Case Details

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This person was missing Missing Since 04/24/1988

Missing Since:

Missing Since 04/24/1988

Missing From:

Missing From West Allas, Wisconsin

Classification:

Classification Endangered Missing

Gender:

Female

Race:

Race White

Date of Birth:

Date of Birth 06/29/1967 (57)

Age:

Age 20 years old

Height and Weight:

Height and Weight 5’6, 150 – 160 pounds

Clothing/Jewelry Description:

Clothing/Jewelry Description A blue tweed jacket and black pants. Carrying a large white purse.

Distinguishing Characteristics:

Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Brown hair, blue eyes. Bertolas’s nickname is Sandy. She took great care with her appearance in 1988 and usually used makeup and hair products.

Details of Disappearance:

In 1988, Bertolas disappeared after going to meet her boyfriend at Red Carpet Lanes bowling alley in West Allis, Wisconsin. She was upset because she’d discovered he’d been lying to her – dating someone else and giving her a fake name and address. He called in sick to work that day but admitted calling her twice. He even offered to pay for her gas to get there, after she said she couldn’t afford it.

Bertolas’s car was left abandoned at the bowling alley. Police interviewed the boyfriend, who denied seeing her that night and claimed he didn’t know she was pregnant (though she’d told others she’d told him). He refused to talk to police again.

Suspiciously, police dogs tracked Bertolas’s scent to Mount Olivet Cemetery in Milwaukee, where the boyfriend’s father was the caretaker, and the boyfriend had previously worked. A napkin with the cemetery’s address was found in Bertolas’s room.

Police think her boyfriend was involved in her disappearance. A big investigation happened in 2002, but no charges were filed. Bertolas’s family still hopes she’ll be found, but they believe she is dead and have bought her a gravesite next to her father’s. At the time of her disappearance, Bertolas was a young woman studying business and working part-time as a beautician.

Agency:

Menomonee Falls Police Department 262-532-8700

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