Crime Junkie - MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF: Elfrieda Knaak

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

In 1928, a 30-year-old woman is found barely alive, burned beyond recognition, in a basement of a small-town local police station… and her chilling last words and the bizarre circumstances of her death are just as mysterious now as they were a century ago. Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: crimejunkiepodcast.com/mysterious-death-of-elfrieda-knaak  Don’t miss out on all things Crime Junkie!Instagram: @crimejunkiepodcast | @audiochuckTwitter: @CrimeJunkiePod | @audiochuckTikTok: @crimejunkiepodcastFacebook: /CrimeJunkiePodcast | /audiochuckllcCrime Junkie is hosted by Ashley Flowers and Brit Prawat. Instagram: @ashleyflowers | @britprawatTwitter: @Ash_Flowers | @britprawatTikTok: @ashleyflowerscrimejunkieFacebook: /AshleyFlowers.AF Text Ashley at 317-733-7485 to talk all things true crime, get behind the scenes updates, and more!

Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host Ashley Flowers. And I'm Britt. And Britt, the story I have for you today is one of the most baffling I've come across, because it starts with the discovery of a woman in the basement of a local police station in 1928. And many have said that it unfolds pretty much like an Agatha Christie novel. One that's mysteries still persist to this day. This is the story of Elfriede Knaack. So it's October 30th, 1928, and it's a quiet Tuesday morning in Lake Bluff, Illinois. And to be honest, every morning is a quiet morning in Lake Bluff, because it is this

small village about an hour north of Chicago. So it's around 7 a.m. when the long-standing police chief, Barney Rosenhagen, gets to work at his job. One of his several jobs, because that's how small of a town that we're talking. They don't need a full-time police chief. According to Craig Moreland, who's this local author who becomes like a bit of an expert on this case, back in 1928 there were only about 500 people living in this town. So while Barney is their police chief, he's also the chief of the fire department, he's the village groundsman, possibly the superintendent of the streets, maybe the poundmaster.

I mean, depending on what source you read, this guy like kind of does everything. They can never lose Barney. Yeah, like I hope Barney has a bus plan. But Barney is the first to arrive around 7am, but the city's handyman, Chris Lewis, is right behind him. So Barney unlocks the door, and the two of them are hit with this instant chill when they walk inside. It's colder than it should be. And Barney knows that he stoked the fire in the basement furnace before he locked up last night,

but clearly he hasn't done a very good job. So he sends Chris to the basement to get the furnace going for the day. And before he knows it, he hears this blood-curdling scream followed by Chris yelling, Help, help, I just saw a ghost. Is this some crime junkie, so supernatural crossover you didn't tell me about? Not this time. So Barney's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, my dude, what are you talking about? And Chris tells him, like, listen, something or someone is down in that basement.

And forget the something someone goes part. Like there can't possibly be anything down there. someone is down in that basement, and forget the something someone goes part, like there can't possibly be anything down there. Like it's been locked all night. Honestly, a ghost actually makes the most sense. Like a real person, like for that reason alone, couldn't be there. But Chris is adamant. He's like, I saw someone and whoever it was, they were just standing there in front of

the furnace, like waving at him. So Barney doesn't really understand what Chris saw, but he's clearly upset, so he's like, okay, I'm gonna go check it out for myself. And when he walks down the stairs of this basement with Chris right behind him, he sees what caused Chris to initially scream so loudly. According to coverage from the Waukegan News Sun, at first Barney thinks he's looking at a young boy. But as his eyes start to adjust to the light, he realizes it's not a boy. It's not even a ghost for that matter. It is a

woman who is totally naked and covered in burns. Like bad burns, worse than anything he's ever seen, even as the Fire Chief. The skin on her arms and face is burned black. She has pretty much no hair left on her head. And the burns on her forehead are so severe that Barney can actually see her skull. The skin on both of her arms are even cracked and charred all the way to her elbows. And like, again, bones are popping out here. Her hands are almost completely burnt off. Like her, I mean, quite literally, she has no like top of her fingers.

It's like right down to the knuckles on both hands. And there's no fire around. Oh, there is no fire. And no sign that there's been a fire recently. Like it is, like I said, straight up cold in there. And again, things in the room don't look burned. It just looks like this woman walked out of a blazing building. And I just can't stress enough,

so like fingers but toes are gone, the rest of her feet are burned to the bone, like it's- How is she alive and standing? That's what I was gonna say, it's a miracle she's even standing. And by the time Barney gets to her, I mean she's not standing anymore, she's like laying on the floor, but she is able to talk enough to tell him that she's cold and she needs some water. And Barney asked her what happened, but she wouldn't or couldn't answer him. So he wraps her in a blanket, which also I feel like would just be like painful, but wraps her in a blanket, calls for a doctor and an ambulance, and both arrive at the same time and they quickly get her out of the basement, they get her off to a hospital.

And by this time, one of the other officers, this young guy named Eugene, he's on duty, and they're all just kind of like standing in the furnace room trying to process what they just saw. Like the room itself is pretty bare bones, just a furnace and a water boiler. And according to a Tampa Bay Times story story on the other side of the room, about like 10 feet from the furnace, they find a pair of shoes, they find a purse and a watch,

and it's all like placed carefully in this little pile. But what is most unsettling is that there are all these bloody footprints around the room going from furnace to that pile of stuff, then back, then to like the exterior door, which has blood on it too. It's like almost like this woman had been trying to get out of there.

And the person stuff, like that's not burned. No, like not so much as singed. That's what I'm saying. Everything else in this room is fine. And the bloody footprints, I assume those are hers? So the Sheriff's Office, they're the ones that get called in to help investigate. They think that they're hers and so does the state's attorney who is also involved at this point. In addition to the bloody footprints, there are pretty clear handprints of hers on the outside of the furnace, not on like the door handle, but up high.

