Mystery solved

The grave in Riverside Cemetery with a small metal marker that reads "Unidentified Female" can now have a name affixed.

The identity of a half-naked young woman found in a rural Rock Rapids ditch on Oct. 4, 1978, has finally been determined. Law enforcement officials announced in a packed press conference Thursday that she was Wilma June Nissen.

At age 23 years, 10 months, California native Nissen was found face down in the ditch near 190th and Cherry streets. She was wearing khaki pants, bikini underwear and white "go-go" boots, and was naked from the waist up.

A fluke break in the case occurred three weeks ago, Lyon County Sheriff Blythe Bloemendaal said, with "a 100 percent positive ID by fingerprint analysis" that a lab technician in Des Moines made on a print that had come from the Los Angeles Police Department.

There were lots of periods with no advance in the case, Bloemendaal said, but "this file never closed on our desk." While there is still no known cause of death, with the naming of the woman, the case moves into another phase, that of a homicide investigation, the sheriff said.

There is another remaining question, Bloemendaal said. "How does this girl come about to be in a ditch in Lyon County?"

That's a question that has been run over many minds for nearly three decades.

Speaking downtown, Jim Romen of Rock Rapids remembers how the discovery of the young female was the talk of the town in 1978. "We didn't think it would be a local girl, because no one was reported missing."

Until word Monday that the sheriff would reveal the identity on Thursday, "I've just completely almost forgot about it," Romen said. "It was so long ago."

Bloemendaal, who has worked in law enforcement in Lyon County for 23 years, pointed to Vinson and said, "I tell you what, this young lady was never forgotten by this man."

Vinson was Lyon County Sheriff from 1962 to 1980. "It is something I've never forgotten," he said. "I wanted to solve it before I left office. I am glad it is over."

Bloemendaal began the press conference by passing around an autopsy photo of the decomposed body that sheriff department workers found that October 1978 day. It wasn't that law enforcement officials had an easy case, he said, the severely decomposed body made identification difficult from the beginning.

"You can appreciate how hard it was then, and how difficult it is today," Bloemendaal said.

Vinson described approaching the body, which was believed to have lain in the ditch since mid-August 1978, although Bloemendaal thinks it was longer.

"I stood over the girl and took videotape of her," Vinson said. "From what I could see of her lying face down in the dirt, I really thought she looked pretty good, her skin. And so I was hoping that when we turned her over, there would be some means of identifying her. But when we turned her over, there was nothing, she was gone."

Born Oct. 19, 1954, Nissen is believed to have been born in San Francisco and can be placed in many California towns, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Bakersfield, Long Beach and Beverly Hills.

Said Bloemendaal, "The last time we can find her alive is in 1975 in Long Beach, California. We have a very troubled youth that we are dealing with. We think the term 'runaway' is quite accurate. We see that she has charges for prostitution on her records. We are not going to sit here and hold her out as a prostitute, because that is not necessarily what we believe, as much as this might be a young girl living on the streets, trying to get by."

In 1974, Nissen had been arrested for prostitution in California. The mug shot of that arrest is the only known picture of her. What remains to be done, is fill the gap of no information on Nissen from 1975 to 1978, Bloemendaal said.

There is no missing person report on Nissen, Sioux City Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agent special Dan Moser said, which Bloemendaal said "is extremely odd."

Moser said Wilma June Nissen also went by the names of Wilma June Wellington and Boots Wellington. The fact that she was wearing go-go boots, Vinson said, led him for a month to go to Sioux Falls "go-go" establishments to search if a dancer was missing, but nothing panned out.

Now that her name has been found, Nissen's name was sent back to Sioux Falls and other towns, but there has been no match. "We are checking other states, but it is a tedious, long job," Bloemendaal said.

In recent years, Bloemendaal said, Lyon County Deputy Jerry Birkey and Moser were crucial to the case, as was luck of the fingerprint identification by a lab technician. Iowa officials had two prints of Nissen.

"It is by sheer luck that a 1978 (LAPD) print card hit the federal print system," Bloemendaal said. "Back in 1978, I don't think everybody is sending fingerprints to the federal government, they are keeping them in house. ... The mere fact that this California agency did this is phenomenal. That we catch this break doesn't make us geniuses by any stretch, but we sure feel fortunate that that did occur."

Bloemendaal said there is no injury that can be pinpointed as the cause of death and acknowledged there may be little chance of finding a killer in the presumed homicide since "we do have some faint leads."

Spitting out his words with emphasis, Bloemendaal went after a question.

"If I could say something to the person responsible? Yeah -- 'If I am you, I would call me before I call you, OK.' I mean it has been 27 years. We don't have any living relatives, from the look of it. We're not going to stop. It doesn't matter to us, we are still coming, so you might as well call me first, cause if we find you -- good luck."

Moser said Nissen could merely have been passing through the area. "Is there a relative in the area? We don't know," Moser said. "But maybe with the name being presented to the public, it is possible that maybe within 50 or 100 miles we have a relative who was expecting a niece or something to visit."

Moser and Bloemendaal beseeched the public to come forward with any information pertaining to the case. Nissen's father, Charles Nissen, died in 1986, and her mother died in 2003. A brother is also believed to be deceased. Her mother went by the name of June Eva Bradford, June Eva Simmons, June Eva Nissen, Joan Cummings and Joan Anderson.

Vinson brought forth a copy of a yellowed Journal article of him pictured at Nissen's grave. "I went out there the day before yesterday to make sure she was still there," he said softly.

Vinson and Bloemendaal said they hope now a new marker with her name can be placed on the grave. Perhaps the Lyon County Board of Supervisors could move on financing that project, the sheriff said, or "I'm sure that Sheriff Vinson and myself can find the money to change that."

Bret Hayworth may be reached at (712) 293.4203 or brethayworth@siouxcityjournal.com