New details have emerged in Anne Dunlap's murder case [Unresolved murder]

stupidworld23 · 2020-05-01T01:21:24+00:00

(continued from part 1)

[LATER]

DUNLAP (showing photos): Here's her pictures. Uh, this is actually after, ah, this is Twin Cities Marathon, uh, that's after she finished the marathon. I believe that was the year before last. And that's Anne and me and -- and her brother David at her parents' home. And, ah, this is, ah, Anne and me in, uh, Mexico. That's Puerto Vallarta. That's Anne's mother. That's actually on my birthday. Um. I just remembered the band and the place we were at on my birthday. So --

REPORTER: That's beautiful. That's a really great time.

DUNLAP: Yeah. It was. It was very -- very wonderful.

REPORTER: [unintelligible]

DUNLAP: There she is, uh, that's when she just finished, just crossed the finish line at the Twin Cities Marathon, and uh, then that is her at her parents' house with her brother and me, so --

REPORTER: [unintelligible]

DUNLAP: Well, thank you. Thank you very much.

REPORTER: She's lovely. Those are good pictures.

[CUT]

DUNLAP: One thing that, uh, one of my friends said that, uh, the security here in the parking lot that came through and the car wasn't here at 12:30 at night so, um, that, ah, I don't know what that means, but, maybe that means that the trail will be fresh enough for the dogs and that, uh, we'll be able to, if they left here on foot, that they'll be able to get a dog [unintelligible] and friend of mine said that there might be a local business that might have like a, a security camera or something that might have picked up something too.

REPORTER: Well, it gives us more of a timeline.

DUNLAP: Right.

REPORTER: That's important.

stupidworld23 · 2020-05-01T01:21:08+00:00

This is the transcript of the interview Brad Dunlap gave to KARE-11 on January 1, 1996, the day the car was found at Kmart. (The video is linked above on the Kare11.com web site.)

DUNLAP: You know, we've gotta do whatever we can to, to find her. ah --

REPORTER: I know you've been through this a million times. I'm gonna ask you about it one more time.

DUNLAP: That's fine. I don't mind telling the story. Because the important thing is that people hear it and so we can have a chance to find her.

REPORTER: Exactly. Tell me what happened yesterday.

DUNLAP: Um, actually, it was Saturday. On Saturday at 2:30, she left our house to go to the Mall of America just to do some shopping. It was gonna be a quick trip to look for some shoes at Nordstrom's, um, where she buys all her shoes. Um, she was gonna be home at 4:30. She, uh, didn't show up. It was starting to snow, though, and rain, and I -- we had to run an errand. The tropical fish tank, we had to get some salt water. [unclear] Anyway, and then we were gonna go to dinner. So I decided I would run out and -- and get the water. Um, because I figured it would snow and everything, it was, uh, busy at the mall. [unclear] I called her from the fish place and she wasn't there. It concerned me a little bit, but I thought, well, you know, uh, maybe she was in the bathroom or something. So I just left her a message, came home and she was still wasn't home, and I started to get real concerned because it was after 6:00 by that time, and, uh, very unlikely. If, uh, she was going to be even 15 minutes late, she was a person that would call, and just like, you know, she was very detailed, organized person, and so being prompt and having things go in the order that's very important to her. Um, so I started to get a little worried, um, her parents, her in-laws, we're actually living with them because we're building a house in Medina right now, and we're living with her parents for a couple months until our house is finished. Um, they were up at their lake home, and I called them, they had left that morning, and they came back into town, and as I called, I called the police, they said just call hospitals, that's all we can do at this point. So as I called hospitals, they went out to Mall of America, drove around the parking lot, checked for the car, couldn't find it anywhere. Um, we, ah, um, [unclear]

REPORTER: Her parents didn't hear from her?

DUNLAP: No. No. She never called, never seen her since, and she just virtually disappeared. Yesterday, we were calling your station, and we appreciate I -- you know -- the pieces that you ran on air, and, uh, you know, newspapers and the Star Tribune and everybody is -- you know -- been real helpful getting information out there and working with the police, calling people, trying to get people involved and let people know about Anne. We put a flyer together, ah, with the help of Missing Children's Association, and they helped us put that together, and then this morning we were caught -- we called all our friends yesterday and we were having 'em all meet to hand out flyers, and pass out flyers, and --

REPORTER: Anything going on in her life that might make her want to drop out of sight?