According to the Belleville News Democrat, they're like above the furnace door. And actually, I'm going gonna get you to read this report i sent it to you earlier it's from a reporter named ioni quinby it's her description of what exactly she saw back then or how she interpreted it it says quote on the furnace high above the door i found greasy handprints gleaming back on the exterior of the furnace the fingers were widespread as if in supplication. There was mute expression of agony as if the hands clutched at the furnace in an endeavor to escape something. The handprints are ghastly in the clearness with which they are reproduced. They are the first things

you notice now as you enter the furnace room." Uh, 12 out of 10 for drama. Yeah, I mean, in addition to those ghastly prints reporting by the Daily Chronicle says that investigators find what looks like burned flesh on the water coils around the furnace, which to them suggests that the woman may have been holding on to those while maybe she was struggling with another person

or if she- I guess I was assuming that the theory here was that her burns were from the furnace. Well, and that's one theory and I think the most logical but even that is kind of hard for police to imagine Like everything in this room isn't adding up because you see there are two furnaces in that room One that heats the building and one that heats the water and it's that second one the water boiler that they think her burns came from So it's the smaller of the two furnaces, like maybe four feet tall or so.

And the door is only like nine and three quarters, like less than 10 by 12 or 12, 13 inches, something like that. So. So like a little bit bigger than a piece of computer paper. Yeah, which is pretty small. Yeah. And if you remember, the woman had burns on her feet

and her hands and her arms and her head, which means based on the size of that opening, it's not like she was thrown in there or walked in there. All of that would have had to have been done, like, one body part at a time. Like, torturous. So they don't know what's going on. Like I said, this is very confusing. They keep looking around the basement. They also find some hair, though the source material is all over the place on this. Some say the hair was just found in the basement. Others say it was on the floor, or like the water pipes in the basement. And when it comes to the amount of hair, one place says it was a few strands, one calls it a lock. There's another that says it was like

several handfuls. Like, bottom line, there was hair in the basement. Got it. More importantly, though, the hair looked to police like it had been pulled out. Now, there's one mention in the day one coverage that looked like someone had tried to kind of brush the hair off the pipes, like hair and flesh, actually, is what it says, maybe to clean up the scene, but like they didn't do a very good job, maybe they just gave up, who knows. But honestly, at this point, taking everything together, they have no freaking clue what happened to this woman or even how. But the more important question is who, who is she?

And the answer to that question, luckily, is right next to them in the purse that they found. right next to them in the purse that they found. The woman that they found burned in that basement is 30-year-old Elfrida Kinnack. She is not a Lake Bluff local. She is actually from the town over Deerfield, which is like 15, 20 minutes away. And the Kinnack family are like a pretty prominent and big family in Deerfield.

Like everyone knows them. Of the nine children in the family, three of Elfrida's brothers, so Theo, Rudolph, and Alvin, they are kind of the most recognizable just because they were really, like, out there in the community, because Theo runs the local pharmacy, which he took over from their father. Rudolph ran the gas station. Alvin, he's like the Deerfield town clerk. But Elfrieda's no stranger in her community either because she'd been a teacher for a while, but then she'd made a career change to door-to-door encyclopedia sales. And like she was good at it. According to an interview with the author I mentioned, Craig Moreland, on the Most

Notorious podcast, she was one of their top salespeople in Chicago at the time. So again, once they figure out who she is and her story, because she's so well known, they're like, oh, maybe a sales job brought her to Lake Bluff. Or, you know, I guess what I'm getting at is like whatever brought her there, like she probably had plans to go home, because they end up finding a rail ticket in her purse that would have taken her from Lake Bluff to the train station closest to her house in Deerfield.

Were her clothes in the stuff that they found? No, so they weren't in that pile of things, but they did find what was left of her clothes when they sifted through the ashes from the furnace. So like a few metal clasps, like what you'd find on a bra, maybe some fragments from what was probably a dress. But that's it. So they're- Why would you throw the clothes in the furnace but not anything else, especially like the

purse with the ID and the rail tickets. It's a great question. I don't know why some things are burned and others are just piled up. But to me, what's more baffling is that there are some things that seem to just straight up be missing. Because according to her family and friends, Elfrida had been wearing this, it was like this blue coat with like a fur collar and these buttons specifically made of bone and a hat that had a metal ornament on it. And neither of those things are in the room and there are no traces of them in the ashes. Like you would expect the bone buttons to survive.

Or the metal on the hat. Right. But aside from the hat and the coat, the thing that they're really hoping to find or hope to find but can't was a key. Because Chief Rosenhagen had locked the door himself the night before at 9 p.m. And that door is the only way into the room. So wait, they think this woman that they don't know from another town had a key to their police station. Right, but they can't find it. And I know that sounds bananas, but like, apparently a lot of people had a key. They say that they didn't even really know how many keys might have been like floating

around out there, which is wild when you think about it today. If this is where like the police chief is headquartered, I don't know if they're just like passing out keys to the city or whatever. But if she had a key Someone had to have taken it because there is no key in the ashes of the furnace No key in the room and they even do a search outside like around the building thinking maybe that she or Someone unlocked the door and just like tossed it but they don't find it on that search either Is there just one locked door to like the main entrance of the building? Or are we talking about a specific key to get to the basement? So I know for sure that the furnace room has its own

entrance like from the outside so you couldn't get there from the main building. But from what I can tell from the stuff that I read, I think it's actually the same key for the furnace room as for the rest of the building. I mean, again, they're passing these things out right and left, they're clearly not worried about security. And I found a number, again, who knows if this is right? The reporting is so old, but it says there were like 15 keys just like floating out there with different town officials. So at this point, there is no evidence.

