23 August 2024
ST. CLOUD, Minn. — Rita Reker lives alone, but she is surrounded by family.
Her home in St. Cloud, Minnesota — where she has lived for nearly 60 years — is overflowing with reminders of her husband, Fred, six children, 11 grandchildren and a growing number of great-grandchildren.
Framed photos, Christmas cards, and wedding invitations cover the white walls, a testament to her love. On the wall near her front door are two framed cross-stitch prayers with the names of all of her family members. Each time someone gets married or gives birth, Rita sews a new name on the list.
“I have held a lot of offices in a lot of organizations, I’m a church musician, I still sing in the choir, but I’m proudest of being a mother of a family,” said Rita, 88, during a visit with St. Cloud LIVE this summer. “My family is my life.”
She brightened as she pointed out each of her children and grandchildren, gesturing to the cluster of family photos hanging on the wall in the corner of her dining room. At the top are photos of Mary, her oldest child, and Susanne, her third daughter.
Their pictures are frozen in time, taken some 50 years ago.
The last time Rita saw Mary and Susanne was on Labor Day, Sept. 2, 1974, when the girls left to buy school supplies. They never returned.
Their bodies were found 26 days later in a quarry near St. Cloud. Two local boys spotted Susanne’s body in a boggy area above the quarry, and Mary’s body was found later in the water below. Mary was found in a state of undress, and her bra was cut up. Both girls had multiple stab wounds.
“That was the most frightening and frustrating time that we ever experienced,” Rita recalled. “We never imagined anything like that would ever happen to our family.”
For 50 years, Rita Reker and her family have wanted justice for Mary and Susanne. But no one has ever been arrested for their killings.
A parent’s worst nightmare
Through the decades, and the twists and turns in the case, the Reker family has sought answers to what the case investigator calls “one of the crimes of the century in Minnesota.”
The nightmare began on Labor Day in 1974.
At about 10 a.m. on Sept. 2, Mary, then 15, and her 12-year-old sister, Susanne (sometimes referred to as “Susan”), left their home at 224 18th Ave. N in St. Cloud to go to Zayre Discount Store (last home to a Save-A-Lot Grocery and Liquor store on West Division Street) to buy school supplies. It’s a nearly 40-minute walk from the house to the store.
Their mother did not want them to go, but the girls promised to be back early because Mary needed to catch a ride with friends later that day.
Rita became busy cleaning the house after a family gathering the day before, and watching her other four children. She lost track of time.
Their daughters did not come home by 5 p.m., the family’s usual dinner time. Rita and Fred became worried.
“That’s when the panic set in,” Rita said.
In those days, everyone in their neighborhood knew everyone else, and Mary was one of the go-to babysitters in the area. Mary wanted to be a teacher and loved watching after children, both her siblings and other neighborhood kids, Rita said.
The Rekers started calling around to check if anyone had seen the girls.
When Mary and Susanne were not found, the Rekers reported them missing to St. Cloud police around 7 p.m. However, officers told the family that the girls had likely run away, Rita said.
“It felt like we had to prove we had these children,” Rita said, remembering how she and Fred had to convince law enforcement that Mary and Susanne even existed before they would take the case seriously.
The next morning, Fred and Rita went down to the police station to ask for help again. Before this, Rita’s only knowledge about law enforcement came from crime shows such as “Columbo” and “Hawaii Five-O.”
“There were a lot of television programs about mysteries and police departments and things like that, and all of them had homicide squads,” Rita said. “And I said to one of the policemen, ‘Don’t you have a homicide squad?’ He said, ‘Lady, you watch too much TV.’”
The Rekers decided to take matters into their own hands. The family and some friends formed small search parties to scour the St. Cloud area. This included driving out to Little Falls, a small town nearly 40 minutes north of St. Cloud: The family received tips that the girls may have taken a bus there because Mary’s high school St. Francis was there, according to newspaper reports at the time.
While the girls were missing, Reker said her other children — Marty, Betsy, Matthew and Leah — would hear rumors at school that their sisters’ bodies were in the quarry.
The search ended on Saturday, Sept. 28, 1974.
I said to one of the policemen, ‘Don’t you have a homicide squad?’ He said, ‘Lady, you watch too much TV.’
The girls’ bodies were found in the quarry 3 miles outside of St. Cloud, 26 days after they went missing on their shopping trip. Susanne was found on top of the quarry stabbed 13 times. Mary, who was stabbed six times, was found unclothed 40 feet below the surface of the water, according to newspaper accounts in Stearns History Museum archives.
The family learned the tragic news in church the next morning, when their pastor announced at Mass that the girls had been found, Rita said.
