APPLETON, WI (WTAQ) – Ten years ago Tuesday, an Appleton woman was found murdered inside her home.
56-year-old Connie Boelter failed to show up for work at Wolf River Community Bank in Hortonville on November 15, 2006. Her co-workers were concerned since Boelter was never late, and called her daughter Dawn Gunderson. Dawn went to her duplex at 1134 E. Northwood Drive and found her mom dead.
In the decade that has passed, Boelter’s family has searched for answers to the question of who would want to kill their beloved Connie and why?
On the 10th anniversary, Gunderson along with Lynn Kolling and Mike Boelter spoke out in an effort to jog people’s memories to determine if someone can help bring the person responsible to justice.
“Somebody knows something and when we did interviews 9 years ago, we said the same thing,” Kolling says. “Does it bring her back? No, but it does bring justice to our earthly world.”
“For people to put themselves in our shoes, if you had someone who was very important to you who was murdered, you’d want people to come forward,” says Gunderson. “Whether they felt inconvenienced or didn’t want to get involved or whatever. Just maybe have some compassion for us that we would like to know, come forward if you can help with that, in any way, shape or form.”
LIFE GOES ON
While they have gone through the gamut of emotions in dealing with the murder of the family matriarch, they each say that the desire to find justice hasn’t consumed them. And that’s how mom would’ve wanted it.
“I feel like my mom would want me to live the life that I would be living if she was here,” Kolling says, while heaping praise on her husband and their two children.
“If you’re absorbed in it, you’ve ruined your life,” explains Mike Boelter. “And that’s what she would never want any of us to do.”
Boelter recalls a story as an example, that should Connie be driving and someone cuts her off, then flips the middle finger in her direction despite them being at fault, his mom would just give that person a kind wave.
“Hope your day gets better,” Mike Boelter says, echoing his mom. “If you let the bad guy ruin your day, they win. So, if you don’t, you win. Appreciate what you have, because somebody else has it worse.”
Kolling says that when they’ve needed to lean on someone, aside from each other, the investigators with Appleton police have been there for them every step of the way.
“I know I can call on a bad day and just go off,” says Kolling. “And then at the end, they say okay. Then I’ll probably follow up with an email 2 hours later saying I’m really sorry, I’m just really struggling today.”
All three credit their ongoing relationship with the investigative division, citing the respect they have for the jobs detectives must do and seeing how much it weighs on them searching for justice.
The Appleton Police Department declined our request for an interview about this case.
SPRINGTIME “SURPRISE”
Appleton police confirmed back on May 1 a report in USA Today Network-Wisconsin that former Wolf River Community Bank president James K. Olson was a person-of-interest in the Boelter murder.
Olson was Boelter’s boss at the bank where she worked as a loan processor. Investigators found Olson had significant debt and appeared to violate bank practices and federal loan requirements.
He was then quickly put on administrative leave from the bank’s board of directors.
Just a few days later, the police department put out a release seeking information on a green four-door 1996 Ford Taurus that had been seen in the area of Boelter’s home in the time leading up to her death.
At this point, the three Boelter children felt this was a big moment.
“It felt like a really big step in the case, having a person of interest named,” Gunderson says.
“It felt a little bit like a dream come true,” says Kolling. “It was almost that joy of ‘thank you’, this got brought forward because we were privy to information for some time that we can’t share and we trust the police department in keeping the case as solid and protected as possible.”
To a person, Dawn Gunderson, Lynn Kolling and Mike Boelter believe strongly that Olson is the man responsible for killing their mother. However, they understand that police have a job to do and the most important aspect for everyone involved is to get it right.
“The moment his name came out, nothing would’ve made us happier than for him to be arrested and know that this was moving forward,” Gunderson says. “But, we do trust that they (law enforcement) know the system better than we do and how it needs to proceed because we do only get that one chance. We don’t want to throw it away just because we’re being impatient. It’s not going to bring mom back, so we do want it to be the best chance that we have.”
Information related to this investigation can be forwarded through the Appleton Police Department’s non-emergency number (920) 832-5500, to Lt. Polly Olson (920) 832-6089 or to their private message on Facebook.
The Appleton Police Department also utilizes Text-a-Tip for anonymous referral of information. Individuals can text CRIMES (274-637) with the keyword APDTIPS at the start of their message.
