan, area on September 10, 2007. Known around the community as the “Bicycle Man” because he did not drive and routinely traveled by bicycle, Don was last publicly reported seen at a Meijer store in Ionia. He lived alone in a secluded house near the Ionia State Game Area, leading a quiet and modest life that gave little outward indication of the substantial retirement savings he had accumulated. When Don failed to appear around town and could not be reached, concern grew quickly. His prescription glasses were still beside his bed, an important detail because he needed them to see, and investigators found no indication that he had packed belongings or prepared to leave home voluntarily. What initially appeared to be a vulnerable older man’s disappearance soon developed into a federal kidnapping, fraud and presumed-murder investigation.
Don was approximately five feet ten inches tall and weighed about 155 pounds, with short gray hair and brown eyes. He was retired, unmarried and known for living frugally and independently. Although his daily life appeared simple, he had amassed retirement savings approaching half a million dollars. Federal court records later described him as a reclusive man with relatively few close social connections, circumstances prosecutors believed made him vulnerable to someone searching for a victim whose disappearance might not be immediately detected. Don’s bicycle was such a familiar part of his identity that residents recognized him as he traveled through the area, yet no reliable public account described him riding away from Saranac or beginning any planned journey after his final sighting.
The investigation eventually focused on Rami Ikbal Saba, a former insurance salesman from nearby Lowell. Saba had met Don in the summer of 2006 while working as a sales representative for Bankers Life Insurance. During his dealings with Don, Saba learned the extent of the older man’s savings and visited his rural residence. Prosecutors later argued that this access gave Saba both knowledge of Don’s financial position and an understanding of his isolated lifestyle. Rather than being a random disappearance, authorities came to believe that Don had been deliberately selected as the target of a plan to kidnap him, take control of his identity and steal his money.
A second man, Raogo Ouedraogo, became linked to the investigation through his longstanding association with Saba. Ouedraogo was working as a medical researcher in Philadelphia, but evidence showed that he had visited Saba several times during 2007. Telephone records also placed him in the Saranac area around the period when Don vanished. Federal prosecutors maintained that Saba was the central figure in the scheme and that Ouedraogo knowingly helped him carry it out. Before Don disappeared, Saba purchased pepper spray and a stun gun, items the government later cited as evidence of preparation for an abduction. Investigators believed the two men intended to seize Don, gain access to his finances and prevent him from exposing the fraud.
After Don vanished, attempts were made to access and transfer his savings using fraudulent documents and stolen identifying information. Saba assumed Don’s identity and attempted to convince financial institutions that he was entitled to control the missing man’s accounts. He also impersonated Don in communications intended to make others believe Don was still alive and had voluntarily left the area. According to the government’s case, these acts were not separate crimes committed after an unexplained disappearance; they were part of the same plan that had begun with Don being targeted because of his money. Financial records, identity documents, communications and the movements of the defendants allowed investigators to reconstruct portions of the plot even though they could not locate Don himself.
Federal prosecutors charged Saba and Ouedraogo with offenses that included conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit kidnapping, attempted bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and kidnapping resulting in death. The men were tried separately. A federal jury convicted Saba of kidnapping and financial crimes connected to Don’s disappearance. At sentencing, the court treated Don as presumed dead but noted that the evidence did not establish precisely how, when or where he died. Saba received a sentence of 389 months in federal prison, a term of more than 32 years. An appellate court later reviewed the sentencing decision and discussed the government’s contention that the kidnapping had caused Don’s death, while recognizing that his body had never been recovered and the manner of his presumed killing remained unknown.
Ouedraogo’s legal proceedings were more complicated. A jury initially found him guilty of conspiracy to commit bank fraud, conspiracy to commit kidnapping and kidnapping resulting in death. The trial court later overturned those convictions for insufficient evidence. On appeal, however, the Sixth Circuit reinstated the conspiracy convictions while leaving the acquittal on the substantive kidnapping-resulting-in-death charge intact. Ouedraogo was ultimately sentenced to five years in federal prison for his role in the conspiracies. The appellate outcome meant that he remained criminally responsible for joining the plans to kidnap Don and steal his money, although the courts did not sustain a conviction finding him guilty of personally committing the kidnapping that resulted in Don’s death.
Despite the convictions and the extensive federal case, investigators were never able to determine where Don had been taken. Searches and investigative leads failed to recover his remains, and the defendants did not provide a publicly verified location. The secluded areas surrounding Saranac, including forests, waterways, farmland and the state game area, presented many possible places where evidence could have been concealed. Without Don’s body, investigators could not establish his cause of death or reconstruct the final moments of his life. The absence of those answers also meant that his relatives could not bring him home or give him a final resting place, even after the courts recognized that he had been the victim of a calculated kidnapping scheme.
Don’s case remains listed in NamUs because his remains have not been found. A DNA reference profile supplied by his brother was completed and made available for comparison with unidentified remains, preserving a way to identify him should he be recovered in the future. The Michigan State Police has remained associated with the investigation, and the official record continues to describe Don as missing even though federal prosecutors and courts concluded that he was kidnapped and is presumed dead. His case stands as a painful example of how a person can be legally recognized as the victim of a lethal crime while the physical search for him remains unfinished.
For the people who knew Don as the familiar man riding his bicycle through town, his disappearance revealed a hidden and devastating betrayal. His quiet habits, remote home and carefully accumulated savings were allegedly used against him by someone who had gained his confidence through financial dealings. Two men were convicted of crimes arising from the scheme, and the evidence persuaded authorities that Don had been abducted and killed for his money, yet neither prosecution answered the question most important to those who cared about him: where he was left. In overview, Donald Dietz disappeared from the Saranac area in September 2007 after being targeted for his retirement savings; Rami Saba was convicted of kidnapping and related financial crimes, Raogo Ouedraogo was convicted of participating in the kidnapping and bank-fraud conspiracies, and Don is presumed to have been murdered, but his remains have never been recovered and the final details of what was done to him remain unknown.
Last Seen: Sep 10, 2007
