“I was 3 at the time,” Alex Poupart stated. “It happened in May of 1990.”
Alex doesn’t actually bear in mind her mom, Susan Poupart. “I had dreams about her that I think were memories,” Alex stated. “Maybe it could have been a memory of when I was little.”
Her older brother, Jared, was sufficiently old to recollect when their mother disappeared. “He was 9 when it happened,” Alex recalled. She informed Dateline that Jared informed her so much about their mother. “A lot of other people told me about her, too. I actually got adopted by a couple of her friends,” Alex stated. Jared stayed with their grandmother.
Alex informed Dateline that everybody all the time informed her the identical factor — that Susan was “very outgoing” and that she “liked to have fun. She liked to go out.”
The 29-year-old mom of two was from Wisconsin. “She grew up here her whole life,” stated Alex, who nonetheless lives there. Susan was half of the Lac du Flambeau Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians tribe.
And in May of 1990, she disappeared.
Susan was final seen at a home celebration in Lac du Flambeau on May 20, 1990.
She was residing along with her sister on the time, and was reported lacking days later when she hadn’t returned residence.
Alex stated that she didn’t be taught the extent of what occurred to her mom till she was older. “My brother told me. My brother, like, he had it really worse growing up,” Alex informed Dateline. “He kinda, like, sat me down on the porch and just told me. And I was just like –it took me a long time to, like, understand.”
As she received older, Alex heard extra about her mom’s case. “We mostly, like, heard rumors. It was always rumors that she was abducted from that party.” According to Alex, the gathering on May 20, 1990, was a going away celebration for the youthful brother of one of Susan’s mates and a number of folks noticed her leaving with two males.
Alex stated her mom probably knew the folks she left the celebration with that night time. “A reservation is a small town, everybody knows everybody,” she stated.
“I was 18 when I first met the detectives,” Alex informed Dateline. “I just wanted to know, like, what they were doing case-wise.” Alex has tried to remain in contact with the detectives ever since.
Dateline spoke with Sheriff Joe Fath of the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office. He has been engaged on Susan’s case with a workforce of detectives since 1990.
“She really wasn’t reported right away to us. I think it came in at least two days after she did not return home,” Sheriff Fath informed Dateline. “Initially, our patrol deputies that were working responded and obtained information and they coordinated a search of the area — a foot search with, I think, the fire department personnel and some community members helped us back then.”
This search occurred at the very least two days after the celebration. “And then that’s when some of our– myself and some of our detectives got involved,” Sheriff Fath stated.
Susan disappeared in Lac du Flambeau, which is a reservation. Sheriff Fath defined that the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office was the first regulation enforcement company that dealt with something on the reservation. “Lac du Flambeau is a Public Law 280 reservation, which means that the sheriff has a jurisdiction on crimes within the boundaries of the reservation,” Sheriff Fath stated. “So we patrolled the reservation back in 1990 on a regular basis.”
Sheriff Fath confirmed the story about Susan leaving with the 2 males. Witnesses say that they left the celebration between 4:00 and 4:30 a.m. Sheriff Fath confirmed that the pair informed officers that that they had all gotten into an argument and dropped Susan off.
“It’s a small community and in the early days, rumors ran rampant,” Sheriff Fath stated. “We, obviously, chased down those rumors as leads and tried to dispel them or move forward with them. So it’s — it’s been a long process.”
The sheriff stated that the 2 males, whom he recognized to Dateline as Robert Elm and Joseph Cobb, “are still probably our main people of interest because they have not been able to prove that they were not involved in her disappearance.” He stated that Elm and Cobb have been interviewed by the sheriff’s workplace quite a few occasions. Dateline tried to contact each Elm and Cobb for remark however was not profitable.
Sheriff Fath stated {that a} third identify got here up in the investigation, as properly. “A third person has come up over the years and he knows that we continue to talk to him, as well. But we’ve talked to hundreds of people in Lac du Flambeau since she went missing,” Sheriff Fath stated. “It’s not only the two or three people that we’ve interviewed or focused our efforts on.”
After six months of looking for Susan Poupart, her stays have been discovered.
According to Alex, Susan’s stays have been positioned by hunters, proper round Thanksgiving of 1990. Officers responded to the scene in Price County which, in keeping with Sheriff Fath, is about 12 miles away from the place the celebration was held the night time Susan disappeared. “It was ruled a homicidal death,” Sheriff Fath informed Dateline. But, he famous, “There wasn’t enough of the remains for the pathologist to make a specific cause.”
