Ep. 3 Martha Bacon

You can listen to episode three of “Aren’t You the Girl?” podcast here:

Posted is the transcript for the episode for those who would like to read Martha’s story instead.

Sources listed at the end of the article.

In an isolated area of Monticello, Minnesota in the fall of 1993 a dog dragged home a human forearm and hand. When the owner discovers the gruesome sight on their front doorstep – a 6 mile search of the county begins.

When it was learned the remains were of 31 year old Martha Bacon, a woman with a checkered past, sensitivity in our community diminished and a media frenzy in Minneapolis ensued. 

In this episode of Aren’t You the Girl? I’ll be covering the Wright County homicide cold case of Martha Bacon along with the St. Paul homicide case of Bone Lake Jane Doe.

On Oct. 15, 1993 a woman stumbled upon their dog gnawing on a human elbow. The shocked owner calls Wright County police and an extensive search begins. But not much more is found.

This is a case that I’m very shocked isn’t more well known. Especially by the community she was found in. 

The Minnesota BCA used fingerprints to identify the victim as 31 year old Martha Ann Bacon. Who was living in Brooklyn Park at the time of her death.  She had no rings or any other identifying factors. No missing person report was filed.

Wright county investigators worked with University of MN geologists to see if the soil found underneath her finger nails came from the soil found in Silver Creek Township where her remains were found.

On three different occasions over the course of a couple of months house dogs retrieve more body parts of Martha’s that would ignite a new search of swampy areas in the county – all within a quarter of a mile from each other. 

Beyond the area around the housing development, Lake Maria State Park and an adjacent wildlife preserve were also searched.

The only body parts that were never recovered were her torso, an arm and a hand. Absolutely no trauma to her head was visible at all.

The cuts could have been severed with a hacksaw. 

Wright County and Minneapolis police worked on Martha’s case alongside BCA agents and there’s never been enough evidence to make an arrest on someone. 

Since her remains were found in the same area where Belinda Vanlith went missing almost 20 years earlier – police suspect Timothy Crosby is a strong possibility. 

Timothy lived in St. Paul most of his life. He usually picked up hitchhikers or sex workers to abduct. His parents owned a cabin near Silver Creek where Tim had open access to bring his victims at any time. This cabin was still owned by the Crosby family in 1993. 

One documented sexual assault in December 1974, Tim took the victim to the cabin and two other nearby areas – exact locations I’m not revealing. Telling her he had killed and dismembered a girl before. That she is no different.

Martha’s remains were found within this location suggesting that it was familiar to someone. Hard to just stumble upon it for a dumping ground. 

More information in regards to how this can relate to Tim will be in the next episode. 

Though Wright County police and investigators treated Martha’s case and family with respect and dignity – the same couldn’t be said about our community and how we wrote about her. 

One gruesome headline took up a page that read,

Arm found by dog was prostitutes.

Readers write in saying “You made a moral judgment. A brutal headline that takes away the sadness. It says, “Oh, well she was a… What can you expect?

To identify her as a prostitute is to hang guilt on her and tell the reader it’s what she deserved.

While also telling the community to not be fearful. Which the women should have been. We had a serial killer in our backyards.

“It’s distressing to us that this is not being taken seriously – and seriously to us means more than “we’re working on it.”’

Evelina Giobbe from Whisper

Whisper is a national organization based in St. Paul. It educates the public about prostitution and tries to help women escape from the sex industry.

Giobbe is a survivor of sex work, the leader of the organization and was an advocate for Martha along with several other women who lived and died in similar ways in the 1990’s. 

Martha’s case drew lots of media and tv coverage in the Twin Cities with helicopter shots of the search efforts.

Just not a lot of reporting was put into the fact that Martha was one of many women to be murdered in a short amount of time. 

From the beginning of 1992 to Martha’s death in Oct. 1993, many sex workers were found dead in Minneapolis. WHISPER compiled & released a list of eight women murdered within that timeframe alone. 

