OSHKOSH, Wis. (AP) - Anthropology students at the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh have been enlisted to help search for the remains of a homicide victim who died in 1983.
Starkie Swenson, 67, was last seen riding a bike near Shattuck Middle School in Neenah. In 1994, John Andrews pleaded guilty to homicide by negligent use of a motor vehicle. Prosecutors say Swenson and Andrews were involved in a love triangle and that Andrews ran over Swenson.
“He went missing, eventually there was a break in the case, and someone served time in prison, after being convicted of his murder, but the body was never found,” UW-Oshkosh associate professor of anthropology Jordan Karsten said.
The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office reached out to Karsten for help in locating Swenson’s remains. So, Karston and his spring class will work to find the remains at an undisclosed location, WLUK-TV reported.
“The case has got all of the, kind of, elements of an interesting murder mystery, in terms of affairs, in terms of friendships, and marriages, and family relationships, and so it makes for a really interesting case,” Karsten said.
Karsten hopes he and his students are successful in locating the remains.
“I mean, if we find it, it would be great! It would be interesting and a vindication of our methods,” Karsten said. “At the end of the day, it’s a sad case where someone has died, and so to be able to concretely say that we know what happened is something that I hope to be able to add to the investigation.”
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