“When they made the announcement that the girls had been found, everybody burst into tears,” said Rita, who is a devout Catholic. Fred was an ordained deacon. “People from church really supported us during that time. We wouldn’t have made it without our faith.”
County investigation
Since the girls were found outside of St. Cloud city limits, the case fell under the jurisdiction of the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.
Since 1974, the case has been overseen by six sheriffs — Peter Lahr, Jim Ellering, Charlie Grafft, Jim Kostreba, John Sanner and current Sheriff Steve Soyka. Lahr was in the hospital being treated for cancer in 1974 and was not involved in the case, according to Reker.
Ellering was elected in November 1974, weeks after the girls were found. He took office in January 1975.
Brian Bohlig has been the lead investigator on the case for the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office since 2017. In his opinion, the first major break in the case came after the 1976 kidnapping and stabbing of 14-year-old Susan Dukowitz in St. Cloud.
On Sept. 25, 1976, Dukowitz was kidnapped by two men at the Dairy Barn, near where Dairy Queen at 4101 W. Division St. is located today.
Kidnappers Herb Notch and James A. Wagner, both 17, drove Dukowitz to a gravel pit near Luxemburg, where Notch stabbed her, Bohlig said. Notch sexually assaulted Dukowitz and cut up her clothes before stabbing her twice, according to a Feb. 27, 1988, St. Cloud Daily Times article.
Dukowitz was covered in brush and left for dead. However, after Notch and Wagner left, Dukowitz made her way to a nearby house, and the owner called law enforcement.
The girl survived. She told law enforcement that, as he was leaving, Notch said, “They won’t find that bitch until the spring.”
Hours later, law enforcement found Notch and Wagner, and Notch admitted to stabbing Dukowitz. Notch pleaded guilty to robbery and kidnapping, but the charges of attempted murder and sexual assault were dropped in a plea, according to a Fox 9 KSMP report. Notch served seven of the 40 years of his original sentence.
Dukowitz’s case bore similarities to the Reker killings, but law enforcement could find no connection between the two cases, Bohlig said.
Susan Dukowitz died of cancer at age 33 in 1995.
Investigation challenges
At first, the Reker sisters’ disappearance was treated as a runaway case, which means investigators lost time and potential witnesses by the time the girls’ bodies were found on Sept. 28, according to Bohlig.
“It might seem counterintuitive now to treat it as a runaway case — but that was in 1974 when it was standard police procedure,” Bohlig told St. Cloud LIVE during a phone interview on June 24. “That is not the way we handle things now.”
Investigators used interview techniques to take witnesses back in time to try to help them remember details from Sept. 2. Since DNA testing was not around in 1974, evidence was not properly collected, Bohlig added. Newspaper reports in 1974 noted the mishandling or loss of evidence in the case.
Newspaper accounts at the time say that Ellering did not consider the case to be a sex crime, though evidence pointed that direction. Sex crime experts were not heavily consulted during the investigation at this time.
“The sex offender registry was not a thing yet, so investigators had less to work off,” Bohlig said.
Almost a month went by between when the girls were last seen alive, by a neighbor at about 1:30 p.m. on Sept. 2, 1974. This meant potential witnesses may have forgotten helpful bits of information or that they saw anything at all, Bohlig said.
Authorities released details about the sisters: Mary was wearing green wire-rimmed glasses, a green Army fatigue shirt with “Reker” on the front pockets and blue jeans. Susanne was wearing gold wire-rimmed glasses, a white cotton short jacket and blue corduroy jeans.
In September 1977, the St. Cloud Daily Times reported that “The list of suspects has reached double figures, according to published reports.” At one point, even notorious serial killer Ted Bundy was a potential suspect because the Reker killings were similar to some of the murders he confessed to committing. However, he was later ruled out because he was in the Pacific Northwest at the time of the Rekers’ deaths.
In 1977, three years after the girls were killed, Ellering took over the case from lead investigator Lawrence “Brownie” Kritzeck after no major discoveries in the investigation, according to an article in the Aug. 18, 1977, St. Cloud Daily Times.
In 1978, Waite Park Police Chief Charlie Grafft ousted Ellering in a rematch for sheriff, partially due to the sheriff’s office’s inability to solve the Reker case, according to contemporaneous reporting.
Ellering moved to Arizona in 1978, shortly after losing the sheriff’s office.
Cold case, active investigation
Despite Mary’s and Susanne’s murders being labeled a cold case, the investigation is still active and ongoing, Bohlig said.
“There are still victims, and they still deserve justice,” Bohlig said. “No one should be able to kill two young girls and get away with it. This is one of the crimes of the century in Minnesota.”
