South Dakota's unsolved mysteries: 5 to remember

Several murders and missing person cases in South Dakota remain unsolved, including the 1974 disappearance Ellabeth Lodermeier, who has never been found.

Another unsolved mystery in South Dakota dates back to the 1940s. Another is as recent as 2015.

Here's a closer look at 5 such cases:

Naomi Cheney

Women’s Army Corps officer Naomi Kathleen Cheney, 25, was found dead beneath a bridge on 12th Street and Grange Avenue in Sioux Falls on Oct. 5, 1943.

The Alabama native had been killed by a blow to the head with a blunt object as she walked from the Army Air Force Base to her home at 525 South Euclid Avenue.

Her body was found fewer than three blocks from her home by a 10-year-old girl who was playing near the railroad tracks.

The Minnehaha County sheriff announced a $500 reward for anyone with information that led to the killer’s capture.

A farm hand who lived fewer than 50 feet from where Cheney’s body was found was suspected of the crime: Blood that matched Cheney’s type was found inside and outside the man’s cabin and on his shoes, but due to the rudimentary testing available in 1943, authorities could not be sure it was hers.

The 31-year-old man was held for questioning but was released and later killed in World War II. He was never identified by the investigating officers, all of whom have since died.

Cheney’s is the oldest unsolved murder in Sioux Falls.

Into thin air:

• What happened to Ellabeth Lodermeier?
• A timeline of the disappearance of Ellabeth Lodermeier
• Ellabeth Lodermeier's niece looks through family photos of missing aunt

Baby Andrew

Sioux Falls resident Lee Litz discovered a newborn infant in a ditch in 1981 with tears frozen to the baby's cheeks. Posthumously christened Andrew John Doe by the anonymous donor who paid for his funeral, the baby had died of exposure near 33rd Street and Sycamore Avenue.

He had lived only two hours.

Approximately 50 people came to Baby Andrew’s funeral, which was held at George Boom Funeral Home on March 7, 1981. Detectives also attended, hoping Andrew’s mother would appear, but found no one.

The woman who paid for the funeral had only lived in Sioux Falls a few weeks at the time. She said she did not want recognition for the act, but instead asked for donations to the Children’s Inn.

The infant was buried at St. Michael’s Cemetery on Cliff Avenue. To this day, Litz visits the grave of the little boy whose death has haunted him for 37 years.

“To see a child thrown away like that – how could someone do that?” Litz said in 2016. “Someone got away with murder.”

Since 2017, attempts to link the baby’s DNA to potential parents have been fruitless. Police released crime scene photos of Baby Andrew’s discovery in 2018, hoping someone would come forward and identify Baby Andrew’s parents.

So far, no new leads have come in.

Clara Olson

Clara Olson was found murdered in her home at 820 West 11th Street in Sioux Falls on Aug. 6, 1986. The death of the 93-year-old landlady baffled friends and family.

“Why would anybody murder an old lady in her bed?” asked Olson’s niece, Florence Clifton.

At first, Olson’s death was deemed to be of natural causes, until a Baltic funeral director noticed bruising around her neck.

An autopsy determined that Olson had been strangled, but police say evidence that could have helped definitively solve the murder was accidentally destroyed by family members when they discovered her body.

Police twice traveled to Dallas, Texas, to interview a former tenant of Olson’s, but there ultimately wasn't enough evidence to prosecute.

Detective Pat Mertes of the Sioux Falls Police Department said the case is still being actively investigated.

Rachel Cyriacks

Rachel Cyriacks, 30, was last seen in Woonsocket on Nov. 13, 2013. Her body has never been found, but Sanborn County Sheriff Tom Fridley said authorities believe she is dead.

In early 2014, Rachel's silver pickup truck was found, severely damaged. Later that year, a helicopter search turned up no new information and Rachel's home was inexplicably vandalized, the phrase “riverside for life” and an expletive spray-painted on the front of the house.

Fridley said at the time he didn't know what the phrase meant or if it was connected to the disappearance, but he said, “We’re hoping it might mean something to someone.”

In 2016, ground-penetrating radar searched a small plot of land near an irrigation ditch in Beadle County, with no results.

Even when the case was only a year old, it vexed police.

"Nothing has panned out," Fridley said in 2014. "That's the frustration of it."

A few months before she disappeared, Cyriacks filed a temporary protection order against her husband Bradley, saying she was seeking a divorce on grounds that he abused her. Fridley said authorities consider Bradley Cyriacks a suspect, but he has never been charged.

"We haven't given up," Fridley said. "We still need to bring somebody home."

Alicia Hummel

In 2015, a Game, Fish and Parks employee found the body of a 29-year-old Sioux City, Iowa woman near a boat dock at Myron Grove, outside Vermillion.

Alicia Hummel had drowned after suffering blunt force head trauma and a laceration to her neck, the coroner determined.

Moments before she died, Hummel posed with a fishing pole for photos she posted to Snapchat. No one knows if she went fishing by herself that day, but family and friends say it was not unusual for her to venture out alone.

Hummel’s husband was out of town with relatives at the time of her death, and he along with other friends and family were quickly eliminated as suspects. The knowledge that Hummel’s killer could still be walking free disturbs her friend Bethany Svacina.

"If you did that brutal of a murder, what’s going to stop you from doing it again?" Svacina asked.

Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe says Hummel’s case is not cold, and that authorities continue to receive and follow up on tips.

"This is something that we’re all invested in," Howe said. "Despite our best efforts and everything we’ve done, we still don’t have a resolution, which is frustrating."