Here is a quick summary of what became of those cases today – 

Two have been solved with different perpetrators. 

I couldn’t find any current or old information on victims Brenda Kuagon and May Catherine Young. So no update on the status of those cases. 

Martha’s case along with Linda Priebe, Lee Ann Blomquist, and Eden Young are still unsolved and cold from what I can tell.

Making 4 out the 8 cases still unsolved. Maybe even 2 more cases unsolved. 

WHISPER decided to release the names of these women to the newspapers in 1995 to try to raise concern; they were upset by the lack of alarm from the police and the public. Giobbe said,

“I don’t care if it’s one person or ten, someone is killing women in Minneapolis, blatantly and boldly, and is picking on the most vulnerable women.

And the public apathy is sickening. The silence is defeating.”

To understand where society was in 1993 regarding sex workers; we need to understand a very talked about woman in America at that time – Aileen Wuornos. 

Aileen while engaging in sex work along the highways in Florida shot dead seven of her male clients. Claiming she was acting in self defense. 

The reason I bring Aileen up is because society was so obsessed with her in the early ‘90’s. Especially during and after her 1992 trial. This was truly the first time mainstream media got such a brutal, intimate look into the life of a sex worker. 

While some sympathized with Aileen knowing what a traumatic, difficult upbringing she had – others couldn’t believe she could kill so many men in self defense. But it created this opening of a great conversation to be had in society.

Around the US in 1993, thousands of men were targeting sex workers specifically. 

But the media only cared to hear about the one sex worker who killed seven men. 

So imagine how hard it must have been in 1993 to get media attention or even sympathy for your loved one who fell in that path and was taken away brutally. The conversation wasn’t really there yet for Martha and every other victim mentioned in this episode. 

Giobbe appeared on an episode of the Geraldo show in March 1993 sharing her insight into the reality of sex work and how that plays into Aileen’s crimes. Giobbe took full advantage of this opening of dialogue to try to educate the public.

In 1996, serial killer Gregory Clepper, also known as the Southside Strangler was arrested in Chicago. Clepper at one time was a suspect in 15 unsolved cases against women ranging from 1990 – 1996. 

He admitted to killing up to 40 women but was charged with strangling eight women throughout Chicago’s south side. 

He’s serving 80 years for the murder of one woman – 30 year old Patricia Scott. 

Clepper lived in St. Paul from Dec. 1994 to July 1995. He was wanted on a number of rape charges around that time. 

Though the time frame in which he lived in the Twin Cities was after Martha’s murder – his relatives confirmed that he traveled back and forth from Chicago before then. Which is why the police eventually looked at him as a possible suspect. 

Wright County Sheriff Donald Hozempa cleared Clepper in the killing and dismemberment of Martha Bacon in newspapers. Saying it didn’t fit his M.O. 

Hozempa was more interested in possibly linking him with the death of Victoria Morris – who will be covered in the next episode.

After this in 1996, Martha’s case went cold – at least from the public.

In 2009, a DNA sample was taken from Martha’s parents. Martha’s remains were cremated in 1993 and no sample was ever taken. Wright County then entered Martha as a missing person in databases in case the rest of her remains are located. 

Timothy Crosby has never publicly been named a suspect in Martha’s murder though she is mentioned in his 2009 search warrant. 

Whatever became of Martha’s investigation today is unknown. 

She isn’t featured in any public database and has absolutely no digital presence, most of my information I found from going through microfilm at the Wright County Historical society. 

Also, author and friend Christine Husom, who is a national best selling author for her true crime books and also worked with Wright County police department, helped with adding her input into Martha’s case. 

Her book, “Buried in Wolf Lake” was loosely inspired by Martha’s case. It’s a case she would also love to see solved. 

So, who exactly was Martha Bacon?

Researching Martha, I felt great sadness for her and for what her family has gone through. When I was younger, a relative of mine in another state was murdered and dismembered. Its brutality is shocking. 