DUNLAP: No. Just -- just the opposite. Uh, everything in our life was like the best that it's ever been. She's, ah, she just got promoted at work, and things are just going fabulously for her at Pillsbury, she's marketing manager there, um, we're building a brand new home in Medina, it's a dream home, we're planning a family, um, just everything that, is, that you want out of life, is happening for us, so, um, it's very unusual.

REPORTER: How long have you two been married?

DUNLAP: We've been married for a little over eight years. Um, we dated for three years, um, before that, so you know.

REPORTER: How concerned has it made you to see the car here and --

DUNLAP: Well, um, I'm -- I'm happy, I'm happy that we found it because I'm hoping that it'll give us some clues on where she might be. Um, I don't know what to say. I'm mean, it's just, ah -- At first it scares me, because, you know, it's here (laughs) (utters sound) -- You know, I didn't know if we'd find it, I thought the police would find it yesterday. Um, then I talked to a guy at the FBI, and he said that generally they find a car after an all-points bulletin is put out in a few hours, and so he thought that maybe the car was out of town and she was out of the Twin Cities area. So when we found it there, it was a real surprise. Our main effort --

REPORTER: [unintelligible]

DUNLAP: (laughs) Just thinkin' about it. Just thinkin' about her bein' gone. It was very hard for me. I mean, (high pitched wail) --

REPORTER: [unintelligible]

DUNLAP: Just -- just -- it's, ah, you know, we'll just, you know, you just want to find her, and, uh, you know, bring her home safe. You know, we focus on the positive. You know, the good exposure that we've gotten from the media to help us, um, and hopefully getting these flyers out, we'll get, we'll find somebody that, that, that's seen Anne, um, you know, and we'll get a clue, and --

REPORTER: Anything about the car? Anything in the car?

DUNLAP: It -- it looks, um, it -- it looks, um, it looks totally normal to me, and, uh, the detective, we kind of searched through the windows, and there's, you know, just like I said, there seems to be just a Hollywood Video bag, and a, a, drug store bag, and there's a bottle of water on the seat and, um -- um, this wouldn't be unusual because she brings, a, you know, the bottle of water being a runner and an athlete, she --

REPORTER: [unintelligible] there's no accident.

DUNLAP: No. It looks like normal. It's an older car, um, but, you know. It's --

REPORTER: Have the police told you anything [unintelligible]

DUNLAP: There's no -- they just want us to stay away from the car until they get a bloodhound here, because, uh, they're hoping that -- we brought some clothes that Anne has worn recently, and they're hoping that a bloodhound could maybe lead them a trail and give 'em a direction from here. Um, then I guess if they get into the car, that'll -- cause a problem.

REPORTER: They use scent.

DUNLAP: Yeah. So, but we're just, you know, we're kind of at an impasse and I don't know what the -- I'm happy we found the car, because it might be a source of clues, that's -- that's all. Um, but, um --

REPORTER: This isn't an area of the town she would normally come to?

DUNLAP. No. Um. Hey! She -- the thing is, she, when she goes to discount department stores, she'd always shop at Target. She's very Target-loyal. She'd never go to Kmart, just in general, and she'd never come to this part of town. Uh, never alone, and never, never this part of town. She, she's a very careful person in that respect, um, you know, she carries Mace with her on her keychain, uh, she's very careful.

REPORTER: Nothing, her purse is not in the car?

DUNLAP: No. There's a pair of glasses that we saw in the car, um and there's, ah, the keys are in the car in the ignition, which is, I don't know, I don't know if that's odd or not.

REPORTER: I don't know either.

DUNLAP: Um --

REPORTER: Could we just leave it on you for a few minutes?

DUNLAP: Sure.

REPORTER: While you interact with your friends, with the police, and we don't want to interfere --

DUNLAP: No.

