Gene Meyer found guilty of sexually assaulting, murdering Betty Rolf in 1988
APPLETON – A Fox Valley murder that has remained unsolved for over three decades has finally ended in a conviction.
A jury found Gene Meyer, 68, guilty of the 1988 sexual assault and murder of Betty Rolf after a one-week trial. The 12-person jury deliberated for about three hours, coming to a decision just before 1:50 p.m. Tuesday.
Members of Rolf's family were emotional after the verdict, and some gave hugs to the prosecutors.
Meyer showed no visible emotion to the jury's verdict, and rarely moved his gaze from the judge's bench.
On Nov. 6, 1988, Rolf left for work early in the morning, walking from her home in the 1300 block of West Spencer Street to Country Aire Banquet Room, 2311 W. Spencer St., in the town of Grand Chute. Rolf did laundry at the banquet hall.
Rolf never showed up for work that day. Her family called police the next morning, and soon after police found her body under the Spencer Street bridge, behind a concrete abutment by the railroad tracks.
Rolf was partially clothed, and had been beaten and strangled with the strap of her purse.
The investigation lasted for decades, and was periodically revisited as DNA technology advanced over the years. Then, in 2019, investigators began conducting a familial DNA search, which ultimately identified Meyer as the primary suspect. He was arrested in Washington in 2022, where he had been living since after the homicide, and extradited to Wisconsin.
During the trial, prosecutors argued that Meyer attacked Rolf as she walked over the Spencer Street bridge that day, sexually assaulting and then killing her. They said Meyer then fled Wisconsin, and never voluntarily returned to the state again.
Meyer's attorneys argue the DNA evidence only shows Rolf and Meyer had sexual contact at some point in the days before her death, not that it was a sexual assault. They say Rolf was actually killed by her husband, who was physically and emotionally abusive, according to testimony from numerous witnesses.
Attorneys recap trial evidence in closing arguments
Tuesday morning began with jury instructions and closing arguments.
Outagamie County Deputy District Attorney Nicholas Grode gave the prosecution's closing argument. He presented a Powerpoint that went through each of the elements of the two crimes — first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with use of a dangerous weapon — and reviewed testimony and evidence from the trial pointing to Meyer's guilt.
Grode recapped evidence an expert testified about earlier in the trial — that the odds are "25 octillion to one" that Meyer's DNA was found on a swab from Rolf's body and on the gloves she wore when her body was found.
Despite the defense's argument that there's no evidence Rolf was raped, Grode argued the injuries on Rolf's body and evidence at the scene is consistent with being sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.
Grode also said there is no evidence Rolf was ever unfaithful to her husband, but if she were to have had consensual sex with someone, it would be extremely unlikely Rolf would have chosen Meyer, who was 30 years her junior and the same age as her oldest son, and homeless at that time.
"When you go back in the jury room, don't check your common sense at the door," Grode told the jury.
For the defense's closing arguments, defense attorney Jennifer Kelley claimed the prosecution was trying to play on fears by discussing Meyer's period of time living unhoused and in poverty.
"They're trying to play on your stereotype of homeless people," Kelley said.
If the prosecution's portrait of Meyer was accurate, Kelley said, it does not make sense that Meyer would have attacked Rolf without taking the contents of her purse — which included $30 in cash.
One of Rolf's friends testified that Rolf was planning to leave her abusive husband, Kelley reminded the jury. Kelley also noted that Rolf's son questioned if his father was responsible for his mother's death as recently as 2005, and Rolf's daughter at one time called her father evil.
Kelley implored the jury to reach a not guilty verdict if they have any reasonable doubt or "competing hypothesis" about Rolf's murder.
"Even if you find it's likely that Gene did it — that's still a not guilty verdict," Kelley said.
Because the prosecution has the burden to prove Meyer's guilt, prosecutors get the final word to the jury with a rebuttal argument. District Attorney Melinda Tempelis addressed the jury to dispute some of the things Kelley said in the defense's closing argument.
Tempelis clarified that she does not want the jury to reach a verdict that is influenced at all by prejudice, but that the prosecution presented evidence about Meyer's transient living situation to show what parts of the Fox Valley area he was familiar with.
She also said Rolf's husband's DNA was not found on Rolf's body and law enforcement ruled him out as a suspect.
"(Rolf's husband) was not a good man, there's no doubt about it. I'm not here to say that he was a good husband or a good father," Tempelis said.
However, she continued, there is not evidence that Rolf's husband killed her. There was, however, plenty of DNA evidence of Meyer's involvement in Rolf's brutal assault.
"He says he did not know Betty ... and yet it is his DNA that are in her. It is his DNA that are on those gloves," Tempelis said.
Outagamie County Circuit Court Judge Mark Schroeder ordered a pre-sentence investigation. Meyer's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 1 p.m. July 11.
RELATED: Trial begins Monday for man accused in cold case sexual assault and murder of Betty Rolf
Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or karseneau@gannett.com. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: Gene Meyer found guilty of 1988 sexual assault, murder of Betty Rolf
