A 21 month old girl is found murdered two days after she was abducted Donna Sue Davis was a 21-month-old White girl whose abduction and murder shattered the sense of security in her working-class Sioux City neighborhood. Known affectionately as “the darling of the neighborhood,” Donna Sue was the youngest of James “Don” Davis and Mary Davis's three children. She lived with her parents and older siblings in the lower apartment of a duplex at 715 Isabella Street.
Neighbors remembered her dark blond curls, blue eyes and fondness for a teddy bear, a rubber doll and a small red purse.
The evening of Sunday, July 10, 1955, was hot and humid following heavy rain and flooding in the area. At about 9:30 p.m., Mary Davis bathed Donna Sue, dressed her in pink pajamas and placed her in a crib in the first-floor bedroom shared by the toddler and her parents. Because of the heat, the bedroom window beside a cedar chest had been left open to allow a breeze into the house. Mary then went to the kitchen to read the newspaper while her husband watched television in another room. Donna Sue's brother and sister were already asleep nearby.
At approximately 9:35 p.m., neighbor George Berger noticed a man cross through a hedge near the front of the Davis residence and walk along the side of the house. A few minutes later, Berger saw the same figure moving away in a crouched or stooped position. Around the corner, Laif and Mrs. Fjeldos were alerted by their barking dog. When Mrs. Fjeldos turned on an outside light, she saw a man hiding near the alley with what appeared to be a bundle in his arms. Her husband shined a flashlight at the stranger and telephoned police at approximately 9:37 p.m.
Before officers arrived, the stranger fled. Laif Fjeldos chased him across West 14th Street and into another alley. The man was described as having a slight build, appearing to be approximately 31 years old and wearing a white T-shirt and khaki trousers. He continued running awkwardly while bent over a bundle that appeared to be wrapped in a blanket. The stranger disappeared between bushes in a yard about a block from the Davis home.
Only minutes later, at about 9:40 p.m., Don Davis went to check on Donna Sue. He initially thought she might be hidden beneath her bedding, but the crib was empty. He then noticed that the screen had been removed from the open bedroom window. Donna Sue's teddy bear, doll and red purse remained in the crib, indicating that she had been taken suddenly and without any of her familiar belongings. Her father immediately called police, unaware that officers were already traveling to the neighborhood in response to the report of the suspicious man.
Neighbors quickly organized search parties, looking through vacant houses, fields, alleys and the area surrounding Perry Creek. Police conducted house-to-house interviews and examined the bedroom screen and other objects for fingerprints. The arrangement of the furniture led investigators to believe the abductor had climbed through the window, stepped into the bedroom to reach the crib and then escaped through the same opening while carrying Donna Sue.
A potentially important sighting occurred at approximately 10:05 p.m. in Elk Point, South Dakota. A motorist named Sid Goldberg reported seeing a man in a white T-shirt and khaki pants standing near a black two-door Chevrolet with Nebraska license plates. The man appeared to be holding a baby. Goldberg did not yet know about the abduction, but after hearing a radio report later that night, he contacted police and supplied the license plate number he remembered. Officers went to the location, but the automobile and its occupants were gone. Efforts to trace the plate did not produce a useful lead.
At about 10:30 that night, a resident along the Old Back Road near South Sioux City, Nebraska, heard a vehicle stop or pull into her driveway before speeding away. Investigators would later consider the sound significant because it occurred near the place where Donna Sue was eventually located. Police throughout Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota were alerted, while FBI personnel from Omaha began assisting initially in a consultative capacity. Full federal involvement required evidence that the abductor had carried Donna Sue across state lines or had demanded ransom.
The search continued through Monday, July 11. Police officers, Air National Guardsmen and civilian volunteers combed Sioux City and nearby rural areas. At approximately 3:45 p.m., farmer Ernest Oehlerking was traveling near his South Sioux City property when he discovered part of a pair of pink pajamas and rubber pants in a roadside ditch. He returned home and called authorities. Members of his family then began searching the surrounding area.
At about 4:15 p.m., Donna Sue was found roughly 15 feet from the Old Back Road in the first row of a 40-acre cornfield. Broken cornstalks suggested that her body had been thrown from a vehicle rather than carried deeply into the field. The pink pajama top she had worn to bed remained with her, while the lower portion had been discarded farther up the road. Police from Sioux City and South Sioux City secured the scene and brought the recovered clothing to Donna Sue's parents for identification.
