| Wilma June Nissen’s murder has gone unsolved for 47 years, 4 months, and 23 days. |
Wilma June Nissen lived a life shaped by neglect, exploitation, and survival long before her name ever appeared in a newspaper headline. Her story is one of intersecting systemic failure, gendered violence, and the quiet disappearance of vulnerable women—especially those whose lives existed on society’s margins. For decades, she was known only as a Jane Doe, her identity stripped away just as thoroughly as her chance at safety had been throughout her life.
This is not just the story of an unsolved murder in rural Iowa, but rather the story of a woman who was never protected as a child, never truly safe as an adult, and never even reported missing after her death. It is also the story of a daughter who refused to let her mother remain nameless and forgotten, and who continues to fight for answers long after the system moved on.
What follows traces Wilma June Nissen’s life from a traumatic childhood through foster care, abusive relationships, and ultimately to the violent crime that ended her life—and the decades-long effort to uncover the truth of what happened to her. Who murdered Wilma June Nissen?
About Wilma June Nissen
Like so many other cases I’ve written about, Wilma June Nissen’s childhood was not a good one. Please note that much of this information comes from Born on October 9, 1954 in San Francisco, California (CA) to parents Charles and June Nissen, her life was tough from the start. She had a younger sister who was born deaf and mute, and their mother ended up walking out on the family.
In the custody of their abusive and neglectful father, Nissen and her sister were treated terribly. According to Krissi Atkinson, Nissen’s biological daughter, the situation was extremely dire:
“[Their father] would go to work and lock the two girls in a closet. He got fired, and so then they were all living in a car. I don’t know where he was during the day… and he would lock the disabled sister in the trunk, and Wilma would go have to wander the streets for food. This was a 9- or 10-year-old child. She never got to be a kid.”
Krissi Atkinson (Source: Project Cold Case)
Foster Care
Child protective services (CPS) was forced to step in and Nissen and her sister were placed into foster care in separate families. According to the family that Nissen was placed in, she was extremely under-educated, lacking in the basics of reading, writing, and was even unable to use a fork.
Nissen was placed in several different foster families over the years, eventually landing with the Haas family—the same family who would one day adopt Krissi Atkinson. There, she finally found some stability and love, and the family described her as a happy, bubbly child who learned quickly. She kept in touch with her former foster family until she was around 22 years old.
Several Marriages
Nissen aged out of foster care and soon found herself in a controlling marriage where her husband pimped her out to paying customers, and she started getting arrested for prostitution. She had two sons during the marriage, though both were later taken by CPS.
Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft offers a deep dive into the mindset of abusive men, helping women recognize controlling behaviors and break free from toxic relationships. Here is a link to the whole book for free. Additionally, anyone in an abusive relationship can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline at (800) 799-7233 or text BEGIN to 88788.
Later, Nissen married Atkinson’s biological father, Robert Alexander Irvin, and the two lived together in Long Beach, CA. She gave birth to Krissi Atkinson in August of 1977, then disappeared from the hospital.
“That’s supposedly when she just left the hospital and never came back,” Atkinson explained to a news outlet. She never got to meet her biological mother, but she’s been on a campaign to solve her mother’s cold case ever since she learned what happened.
The Discovery of a Jane Doe
On October 4, 1978, a worker laying cable for a phone line in Rock Rapids, Iowa (IA) made a horrifying discovery: the decomposed body of a woman. “The first thing I thought was a mannequin. I really thought it was just a mannequin laying in the ditch,” the worker told a news outlet in a 2006 interview.
The body wasn’t too far from the road, but due to overgrown weeds and the rural area, it had gone undiscovered for months. The worker called police, and an investigation began.
Autopsy Conducted
Due to the advanced state of decomposition, an autopsy was necessary to determine more facts about the victim. Results suggested that the victim was a younger woman who had been left at the location since June or July of 1978.
Authorities didn’t believe that she’d been killed at the scene, but that rope around the victim’s legs had been used to drag her body to the location it was eventually found. Additionally, the death had apparently been a violent one as the victim’s teeth had been smashed out and her lower jaw was missing. The cause of death was ruled a homicide, although the cause of death has never been released to the public.
A Difficult Identification
Evidence found at the scene included the rope, a ring, some clothing, and white leather boots, but none of it was enough to identify who the woman was. This made solving the case extremely difficult, as authorities didn’t even know who the victim was. Without knowing the identity of the victim, authorities couldn’t determine who the suspects might be, or who would’ve wanted her dead.
Ultimately, the victim was labeled as a Jane Doe—a body that hasn’t yet been identified—and stayed that way for 27 years.
Jane Doe Unmasked
In January 2006, a forensic technician matched the Jane Doe’s fingerprints to an arrest for prostitution in Los Angeles, CA. At long last, the Rock Rapids Jane Doe was identified as Wilma June Nissen. She was never even reported missing to authorities.
However, identification of the victim was only part of the puzzle, and authorities next had to figure out how she ended up in Rock Rapids—and why she ended up deceased.
A Daughter’s Fight
Krissi Atkinson had been searching for information about her biological mother since she was a little girl. “I would rarely hear anything about [my mother] from my adopted parents… I was told she went for a walk and didn’t come back,” she writes in her Wilma June Nissen Blog on Medium.
Atkinson was searching for more information about her mother when a friend’s mother showed her a newspaper article. “She showed me the newspaper article that they identified a Jane Doe, and it was my mom,” she told Project Cold Case. It turned out that Nissen had been murdered around the time Atkinson was only one year old.
