Dale R. Anderson

Case record

Dale R. Anderson was sentenced to life imprisonment on May 11, 1990.

Anderson denied killing anyone. Anderson agreed with the nation's leading expert on serial killers, Robert K. Ressler, that the same person murdered Audrey Cardenas and four other women in the Belleville area, while Anderson said he was not the killer.

“These cases and a lot of other cases you don't know about are connected,”
Anderson said during an interview Tuesday at Menard Correctional Center near Chester, Ill.
“But I haven't murdered anyone.”

“I can't say for 100 percent sure” that Anderson killed all of the women, Ressler said.

Timeline

• May 11, 1990 — Anderson was sentenced to life imprisonment.
• May 5, 1978 — Elizabeth K. West’s strangled body was found in a creek between Belleville and Millstadt.
• May 1978 — West vanished a block from her home as she was returning from performing in her high school play.
• July 1979 — Ruth Ann Jany’s body was found near a creek five miles south of where West’s body was discovered.
• July 1987 — Kristina Povolish’s strangled body was discovered in a weed-covered ditch just southwest of Belleville.
• September 1986 — An unidentified woman thought to be 18 to 23 years old was strangled and hidden in a cornfield near Summerfield in St. Clair County.
• June 1988 — Audrey Cardenas’s badly decomposed body was found in an overgrown creek on the campus of Belleville Township High School East.
• 1988 — Attorneys were battling in court to free Rodney Woidtke.
• 1989 — Police searched Anderson’s home and found file folders filled with memos, notes and newspaper articles on Cardenas, the unidentified woman and Povolish in Anderson’s locked safe.
• Tuesday — Anderson said during an interview at Menard Correctional Center near Chester, Ill. that he was linked by Ressler to the five murders and denied murdering anyone.

Background

Robert K. Ressler, described as an ex-FBI wiz, characterized Anderson as a “sexual psychopath” and described him as a “model” serial killer.

“sexual psychopath” Dale R. Anderson

“There has been no one that I've seen as of late who fits the pattern of a serial killer as strongly as he does.”

Ressler said Anderson was likely the killer of newspaper intern Audrey Cardenas and four other women. Ressler said two men had spent a total of 30 years behind bars for murders they didn’t commit.

Anderson was described as a former welfare case worker and onetime St. Clair County Sheriff’s Department jailer. The narrative also said Anderson had posed as a police officer often.

Anderson was said to be a St. Clair County sheriff’s jailer when West and Jany were killed in 1978.

Ressler said the crimes happened within a small perimeter of Belleville and got closer as Anderson got more comfortable.

“The fact is, I mean, my God, these crimes happened within this small perimeter of Belleville, and they got closer (to Anderson's home) as he got more comfortable.”

The offence

Anderson was convicted of the 1989 murders of a mother and her young son near Belleville. The other suspected victims listed were Elizabeth K. West, Ruth Ann Jany, an unidentified woman, Kristina Povolish, and Audrey Cardenas.

Ressler said the evidence showed that whoever killed West and Jany carefully planned their abductions and killings.

Ressler said it was probable an acquaintance or someone posing as a police officer tricked the women into a car.

Anderson said he believed none of the women were abducted initially by force.

Anderson said the murdered women were all conned into a car by their killer, who told them he was a police officer.

“You don't know how easy it is for a police officer to lure someone into a car,” Anderson said.
“She's walking down the street late at night and someone drives up and says, `I'm a police officer. Get in.' She's young and doesn't know she's about to be murdered.”

Ressler said all of the bodies were moved and concealed.

Ressler said none of the crime scenes produced any physical evidence—hair, fingerprints or fiber—from the killer, and none of the victims had defensive wounds such as bruising on the arms or flesh under their fingernails. Ressler said that showed the killer had complete control over the victims when they were murdered.

Investigation

Ressler said he was 95 percent certain that Anderson, not Woidtke, killed Rodney Woidtke. Ressler also said he was 80 percent sure that Anderson killed West, Jany, Povolish and the unidentified woman.

Ressler urged that Woidtke be removed from prison.

“Get him out of prison.”

Ressler said there were too many links between the five murders to ignore.

Police found file folders filled with memos, notes and newspaper articles on Cardenas, the unidentified woman and Povolish in Anderson’s locked safe when they searched his home in 1989. Anderson said he kept files on West and Jany as well. Police had never recovered the unidentified woman’s drivers license, which Anderson said he had.

Anderson said he could unlock the 13-year mystery of the unidentified woman’s identity and insisted he had her drivers license.

Anderson refused to reveal where it was hidden, or the woman’s name and address.

Anderson said he knew a lot about the murders because he investigated them as a police officer. The narrative also said Anderson was never a police officer.