They have no theories, but they're hoping that piecing together a timeline of Elfrida's movements on the day before might give them something to go on. So one of the first people that they talk to is Elfrida's sister, who tells them that Elfrida had left home sometime before noon on Monday for a meeting in Chicago, and that she'd last heard from her in the afternoon when Elfrida called to say that she had bought some new sheet music, she's excited to get home and try it out, and at the time she told her sister she expected to be home around 7.30.

Now Elfrida traveled by train and bus to Chicago and back usually, like a train from Chicago to the station nearest her house and then a bus from the station home. Now we know she made it to the station, police are able to confirm that, but according to that Tampa Bay Times article, when she got there, she learned that her bus home was going to be late. And not like a few minutes late. Late by like several hours. So instead of just waiting around, what she did was she checked her bag or her like briefcase

and stuff with the station agent and she bought a round-trip train ticket to Lake Bluff. Now, they already knew from talking to her boss that he hadn't asked her to stop anywhere. As far as he knew, her plan was to just go straight home. And we know she hadn't called her sister to tell her that she'd be late, but she did make two phone calls from the train station before she boarded the bus to Lake Bluff.

And one of those calls was to the Lake Bluff police station where she would later be found. Okay, can I make a guess? I know you're gonna guess. It's a lover, right? There's only 500 people in this tiny town, probably only what like three officers? Yeah. Let's question all of them. Well, whoever she was trying to reach though, she didn't because apparently the call went unanswered, which like, by the way, there seems to be like a lot of information on like call records, which I feel like I can barely get in episodes from like the 80s, but TBD. All I know is that they say that call doesn't get answered.

But the second call that she makes, the problem is like that one, there's nothing about that one. So the who that was to is never released. I don't know if they weren't able to track it or they just didn't tell people, but I do think it connected because there are reports of her talking in whispers to somebody. So she makes those hushed calls, gets on the train. Police can place her on the train to Lake Bluff, which drops her off at about 9.40 PM. But she's a ghost, then, from 9.40 that night to 7 o'clock the next morning when Barney and the maintenance guy find her naked in the basement of the police station, covered

in burns. So, was she lured there? Or taken there? Or had she just like found her way there on her own and just happened to encounter someone who attacked her, tortured her and left her there to die or tried to anyway? Because Elfrida didn't die right away. At this point, she's still alive.

And now that she's gotten some help at the hospital, she is talking. Even though she is gotten some help at the hospital, she is talking. Even though she is still in and out of consciousness, Elfrida is doing her best to communicate with the people around her, trying to tell them what happened. And the one thing that she says is, hitch. Oh hitch. Now everybody knows that there is a possibility that she is delirious with pain

and not saying anything useful. But then she goes on to say, why don't you come to me? Now remember, everyone knows everyone in this teeny tiny town. And police know exactly who she's talking about because he's one of them. He is their night watchman, Charles Hitchcock,

also known as Hitch. I called it. And that explains how she got in the basement. Yeah, and they're wondering what kind of relationship she would have with Hitch that would lead to her practically calling out for him on her deathbed. So off they go to find Charles Hitchcock. And they do find him at home in Lake Bluff

with his wife Estelle and their four kids, except they're surprised at what they see. Or maybe they already knew this, but I was surprised. Because Charles is in bed with a broken leg, which is where he says he was on Monday night and every night for the last week. Because I guess he'd gotten in an accident of some kind and he had broken his ankle pretty

badly. And dude, yeah, 1928, we don't have like the medicine we do now. Apparently the guy could barely get around. Like there are photos of him in the local papers literally propped up in bed with his crutches next to him and like a cast all the way up to his knee. So how does he know Alfreda? Well he does know her. So he says that they'd met a few years ago when she started taking classes on salesmanship

and public speaking, ones that he teaches at the local Y. And I mean he'd been teaching in town for like four years at that point, ever since he moved back to Lake Bluff from Chicago. And back then, he'd been working as a stage actor. He'd even been in a movie with Charlie Chaplin. So these classes were pretty popular in town. Like even the state's attorney had taken them. So that's, he says, how they met, how they knew each other. He says that he taught her for like two years, but then they kept in touch for the two years after she'd stopped taking the classes. But he says that he'd hear from her every once in a while when she needed advice or when she was having issues in her sales work, and even compares their dynamic to more like

a dad-daughter kind of thing. But he says that that's the full extent of it. And according to an article in the Waukegan New Sun, Hitch claims he has no idea why Elfrida would have been at the police station that night. He's like, that's not a thing she did. She's never been there after hours with him before. Yeah. Okay, Hitch.

I know. And police are like a little skeptical too. And when investigators press him, eventually he's like, well, okay. I mean, she had met me there from time to time, but I swear it was just to talk or whatever. Or whatever. I know. I'll bet the night watchman was working the night that Elfriede was found.