Sheriff Fath informed Dateline that the crime lab area response workforce got here, too. “We did find clothing. We found her lower jaw bone which — we were able to identify it through a forensic dental examination,” Sheriff Fath detailed. “And I think there was trace evidence that the crime lab recovered.”
The sheriff informed Dateline that since a lot time had handed from May to November 1990, there was not so much they may protect. “It was outdoors. It was in a pretty thick cedar swamp where her remains were found,” Sheriff Fath stated. “The crime lab did its best to process things and identify things of evidentiary value. But it’s not like an indoor scene where things were protected and more of a pristine environment.”
After many years handed with little motion in the case, officers tried one thing a bit unconventional: a John Doe continuing.
“They had something called a John Doe trial,” Alex informed Dateline. She believes it was in 2007. “It wasn’t a trial, but it was like hearings they held and they got those guys on the stand,” she stated.
According to the Wisconsin State Legislature, a John Doe continuing is the place a “district attorney requests a judge to convene a proceeding to determine whether a crime has been committed in the court’s jurisdiction.” The laws continues to state that the “judge shall convene a proceeding… and shall subpoena and examine any witnesses the district attorney identifies.”
Sheriff Fath confirmed this, too. “The John Doe hearing started as a secret, where it was not made public. We had people testify at the hearings in — in a closed environment and then the district attorney opened the John Doe.”
The sheriff added that that they had 4 or 5 witnesses testify through the open session. “But the D.A. at the time did not close it or refer it to the judge to make a probable cause ruling on the evidence,” Sheriff Fath stated. “So it’s still an open file, or open case.”
Sheriff Fath informed Dateline that Susan’s case is one which he and the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office proceed to research. “Susan’s case is one of, at least, my primary cold case investigations on the reservation,” he stated. (*32*) In reality, “there’s been several DCI agents assigned to help us and coordinate our efforts,” the sheriff famous. “We’ve been very active with them and they help us with dealing with the crime lab and the FBI lab for evidentiary purposes.”
At the top of the day, Sheriff Fath informed Dateline, “It’s a team effort.” He stated that in addition to following up on any leads which will come in, his workplace has “resubmitted evidence a couple of times for DNA and trace evidence, but it’s not been successful.” The sheriff is hopeful that as know-how improves, the probabilities of fixing the case will, too. “Who knows if there will be something that changes, where the evidence that we have in our evidence room may be able to be resubmitted and tell us something down the road,” he stated.
Alex says it hasn’t been straightforward letting go of the sentiments surrounding her mom’s dying as a result of there are fixed reminders throughout her, beginning with the place she lives. “Where she got abducted from is right down the road from my house,” she stated. “It’s like three doors down. I live on the same street — the place she was last seen.” And then there may be Alex, herself. “I am the spitting age of my mom. Sometimes when I talk to people they get all teary-eyed and tear up and, like, won’t look at me,” Alex informed Dateline. “Sometimes it just gets to me, emotionally.”
Alex tries her greatest to protect her personal kids from the ache she felt rising up. “My oldest is 12 and my other one is 10. And there’s a billboard of my mom on the highway,” Alex informed Dateline. She stated that she would attempt to distract them from seeing it as they drove previous, however that they’ve caught a glimpse a number of occasions. “That’s the hardest part for me now — is explaining that to a bunch of little boys.”
Sheriff Fath informed Dateline the billboard about Susan’s case has been up for greater than a decade displaying her image, “stating that she was murdered in 1990, asking people if they know anything about the case,” he stated. “I mean, they see her face every time they come into Lac du Flambeau.”
Alex feels that some folks in Lac du Flambeau simply need to overlook about her mom’s case. “It’s really hard around here because, like, everybody knows,” Alex informed Dateline. “They just wanna sweep it under the rug, more or less.”
Sheriff Fath vows to not let that occur, telling Dateline he won’t overlook about Susan Poupart. “I’m confident that there’s people in Lac du Flambeau that know what happened,” he stated. “They just have not come forward. That’s what we need, is — we need that tip. We need that assistance from the community to solve this case.”
If anybody has information concerning Susan’s case, please name the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office at 715-479-4444. You may also go away an nameless tip on the Vilas County Sheriff’s Office app or tip411 line.