Image 1 — Lindy poses with baby Azaria on the lower slopes of Uluru, then known as Ayer’s Rock. The subject of international scorn and ridicule (including the oft-spoofed phrase “A Dingo came and took my baby”), Lindy and her husband Micheal fought for 3 years to clear her name.
Image 2 — Bloodstained matinee jacket worn by Azaria the night of her death. With no physical evidence corroborating Lindy’s claim of a dingo attack, she was seen as the prime suspect in her daughter’s death. This tiny bloodstained coat, found by a hiker years later, finally supported Lindy’s version of events.
Image 3 — Canis familiaris dingo, the Australian Wild Dog. Introduced to the continent by early aboriginal settlers as many as 50000 years ago, Dingos are now the largest terrestrial predator in the country.
Image 4 — Uluru, then known as Ayer’s Rock. A sacred site for local tribes for millennia, it is also one of the Australia’s most visited natural landmarks. It is here where baby Azaria was dragged off into the bush the night of August 17.
On August 17, 1978, Bette Wolf reported her 21-year-old son William “Billy” Wolf Jr. missing from the Fargo area.
Billy had reportedly last been seen two days earlier, on August 15.
Three days after the missing-person report, on August 20, a man canoeing on the Red River approximately three miles north of Kragnes, Minnesota, noticed a green garbage bag floating in the water.
Inside was part of a human body.
Another garbage bag was located roughly 200 yards downstream, caught near the opposite side of the river.
Together, the bags contained the remains of Billy Wolf.
The North Dakota Attorney General's cold-case listing confirms that Wolf's body had been cut in half, placed into garbage bags and dumped into the Red River.
The condition of the remains
Information about Billy's case is surprisingly sparse considering the violence involved.
Secondary accounts based on earlier local reporting state that Billy was still dressed in a tan work shirt, green pants and work boots when he was found.
Those accounts also report that investigators believed his body had been cut through the waist with a powered saw and that he had suffered injuries to his face and throat. His remains were identified through dental records.
Investigators apparently believed Billy had been dead for approximately three days, placing his death very close to the time he was last seen.
That raises an obvious question:
Where was he killed?
The river may only have been the disposal site.
Who was Billy?
One of the more frustrating things about this case is how little information about Billy's final day appears to be publicly known.
Later reporting described investigators as believing his death may have been connected in some way to Fargo's low level drug scene, although no one has ever been successfully prosecuted for killing him. Secondary accounts also state that investigators considered the possibility that more than one person was involved.
The case also has apparently produced an unusual problem over the years: people have reportedly confessed to Billy's murder, but investigators did not believe those people were responsible.
Why dismember him?
If Billy was killed during a spontaneous argument, robbery, or drug-related confrontation, the offender then went considerably further.
That suggests the killer either had access to somewhere they could dismember a body without immediately being noticed, or was willing to take an extraordinary risk doing it.
Personally, I find the dismemberment to be far too passionate for a low level drug transaction gone awry theory to seem plausible.
But it also makes me wonder whether dismemberment was done simply to make the body easier to transport rather than to prevent identification.
Almost five decades later
Billy's murder remains officially unsolved.
The North Dakota Attorney General continues to list William Wolf Jr. among the state's cold homicide cases and directs anyone with information to the Fargo Police Department.
There has also been renewed media attention over the years, including an investigative podcast series devoted specifically to reconstructing Billy's final days and examining the old investigation.
But there has never been an arrest that resolved the case.
Considering how much forensic technology has changed since 1978, I wonder what physical evidence - if any- still exists that could be retested today.
Sources:
Dakota Spotlight — Billy Wolf Murder Case / Chasing Billy: https://dakotaspotlight.com/billy-wolf-murder-case/
https://dakotaspotlight.com/billy-wolf-murder-case/North Dakota Attorney General
https://attorneygeneral.nd.gov/public-safety/cold-cases/
Schttps://dakotaspotlight.com/billy-wolf-murder-case
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension — official unsolved homicide poster:
https://portal.dps.mn.gov/BCA/unsolved-cases/cases/Files/00000086/Poster/WolfWilliam.pdf
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