With a new DNA tool, the North Aurora Police were able to link the killer, Bruce Lindahl, to a 45-year-old cold case.
On Mar. 29, 1979, Kathy Halle went missing in North Aurora. The young woman left her home in Volks Court and was on her way to pick up her sister at the Northgate Shopping Center, but apparently never arrived. The police treated this as a missing persons case, and investigated it as such.
Three weeks later her body turned up in the Fox River by Detective Ryan Peat, who spoke about the case. While the day of her death was never announced, it is assumed to be in April of 1979.
Police looked into her case, but the lack of evidence prevented a suspect from being identified. Eventually, the case went cold. It wasn’t until 2019 before the case was reopened.
Authorities were able to link DNA from a suspected serial killer, Bruce Lindahl, to the murder of another woman, Pamela Maurer. Later, in 2020, North Aurora’s detectives on the Halle case met with Lisle investigators, where they sent previous evidence for additional testing. The DNA found seemed to be a mixture of two individuals, but was too poor quality to be used to create a working profile.
Two years later, the North Aurora Police found a box of Lindahl’s belongings at a police department in Naperville, Illinois, which they considered to be evidence. This evidence proved that Lindahl visited the Northgate Shopping Center often, where Halle worked.
Detective Ryan Peat, who found Halle’s body and was involved in the new developments, looked into a new DNA tool, a DNA wet vacuum, also known as the “M Vac”. The “M Vac” could collect DNA from older cases, which the North Aurora Police used to their advantage.
In June 2023, North Aurora Police took the evidence from the Halle case to DNA Labs International in Florida to be analyzed more closely using the new “M Vac” tool. The police didn’t receive the results of the report until August of 2024.
Peat claimed that the report from the lab showed that “DNA approximately 9.4 trillion times more probable to have originated from Bruce Lindahl was present on Kathy’s clothing.”
“We were able to conclude Lindahl was responsible for the death of Kathy Halle,” Peat stated in a press conference held Wednesday, Oct. 23. Police officials inferred that Halle was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment complex before she had left.
“Lindahl has been connected to several other cases in this area from that time frame,” Peat included.
The Associated Press shared that Lindahl is assumed to have been responsible for at least a dozen murders of young women in the area.
According to the Associated Press, Lindahl died in 1981 as he was attacking an 18-year-old man in Naperville. Lindahl suffered from blood loss after accidentally stabbing himself in the leg, puncturing a major artery.
“While revisiting this case has been incredibly difficult for our family, we’re deeply grateful to finally have closure after 45 long years,” a statement provided by Halle’s family in the press conference read. “Thanks to advancements in DNA technology and groundbreaking investigative tools, we’re hopeful that other families won’t have to endure the same pain and uncertainty that we faced for so many years.”
The mayor of North Aurora, Mark Gaffino, spoke on behalf of their police department, expressing pride and gratitude for their hard work and overall efforts.
