Serial Killer Bruce Lindahl:Illinois

    

  Bruce Lindahl died after accidentally killing himself by stabbing himself in the leg in 1981. He was kneeling on top of a male victim, Charles Robert “Chuck” Huber Jr, and was repeatedly stabbing him. 

   Charles Robert Huber Jr. was fighting for his life and in the struggle; probably caused Bruce Lindahl to stab his own thigh. Lindahl cut his own femoral artery and bled to death so rapidly that he was found still on the victim later. Both Lindahl and Huber had bled to death. Often the death of Lindahl is seen as accidental but I think Charles Huber fought hard here. I think he was trying to save his own life but he may have ended up saving so many other lives. Bruce Lindahl was not going to stop abducting, raping and murdering innocent people in Illinois. 

   Bruce Lindahl was born January 29th, 1953 in St. Charles, Illinois. That’s in the western suburbs of Chicago. He graduated from Downers Grove North High School and later worked as an electrician. 

   Lindahl had a long criminal history within his relatively short life. He moved a few times within Illinois in order to avoid detection. There were opportunities to stop him along the way but somehow he kept getting the benefit of the doubt. 

   In one incident, of an unknown date, Lindahl was pulled over by police. In his car was an unconscious woman bleeding from the head. Bruce Lindahl told officers that he was trying to take her to the hospital. But he was driving in the opposite direction. An ambulance was called to the scene by the police and the woman was treated at the hospital. A rape kit showed that she had been sexually assaulted. The woman said she hadn’t remembered anything after Bruce Lindahl had given her a sip of something at a party. No charges were ever filed. 

   In another incident he pointed a shotgun at police when they came to question him about an extortion scheme. He avoided charges in that incident as well. 

   In 1976, he abducted Pamela Mauer as she was making a quick trip from a friend’s house in Lisle to a McDonald’s restaurant for a soda. Her friend immediately became worried. After looking around for a short while, the friend called Maurer’s parents. Pamela’s mother reported her missing around 11:45 p.m. on Monday January 12th, 1976. 

   Pamela was found the next morning when a motorist spotted her handbag on College Road about 2 miles North of Hobson Road in Lisle, Illinois. Pamela had been raped and strangled. 

   Pamela’s case was cold until 2022 when Lindahl's DNA matched the DNA recovered from Pamela. 

   In 2024 DNA has also linked him to the 1979 murder of Kathy Halle who was found in the Fox River. 

Kathy Halle 

   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. 

  Kathy Halle never showed up at the grocery store. That was not like her. She was dependable. 

  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 on the driver’s side 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 dime 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. 

  Kathy was found on April 24th, 1979 floating in the Fox River in North Aurora, Illinois. A young person who was fishing saw her 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. 

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

   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. 

  Lindahl is suspected in at least ten other murders and numerous rapes.

  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. 

   Debra Colliander's remains were found in a field near Oswego, Illinois in 1982. A man came forward at that time and told investigators that Lindahl had approached him about killing Debra for money. The man refused but said nothing to investigators at the time.

   

   Investigators suspect Lindahl of many more crimes and are actively working each of these cold cases. 

   Were his crimes limited to Illinois? Did he travel for work at any time? Is he responsible for other murders of young men as well as women? 

  There are still many questions to be answered.