Nancy Renkas

Nancy Renkas, a 47-year-old woman from Florence, Wisconsin, was a beloved mother known for her caring nature. On July 18, 2016, she drove to the nearby city of Iron Mountain, Michigan, to buy groceries for a special family meal. Her children, Kaylyn and Joseph Renkas, later recalled that the dinner was meant to celebrate the recent sale of the family's campground in Pembine, Wisconsin. But Nancy never made it home to celebrate. Her disappearance has since become a homicide investigation that has stretched on for a decade, leaving her family with unanswered questions and a community searching for justice.

That Monday afternoon, Nancy was seen at the Super One Foods grocery store. She left perishable items behind in her own vehicle, suggesting she expected to return shortly. Surveillance footage from the nearby Midtown Mall parking lot captured what would become the last known image of her. At about 12:30 p.m., Nancy, a white female, was recorded getting into a white SUV, which then headed east on U.S. 2. She was never seen or heard from again.

The investigation into Nancy’s disappearance has been a long and complex effort led by the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office, with assistance from the Michigan Attorney General's Office. For years, the case was treated as a missing person investigation. The driver of the white SUV was identified early on as a person of interest and was interviewed by law enforcement. In August 2020, during a court hearing for an unrelated matter, a detective testified that Nancy's sister-in-law, Louise Wender, was a suspect. Wender later confirmed in a 2021 interview that the white SUV was her 2010 Lincoln Navigator. She stated that she had picked Nancy up to look at a camper for sale in the Norway area, but they never found it, and she dropped Nancy back off at the mall parking lot.

In July 2022, on the sixth anniversary of her disappearance, the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office formally reclassified Nancy's case as a no-body homicide, stating there was no evidence to suggest she had vanished of her own accord and that she had disappeared in peril. The investigation saw significant public activity in August 2024, when a multi-agency task force executed a search warrant on more than 200 acres of land in Breitung Township, in the area of Upper Pine Creek Road and Grandview Drive. This location was described by authorities as the last place Nancy was believed to have been seen alive.

Despite the extensive investigation and public attention, no criminal charges have ever been filed in Nancy's death. In late 2025, Louise Wender and her husband, Dale, filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit against the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office, the county prosecutor, and the Iron Mountain Police Department. The civil suit accused the agencies of improperly withholding case files and sought to unseal search warrant affidavits used to search their property. In the filing, the Wenders asserted their innocence, claimed their reputations had been ruined by being publicly named as suspects, and argued that the release of documents could help clear their names. Their attorney stated that witnesses claimed to have seen Nancy alive after she was with Louise Wender.

As of July 2026, ten years after she vanished from a grocery store parking lot, Nancy Renkas’s remains have not been found. Her case is an active homicide investigation, but no arrests have been made. The legal proceedings initiated by the Wenders are ongoing, adding another layer of complexity to the long-standing mystery.

Authorities continue to ask for the public’s help and encourage anyone with information to come forward. Tips can be directed to Detective Lt. Brian Polzien with the Dickinson County Sheriff's Office at (906) 774-6262.