Bohlig frequently checks in with Rita to update her on the investigation because he believes it is important for the family to know that the case is still a priority for the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office.
He even keeps Rita on his Christmas card list; the 2023 card with a picture of Bohlig’s family on the front is displayed on her fridge among cards from family members, pictures from her grandchildren’s weddings and a newspaper about her youngest granddaughter Theresa’s academic success.
Investigators are looking into a few people of interest, but Bohlig would not comment further on the status of the case.
Fred Reker died on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, 2012. Rita, meanwhile, kept searching for answers.
In 2018, she received a tip that a man who was being treated at a St. Cloud hospital for liver failure could be a potential suspect. Law enforcement investigated, but no arrests were made.
A 2005 investigation from the Vidocq Society, a members-only crime-solving club, determined that there was no usable DNA evidence in the Reker case. However, the organization — whose members include retired FBI criminal profilers and other law enforcement officers — created a profile of the perpetrator, and the potential suspect matched the profile perfectly, Rita said.
“I visited him when he was on his deathbed and looked him in the eye,” Rita said. “I asked him if he had anything to tell me, and he said no, but in my heart, the case was solved.”
Before he died, the man denied killing Mary and Susanne.
A mother’s mission
Rita found comfort in talking about her experience with others. It started as a tactic to keep the case in the media and keep people’s attention on her daughters, but it grew into a form of catharsis.
“I did a lot of public speaking [over the years], and for me, it was very healing just to share it with other people,” Rita said. “So it changed me a lot from the kind of person I was when I was young because I used to be incredibly shy.”
She especially found it helpful to speak with others at the Central Minnesota chapter of Parents of Murdered Children, a support group for survivors of homicide victims. She was even one of the chapter leaders and helped guide discussion.
As a parent, Rita had experienced the unthinkable — the killing of two children — and she decided to use her experience to help others. Her pain and catharsis became a call to action. She was a founding member of Tri-County Crime Stoppers.
Founded in 1981, the group aims to reduce crime in Stearns, Benton, and Sherburne counties, according to the organization’s website. The original funding for the group came from the reward money for those responsible for the deaths of Mary and Susanne Reker.
Rita Reker retired from the board in 2020 after 39 years.
Upon her retirement, the Tri-County Crime Stoppers gave her a plaque commemorating her service, which she displays proudly on a counter in her living room. Another plaque thanking Rita for her contributions hangs on a door frame in the kitchen.
“I am proud of my time there because we were trying to help others,” Rita said.
She also finds comfort in her family.
“My Susie always wanted to be a doctor, and now I have a few in a family,” Rita said, laughing, as she talked with St. Cloud LIVE about her grandchildren. “I like to think she lives on through them in that.”
How to help
To report tips in the Mary and Susanne Reker case, contact:
Tri-County Crime Stoppers: www.p3tips.com/TipForm.aspx?ID=513
Stearns County Sheriff’s Office: 320-251-4240 or mn-stearnscounty-gettingstarted.app.transform.civicplus.com/forms/28531
Timeline
1974
Sept. 2: Mary, 15, and Susanne “Susan/Susie,” 12, Reker went to Zayre Discount Store (now home to Save-a-Lot Grocery and Liquor) to buy school supplies but never returned home. Parents Fred and Rita Reker report them missing that evening.
Sept. 3-27: Rekers, family and friends formed small search parties and looked for the girls. This included driving out to Little Falls, a small town nearly 40 minutes north of St. Cloud. The family received tips that the girls may have taken a bus to the town because Mary’s high school St. Francis was there, according to Stearns History Museum archives.
Sept. 28: Susanne’s body was found by two teenage boys in the granite quarry in Waite Park. Mary’s body was found later that day by law enforcement.
Nov. 6: Sheriff James “Jim” Ellering elected to his first term. He served as sheriff from 1975 to 1979.
1976-78
Sept. 25, 1976: Herb Notch and James A. Wagner kidnapped and stabbed Susan Dukowitz, 14, before leaving her for dead. The case had multiple similarities to the Reker killings and led law enforcement to look at Notch and Wagner.
Aug. 18, 1977: Ellering takes over the case from Lawrence “Brownie” Kritack after no major discoveries in the investigation.
Nov. 7, 1978: Charlie Grafft, Waite Park police chief, is elected sheriff, ousting Ellering.
2000s
2005: The case is presented to the Vidocq Society. Experts created a psychological profile of the perpetrator.
2006: Evidence was DNA tested, but this produced no new leads.
Dec. 31, 2012: Fred Reker died at age 84.
2018: Reker received a tip that a man who was being treated at a St. Cloud hospital could be a suspect. Law enforcement investigated the tip, but no arrests were made.]]>