Instead of giving up, Atkinson started a campaign to solve her mother’s cold case murder. She’s started a number of social media pages and reached out to a variety of news sources in an effort to get the word out there about Wilma June Nissen.
Putting Together a History
In order to solve Nissen’s case, authorities first had to figure out her history. Due to her lifestyle, tracking her was difficult—especially in the 70s prior to the rise of the internet. Still, authorities were able to uncover some clues, including that in 1978, Nissen had been traveling from California to Atlanta, Georgia (GA).
At some point, Nissen ended up in Sioux City, IA. In a 2016 interview with Dakota News Now, Lyon County Chief Deputy Jerry Birkey explained what he knew:
“[Nissen] was actually working for escort services doing prostitution out of [Sioux Falls, South Dakota]. She ended up in Lyon County, we believe, because residents of Lyon County were hiring escorts from the escort service in Sioux Falls.”
Chief Deputy Jerry Birkey (Source: Dakota News Now)
But Why Was Nissen Murdered?
Unlike many cold cases, it seems that authorities have a decent picture of what happened in Nissen’s case. What they lack, however, is the evidence necessary to conduct arrests and bring the case to trial. (It should be noted, however, that Lyon County Sheriff Brian Hilt told NBC Dateline via email in 2025: “There was/has been a possible motive of theft, but until it is solved, that remains a possible motive that we are unsure about.“)
In 2007, Nissen’s body was exhumed in order to try to gather more potential DNA evidence. Although some DNA was found, it had to be amplified, and the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) can’t currently support the amplified DNA evidence. Regardless, evidence pointed to the fact that there were multiple DNA signatures found, suggesting that more than one person was involved in the murder.
According to Birkey, the believed motive for Nissen’s murder was robbery, and that there were at least two people involved. Authorities have revealed that the main suspects who know more in the case are two escorts: “Sugar” and “Peaches,” both working names. Both suspects worked with Nissen for a service called “Playgirls” and “Playmates.”
The Primary Suspects
The primary suspects in Nissen’s case are “Sugar” and “Peaches,” although others may have been involved, too. “[“Sugar”] was an escort, a prostitute, a dancer, who liked to rob other escorts, prostitutes, and dancers,” Birkey explained in his 2016 interview. He believes that, in the wake of one of the sex parties in Lyon County, Nissen was attacked and killed and that “Sugar” knows more than she’ll admit to.
“Sugar” has been interviewed at length, but refuses to admit any involvement. “We’ve done extensive interviews on our suspect and we cannot get the suspect to admit to it,” Birkey explained.
“Peaches” is described as “a light complected black female from Thunder Bay, Canada” who worked as an escort in Sioux Falls, IA for a time. She is believed to also know more about Nissen’s murder, but authorities don’t know her real name or where she is now.
More Information Needed
What authorities need is someone to come forward and independently identify the suspects. Birkey has asked for anyone who might’ve attended the parties to come forward with information:
“They didn’t see Wilma get killed at this party. They saw something that led up to her being killed, and they just don’t realize what they saw.”
Chief Deputy Jerry Birkey (Source: Dakota News Now)
Atkinson’s Fight Continues
Atkinson has continued fighting to solve her mother’s cold case, reaching out to law enforcement and DNA scientists. However, she feels that she’s run into obstacles in trying to work with authorities, stating on her Medium blog that her Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests have been denied, a page outlining her mother’s case has been removed from the Lyon County Sheriff’s Department website, and that the current Lyon County Sheriff is unwilling to work with her in contacting a private DNA laboratory.
Even though it’s been many, many decades, there is still hope that Nissen’s case can and will be solved one day. Every victim deserves justice—no matter how long it’s been.
“[Nissen] never stood a chance. She was failed by her parents, by the system, by her husbands. She always struggled. She was never even reported missing. She had to fight for survival from the day she was born. I wish I could have fought for her in life, [and] KNOW that I am fighting now!”
Krissi Atkinson (Source: Medium)
Do You Have Information?
There is a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of any person or persons responsible for Wilma June Nissen’s death. An anonymous hotline can be contacted at (712) 472-8334, or you can visit the Lyon County Sheriff’s tip website.
Other Resources for Wilma June Nissen’s Case
Krissi Atkinson (Nissen’s biological daughter) has a number of platforms and pages to raise awareness about her mother’s case in the hopes that it might one day be solved. As Atkinson writes, “No person is disposable, every single person matters… PLEASE, remember her name, share her story, together, we CAN solve her murder!”
- Wilma June Nissen (@justice4wilma) on Medium
- Help Solve My Biological Mother’s Murder Cold Case on Facebook
- Krissi_1977 on TikTok
- Help me fight for answers on my moms murder cold case! on GoFundMe
- Justice4WimaJuneNissen Website
- krissi_hass on Instagram
- Mandate Transparency and Regular Updates in Cold Case Investigations for Family Members Petition on Change.org
Cold Case Questions
- Who do you think murdered Wilma June Nissen?
- Will new advances in DNA technology be able to solve this case?
Let me know your thoughts in the comment section below! I value each and every contribution to our community of Cold Case Explorers. As a reminder, be kind and respectful in the comment section. A supportive and positive environment helps us all think more clearly and discuss these cases more effectively. Let’s keep our discussions constructive, compassionate, and considerate!
Special thanks to Krissi Atkinson for suggesting this case!
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