The Coulee Region saw a spring of violent crimes in the first few months of 1985, and one murder case in particular remains one of the greater law enforcement mysteries in the region--the Terry Dolowy case.
A gruesome murder that sent shockwaves through the Coulee Region. In the early morning hours of Feb. 14, 1985, 24-year-old UWL student Terry Dolowy goes missing in La Crosse County. Four days later, her headless body is found burning in this ditch in Vernon County. And to this day, the identity of her killer remains a mystery.
Anyone who knew Terry Dolowy 39 years ago would say everyone liked her. She was finishing her senior year and working nights as a bartender at Piggy's.
The night she went missing, she'd driven home to the Barre Mills trailer she shared with fiance Russell Lee, who was about to head to his third-shift job at the Radisson Hotel.
"He didn't have an automobile at that time. When she got home from work, he took her car and went to work. So Russell Lee was the last person to see Terry Dolowy alive," investigator Gary Westlie said in 1985.
Lee told police when he got back to the trailer, the front door was open, and the lights were on.
"Could not find anything that would indicate foul play. The only thing missing was Terry Dolowy and her white poodle," said Westlie.
when her body was identified days later, common thought was she must have known her killer.
"Any suspects in custody?" "Not at this time," said former Vernon County Sheriff Geoff Banta back in '85.
So that put Lee at the top of that list, reportedly having unpaid debts of at least $20,000, but he said the people he owed were close friends and wouldn't have hurt Dolowy.
DNA wasn't available for law enforcement until years later, but police did find a paint chip at the scene to narrow down the kind of car Dolowy's body may have been in.
Officials exhumed Dolowy's body in 2007 but didn't release much information, only that they may have a better idea of the tool used to decapitate her.
The investigation cooled for years until last fall. A Madison TV station reported a health center patient in one of the city's facilities told a nurse he was responsible for Dolowy's death. Vernon County investigators said they looked into it but couldn't connect the person to the crime.
Dolowy's head has never been found. The case has passed through generations of officers in both La Crosse and Vernon County. Vernon County Sheriff Roy Torgerson says Dolowy's murder remains an active investigation.
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