(KWNO)-Tuesday marks 70 years since a La Crosse teenager vanished, never to be seen again. Evelyn Hartley was 15 years old and a student at La Crosse Central High School when she disappeared on October 24, 1953.
Hartley was babysitting at the home of Viggo Mortenson, a professor at La Crosse State College. When she didn’t check in with her parents or answer several phone calls, her father Richard went to the Mortenson house. He found blood stains near a basement window that had been pried open and more blood in the grass but no sign of his daughter. Bloody handprints were later found on the side of the house next door and in a nearby garage. Evelyn’s shoes and her broken eyeglasses were found in the Mortenson house. The 20-month-old girl Evelyn was babysitting was asleep upstairs and unharmed.
Tracker dogs picked Eveyln’s scent but lost it after two blocks, leading investigators to ascertain she was forced into a car. A man named Ed Hofer told police he was driving in the area the day Evelyn disappeared and was almost hit by a car speeding west. Hofer described the vehicle as a dark green two-tone 1942 Buick. Hofer said there were two men and a girl in the car. Hofer also said a few minutes before that he’d seen the same two men walking down the street with the girl and holding her arms. Hofer told police he thought the girl was drunk and the two men were helping her. Blood-stained tennis shoes with what police called a “peculiar suction sole” were found along Highway 14 near Coon Valley a week after Evelyn disappeared. Subsequently bloody clothing was found including a girl’s underwear. But investigators could never verify if the underwear were Evelyn’s. Blood on a jacket did match Evelyn’s type. Massive searches for Evelyn ensued in La Crosse County and investigators questioned thousands of people but never publicly identified any suspects.
Evelyn was less than a month away from her 16th birthday when she vanished. Evelyn played the piano and enjoyed golf, tennis, skiing, swimming and hiking. Her case remains open and anyone with information can contact the La Crosse Police Department.
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