Ruth Louise Martin, a 51-year-old White female and real estate agent from Lincoln, Illinois, disappeared under suspicious circumstances on the morning of June 2, 1976. Her husband was the last known person to see her alive when he left for work between 6:00 and 6:30 a.m. Ruth Martin was expected at work by 9:00 a.m. but never arrived. A witness later reported seeing her car traveling northbound on U.S.
Route 66 around 9:15 a.m., though the driver could not be identified.
Later that day, signs of foul play were discovered at her home. Bloodstains matching Ruth Martin’s blood type and a spent. 22 caliber bullet were found on the floor of her garage. Someone had attempted to clean the blood, but the material used for cleanup was missing. Two days after her disappearance, her Pontiac Catalina was found abandoned in the parking lot of a Holiday Inn in Bloomington, Illinois, about 30 miles from Lincoln. The car had a flat tire and a significant amount of blood was discovered on the trunk mat. Investigators determined that the vehicle had been driven off-road, and it was later confirmed that Ruth Martin had the tire repaired the day before she vanished.
On June 8, 1976, a partially burned, blood-stained white T-shirt was discovered on a sandbar in Kickapoo Creek Park, not far from the Martin residence. The shirt and surrounding evidence were linked to the scene in Ruth Martin’s garage and her abandoned vehicle. Authorities believed the shirt had been used in an attempt to clean up the crime scene.
Ruth Martin, a 51-year-old White female, was scheduled to testify in a theft case against 21-year-old Russell Albin Smrekar, a former Lincoln College student with a history of criminal behavior. Smrekar had been caught shoplifting steaks from a Kroger grocery store in October 1975. Although Ruth Martin was not called to testify in the first trial, which ended in a hung jury, she was subpoenaed for the second trial. That trial was declared a mistrial before she could testify, and the third trial was scheduled for June 8, 1976—six days after her disappearance.
Following Ruth Martin’s disappearance, further violence occurred. On October 9, 1976, Jay Fry, a key witness in the Kroger theft case, and his pregnant wife Robin were murdered in their home. Smrekar was arrested for the Fry double homicide shortly thereafter. Although he was never formally charged in connection with Ruth Martin’s disappearance, authorities strongly suspected his involvement. He was later convicted of the Fry murders and sentenced to 200 to 600 years in prison.
In 2011, shortly before his death in prison at age 56, Russell Smrekar confessed to the murders of both Ruth Martin and another witness, 19-year-old Michael Mansfield. Smrekar claimed he buried Ruth Martin’s body beneath a section of Interstate 55 that was under construction at the time. However, he was unable to provide a precise location, and her remains have never been recovered. Based on his confession, investigators officially closed the cases of Ruth Martin and Michael Mansfield.
