Adelle Katherine Jensen, a 25-year-old radiology technician and devoted mother to a two-year-old daughter, was last seen in the early morning hours of November 18, 2015, in downtown Minneapolis, Minnesota. In the weeks leading up to her disappearance, Adelle, known to her loved ones as Addie, had been taking steps to create a new life for herself and her child.
She had recently moved out of the home she shared with her boyfriend, Joshua Lewis Duane Dow, and was living with her parents in Carver County. Having recently graduated from Dunwoody College of Technology, she was working and saving money to secure her own apartment. On the night she went missing, Adelle was out with Dow and his brother at the Downtown Cabaret. Dow initially told police that after the club closed around 2:30 a.m., he and his brother saw Adelle walking down the street and that she refused their offer of a ride home. That was the last time she was reportedly seen. Her family, deeply concerned when they couldn't reach her, held vigils and pleaded with the public for any information that might help bring her home.
The investigation into Adelle's disappearance quickly shifted from a missing person case to a homicide investigation. A few days after she was last seen, Dow was arrested on suspicion of her murder. The turning point came when Dow's brother came forward with a harrowing account. He told investigators that he was awakened by a gunshot at Dow's residence around 5:00 a.m. on November 18. Dow initially claimed he had accidentally dropped a gun, but later coerced his brother at gunpoint to help him move Adelle's body, which was wrapped in plastic. Dow claimed to his brother that Adelle had taken her own life. Together, they moved her body to a warehouse where Dow and his brother worked. When police searched the warehouse, they did not find Adelle's body, but they did detect the smell of decomposition. The investigation revealed that Dow had lied to Adelle's parents and the police about her whereabouts. It was later alleged that Dow dismembered her body and disposed of the remains throughout the city.
For years, Joshua Dow maintained that Adelle had died by suicide and that he had only hidden her body in a panic. However, in November 2019, he pleaded guilty to second-degree murder. As part of a plea agreement, he was sentenced to 240 months in prison. This conviction brought a legal conclusion to the case, though it offered little solace to a grieving family. The case is a heartbreaking example of a missing person's case that transitioned into a homicide investigation where a conviction was secured without the victim's body ever being recovered. Adelle's remains have never been found, a painful reality that her family continues to endure. While the legal chapter is closed and the case is considered a resolved homicide, the absence of Adelle and the inability to lay her to rest leaves an open wound for all who knew and loved her.Last Seen: Nov 18, 2015
