MISSING: Kerry O’Brien-Krueger

**Ashley Flowers** (0:01)
Hi, Crime Junkies, it's Ashley. And after years of covering cases on this show, I know that the story doesn't stop once the headlines fade. There are always more questions to ask, more voices to hear, and more context that can reshape our understanding of a case. In fact, that's one of the reasons I started my other podcast, The Deck. Every episode goes a layer deeper through original reporting and conversations with the people who know these cases best, law enforcement, investigators, and families still searching for answers. Listen to The Deck wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi, Crime Junkies. I'm your host, Ashley Flowers.

**Brit Prawat** (0:37)
And I'm Brit.

**Ashley Flowers** (0:38)
The story I have for you today is one I can't believe I'd never heard of. But it came to us straight from the investigator who's trying to solve this mystery and he needs your help. Because the truth of what happened to one Wisconsin woman back in 1989, might be right in front of him in two important clues he holds. But he needs the help of our Crime Junkies to interpret them. One of you might be able to help solve the mystery of what happened to Kerry O'Brien-Krueger.
It's December 1989 in Wisconsin. And with the holidays right around the corner, 19-year-old Molly O'Brien is getting into the spirit. She's spending the chilly night curled up in her Milwaukee dorm room, watching the Nutcracker with her roommate and her boyfriend.
Suddenly, her landline rings. And it's her brother-in-law, Tracy Krueger, which isn't strange. He's married to Molly's 32-year-old sister, Kerry, and Molly's close with both of them. But what he's asking is odd. He wants to know if Kerry is with her. Now, Molly spends plenty of time with Kerry, Tracy, and their three-year-old daughter, but it is always at their house an hour away in Burlington, Wisconsin. Kerry doesn't just like randomly stop by her dorm room. So she tells him no.
And that's when Tracy starts laying it all out, why he's concerned. The night before, this would have been Tuesday, December 5th, 1989 He says that Kerry got this call at around 8:30 PM. Tracy thinks it was maybe her manager, Jim, calling. Kerry works in PR for Gander Mountain, this like hunting and sporting goods company. And when she hung up, she told Tracy that she had to fill in for somebody the next day at this trade show in Wyoming. And that would have been this day, like the day that he's calling Molly, Wednesday, December 6th. Now Jim was supposed to swing by and drive them both to Chicago so they could catch an early flight. Tracy says that Kerry got up super early, left before dawn, like four or 4.3 in the morning after a goodbye kiss and a reminder to take good care of their daughter while she was gone. But a few hours later, after Tracy had gotten their daughter off to the babysitter and he was at work, he got a message that Jim was trying to reach him. And what Jim said was really weird because he wanted to know where Kerry was. She had pulled a no-call no-show at work for the first time ever. And Tracy says that he's confused. He's like, what do you mean, where is she? She's with you in Wyoming. Yeah. But Jim had no clue what he was talking about. Because it turns out there was no trade show and Kerry would know that. Tracking the trade shows is literally part of her job. Now, the more Tracy talks, the sicker Molly feels. Because there is one thing that Molly is sure of. Kerry would never leave her daughter. So if no one can find her, she's sure, right then and there, that something bad happened. But Tracy tries to keep her calm. He's like, listen, don't worry, maybe she just went somewhere. I'm gonna start calling around, I'm gonna start checking with everyone. And he's already sounded the alarm to another O'Brien sister, Kathy. And even though she lives far away in New Orleans, she knows what to do because she's a prosecutor. So Thursday morning, the moment she hears that Kerry still isn't home, Kathy brings their parents in the loop and instructs them to make Tracy file a missing persons report with the Burlington Police Department, like do it now, do it today. So Kerry's parents bring Tracy to the station where he runs through it all again, the 11th hour work call, the early trip, and how nobody can reach Kerry now. But while her family seems to be frantic, officers are like, meh, not so much. They put out a bolo for her, but she's an adult, she might just need some space, so they give it to her until they realize that space might even be dangerous. Because a couple of days later, Tracy brings them a note from Kerry's doctor saying that she had been treated for depression and she might be suicidal. So that is what escalates things, at least enough so that she gets entered into the NCIC database. Now, what the doctor's note didn't mention though, is the real health problem she had been suffering from over the last year and a half. Severe unexplained stomach pain, including nausea, vomiting, weight loss, and nobody could figure out why.