But here's the thing, so no, this is what I was saying about his ankle. Normally he would have been, right? So his shift was from 1pm to 1am. But the broken ankle had kept him from being p.m. to 1 a.m. But the broken ankle had kept him from being there that night. In fact, the only reason that Chief Rosenhagen had been the one to lock up the building and stoke the fire himself that night

was because Charles wasn't there. That would have ordinarily been part of his job. So it's for sure confirmed that he was laid up with this broken ankle before she said his name, because I was kind of about to bet the farm that this was like a fake cast situation. I know, and I thought so too. But apparently an x-ray confirms that this injury is legit. And here's the thing that maybe will play in Hitch's favor. It doesn't seem like Elfrida knew that he had broken his ankle and wasn't working that night,

which you would think maybe if they were super close, she would know, right? Because like basically they think she did try and reach him because she wanted to meet up when she had this layover. Maybe it really just was for this acting salesman coaching thing, whatever, maybe not TBD. But when she couldn't reach him, she just figured that, you know, he was doing his rounds or whatever,

and she's like, well, I'll just go anyways, and I'll just show up. So in theory, he's not working, but are we sure he's actually home all night? Well, parts of the night, I think we're pretty sure. His wife was with him until about 8 p.m. That's when she goes to work. But supposedly, his friend Oscar stopped by

the house for a drink that evening right around the same time and then Oscar stays there until about 10 30. Per him or per Oscar? Per both. But I don't know if it matters because like in the critical period there's no one who can account for his whereabouts between 10 30 p.m. and 12 30 a.m. 12 30 is when his wife would have gotten home from work. What about his kids? Asleep, yeah, they're there, but asleep. So to me, the timeline isn't in his favor because I imagine she gets off the train around,

you can just say 9.40. Maybe she goes to the station first, he's not there. She goes looking for him. I don't know if she knows where he lives or not, but by the time she finds him or gets a hold of him, he's alone. Possibly, yes, but I don't know if he could do it without evidence of him going there, because you see, Charles does only live like two blocks from City Hall, so without the broken ankle, he for sure could have gotten there and back before his wife was home.

But with the broken ankle, and even with crutches, doctors say that if he made that walk back and forth, they would expect to see some swelling. And when they look at him, they say, like, there's none of that present. So based on that, they don't seem to think he was involved. If she was a little delirious, do you think she would say, Hitch, why don't you come?

Like, she didn't understand why he wasn't there to come save her? Maybe. I guess it's a good thing you didn't bet the farm or anything. But the only person who knows for sure what happened and why she's saying what she's saying is Elfrieda. And while she's still in bad shape,

like she's in and out of consciousness and she's heavily medicated, she is lucid enough at times to talk to her brother and the medical staff who are able to tell investigators some more helpful information. The doctor who's been taking care of her since the night that they found her specifically asks her the question that they need answered to solve this whole mystery. to solve this whole mystery. Who was with you in the basement of the station that night? And she gives him a really clear answer. She says, no one.

But when they hear that, they're like, she has to just be out of it because that doesn't make sense. So the doctor asks her again, who was with you? And she says, no one, I was alone. So then fine, different question, who did this? And her response to that question is, I did this to myself. According to reporting from the Waukegan News Sun,

Elfrida thought that if she could purify herself with fire, that would somehow make her quote, worthy of the great love she bore him. Him who? Well I think him Hitch because after that she says she did it to prove her love for Hitchie. Which I mean whoa like so they they ask Elfriede like point-blank if she was in love with him. Like specifically not just Hitch Hitchie were you in love with Charles Hitchcock, who she is referring to as Hitchhitchy?

And she's like, yup, definitely super in love. So naturally, everyone's feeling pretty confident that again, I feel like she spelled it out, but like she did this for him, him is Charles. But Charles is insisting this isn't a thing. Absolutely not. No, there's nothing romantic going on between us. No idea what she's talking about.

This whole situation turns into this weird he said, she said, or maybe it isn't. Because Elfrida tells them that her love affair with Charles wasn't physical, per se. It was spiritual. Astral. And she says that she had been hearing his voice in her head for weeks, telling her over and over to have faith, just have faith. And on Monday night, while she's waiting for him, hoping that he's going to show up, she hears that voice again, his voice, urging her

to have faith. And so, she decided that the best way to have faith, to prove her faith, was with the fire. So she burned her clothes and then she burned herself, one body part at a time. That would have been excruciating. In my mind there's no way she could have held herself to the furnace over and over and over and over without just recoiling, right? I don't feel like, I don't know that I could.

I mean, maybe you could get away with it like one time, but I like it's like your body naturally reflexes, right? Like your body wants to survive. So I don't know how without someone else's help, like keeping you there, how you stay. Remember, I mean, she is burned to the actual bone, like on her, they can see her skull, they can see her elbow, she's burned down to the knuckles on her fingers, like, I don't know.

Like, and obviously this was bothering other people because they, like, look into this, and I guess to cause the level of burn injuries that she has, like I said, toes and fingers burned off, bones visible, she would have had to hold her feet and her hands, her head inside that tiny furnace over the hot coals for at least five minutes each time. What?

Right, which like, again, even if you say you got one foot in, then you have to stand on that foot while you put the other one in? Mm-hmm. And then stand on both feet while you put your head and then each arm in for, I mean, it's like a what, 25 minute process? I guess the doctors say it's possible, but they don't think anyone could have done that without succumbing to the excruciating pain

and ultimately passing out. And that's what I can't help but think. I feel like your body would go into shock and you couldn't get through all of it. And the stuff she's saying feels a little far-fetched and obviously disturbing to say the least. Is it possible that she's having some kind of mental breakdown during this? If what she's saying happened is what happened, then maybe.

