Donna Doll lived in DeKalb, Illinois. The 21-year-old was a student at Northern Illinois University and she worked part-time at the Swen Parson Library on campus. It was her dream to become a teacher.
Donna was dating fellow student Charles Burke. In the summer of 1970, she visited Pennsylvania where she met another man who piqued her interest. She liked that he wasn’t possessive and controlling like Charles.
Donna told her childhood friend, Donna Chiarelott, that she broke up with Charles to date the unnamed man, who had just separated from his wife.
On Friday, October 2, 1970, Chiarelott arrived at the campus Library to pick Donna up for a planned get-together but she was nowhere to be found.
Records showed that Donna clocked out at 9:59 pm. Chiarelott assumed that she had simply forgotten about their plans and went home.
Donna Doll was never seen alive again.
Donna’s roommates assumed that she had gone to Pennsylvania to visit her new boyfriend. When Sunday came around with no sign of Donna, they called the police and reported her missing.
The authorities discovered that Donna had left all of her belongings behind in her bedroom including an uncashed check from the library.
When Donna missed her classes it became evident that something terrible had occurred. She was incredibly studious and it was uncharacteristic of her to miss school. Her ex-boyfriend, Charles, took it upon himself to organize a search party.
On October 11, 1970, three university students stumbled upon a decomposing body in a cornfield on Nelson Road, just a few hundred yards from where Charles had ended the search, and very close to his apartment.
Charles positively identified the body as Donna’s. He served as a pallbearer at her funeral and she was even buried wearing a pair of earrings he had gifted her. For an ex-boyfriend, Charles was quite involved in her case.
There were no visible injuries on Donna’s body, nor were there any defense wounds. An autopsy was conducted and the medical examiner concluded that she had been suffocated to death with a pillowcase or a plastic bag. Investigators believed she had been murdered by someone close to her.
Donna was last seen wearing a trench coat but she was found wearing a jacket that didn’t belong to her. Her shoes and purse were also missing and along with the trench coat, have never been found. The most bizarre discovery, however, was what the coroner found inside Donna’s body:
Five to six pounds of boiled potatoes.
To this day, no one knows why Donna Doll consumed so many potatoes before her tragic demise. Was she forced to? And if so, by whom?
Investigators ruled out Donna’s boyfriend in Pennsylvania. He claimed that he hadn’t spoken with her in days and there was no evidence he had been in DeKalb. Charles, on the other hand, was quickly named a suspect. In fact, he remains the prime and only suspect in the case 5 decades later.
Charles attempted to take his own life the day after he was named a suspect. He ultimately moved to Chicago where he established a successful career in finance. His current whereabouts remain unknown.
54 years later, the strange death of Donna Doll remains a mystery.