Arrest

Anderson’s arrest for the Lanman murders was mentioned in connection with Anderson’s belief that police took evidence out of his Belleville home when he was arrested.

Trial

The narrative said Woidtke was convicted by a judge of murdering Cardenas. It also stated that Anderson denied murdering anyone and was convicted of the 1989 murders of a mother and her young son near Belleville.

Ressler said the crime scene investigator in the case had said he believed Woidtke was innocent.

It was also stated that both Woidtke and Bowman immediately recanted their confessions and maintained their innocence. The narrative said no physical evidence tied the men to the murders.

Sentencing

Woidtke was described as receiving a 45-year prison sentence for murdering Cardenas.

Gregory R. Bowman, 47, was said to have spent 20 years of a life sentence in prison for the West and Jany murders. Bowman was described as having been convicted and sentenced to a life sentence. The narrative said Bowman confessed after police questioned him intermittently for eight months. Ressler said he had spent 20 years of a life sentence in prison.

Appeals

Attorneys were battling in court to free Woidtke.

Outcome

The narrative stated that Anderson denied killing anyone and said he was not the killer.

Ressler’s statements cast doubt on the guilt of other men convicted in connection with the murders. The narrative said St. Clair County sheriff’s deputy Sgt. Robert Miller admitted he tricked Bowman into confessing.

“Convince him you can get him out if he says something” about the murders, Miller said he told the other prisoner.

Clyde Kuehn, described as the former state’s attorney who charged Bowman, said he knew nothing about the ruse and called it “absolutely upsetting.”

“absolutely upsetting.”

Bowman agreed to the snitch’s offer because he was terrified of being sent back to prison, and Bowman thought he had a solid alibi that would prove he hadn’t committed the crimes.

It was stated that no physical evidence tied the men to the murders, and the narrative described the lack of physical evidence and defensive wounds as part of the reasoning attributed to Ressler.

Other details

Suspected victims and circumstances

• Elizabeth K. West — 14-year-old freshman at Belleville Township High School West. Her strangled body was found in a creek between Belleville and Millstadt on May 5, 1978. She vanished a block from her home as she was returning from performing in her high school play.
• Ruth Ann Jany — 21. Her body was found in July 1979 near a creek five miles south of where West’s body was discovered. She disappeared a year earlier after stopping at an automatic teller machine in downtown Belleville. Police believed she was strangled.
• Unidentified woman — described as still unidentified and thought to be 18 to 23 years old. She was strangled and hidden in a cornfield near Summerfield in St. Clair County in September 1986.
• Kristina Povolish — 19. Her strangled body was discovered in a weed-covered ditch in July 1987 just southwest of Belleville.
• Audrey Cardenas — 24. Her badly decomposed body was found in an overgrown creek on the campus of Belleville Township High School East in June 1988. Investigators believed she was either strangled or had her throat cut.

Other men mentioned

• Rodney Woidtke — described as a mentally ill transient who confessed to the Cardenas murder after hours of questioning. He was said to have spent a decade in prison. The crime scene investigator in the case said he believed Woidtke was innocent. Ressler said he was 95 percent certain Anderson, not Woidtke, killed Woidtke. It also stated that Woidtke was convicted by a judge of murdering Cardenas and received a 45-year prison sentence.
• Gregory R. Bowman — Gregory R. Bowman, 47, confessed after police questioned him intermittently for eight months. The narrative said Ressler did not believe Bowman would have been capable of killing Jany or West—especially in the premeditated way in which they were murdered—contrasting Bowman’s prior crimes as spontaneous with evidence that the Jany and West murders were carefully planned.
• Sgt. Robert Miller — a St. Clair County sheriff’s deputy who admitted he tricked Bowman into confessing. The county’s then chief prosecutor said that had authorities known about the deputy’s trick, the confession could have been thrown out and the case against Bowman dismissed. The deputy said it was his idea to have a jail-house snitch approach Bowman and tell him he’d help him escape if Bowman confessed.
• Clyde Kuehn — former state's attorney who charged Bowman. He said he knew nothing about the ruse and called it “absolutely upsetting.”
• Robert K. Ressler — ex-FBI profiler; described as the nation’s leading expert on serial killers. Ressler made statements about Anderson’s likelihood of killing the women and about doubt on other convictions. Ressler said he was 95 percent certain about Woidtke and 80 percent sure about other suspected victims.

Prison and employment

Bowman was described as working as a computer programmer at Joliet and considered a model prisoner. Bowman said he went into a mental tailspin after he was found guilty and said he couldn’t fight his conviction at the same time he coped with life behind prison walls. It also stated that Woidtke and Bowman immediately recanted their confessions and maintained their innocence.