This week marked the discovery of the third dead baby to be found in the waters of the Mississippi in Goodhue County in the last eight years.

The story brings to mind a gruesome discovery that happened on the Minnesota River near Carver, April 2, 1946.

Last spring, the Herald published a story (reprinted below) during the 60th anniversary of three murdered infants, found floating in a suitcase in the Minnesota River. This Monday marks the 61st anniversary of the event.

John von Walter, a Carver historian, investigated the case. Other than a few details about the discovery of the bodies, von Walter has heard “nothing at all,” regarding leads in the murders.

Anyone with information about the crimes can contact the Carver County Sheriff’s Office at (952) 361-1231.

By Mark W. Olson

Sixty years ago this Sunday, two Carver men were on a Minnesota River fishing expedition.

While in their boat, they spotted a suitcase floating down the river, between Carver and Chaska. When they fished out the suitcase and opened it, they made a horrifying discovery - the bodies of three murdered infants.

Evidence was sent off to various state and federal agencies. However, no inroads were made in the investigation. After a few articles in the Chaska Herald (then named the Weekly Valley Herald), the story fell off the radar - until now.

While researching the history of his 1850s Carver home, John von Walter, a local historian, chanced upon a newspaper article of the crime and became hooked. He hopes that renewed interest in the cold case can produce DNA evidence, or prompt the guilty parties to fess up.

“Today, if still alive, the person or persons connected to the crimes may now be ready to step forward in their waning years to make peace to their God and to society for the horrible crimes committed early in life or in great desperation,” he said.

Von Walter has contacted FBI agents, who are combing through old files to see if the murder evidence still exists. He has also pursued a paper trail of the crime, preparing a document on the “Suitcase Murders,” detailing every thing from the weather to the babies’ causes of death.

If the crime happened today, “I think this would be solved,” he said.

On April 2, 1946, Carver residents Scott Hartley and his hunting and fishing friend George Neunsinger took a boat out on the Minnesota River. At about 6:30 p.m., they noticed a tweed suitcase, with yellow and orange stripes, floating in the river. Inside were three newborn infants, each wrapped in a Minneapolis newspaper.

Carver County Sheriff George Thul and Carver County Coroner Dr. Bernard Simons conducted a preliminary investigation. The infants were three boys. All had been suffocated by various means, immediately after live birth. They also were mummified, and so presumably had been stored for some time before being thrown in the river.

“The three infants were given the only names they would ever be called: Unknown Baby Boy I, Unknown Baby Boy II and Unknown Baby Boy III,” said von Walter.

The sheriff called the Minnesota Crime Bureau and the Federal Bureau of Investigation for help in the case. The evidence, including the newspapers and suitcase, were sent to FBI headquarters in Washington, D.C.

The infants were sent to the University of Minnesota for autopsies. “Normally unidentified remains sent to the University of Minnesota went to the Anatomical Department for a day or two of study, after which they went to Lakewood Cemetery in Minneapolis,” von Walter said.

The suitcase carrying the infants wasn’t waterlogged - “an indication that it had not been in the river for very long,” said von Walter. “The primary theory at the time was that the three infants were murdered by their mother over a three-year period beginning around March 23, 1943, and were concealed for some time afterward until their April 2, 1946, discovery in the Minnesota River,” von Walter said.

Pursuing leads

For the past three months, von Walter has contacted numerous individuals and agencies associated with the case. “Twenty, 30? I don’t know,” he said, pondering his sources.

He’s contacted the University of Minnesota and the Hennepin County Medical Examiner’s Office and all of the pertinent Carver County offices.

He even started to research old train schedules, to see if any routes through Carver at the time of the murder would correlate with the suitcase drop.

Everyone directly involved in the original investigation is dead, so von Walter talked with their decedents, who hadn’t heard of the murders.

He was able to track down the babies’ death certificates. He has contacted five cemeteries, unsuccessfully, to find where the infants are buried. “But they basically disappeared off the face of the earth,” he said.

If they could find either the babies or the evidence sent to the FBI, von Walter hopes DNA analysis could answer some questions, if the babies were from the same mother or even who they are.

“Perhaps 21st century DNA technology can tell more, maybe even matching the infants’ DNA to that of a near relative who has DNA on file from a more recent crime or military service,” Von Walter said.

He has his own theories on the murder. He wonders if they were victims of “baby farmers” – people in the 18th and early 19th century who charged desperate mothers a fee for adopting the babies.

While attempting to locate the burial place of the three infants, von Walter discovered that on April 18, 1946, another strangled infant wrapped in Minneapolis newspaper was found on the side of the Olson Memorial Highway. “Are there yet more,” wonders von Walter.

The murdered infants would be about the same age as 58-year-old von Walter, something that von Walter has pondered. “It has crossed my mind – 180 years of life lost to this point,” he said.

Von Walter has tackled a number of local research projects – notably an historic Carver walking tour. Last year, for the Carver County sesquicentennial, he wrote a book on the history of the Sheriff’s Office.

A tenacious genealogist, during the past 17 years he’s tracked his own Swedish roots back more than 1,000 years. “I know things multiply forward,” he said, thinking of the snuffed potential for the three infants to grow and have families.

If those associated with the murder are still around, von Walter hopes they’ll step forward. “Somebody, if they’re still alive, is looking at eternity. (They should) atone and make peace with their God,” he said.

John von Walter's complete report on the Suitcase Murders, including his thoughts and theories, can be found attached to this story.