I tried my best to paint Martha’s case with as much dignity as she deserves. 

Martha did have a lengthy history with prostitution but she also had a family who cared for her. They had a private ceremony while requesting memorials be sent to the Humane Society or Home Free Shelter of Plymouth which is a domestic violence center Martha had been a part of. 

 Martha was unmarried and had no children. She was living with a man in Brooklyn Park for several months at the time of her death. 

Martha left her home on September 26th or 27th and met with a male friend early in the morning. She said she would meet him again after work, but she never showed up.

Martha Ann Bacon was last seen at 1:00pm on September 27th, 1993 in the area of 21st and Aldrich Av. N. Minneapolis. 

Martha was white, 5-foot-6 inches, 140 pounds, had medium length blonde hair and blue eyes. Last seen wearing blue jeans, Reebok tennis shoes and a windbreaker in North Minneapolis. 

Her remains were found in Silver Creek Township about 40 miles west from where she was last seen. 

She was also known as Marty Bacon, Lisa Bacon, or Lisa Martin. And had lived in Plymouth, Minneapolis, Michigan, and Texas. 

Anyone who has information on her homicide needs to come forward to the Wright County Police Department or Minnesota crime stoppers at

1-800-222- 8477.

I know Martha has a family who deeply cares for her. 

“We convince ourselves that women have chosen to be prostitutes and have consented to sexual exploitation so that we can distance ourselves from them.” 

Evelina Giobbe

Though others may be connected to the killings in Minneapolis, there were other body parts found and to this day, their identity is still unknown. 

This case is eerily similar to Martha’s and occurred only 3 months before Martha disappeared. And honestly – I’m very shocked this case was never spoken about publicly in the 1990’s with the other cases I talked about this episode. 

On the morning of June 12th, 1993 – a man was walking along the shore of Bone Lake in New Scandia Township and discovered what he thought was the head of a mannequin floating in the water. 

Upon realizing it was a human head he called the police.

Nothing else was found in the area. 

Her foot was later recovered on the bank of Pig’s eye lake approx. 20 miles southwest in St. Paul.

An extensive search yielded no other clues nor body parts. 

To this day, this woman has never been identified. 

Nine days after the discovery of her head and foot, Washington County received a call.

A man on the other end said he killed the woman and left her body under Mendota Bridge near the Minnesota River. 

The police searched this area for 8 hours before the river began flooding and they were forced to call off the search. 

The man called back and said the woman is from Wisconsin and that he was very sorry the police did not find the rest of her.

He called on a tip line and police hoped he would call back with a more specific location. He never did.

Police say the tip sounded real and it was the only tip they got.

This case is referred to as the Bone Lake Jane Doe. In 2022, her case was submitted to the DNA Doe Project in hopes to find her identity. 

She was between the ages of 30 to 65 years old. She had dark brown, spikey hair and brown eyes. 

Ears were tripled pierced though she was not wearing jewelry. Had on red polish on two toenails. 

If you have any information regarding the Bone lake Jane Doe, please contact the Ramsey County Medical Examiner Office at 651-266-1700.

While doing my research into the cases from WHISPER back in 1994, one case stood out that it is still unsolved today. The case of Eden Young 1992. Her body was found in Washington County – the same as Bone Lake Jane Doe. 

Unfortunately not much is known about Martha Bacon. Or any victim I’ve mentioned in this episode – and there were many. And a majority are still unsolved.

If anyone has information regarding Martha Bacon or Bone lake Jane Doe please come forward. I would love to learn more about Martha and her story. And I would love for a family to find their missing loved one. 

Next episode I’ll be covering the homicide of Victoria Morris and the official dive into the life and crimes of Timothy Crosby.

Also, follow on social media to stay connected.

Thank you for listening. Stay safe, everyone. 

Sources:

• Police reports. 
• Star Tribune and the St. Cloud Times.
• Wright County Historical Society microfilm

Audio clips used:

• The Geraldo Show – Evelina Giobbe interview 1993