On August 13, 1929, around 4:00 pm, 12-year-old Dorothy Aune was sent by her mother on an errand to the corner store at 24th Avenue South and 38th Street.
Dorothy never arrived at the store.
Her strangled and bound body was discovered at 6:30 the following morning near the railroad tracks at Hiawatha Avenue between 26th and 27th Streets by two iceman out on their rounds.
A special “homicide squad” was formed by Chief Harry C. Lindholm to investigate Dorothy’s murder. On August 23, 1929 he announced to the Minneapolis Star that the homicide unit would become a permanent department of the MPD.
Dorothy Aune’s murder was never solved. Numerous false leads were followed, persons of interest were questioned, suspects were arrested and even several confessions were made but all turned out to be false.
Photograph from the Minneapolis Star of August 16, 1929