1983 Minnesota Cold Case may Point to Uncaught Serial Killer

She just wanted to sun herself by the Lake. She deserved some “me” time after such a trying week.

Behind her, he moved as silent as a specter. The stranger’s monstrous, pugilist’s hands tightened around her neck like a constrictor preparing to feed. She saw nothing but black and he slowly released pressure…

She just wanted to sun herself by the Lake. The kids were driving her nuts.

September 25, 1983 was supposed to be a reprieve from several days of horrible Minnesota weather for 33-year-old Dale Heimbach Wheeler of Duluth. She just wanted to sun herself by the lake while her husband and children attended church that gorgeous Sunday morning…

As she slowly came to, the monster’s hands again cranked up the pressure — a vice tightening around her neck until Wheeler breathed her last.

She just wanted to sun herself by the Lake. Relaxing; having a bit of a much-deserved break from the stressors of life.

The unsolved murder of Dale Heimbach Wheeler spawned many questions and theories — one of which points to the homicide as a possible entry in a serial murder case — all of which, according to Jessica Labore the new investigator from the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Office, are understandably “still painful” for the city of Duluth.

This is an open investigation so police will not be sharing specifics at all (though the new investigator Jessica Labore thinks the case is far from over). Thus, this piece relies primarily on media sources local to Duluth.

I. The Scene

Duluth, Minnesota sits on the shores of Lake Superior within spitting distance of northern Wisconsin. The “north shore” on the Lake is a favorite recreation spot for the locals.

The picturesque wilderness and upper echelon of society are a big part of what made Dale Wheeler’s murder a huge priority for local investigators.

The 1983 Sheriff Ernie Grams said, “We’re assuming she walked down there to rest or to sun herself, and that’s where the assault occurred.” She was last seen alive in the area around 1:30 PM.

During a search, the day after she went missing, a fisherman named Alvin Saur cast his line near the shore when he saw bicycle handles bobbing out of the water. He reported his find to the sheriff.

Deputies checked the area around where Saur saw the bike. They found the body of a woman 75 feet off North Shore Drive. She was scantly covered by a discarded tire and some forest debris. There was no sign of sexual assault. She still had on the warm clothes she donned for cycling the day before.

Sheriff Grams, however, said there is a strong possibility the perpetrator could not finish sexually assaulting her, killed her in a fit of homicidal rage, and covered her body with branches and the tire before fleeing. This kind of ‘performance anxiety” (for lack of a better term), can be a big problem for sadistic men — they are impotent or they for some reason think they are. That anger ultimately gets attracted exclusively to women.

The woman fought back too — her hands were littered with defensive wounds and blunt force trauma from an unknown weapon which left her forehead severely injured.

Later, the corpse was positively IDed as Dale Wheeler. She was killed around 3:00 PM the day before she was found, according to the medical examiner.

Sheriff Grams was convinced after all he had seen that day that, “somebody saw something.”

II. The Victim

Dale Heimbach Wheeler came from what could be called the blue bloods of Duluth. Her husband Tom was successful in business and an accomplished philanthropist who traced his lineage to the town’s forefathers. He died a well-respected man in Duluth in 2020 at age 74.

Dale left a note before she went biking early that fateful morning; telling Tom she would be back before 6:00 that evening. When his always punctual wife did not show by about 9:00 PM, Tom called the sheriff and reported her missing.

A horrible question hit the Wheelers like a wrecking ball to the gut when they suspected foul play. What did this person who did it want? Money? That is not a problem. Why not come to us?

The family did not want to dwell on the other, correlated thought: who would want their Dale — a well-liked mother of three, beloved by all who knew her — dead?

III. Little Clues

Police did not have a lot to work with in the case. Wheeler had no known enemies. She seemed to be just a mother and wife who loved tennis, her husband, and her children.

Witnesses around North Shore Drive that day reported a 20-something man with a bushy, unkempt beard and equally wild hair hanging around a late model sedan. A dragnet brought in many local men fitting the description, but all were cleared.

Investigators also chased down intelligence about a pilot who — at 3:00 PM the 25th — was flying low and close to where Wheeler was murdered. Nothing came of this lead either.

Police did find Wheeler’s rucksack with belongings like her notebooks about 200 feet from her body. Her purse and its contents were scattered even further out.

Investigators found it tough to tell whether her belongings scattered about happened organically from her running from the suspect, whether he was intending to rob her (which there’s no evidence of), or whether he was trying to stage the crime scene to make it look like a robbery gone bad.

IV. The Photographer

Police had an odd development in the case a full decade after Dale Wheeler was murdered.

A photographer came forward, claiming he was taking pictures on the north shore that day when he saw Wheeler sitting on a rock. He claimed to have gotten no closer than 40–50 yards from her. This story gets weirder than a potential voyeur watching her in the woods.

The photographer was cooperative until he was not — requesting the assistance of counsel in the middle of the interrogation. A newspaper said he was “infatuated” with Wheeler, despite his vehement denials. He also refused to turn his film over to investigators.

Ultimately, investigators had to cut the photographer loose for lack of evidence. They did, however, put officers on him 24/7 in case he did anything.

V. The Case Goes Cold as New Options Emerge

After this lead that also did not pan out, the case went cold.

That is when a more bizarre theory of the crime came to be: that Wheeler was murdered by a serial killer. This hypothesis was mostly advanced by the media, but it is entirely possible considering what we know and do not know about this bizarre case.

VI. DNA

What stands the best chance, according to new Lead Investigator Jessica Labore, is any DNA that may still be there after all these years.

We may very well have another Joseph James DeAngelo (“The Golden State Killer”) as he was caught using non-law enforcement DNA databases like Ancestry and 23 and Me.

That may, indeed, be the best shot for justice for Dale. Jessica Labore taking the investigation in (presumably) new directions with the aid of the FBI’s sealed profile of the crime, may indeed be the best chance of justice for Dale and getting an answer to the perplexing questions of this case.

Wess Haubrich is a freelance writer and journalist specializing in true crime and film, the former contributing editor of London’s award-winning The 405 Film, staff writer at Citizen Truth, and host of the true crime podcast Real Monsters. Follow him on Twitter here .