40 YEARS AGO TODAY, June 8, 1976, important evidence was discovered in Kickapoo Creek Park (KCP) relating to the disappearance of Ruth Martin. A partially burned, bloody T-shirt (mentioned in my previous blogs) was found lying on a sandbar near the railroad trestle in the park. Other evidence gathered in the immediate area surrounding the T-shirt linked to similar evidence found in the Martin Pontiac Catalina where it was parked 30 miles north in the lot of the Bloomington Holiday Inn on June 4, ’76.
The day of Ruth’s disappearance, Wednesday, June 2, ’76, someone involved in her abduction had used something in an attempt to wipe up blood on the Martin’s garage floor. Whatever was used to do that was not found anywhere at the Martin residence; obviously, whatever the perpetrator(s) had used to soak up the blood was taken away from the crime scene. I believe the T-shirt found in Kickapoo Creek Park was used to wipe up the blood on the garage floor, and further information connected to the T-shirt seems to strongly support that Smrekar used an accomplice.
The details concerning this evidence were apparently secreted from certain authorities, such as my father, State’s Attorney Roger Thompson, and others in ’76. The evidence was analyzed and returned to the LPD by the IL State Crime Lab on July 1, ’76 (as mentioned in my previous blogs); however, former LPD Detective William Krueger claims he told my father sometime after the Fry double homicide (which happened on Oct. 9, ’76) that the T-shirt had not been returned by the crime lab. Krueger made this claim to State’s Attorney Thompson several months after he’d signed off for the return of the T-shirt on the (July 1, ’76) Evidence Receipt. The similar evidence found in the Martin Catalina linking to the additional evidence found with the T-shirt in Kickapoo Creek Park, suggests that the person who’d tried to burn and destroy the T-shirt had also been inside the Catalina, at some point.
WHERE IS THIS NOW MISSING T-SHIRT EVIDENCE, AND HOW AND WHEN DID IT DISAPPEAR FROM THE LPD/LOGAN COUNTY SAFETY COMPLEX?
In 1976, it was the common consensus of many Logan County citizens that Russell Smrekar (later convicted of the Fry double homicide) had buried Ruth Martin under the new construction of Interstate-55. I, however, was in the minority of those who felt Ruth’s killer(s) would have more than likely disposed of her body in an unrestricted, inconspicuous, less risky, secluded area.
Since Ruth’s car was seen parked at the Holiday Inn at 6 PM the same day she disappeared, Wednesday, June 2nd (a work day), her body would have to have been transferred from her Catalina into another vehicle in order for her body to have been buried in the dirt of the construction of I-55 at night. In addition, the right front tire on the Martin vehicle had a slow leak and was found to be completely flat by 6 PM on June 2nd – it was probably flat prior to 6 PM. Just the mere fact that the vehicle was parked at the Holiday Inn would imply that another person was involved in her abduction with the juggling of vehicles and the possible transfer of her body from one vehicle to another. Lifting Ruth’s body into the trunk would have been difficult for a person of Smrekar’s stature, as would the transferring of her body from one trunk to another; this would also suggest the use of an accomplice.
I highly doubt the perpetrator(s) would have taken the risk of being seen burying a body in the wide open construction of I-55 in broad daylight. KCP was the nearest and most secluded, accessible area to the Martin home, and evidence supports someone went there, at the very least, to destroy blood evidence (the T-shirt).
I’ve talked to people who’ve been involved in highway/road construction, and they don’t think the I-55 hypothetical is plausible. One knowledgeable person stated the following, “Having been an ironworker and having poured many miles of concrete, and my brothers worked as heavy equipment operators on the Lincoln area I-55, I thought of the Russell Smrekar/Ruth Martin murder case. I don’t know the people who started the rumor/story that Martin was buried under I-55, but I don’t think they ever did a day of construction work/road building in their life.”
This article appeared in the Bloomington, IL Pantagraph on June 5, 1976.
The day following Russell Smrekar’s arrest for the Fry murders, on October 18 ’76, he was arraigned at the Logan County Courthouse and transported to the Macon County Jail in Decatur, IL. Smrekar bragged to a few jail inmates that he and “another guy” were involved in Ruth Martin’s abduction. These inmates said Smrekar claimed he burned evidence in the Martin case in the Lincoln High School incinerator. Why, of all places, would Smrekar choose the LCHS incinerator to burn evidence in a murder? How would he know where the high school incinerator was located? How could 21-year-old Smrekar have entered LCHS and not stood out like a sore thumb while carrying on his person evidence? Why would he have taken the risk of burning evidence there and being caught? He would have to have done it during non-school hours – it would seem at night – and if so, how would he have entered LCHS? Smrekar’s claim seems to imply that he may have known someone connected to LCHS? I, personally, feel he was not being truthful when he made this claim but, instead, toying with the inmates and possibly presenting a clue as to his accomplice, “another guy.”
It’s interesting that the Lincoln Police Department conducted a dig for Martin’s remains between the area of Lincoln High School and the Immanuel Lutheran Church in April of 2006. How could they believe Smrekar could have covertly and successfully buried her body in that high traffic, wide open residential area without being seen? Digging a hole large enough for a body would require a lot of time and effort. Ridiculous, I felt.
Most people don’t realize that Smrekar was placed in the same Macon County Jail cell with Michael Drabing, who’d been previously arrested for the Aug. 19, ’76 Schneider triple homicide (a Logan County IL mass murder). Michael Drabing claimed to know where Martin’s body was located. In ’76, Drabing told State’s Attorney Thompson that he would reveal where Martin was in exchange for immunity and $5,000. Was Drabing aware of this information through Smrekar, alone, or could there have been another person close to Drabing who was also knowledgeable about this information?
The evidence supports that people in addition to Russell Smrekar may know the truth about what happened to Ruth Martin. If other possible accomplices, still at large, know about Martin, they may also know the particulars concerning the disappearance/murder of Michael Mansfield, who disappeared on December 31, 1975.
I’m grateful to those who’ve SIGNED THE PETITION ON THIS WEB SITE calling for DNA testing of all existing applicable evidence and official investigation in the cold cases of Michael Mansfield and Ruth Martin and the Schneider triple homicide. Please keep them coming.
Thank you,
Bonnie J. Thompson (Copyright 2013, 2015, 2016)
