Kathy Ann Halle:1979, Aurora, Illinois

    

   On March 29th, 1979 Kathy Ann Halle threw on a jacket and popped out quickly to go pick up her sister from work. The drive was a short two miles to the supermarket where Kathy’s sister was working that evening in North Aurora, Illinois. North Aurora is just west of Chicago. 

  Kathy Halle never showed up at the grocery store. That was not like her. She was dependable. Her family mobilized and searched for Kathy that night.

  Her car was not at the apartment complex at 221 Butterfield, nor was it anywhere along the route. Her sister and a roommate were intensely worried. They reported Kathy missing. 

  Later that night, around 3:30 a.m. Kathy’s car, a 1972 Dodge Charger, appeared back in the parking lot of her apartment complex but it was parked on the opposite side of the lot. This wasn’t a spot where Kathy would have parked it.

  It seems like the killer abducted her there and then had to come back later for his own vehicle. Or perhaps he also lived in that apartment complex or nearby. 

  Kathy’s handbag was in the car and the contents were scattered inside. A large pool of blood was in the car behind the driver’s seat on the floor mat. The interior dome light had been taken apart and the bulb removed. Does that mean the killer had gotten into the car before Kathy came out to go to the store? Did he know her usual routine? Was he lying in wait there in her car? Or had the dome light been disabled after the killer was in the car with Kathy?

  Kathy was born on January 14th, 1960 in Detroit, Michigan. She grew up in Illinois and attended West Aurora High School. 

  In the coming days and weeks hundreds of volunteers would search for Kathy Ann Halle. 

  Kathy was found on April 24th, 1979 floating in the Fox River in North Aurora, Illinois. She was fully clothed. A young person who was fishing on the riverbank saw her body there in the water. 

   Bruce Everitt Lindahl was living in Aurora, Illinois then. On March 6th, 1979, he lured a young woman, Annette Lazar, into his home where he raped her. He did not want to let her leave. She pretended that she would like to see him again and so he let her go. The house where this took place belonged to Aurora Police Officer Dave Torres. He and Bruce Lindahl were friends. Annette Lazar reported the assault but was not believed and her testimony was ultimately discounted. That occurred just 26 days before Kathy Halle was abducted, assaulted, murdered and dumped in the Fox River. If only the police had believed Annette Lazar.

   In October of 2024, DNA would definitively point to Bruce Lindahl as Kathy Halle’s killer.

   

Bruce Everitt Lindahl

   Bruce Lindahl was a serial rapist but the murders he committed would not be known until after his death. He left a long trail of criminal activity in Illinois.   

   I’ve written about the 1976 murder of Pamela Maurer. In 2022, DNA connected Lindahl to her case. But there are others.

   Debra Colliander was abducted and raped by Bruce Lindahl on June 23rd, 1980. She escaped when he fell asleep. Debra reported the crime to the police. Lindahl was charged and was awaiting trial which was to take place in 1981. 

   Debra Colliander was set to testify against Lindahl in court. However, on October 7th 1980, Debra disappeared after leaving work. Since she could no longer testify against him; Lindahl faced no consequences. 

   In 1981, Bruce Lindahl met a man, Chuck Huber, at a bowling alley. The two bowled for a while and then went to an apartment. Bruce Lindahl attacked Huber and, while straddling him and stabbing him in the chest, Lindahl accidentally stabbed himself in the thigh. With his femoral artery severed, he died in minutes. His victim, Charles “Chuck” Huber, sadly, also died. 

   In 1982, Debra Colliander’s remains were finally found in a field in Oswego. After this discovery was made public; a man came forward and reported that Lindahl had offered him money back in 1980 to kill Debra Colliander but that he had refused. 

   Bruce Everitt Lindahl likely has many more victims. Investigators in Illinois continue to work on those cases in order to give families and the public some answers and a sense of closure. 

   Rest in Peace Kathy Ann Halle.