Julie Ann Grubaugh was a woman who disappeared from Arizona on November 2, 1986. She was found murdered in April 1988 but was identified in November 2013.
Biography[]
Julie Grubaugh was born on May 7, 1961, to Truman Earl Rutterbush and Marion Elizabeth Stevens in Michigan. She was the youngest of their seven children. When she was eight, her parents divorced, and her mother married René Balaen on September 12, 1969. In 1971, the family moved from Detroit to Brutus, Michigan.
On October 6, 1980, Julie married Douglas Grubaugh in Emmet County, Michigan. They had two children, Dennis and Karen. Shortly before 1986, the couple had divorced but later reconciled.
Case[]
Julie had moved from Michigan to Arizona with Douglas in 1985 for a fresh start. The two children were left with their maternal grandparents. On November 2, 1986, Douglas stated he dropped her off at the downtown Greyhound bus station at 550 East Washington Street, the last time he saw her. She was reported missing by her out-of-state family on November 27, 1986. She had left some of her belongings at work, kept in regular contact with her children, and had no history of criminal behavior, drug use, or mental illness.
There were allegations of domestic violence between Douglas and Julie. Douglas remarried after her disappearance to a woman named Gloria June Kaiser but was arrested after he threatened to kill Gloria with a gun. They divorced on July 15, 1993. Also, in 1993, he was part of a group of inmates that escaped prison; he was captured two days later in Casa Grande, Arizona.
On April 18, 1988, the partial skeletal remains of a woman were found by a rabbit hunter in a remote field in Pinal County, Arizona. The area is about an hour's drive from Phoenix. The cause of death was not clear, but it was investigated as a homicide. In November 2013, DNA evidence recovered from the skeletal remains matched DNA recovered from Julie's surviving family. In the process of identification, the family was notified that despite Julie's remains being kept at the coroner's office for 25 years, all original evidence from her case, including the clothes she was found in, were not kept by the original investigators. Julie's older sister Eva crowdfunded for cremation and shipping expenses, and Julie's remains were returned to her family.
As of 2014, police did not have any suspects in the case. Douglas was questioned extensively but was not charged in connection with the case. He died on February 27, 2019.
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