Laurie Jean Depies was last seen pulling into the parking lot of her boyfriend’s apartment complex on August 19, 1992. She had just come from an extra-long shift at the Fox River Mall at 10:00 pm. She parked her car, then vanished for all intents and purposes.
Depies was born on September 17, 1971, and was living in Appleton, Wisconsin, when she went missing. Everyone close to her, including friends and family, described her as having a bubbly personality.
She was friendly and allegedly kind to everyone she met. Unfortunately, her pleasant demeanour may have contributed to what happened to her.
The night of Laurie Jean Depies’ disappearance
On the night she went missing, Laurie had been working at the Graffiti Store at the Fox River Mall in Grand Chute, Wisconsin. Her shift extended well past the normal hours, so she had to take late lunch and dinner breaks.
Laurie also visited another store at the mall at 7:00 p.m. to pick up a ring for her boyfriend, Marc Truebenbach.
The store was scheduled to close at 9 p.m. It took her co-worker and her another 50 minutes to close up shop before heading out at close to 10 p.m.
They both walked to the parking lot, and Laurie got into her 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit. At 10:05 p.m., she began driving over to her boyfriend’s apartment at 310 West Wilson Avenue.
Her boyfriend, his sister, and Victoria, Laurie’s best friend, were waiting at the condo for Laurie to show up at the time.
They heard a loud muffler approaching, which they knew belonged to Laurie’s Volkswagen Rabbit. After minutes of waiting for her to come to the door, Mark and Laurie’s friend started to get worried.
They stepped out to the apartment balcony to confirm that it was indeed her car, but did not see Laurie. However, her car was in the apartment complex parking lot. The passenger door was open, and there was no sign of her.
The entire scene seemed off, and Mark soon called the police to report her as missing. When they arrived at the scene, it seemed like nothing was out of place. A Styrofoam soda cup was on top of the vehicle, but aside from that, there were no signs of struggle or violence.
Nothing was taken from the vehicle aside from Laurie herself. No one also saw her walk away from the parking lot, or get into another vehicle or building. Her overnight bag and purse remained within the vehicle.
Mark and many of Laurie’s friends were questioned and polygraphed, considering they were the initial people of interest. Their stories lined up; with the theory, Laurie may have been abducted immediately after she parked the car by an unknown third party.
The only lead the police had to go on was a thumbprint on the Styrofoam cup that did not belong to Laurie, nor anyone they had already interviewed. Investigators hypothesised the print belonged to a man because of its width, but they could not be 100 per cent certain.
The authorities believed the perpetrator was someone she knew. Even though she had a friendly personality, it was not characteristic of her to go with a stranger. There was also no indication that she may have been kidnapped against her will because of the lack of signs of a struggle.
In fact, law enforcement initially considered that Laurie may have run away before reverting the investigation to consider foul play.
Hiatus and case developments
Despite intense police investigations by local and federal agencies, the case did not break. The trail went cold, and no further leads surfaced for the next two decades.
In 2010, a man named Larry DeWayne Hall confessed to murdering Laurie while he was already serving time in prison for the kidnapping and murder of 15-year-old Jessica Roach. He told investigators that he interacted with Depies while she was working at the Fox River Mall.
Hall said he followed her in his car from Menasha after she got off work. According to his statement, he lured her into his van.
Larry claimed he buried her body in South Central Wisconsin, but that was never proven, as investigators could not find physical evidence tying him to the abduction or his claims.
Her body was not at the site as well, which brought further confusion, as it was impossible to substantiate the confession.
Examining Larry Dewayne Hall
Mary Wegner, her mother, had reservations about Larry being behind her daughter’s disappearance, but a closer look yields a different perspective. For one, Larry’s backstory makes him a prime suspect for Depies’ murder.
Hall apparently displayed antisocial behaviour from a young age. According to his twin brother, Gary, Hall was struggling to form platonic or romantic relationships. He also had violent tendencies, as Hall allegedly tried to kill Gary several times.
From the age of 12, Hall had been digging graves with his father, as he worked at the local cemetery. This may have desensitised him to handling human remains. Moving into adulthood, Hall confessed to having dark desires about women to his brother, Gary.
Following his conviction for the kidnapping and murder of Jessica Roach, he also owned up to more than thirty-five murders. Among these was Laurie Jean Depies. Hall then recanted all his confessions.
These created complications, considering he often gave false locations for buried bodies. Though the authorities believed he had a hand in the disappearance of up to 45 women.
Investigator Gary Miller came up with damning evidence for Larry’s involvement in the murders, including a witness who saw a van and a man meeting Hall’s description at the cornfield on the day of Jessica’s death.
A search of Hall’s can and house revealed evidence that he was casing colleges and parks for potential victims. He had written notes about prospecting for victims and plans to kidnap or harm people as well.
These rules are his recants, dubious at best, and make him one of the true main suspects of Laurie’s kidnapping and potential murder.
Wildcards to consider
Even though Hall already confessed and recanted to the murder of Laurie Depies, other potential leads could offer the truth. After all, Laurie’s mum did say she believed the abductor was someone close to her daughter.
The first and most probable one is from Victoria, Laurie’s best friend. Victoria told the police that a man repeatedly tried to win Laurie’s affections. Laurie turned him down over and over.
Victoria indicated that this man asked Laurie out again on the night she went missing. Laurie apparently turned him down again, saying she had a boyfriend and was not interested.
Victoria claimed that the man started exhibiting erratic behaviour some days after Laurie’s disappearance. She mentioned that he was a pencil-drawing artist and that many of his drawings depicted violence against women.
When she asked the police why this man was not considered one of the prime suspects in the case, she discovered that he had been off the grid since Laurie’s disappearance.
The man had been actively avoiding police questioning and tracking the entire time and seemed to know when law enforcement was closing in.
Because the police could not bring him in or hear his side of the story, there was insufficient evidence to obtain a warrant. Unfortunately, there was no information about the man’s daily routine or friends beyond Victoria’s statement.
Media coverage over the years and future of the investigation
The story gained significant traction in Wisconsin and got national exposure when Laurie’s parents featured on an Oprah Winfrey episode about missing children.
During an interview withWTAQ in 2022, Mary said, “I would just like to know what happened and why it happened just to know that she’s at peace, because you can’t even, you know, have a funeral, or a memorial, or anything, because there’s nothing other than her car and a coffee cup, or a soda cup and no story just, you know, off the face of the earth.”
Both Marc Truebenbach and Laurie’s mother, Mary Wegner, appeared on Dr Phil in 2018 to discuss the case and how it affected their lives. Marc, who’s been married once and later divorced, stated that a big part of himself died when Laurie disappeared in 1992.
On the show, he revealed that what happened to his girlfriend still affects him because he had no closure. He believes his life would have turned out very differently and wonders whether they would have gotten married or still be together today.
Mary had a different take during the show. She mentioned that when Laurie went missing, it was initially ruled as a Runaway case. This deterred the investigations for the first three days.
She goes on to say that the active investigation lasted only one year because calls consistently came in to the search centre. The Department of Justice also joined the investigation, but they found nothing.
When Hall confessed to the murders, Mary was quite sceptical. She wanted the case reopened and the facts reexamined. Understandably, she expected more from law enforcement and the state on how they handled the case thus far.
This might be a tall order considering the amount of time that has passed. The trail is cold, and there hasn’t been a single lead since Hall’s confession in 2010. More than 15 years have passed, and the likelihood of something breaking gets slimmer each year.
Understandably, most family and friends have lost hope of finding Laurie alive, but they would like the comfort of burying her remains to obtain that closure.