But really nobody thinks that what she's saying is what actually happened. Like not the doctors treating her, not her family, and not law enforcement either. Because even if she was having some kind of mental break, even if you're in that deep of a bad spot to do what physically happened to her, they say it's just not possible. There was actually this reporting from a guy named Alfred Prowitt. He has a quote from the state's attorney that I want you to read. The guy whose name is A.B. Smith. I sent it to you. Okay. It says, quote, Do you mean to tell me that the girl stood on one foot, held the other in the fire and when it was burned so that the bone began to crumble, withdrew it, then stood on the burned foot and held the other in the furnace and finally, standing

on both charred feet, held her head and arms in the furnace and finally standing on both charred feet held her head and arms in the furnace until they were charred too. The idea is insane." It is. End quote. I literally just said that. I know it's insane. Yeah. So they were thinking the same way back then. How, if this is true, is she standing on two charred feet? How is she walking on two charred feet? Because remember, there were all those bloody footprints everywhere. I completely forgot about those. Because you can't imagine walking when this is happening.

And remember, police firmly believe that those footprints are hers, as impossible as it sounds. They believe that she walked across the room in one direction, then back, then to the door. But what they do not believe is that she was in that room alone. And they think those prints are proof that she was trying to escape whoever had her in that room. But if she walked over to the door, did she try to get out and just couldn't? Was she locked in? So yes and no.

Chief Rosenhagen insists that the door to that room was locked when he left the night before, and it was locked when he and Chris arrived the next morning at around seven. Does the door lock from the inside or the outside? Oh, girl. You're asking a question I spent far too much time on. So everything says it locks from the outside. Okay. So since Elfriede was found inside, they're like someone else would have had to lock the door outside.

Again, there's no key inside, whatever, whatever. There's no clear reason to me why she couldn't or wasn't able to get out, at least. Like, I mean, I know doors, right? Like, I mean, from a structural perspective, I can't like wrap my head around it. And like I said, I've spiraled and spiraled. Some reports say that there was a wire latch on the inside of the door. And I imagine it's almost like one of those, I mean, I'm thinking door chains or something. They say that that was latch when police arrived. I assume by police, they mean like the chief and the Chris guy.

My question is, if the latch was hooked, it would mean that Elfrida would have been the one to hook it inside. But then if she's trying to get out, why is she locking it from the inside? If someone else was responsible, how would they have hooked it? Did they go out and she was trying to keep them out?

Like, it drives me truly nuts. And listen, what I'll say is we're talking about the 1920s here, like in that episode of Most Notorious Podcast, Craig Moreland says that there was so much that got misreported and then it got picked up by paper after paper after paper that by the time we're trying to interpret it now, it's like a little hard to decipher the truth.

We're talking about like a hundred year game of telephone. Right, so maybe what I'm like losing my mind on could have been cleared up back then, but like it's too late now, like as far as I know there's no pictures or anything like that. Does Elfrida ever say anything about the locked door? Kind of, so when they ask her about it, she says that a mysterious hand locked the door.

A mysterious hand? Mysterious hand, yeah. Is there a chance that Elfrida was already in the furnace room when the chief went down to stoke the fire that night? That mysterious hand was just like the chief just locking up for the night. I don't think so. Like I don't feel like that matches up because he got to the station like 9 p.m. He says he locked the doors at 9 30 and we know that Elfrida didn't even get off the train until 9 40. But I mean police even consider that as a possibility because I guess the basement has some like dark corners where

like someone could hide. So even though the timeline is like unrealistic, they're like, I don't know, we're grasping at straws here. Yeah. And not only that, but Chief Rosenhagen told the Belleville News Democrat that he had his dog with him that night. And like, when he went down there to stoke the fire, the dogs like all over the room. So you would think the dog would have spotted her, sm smelled her, been all over her. Yeah. And so for a while, like, even the police chief is kind of a suspect. He was the last to be there that night.

He's one of the first to arrive the next morning. And there is some kind of like questionable stuff with him. Like, for example, the fact that he sent Chris down to the basement to tend to the fire. Like, that's not even really part of Chris' job, usually. Usually, it is the chief's job. But like, coincidentally, the one time he sends someone else to check the furnace is like the same day They find a woman in it weird. I don't know and apparently he told conflicting stories about that morning, too

According to the DeKalb Daily Chronicle initially. He said that he sent Chris down to start the fire But then later he said he actually sent Chris down to, I think he said, put some canna bulbs in the sand, I think is what the quote was. And those are like flowers that can grow in sand. So like, okay, yeah. And he ends up getting criticized for keeping the case a secret. I think secret is a bit of a strong word, although it is the exact word they use in the source material. Like apparently he did some stuff to like not have people be nosy or ask questions, which you know, is that him being shady? Is that him trying to like protect the investigation? Yeah, I don't know, which I hope like he's not in charge of the investigation if he's

the suspect, but like 1928 Chicago, who the heck knows? Ultimately, like the majority of the criticism is more about when the chief called for the sheriff, I think, because that I guess didn't happen until like 11 a.m., which was four hours after Elfriede was taken to the hospital. And it wasn't even the chief who actually did notify the sheriff. It was the undertaker ambulance guy. And then there's another two hours after that before the state's attorney gets notified. And according to Craig Moreland,

Chief Rosenhagen was also super quick to get rid of the ashes from the furnace. And we do know they were sifted through, but after that, like, I don't know. Again, I don't know what they knew in the 1920s, but like, I think hold onto everything for evidence, but he's just like, nope, let's just just like toss those and it's not just quiet police speculation I mean people in town are talking too like he starts getting some anonymous phone calls saying that they knew he was the one who

Burned the girl and he should get out of Lake Bluff. So what's his alibi? They say it's ironclad apparently, but I don't know what it is Like they don't we know know where Hitch was, like it seems like every minute of the day, but like, We just know that like, don't worry about the chief. Yeah. Okay. So I think it would be hard to rule out the chief if there is even anything to rule him out of.

