Elizabeth Ann Kutz, a 30-year-old woman also known as Beth, was last seen on July 27, 2000, after leaving her workplace in DeForest, Wisconsin. Wisconsin’s missing-person clearinghouse lists her as missing from DeForest in Dane County and states that she was last seen leaving work at approximately 3:15 p.m. that day. She was a white female, 5 feet 1 inch tall and about 110 pounds, and the Charley Project describes her as having black hair, green eyes, and a scar on her forehead.
At the time she disappeared, she was reportedly wearing denim shorts with plaid or multicolored pockets, a white Winnie-the-Pooh t-shirt, white socks, tan or brown ankle boots, a gold ring with a diamond, and a Mickey Mouse wristwatch.
Beth’s disappearance began as an ordinary workday that turned into a devastating absence for her family. She had gone to work that morning at Demco in DeForest and left at 3:15 p.m., but she did not return to her mother’s home. Court records say her family reported her missing later that day, and officers began searching for Beth, for Daniel Kutz, and for the vehicles each had been driving. The Charley Project reports that Beth had been driving a borrowed green Jeep Cherokee with vanity plates reading “DIDIS,” and that the Jeep was later found abandoned in a parking ramp at Meriter Hospital in downtown Madison. Extensive searches did not locate Beth, and she has never been heard from again.
The weeks before Beth vanished were marked by turmoil and fear. Court records state that Beth and Daniel Kutz had been together for about twelve years, were married, and had two children, but were having marital problems. About a week before her disappearance, Beth moved out of the home she shared with Daniel near Poynette, Wisconsin, and took the children to live with her mother in Poynette. The Charley Project reports that Beth was afraid of Daniel, who was described as distraught over the breakup, and that on the day she disappeared she told her mother to call police if she did not arrive home within thirty minutes of leaving work. That detail gives the case a painful immediacy: Beth appeared to understand that something could happen to her, and she tried to leave behind a warning that might help protect her.
As investigators retraced the evening of July 27, 2000, they found pieces of the day scattered across Dane County. Court records say the blue Cavalier Daniel had been driving was found at about 11:00 p.m. behind a closed business down the street from Demco. Around the same time, Dane County deputies found Daniel walking north along Highway CV near the airport without shoes or a shirt, and he was later taken to his brother’s house in DeForest, where DeForest police officers located him and asked him to come to the police department. The Charley Project reports that Daniel told authorities he and Beth had driven around in the Jeep and discussed their failed marriage, that she dropped him off at a gas station in Madison, and that she said she would continue to Portage; he denied harming her.
The investigation soon focused on Daniel Kutz. Court records state that he was charged with first-degree intentional homicide, hiding a corpse, stalking, and obstructing an officer, all arising from Beth’s disappearance and the events before it. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals later noted that one item taken from Daniel after his arrest was a wristwatch that tested positive for traces of Beth’s blood, and that Beth’s body had never been located. The Charley Project also reports that drops of Beth’s blood were found in the storage area of the Jeep when it was recovered, that the interior had been wiped clean of fingerprints, and that Daniel’s fingerprints were found on the exterior of the vehicle.
Daniel Kutz was arrested the day after Beth disappeared on misdemeanor counts of stalking and obstructing an officer, then charged with her murder about a month later. He was convicted in January 2001, and the Wisconsin Department of Justice clearinghouse states that he is serving a life prison sentence for Beth’s murder. The Wisconsin Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment after Daniel challenged issues from his trial, including probable cause for his arrest and the admission of certain statements by Beth that witnesses had repeated in court. While the legal case resulted in a conviction, it did not bring Beth home, and that absence remains the most painful part of the story for those who loved her.
Beth’s remains have never been located. Wisconsin’s missing-person clearinghouse, NamUs, and the Charley Project all continue to describe that central fact: she disappeared after leaving work in DeForest on July 27, 2000, Daniel Kutz was convicted of her murder, and her remains have not been found. Her case is therefore not an active unknown-disappearance case in the same way it was in the first hours after she failed to come home, but it remains unresolved in a deeply important sense because her family has not been able to recover and lay her to rest. The overview of the case is that Elizabeth Ann “Beth” Kutz was a 30-year-old woman, mother, and daughter who disappeared after leaving work in DeForest, Wisconsin; the investigation led to the conviction of her estranged husband, Daniel Kutz, for her murder; and more than two decades later, the enduring tragedy is that Beth herself has still not been found.Last Seen: Jul 27, 2000