An autopsy determined that Donna Sue had suffered extensive physical and sexual abuse. Her left jaw was broken, bruises covered her body and investigators found injuries described as burns from a cigarette or cigarette lighter. The fatal injury was a severe blow to the head that caused a massive brain hemorrhage. Medical examiners estimated that she had been dead for approximately 10 to 12 hours when she was discovered, placing her death during the early morning hours of July 11.
Once it was established that Donna Sue had been transported from Iowa into Nebraska, the FBI entered the investigation under the federal Lindbergh kidnapping law. A John Doe warrant was issued, allowing authorities across the country to arrest and hold anyone reasonably suspected of the crime. Nearly 30 FBI agents eventually joined local officers, following tips, examining fingerprints and questioning large numbers of residents, travelers and known offenders. Blood evidence underwent chemical testing, while fingerprints recovered from the cedar chest beneath the bedroom window were compared with those of relatives and other people who had been inside the home.
Several individuals were detained, questioned or investigated, but none was successfully connected to the murder. On July 13, farmhand Otto E. Wennekamp was apprehended near Thurston, Nebraska, after a car dealer reported suspicious circumstances involving an automobile he had traded. Investigators also noticed cigarette burns inside his former vehicle, which initially appeared potentially relevant because of Donna Sue's injuries. Wennekamp was questioned by the FBI and local authorities, but his alibi was confirmed. He was publicly cleared of involvement and held only in connection with an unrelated automobile theft matter.
That same day, 42-year-old drifter Audrey Earl Brandt told police in Joplin, Missouri, that he had killed Donna Sue. He later admitted the claim was a hoax. Investigators established that he had been traveling with a carnival in Missouri when Donna Sue was abducted, eliminating him as a suspect. An Indiana man wanted for a parole violation was detained for several days in Dubuque, Iowa, but released when authorities confirmed that he had not been in Sioux City during the relevant period. At least two other men detained in different cities were likewise cleared.
Police also arrested a 19-year-old Kansas man in Sioux City on an unrelated charge involving lascivious conduct with another minor. Despite the nature of that allegation, investigators found no evidence connecting him to Donna Sue's abduction or murder. Numerous other people were subjected to questioning and polygraph examinations. Authorities investigated neighborhood residents, transients and people with prior sex-related arrests, but the broad roundup produced no evidence sufficient for a murder charge.
The most significant confession came in December 1955, when Reno, Nevada, police arrested 32-year-old Virgil Vance Wilson, a butcher from Onawa, Iowa, for intoxication and disorderly conduct. Wilson asked to speak with a detective and claimed that he had stolen a car in Sioux City, abducted Donna Sue, assaulted and killed her, thrown her from the vehicle and later abandoned the automobile. FBI agents immediately questioned him, but he contradicted his account and withdrew the confession.
Investigators subsequently determined that Wilson had been in Des Moines with friends as late as 7 p.m. on the night of the abduction. The distance between Des Moines and Sioux City made it impossible for him to have reached Donna Sue's home by approximately 9:35 p.m. Police Chief James O'Keefe formally announced on December 20 that Wilson had been eliminated as a suspect. His confession was treated as false, and no charges related to Donna Sue's death were filed against him.
In June 1956, another unidentified person was taken to Des Moines for a polygraph examination and held for additional questioning because investigators found discrepancies in his story. Officials said one person had been cleared while another required further investigation, but the inquiry did not result in a prosecution. A closed inquest was convened at the Woodbury County Courthouse in January 1958 to protect witnesses and reconsider evidence. Authorities disclosed that eight to ten people had undergone lie-detector tests, yet the renewed proceedings produced no arrest.
Donna Sue was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Sioux City after a funeral attended by hundreds of mourners. A reward fund grew to $2,387, including money offered by the State of Iowa, but no tip led to the identification of the killer. The reward fund was eventually closed in November 1957, and contributions were returned to donors. Despite an enormous investigation involving local police, authorities in several states and dozens of FBI agents, no one was ever charged, tried or convicted. The man seen fleeing the Davis home with a bundle remains unidentified, and Donna Sue Davis's murder remains an unsolved cold case.