And with no other leads to follow, police are about ready to accept Elfrida's original statement that she's alone in the basement that night. But then her version of events changes. On Thursday, November 1st, this is now day three of their investigation, Elfrida's semi-coherent statements from her hospital bed, where she is clinging to life, they start to raise even more doubt about her story. Because now she's starting to say some other stuff, stuff like,

why did they do this to me? So they keep asking her for names, who is they? And for a while, they get nothing, just like these vague insinuations. But they wait, because time seems to be Elfrieda's best friend. And finally, she name drops. Frank. Frank threw me down.

Mm, what's the chief's first name? Not Frank, Barney. Barney, right, you told me that. The only Frank that they can even loosely connect to Elfrieda is this guy named Frank Mandy. And police don't even know if she and Frank have ever met. Like he's this local violin teacher, he's a single guy in town, but not like one that

would have ever been on their radar at all if she hadn't started saying the name Frank. But what's interesting about Frank Mandy is that he is connected to Charles Hitchcock. Apparently they share a studio space. But I guess Frank's a dead end too. There wasn't anything to connect him to Elfriede other than the shared space to Hitch. But I'm like, in my mind, I'm like, you're saying both those names. I feel like there's... That's enough. Feels like there's something there. Yeah.

But still, investigators feel like there's enough doubt in the air now where they can't like say he's involved but they're like okay we were about to believe your story that it was you but now we're like no no no like someone else was involved in this we got to keep going so they start to like map out their theories number one she did this to herself which was her original story and really kind of her only story at this point because even though she's like says Frank threw it down She's not saying Frank did all of this. Mm-hmm number two She was in the wrong place at the wrong time and it's some random attack by a random

Perpetrator who by the way would have had to have a key to the town hall like one of 15 of 500 I don't know like she wasn't supposed to be there that, like, there's a lot there. Again, wrong place, wrong time. Number three, it wasn't random at all, and Charles Hitchcock somehow, some way, had something to do with it. So, shortly after this, the state's attorney kind of tests Elfrida a little bit, saying that he is going to have Charles arrested. He's hoping for some kind of reaction from her.

But Alfreda just tells him he'd be doing a rank in justice by arresting Charles. But they don't know what else to do. They have to do something because they are truly racing against the clock. Their best witness, their only witness is dying. I mean, I know she's been talking this whole time, but like things are not getting better. They are getting worse and they need something big and they need it now. So they decide to see what happens when they bring Charles actually to the hospital to see Elfriede face to face. So that night, in the legit middle of the night, they go pick up Charles, they bring him and his broken leg on crutches to the hospital,

and they take him to see Elfrida. Now, investigators gave him a script to follow in terms of questions. Did she know about the broken ankle? Who let her into the station? Why did she do it? And he sticks to his questions. But this is the weirdest part to me. Elfrida doesn't answer any of his questions except one. Charles says to her, quote, you didn't do this terrible thing to yourself, did you?

And all Elfrida could do was mouth the word no. And he asks more and more questions, but Elfrida still isn't answering. And it's not clear if it's because she can't or doesn't want to. And I'm saying it's not clear to me from the reporting. I feel like they would know in the room. Now as he's leaving, because eventually, like, I mean, they're like, we're not getting anywhere.

But as he's leaving, she does say goodbye to him, which ends up being one of the very last things she says. Because before the sun rises on Friday, Elfrida dies. Her autopsy later that day, unfortunately, doesn't tell them anything new. One of her arms was fractured, but they say that it was most likely from falling on that concrete floor trying to get around on two burnt feet. And she also had a head injury. The coroner's physician had a quote in the paper

that kind of explains it, I'll read it to you. It says, I have very grave doubts that anyone did it or helped her do it. Aside from the burns, there is absolutely nothing to show that any violence occurred. So they end up sending Elfrida's brain to another doctor to check for any blood clots that might explain why she burned herself. I don't think that's science, but I don't know. But or even like they also say they're checking for like signs of mental illness.

Can you see mental illness and autopsy in the 20s? No, maybe they thought they could. I don't know what they're looking for. Long and the short of it is, after all of the tests, after all the analysis from the experts, the conclusion ends up being Elfrida was most likely telling the truth. I assume they're talking about the truth the first time, which is that she did this to herself. But there is still some questions, right? Because when Hitch asks, like, she says no. So does this shut down the police investigation?

Absolutely not. They're still not accepting it, even after the autopsy. For them, there are too many missing links. So the Lake County Board of Supervisors, I don't even know what that is, but they offer a $1,000 reward for information, and they hope that that's going to bring someone, anyone, forward. I mean, that's a lot of money back in 1928. And someone does come forward with a letter to the state's attorney saying that they basically couldn't hold the truth in any longer. And they have a word for Elfrieda.

Let me read exactly what they said. They want to tell the world how Bub was burned. Bub? That's what it says. And I mean, when people read this, that's not a nickname anyone has heard Elfrieda be called by anyone. They actually call her Fritzy, definitely not Bub. But there's something about the letter

that makes it seem like a little credible, or at least the state's attorney thinks it's a little credible. This is like so important, I want you to read at least some of it. So it was published in the Chicago Tribune in their November 7th, 1928 paper. It says, for the last 20 years,

I have been a student of occultism, mysticism, hypnotism, It says, for her to overcome it. Of course, Charlie never knew, for Bub was stoical and kept it hidden. But if you know anything at all of the Freudian theory of suppression, you will understand that that merely increased her agony a hundredfold. From Bub's and my experiments in hypnotism, I learned she was an excellent subject, super sensitive, psychic to the finest degree,

and very impressionable. We delved deeper and deeper into our devilish subject, she merely to forget, and I because of my thirst for things unnatural. I could render her cataleptic and absolutely insensible to heat, cold, hunger, or pain. But one thing I could not do, purge her of the memory of Charlie Hitchcock. We decided on a final test that would rid her forever of Charlie. Scytheria, goddess of ancient fire, was the only one who could burn all memory of Charlie from her mind. I placed her in a deep sleep, as far into the third degree of hypnotism as she had ever been.

