APPLETON - A suspect has been arrested in Washington for Betty Rolf's 1988 sexual assault and murder, the Outagamie County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.
Gene C. Meyer, a 66-year-old resident of Eatonville, Wash., who had formerly lived in Valders, is being held at the Pierce County Jail in Tacoma, Washington. He has been charged in Outagamie County Circuit Court with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with a weapon. He's awaiting extradition to Wisconsin, the sheriff's office said.
Rolf, a 60-year-old Appleton woman, was walking to work at the former Country Aire banquet hall during a snowstorm on Nov. 6, 1988. Her body was found around 11:15 a.m. the next morning, lying facedown in gravel under a railroad underpass on West Spencer Street in Grand Chute, according to the criminal complaint.
According to Post-Crescent archives, Rolf's family remembered her as someone who "always cared about people," her niece Sue Srnka said. They also said she had been a devoted mother and grandmother and an excellent baker, "whose homemade bread, rolls, pies and noodles were the envy of the neighborhood."
Police took swabs of Rolf's body and found evidence left by her attacker. When a DNA test was conducted in 2001, it ruled out everyone connected to Rolf. For years, her killer was only known by his DNA profile.
The Outagamie County Sheriff's Office said it located Meyer with the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Cold Case Team in Milwaukee.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Suspect arrested in 34-year-old Appleton cold case of Betty Rolf
