By GENE KEMMETER
of The Gazette
Fifteen years ago, deer hunters in the town of Buena Vista found the body of a partially-clad University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point student.
Janet M. Raasch, 20, Merrill, was found lying on her side about 12:50 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 17, 1984, in a wooded area, southeast of the intersection of Highways 54 and J-South.
Today, that case is the most recent unsolved murder case in Portage County.
Sheriff Stan Potocki said this week the investigation remains open, but "we haven't had anything new on it."
Hunters on the first day of the 1984 deer season found the body about 300 feet from the nearest road. There had been no attempt to cover the body.
Raasch was a business major in her third year at UW-SP and worked at DeBot Center on campus. She had been reported missing on Oct. 15, but was last seen on a Thursday morning, Oct. 11, 1984, on campus, where she lived at 312 Watson Hall.
After she was reported missing, an acquaintance reported picking her up while she was hitchhiking on Oct. 11 and dropping her off at the intersection of Highways 54 and JJ in the town of Buena Vista, about two miles west of where her body was found.
That acquaintance reported the 5-foot, 1-inch tall, 100-pound woman with long blonde hair was carrying a duffle bag.
Why she was hitchhiking isn't known.
University officials at the time said she had made arrangements for someone else to work for her at DeBot so she could go home to Merrill for the weekend. Her family notified the university after she didn't come home, officials said, and then police were notified.
Merrill is north, but she was headed east on 54, which goes to Waupaca and Green Bay. However, a shorter route to those cities from the campus is the more heavily traveled Highway 10, which meets 54 at Waupaca.
An autopsy report said Raasch probably died of strangulation, listing that as the most likely cause because "no categorical probable cause of death is shown but strangulation is the most likely cause." However, decomposition made it impossible to say for sure.
A pathologist was also unable to pinpoint the time of death, saying she could have died any time between the date of her disappearance and a week to 10 days before the body was found. Authorities also believe she was sexually assaulted, but again decomposition made it impossible to verify.
Portage County Sheriff's Department deputies sealed off the area where the body was found to gather evidence, including soil samples. They even used blowers to sift through leaves and metal detectors to comb the site.
Through the years, interest in the case has periodically been rekindled as new undisclosed information surfaced or suspects in other crimes were arrested.
In 1985 the Federal Bureau of Investigation offered assistance to local investigators because of a possible out-of-state connection in the case, but that connection was never identified.
Authorities later indicated they were looking at one individual as a possible suspect and that subject did not live in the county.
In 1988, then-Portage County District Attorney William Murat said the Sheriff's Department received information that was sufficient enough to send a detective to the East Coast, Pennsylvania and Maryland, to interview a number of witnesses.
Murat said there would be a follow-up in the Central Wisconsin area because the information was sufficient to warrant new questions and avenues of investigation.
Capt. James Lamar of Sheriff's Department Operations Division said there's not much investigators can do right now without new information. An investigator has been assigned to the case, which is literally a box of paperwork, he said.
"It's considered an open case here," he said. "We do periodically review it."
The leads that the department has received were followed up but nothing developed, he said. "We're always open to the public to come in with new information."
The last time information was received, he said, was when Pete Thrun was sheriff, more than three years ago. Thrun had also been the lead investigator in the case before he became sheriff.
As new technology such as DNA testing becomes available, Lamar said investigators periodically review the case to see if there is a possible application. "It's a matter of going over the case step by step."
But right now the investigation is waiting for a break. "We truly feel we have exhausted everything available at the time but again it's subject to review," he said. "A lot of times nothing happens for a long time and then we can get some information to help us."