I gave her the suggestion that all feeling would leave her body, that she would pass through the fire, and that the only thing that would burn would be her memory of Charlie. I still think the experiment would have been a success under the proper circumstances. Although she suffered no pain, I could see immediately that she was being physically burned. At that, I became frightened. I had been helping her hold her limbs in the fire, but I dropped her and ran out, hooked the door, and went home.

I thought she would die before she came out of the hypnosis, but I know now that she didn't, although she did not suffer except during the moments before she died. Whoa, I'm obsessed. So listen, I don't know if I've been doing this too long and I'm losing it because like I was talking to someone else on the team who worked on this with me and they were like, oh my gosh, this like hack letter. And I was like, oh, yeah, total hack. I like, I like kind of buy it. Well, like I was kind of like, okay, whatever. And then he's like, and then I hooked the door behind me.

We just had a conversation. How was the door latched? Was it like a chain slide? Like, well, and listen, I think like, maybe it's cause some of this stuff is so unexplainable. And for the same reason I'm buying it a little bit is why they did back then like it kind of bridges the gap between that gut feeling Everyone's having that someone else was involved With the medical evidence that said she did it to herself

Right it like someone wasn't all the boxes right someone was involved, but it wasn't like but not maliciously It's not hitch in the basement trying to murder her she did it to herself but she needed help doing it and someone helped her i know so maybe this is a supernatural crossover episode i don't know but it's like i mean it's a little wild right yeah so they have this letter they end up doing a coroner's inquest where they call like 30 witnesses to testify all the investigators investigators, the chief, her doctors, her family, her colleagues, her best friend, people at the train station, eyewitnesses who saw her around, and of course, Charles Hitchcock.

And the jury questions Charles at length about hypnotism, but he insists he has no idea how to hypnotize anyone, though he does say that he met people who can, including, he says he met the great Houdini, who he calls a friend. But when the inquest wraps on November 10th, it finds the very same thing that the autopsy did, albeit a bit more reluctantly. I'm going to read you exactly what they said from a 2016 Chicago Tribune article.

The jury found that Elfrida, quote, came to her death by burns which appear from the evidence to be self-inflicted, end quote. So this inquest basically shuts the door on the possibility that none of the witnesses called, including Charles Hitchcock, had anything to do with her death. But still investigators refuse to close the case. They think someone is guilty of something here,

whether that's hypnotizing her or even just encouraging her into that fire. And about two weeks later, they find something that starts to prove that they might be right. In Elfrida's bedroom, her family finds three things of interest to the state's attorney. The first is a book called Christ in You, which talks about how the only way to know God is through pain, that pain has a purifying power, and that this process is referred to as the refiner's fire. Now they also find Elfrida's diaries, which include dates and times of when she saw Charles Hitchcock, as well as passages like this one that I found in the Lake County Register. I'm gonna have you read it for me.

It says, on my side, one, I love him. Two, I want to be true to the best in me. Three, I want to be able to face his wife with honesty. Four, I love him for his intelligence. He helped me. He understands me. I idealize him. He is very near perfect.

I am attracted physically. My real tie of love is spiritual understanding. On his side, one, he loves me. Two, he wants to be true to the best in him. Three, he wants to be true to his wife. Four, he loves me for my spiritual beauty. Five, my spiritual understanding inspires him to continue his own."

End quote. So it's clear something's going on there. Yeah, that's like a pro-con list for like continuing relationship, right? Yeah, I just don't know, like reading this one alone, it feels a little like it's both ways when she's talking about him, right? Like he wants to be true to his wife. He wants to do this. Like, oh, it feels like you guys have had maybe a conversation about this.

It's closish to mutual. Right. It feels like this. But then they find another letter, and this one is addressed to Elfrida, and it's postmarked on October 20th. And this is the last thing I'll have you read, I promise. But this one I think is important. Okay. Dear Fritzie. And remember, that's what they call her. So this is to Elfrida. So you read, I promise, but this one I think is important. Okay. Dear Fritzi.

And remember, that's what they call her, so this is to Elfrida. So dear, sorry, dear Fritzi. Dear Fritzi, I haven't forgotten you told me not to write, but I am just this once, regardless of what happens. Dear me, you made me care, so don't blame me entirely. I often wish I had taken the books the first day, and then this would never have happened. But after studying you a while, something seems to tell me you were craving for a friendship that was full of love and kindness, one that understood you. And before I knew it, I was trying to be your friend. Not once did I think of anything beyond being a friend until the third time you came and the way you looked at me.

I lost all control when. Then the next time you mastered me again more than ever. I lived over that moment a thousand times. Darling, after that, how can you be so distant? I'd be satisfied just to see you if only for a moment. It's awful. I haven't done a thing worthwhile for a week. Can't sit still long enough even to read a short story. But of course, if you don't intend to see me anymore,

it will be best not to hear from you. I can forget in time, but God forgive you. There's no harm in love, darling, and that's all I offer you. Lovingly yours, be Locke. Not Hitch. I thought a thousand percent when I read it the first time it was going to be Hitch. Yeah, I got through all of this entire letter and I was like, lovingly yours, see Hitchcock. Dude, this is where it gets interesting. What?

