Kathleen A. Goebeler was a 29-year-old woman from Pennsylvania who, according to her family, had a big heart for children and a special love for her youngest brother. Born Kathleen Ann Johnson on November 12, 1956, she grew up with two siblings but did not complete high school. She married in 1974, divorced in 1977, and later gave birth to a daughter in 1978. In the years that followed, Kathleen’s life became more transient. She was known to be a bit wild and liked to party, and she began working in strip clubs in the areas of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Atlantic City, New Jersey, and possibly northwestern West Virginia. She often relied on hitchhiking to get from place to place.
In the spring of 1986, Kathleen was living in McKees Rocks, a suburb of Pittsburgh. Sometime between April 11 and April 18, her mother dropped her off at a local convenience store. It was the last time her family would see her alive.
When Kathleen, who usually called her daughter on her birthday, failed to make contact in September, her family grew deeply concerned. After hearing nothing by Christmas, her daughter officially reported her missing in January 1987. For years, her mother, Patricia May, scanned missing person posters, hoping for a sign and holding out hope that her daughter was still alive, even as she feared the worst.
On May 20, 1986, just a month after Kathleen was last seen, a citizen inspecting abandoned railroad property in a rural part of Whiteside County, Illinois, made a grim discovery. In a sparsely wooded area about 45 feet south of what was then Illinois Route 5 (now Interstate 88), he found the decomposed skeletal remains of a white female. The location was approximately 120 miles west of Chicago. The woman’s naked body had been placed across a barbed wire fence, an act that suggested the killer had made a painful effort to conceal her. With no clothing, jewelry, or identification found at the scene, investigators from the Illinois State Police had no way to know who she was.
For nearly 18 years, the woman found by the tracks remained a Jane Doe. The case was investigated as a homicide, but without an identity, progress was impossible. Investigators pursued what few leads they had. A forensic artist created a clay reconstruction of the victim's head based on her skull in an attempt to show what she might have looked like. But the breakthrough would not come from a visual depiction; it would come from a fingerprint database.
In January 2004, the FBI’s Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System finally found a match. The unidentified woman was Kathleen A. Goebeler. The news brought a painful end to her family's long and agonizing uncertainty. For Illinois State Police Sgt. Jerome Costliow, who had been assigned the cold case in 1990, the identification was a monumental step forward. "It made my year," Costliow said at the time. "You can't investigate a homicide without a name to go with the body."
With Kathleen’s identity confirmed, investigators traveled to the Pittsburgh area to retrace her final steps and speak with those who knew her, hoping to uncover how she ended up over 500 miles from home and who was responsible for her death. Despite this renewed effort, her murder remains unsolved. The cause of her death has not been publicly released, though it has always been classified as a homicide.
As of June 2021, the Illinois State Police continues to list Kathleen Goebeler’s case among its active unsolved crimes. Decades have passed since she was taken from her family, but investigators and loved ones still seek the answers that will finally bring her justice. Anyone with information about the murder of Kathleen Goebeler is urged to contact Illinois State Police, Zone 2 Investigations at 815-632-4010 or call CrimeStoppers at 309-762-9500.
