A long-time reader from Stevens Point who knows my interest in the mysterious dirty dealings of Ronald and Delores Disher wrote to me this weekend with a heads-up about a podcast dealing with this cold case. I had posted several stories years ago of the twisted and dysfunctional family and how events had evolved in court and through the investigation by law enforcement. At our Madison dinner table, and quite unexpectedly, we even were treated to a conversation by someone who had insight into the Portage County investigation.
It all started with a simple question about social security benefits and a welfare check to be conducted by local law enforcement. At the time when I was writing about this matter, I had my own words of choice to use about the crime and cover-up but find the podcast writer summed it up even more succinctly by calling the whole affair “a messy and deceitful family tree”.
First, let me bring readers the fast version of what transpired. Like others who have followed the criminal saga of Ronald and Delores Disher, I want to know what happened to Marie Jost, the mother of Delores.
Delores Disher from Almond, Wisconsin was accused of helping her husband, Ronald, and brother, Charles, steal $175,000 in Social Security benefits from Jost, who vanished in 1980 and was presumed dead. How she died and where she is buried has never been determined. Most doubt that the suspense over ‘who shot JR’ is the reason her heart stopped ticking. At the time this all was percolating in 2012, it should be noted, that Marie would have been more than 100 years old, and had not used her federal medical benefits since 1982. I have heard that dandelion wine is favored in that area of the state and has many medicinal purposes, but even those old legends could not account for Jost never requiring any doctor over the decades. Clearly, she had been dead for a very long time, likely aided by someone she had trusted.
It also needs to be noted that Marie’s son, Theodore, who would have been about age 75 at the time this story broke wide open in the press had also been missing since the 1980s.
Delores’ husband Ronald, and his involvement in this matter remains in question, but all the accounts of those who knew him as the press reports made clear during the trial painted him as the dullest ax in the barn. A dolt. If one supports such a view then Delores held the keys to the information. Included in this brain trust of a family is Delores’ brother, Charles, who was found not guilty of the crimes….for reasons of…..insanity. One cannot make this stuff up. It’s worth noting that the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel cited Charles himself saying he only had a first-grade education level. This is why the lieutenant feels that it was likely Delores and Ronald who were the masterminds of this alleged scheme.
After all the facts about theft by fraud, forgery, unauthorized use of others’ personal documents, and mail fraud are laid out on the table there remains topic number one that needs to be resolved. What happened to Marie?
The authorities started their investigation on the property was about three acres in size in Amherst Junction, roughly 15 miles east of Stevens Point. It’s where several members of the Jost family once called home, including Marie Jost.
Where police focused their search was honestly comparable to a dump.
“We got out there, everything was locked up, we had to cut locks off the doors off the sheds to see if anything was in there. And then that’s when we saw that. For lack of better terms, it was like a hoarder property,” Lt. Kropidlowski said.
Eventually, an agent was sent out to 3658 Alm Road. When they got there, they met Charles, Marie’s youngest son who wasn’t the most friendly. Which is why Social Security called the Portage County Sheriff’s Office.
Today the property is mainly covered by trees and is owned by two different people, but back then, tucked yards away from the road was something, well, unappealing to say the least.
“Well, first off, the most noticeable thing was the odor. It was horrific,” the lieutenant said.
After questioning neighbors and family, the police learned that not only was Marie missing, but no one had seen her son Theodore in decades.
Marie had five children. Three girls and two boys. Her oldest daughter was Marie, then Theodore, Patricia, Dolores, and Charles.
There isn’t much known about Theodore. The last time anyone saw him it was back in the 1980s when he was about 42 years old. He was also an Army veteran, but that’s about it. When police sat down with Charles and his sister Delores, they had similar stories.
Now get this story, super-sleuths!
“The theory, what we were told was, is that Marie and Teddy were on a cross-country road trip in a motorhome for 30 years,” said Lt. Kropidlowski.
Obviously, there are a lot of problems with this. Including the fact that neither Marie nor Teddy had a driver’s license.
As the investigation continued detectives found what we consider to be truly heartbreaking. In the mountains of trash, investigators discovered mail addressed to Marie.
Things like recently sent Christmas cards, letters, money, even a card for her 100th birthday.
“A couple of them got responses back, thanking, you know, thank you for sending the photographs. It was so nice, you thank you for the money, those sorts of things,” said Lt. Kropidlowski.
Here’s the problem, Marie couldn’t write. In the late 1970s, she had a stroke, and as a result, she usually just wrote an ‘X’ instead of her actual signature on everything including her social security checks. That would make it very unlikely that she was writing back and her family, who took the time to send letters from the kindness of their hearts were lied to for years.
Charles was found not guilty because of mental disease or defect, Delores had her charges dismissed because of her medical problems, and the judge declared a mistrial on the fraud charges for Ronald.
In the years since, both Delores and Ronald have died.
When this story first broke in 2012 I was back home following an early morning colonoscopy. I noted from writing that day, that my love for a good mystery was in full swing as I came home and crashed while reading Hell’s Corner by David Baldacci. I termed it a great page-turner. But then I noted it paled with news from Almond that the State Crime Lab was involved with cadaver dogs being used in connection with the Ronald and Delores Disher case. I wrote that “no human remains have been found thus far”.
Each weekday while growing up my parents received the Stevens Point Journal in our mailbox in Hancock. Starting when I was a young kid I would follow Buz Sawyer as he solved all sorts of mysteries and mayhem on the cartoon page. If only Buz Sawyer could have been in the cell for an hour with Delores and Ronald we would have had all the details the prosecutors needed.
The mystery continues and clearly has not been forgotten.
CAFFEINATED POLITICS 