Who is B Lock? Here's where it gets interesting. So police trace this letter to a woman named Luella Rowe, who lives about a few miles from Lake Bluff in Libertyville. Now, apparently Elfriede had only met B-Lock a few weeks before her death. Elfriede, I guess, had sold her some books, and then, like, all of a sudden, this, like, friendship blossomed.

Sounds like a little more than friendship to me. I agree, but remember, in a 1920s paper, I don't think they would dare go there or like touch that. Now, there was a short note that they found with the longer letter that seemed to indicate maybe there had been some kind of rift between them. It says that like Elfrida was forgiven and then in another, it says that she should be sorry.

So it's enough for the state's attorney to bring Luella in for questioning. She confirms that yes, she and Elfrida were friends. They shared an interest in spirituality and religion. But she says she has nothing to do with her death. She was home that night that Elfrida was burned. And I guess her husband confirms it. Okay, number one, I never trust a spouse as an alibi. And two, is she the anonymous hypnotist? I don't know. I kind of had the same thought, but I have no idea. Maybe? She's also interested in, like, spirituality? Ah, I know, I know. So that's just kind of, like, floating out there.

I don't know what to make of it. It doesn't seem like it goes anywhere else. And the only other really big thing that pops up is there's one more person who kind of comes on their radar as a possible suspect. But like just as quickly as it's on, it's off. It's like some guy in Texas starts confessing saying that he's responsible. They like literally go all the way, get him, bring him back. It becomes clear he's mentally ill.

There's no way he was involved. Like he wasn't even in the state of Illinois at the time. And then after that, the case just kind of dies or at least the official investigation kind of dies out. And over the years, Elfrida's family was pretty vocal about their beliefs. And it's kind of interesting. So do you remember the Michelle Carter case?

Uh, yeah. She went to trial over convincing Conrad Roy to take his own life via text, right? Via text, right. So basically, if you believe Elfrida's family, then the Michelle Carter case wasn't the landmark case that we all thought it was, because they basically think

that the exact same thing happened almost 100 years before that one. They think that someone put the idea into her head and encouraged her to do it, which is kind of like one of the theories we've been talking about. Yeah, like I can totally see the parallels, but then who is the Michelle Carter in Elfrida's story? That's the mystery that's never been solved. And that author that I mentioned, Craig Moreland, he thinks police didn't look hard enough

at Elfrieda's best friend, Marie Mueller, which I know they didn't look at her, we know, because she hasn't been in the story up to now. I was saying, who? Exactly, so she was one of Elfrieda's closest friends. She was someone who was even brought to her bedside while Elfrieda was in the hospital, and she actually testified at the inquest

as a character witness, where she described Elfrida, you know, among other things, as just like, a very emotional person. Exceptionally emotional, I think, is what she said. And her testimony pretty much amounts to, no, Elfrida is not out of her mind, but yes, she totally would have done something like this all on her own.

But the most interesting thing about Marie is that she knew Charles, too. She and Elfriede had actually taken that public speaking class together. Did she live in Lake Bluff? Well, she's from Waukegan, so they were like all in the same vicinity. Mm-hmm. So here's where it gets really interesting. Charles's first wife Estelle divorced him in 1933. And then 14 years later, he marries none other than Marie Mueller.

No. I know, right? And apparently at some point he had told her niece, this is years later, that she and Elfrida were both in love with Charles back then, and that Elfrida and Charles did have something going on, some kind of affair. Marie hated that. She was super jealous, super competitive, and she would always be calling him, like writing him letters, vying for his attention. And Marie admitted to this niece

that she knew what happened to Elfrida that night in the basement of the village hall, but she said she loves her husband too much to ever talk about it, so she will take that to the grave, and she must have. Because 96 years later, I still can't tell you what really happened in that basement.

There's one theory that isn't in the archival coverage, but that is kind of explored a little bit now. And something I mentioned, but just got glossed over, it's like that one of the police officers was involved. The chief was coming up on retirement at the time that all this played out. And there were two other officers that were working there, that Eugene guy and Charles Hitchcock. And apparently they both wanted to be next in line for the chief job. Eugene is ultimately the one who got the job so, you know, there's this theory later like could he have set Charles up to get him out of the way or

Did one of them set Barney up to be the fall guy because there was a lot of weird stuff I remember around the chief Barney, right? Maybe they were trying to like get him out of there faster Chief Rosenhagen was in his 60s when he found Elfriede in the basement, and he was already in poor health. The board of supervisors for the town pushed him out of his job as chief by the end of November of 1928,

and then he was given a six-month leave of absence from all of his other duties. And then by January of the following year, he was dead, and people think that the stress of the case had a lot to do with that. Ultimately, Charles Hitchcock is asked to resign from his job as the Night Watchman too, because it's really not a great look to have a member of the force under like this kind of suspicion. So three months after Elfriede died, Charles steps away from his duties.

You know, we've got our chief leaving, Eugene's like the head. And surprise surprise, Charles actually ends up back in the news again almost a year after all of this, when he and his son are both arrested for robbery. Which is, I don't know what it means, or if it's just a one-off. Like, the charges don't ultimately stick, not to Charles anyway, even though he confessed to being a part of several robberies with his son who does in fact get convicted of these crimes. So I mean, if this happened today, police would have access to a world of evidence. We're talking surveillance footage, DNA, fingerprints, blood analysis, hair analysis, tons of stuff. You can even think about like, again, go back to Michelle Carter, like the text and communications between people.

But none of that was available back in 1928. And so whatever happened to Elfriede Kinnack in that basement, and for whatever reason, will continue to be Lake Bluff's biggest mystery. You can find all the source material for this episode on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. And you can follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast. We back next week with a brand new episode. Crime Junkie is an AudioChuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?