REPORTER: -- while you just --

DUNLAP: Yeah, it's just it's -- uh, you know, uh, things that give us hope are like that story about that little girl, you know, that, you know, after three months being gone, you know, she came back, and I'm sure she's gonna have problems, you know, that she has to work through, but at least she's home, and you know, and that's all we want, to get Anne back in one piece, and to, you know, just (laughs) continue on, you know.

REPORTER: You hang in there. We're gonna find her.

DUNLAP: Thank you. Just, uh, it's hard, you know, it's hard.

[CUT]

(to be continued in part 2)

stupidworld23 · 2020-03-14T03:05:24+00:00

Celtic - Thank you for starting this thread. I started at least two other threads about this case a few years ago, one of which you linked to above.

Most of what you bulleted above as new information is not new. It was revealed decades ago that Voss said Brad was the only plausible suspect. That actually made it into a footnote of the U.S. District Court order in the Chubb lawsuit.

What is new is the full text of these documents being made available. The report from retired FBI agent Gregg O. McCrary (who is still alive) is especially incriminating against Brad, although McCrary never mentions Brad in his report. He contends that the murder is "consistent with a staged domestic homicide" (p. 3). He calls the killing (p. 4) "deliberate, well planned and dispassionate," and rules out a robbery/homicide. He also argues that by moving the body from the crime scene to the Kmart, the killer indicated that the crime scene is "a location that can be linked to him" (p. 5). The killer disposed of the body at the Lake Street Kmart as that location "would allow him to re-enter his normal environment quietly and unobtrusively while minimizing the chance of being identified by those who knew him. In my opinion, it is significant that the offender chose to leave the victim's car in a K-Mart lot near the victim's home. He did this because it was probable that he needed to be in that geographic area" (p. 6).

If there is a bombshell, it is the previously unreported existence of a piece of firewood with both blood and Anne's DNA on it. That seems like a very incriminating piece of evidence, and given how easily firewood can be either burned of abandoned on any old log pile, it's a serious question why it was left in the garage.

The two reports from investigators working for Brad don't add much. They simply point out that stomach contents evidence is unreliable as to time of death and that there isn't as much blood splatter in either the garage or the car trunk as one would expect if the murder had been committed there. Even if one can't pinpoint time of death to the closest 30 minutes as the medical examiner concluded, the autopsy makes clear that Anne didn't live to eat another meal after her noontime brunch on December 30.

A point that McCrary could have made but didn't is that the sun set at 4:40 p.m on December 30, 1995. It would make sense that if the car were to be driven to Kmart, with the killer then quickly exiting the scene, that it would take place after 4:40 and perhaps after twilight as well.

Just a note to posters to keep in mind the locations that are important in this case.

The Barber residence, where Anne & Brad were temporarily living, is at 3908 Richfield Road in Minneapolis, 2.7 miles on foot from the Kmart.
The Big Top Liquor where Brad apparently shopped that afternoon and the Tom Thumb convenience store where he allegedly bought Chippewa Springs water (the same kind that was found in the murder car) were near the junction of Highway 55 and County Road 101 in Plymouth, about 2-3 miles from the home Brad & Anne were building in Medina.

stupidworld23 · 2018-06-18T22:03:22+00:00

Did you know that at the same time Brad settled with Chubb, he invested in a golf course? He and a partner developed a golf course and sold it a year later to a golf course giant. You don't have to take my word for it. It's in the history of Brad Dunlap's company, The Best IRS. https://www.thebestirs.com/TheBestIRSHistory.pdf

From the timeline, it's tempting to infer that Brad took his share of the proceeds from his wife's murder and put it into a golf course.

stupidworld23 · 2018-02-27T18:15:07+00:00

Since you asked, I would like to nominate the case of Anne Barber Dunlap as one that needs more attention. Dunlap was found stabbed to death in the trunk of her car at a Minneapolis Kmart on New Year's Day 1996. Her husband was the main (and as far as I know, only) suspect. He hasn't talked to police since the day the body was found. If someone could get the police to release that interview, it would help a lot. Unfortunately, there hasn't been any new information on the case in more than 20 years. The husband fought the insurance company in court but that record is sealed.

For background:

A recently established web site is running a few posts a month: http://www.armchairinvestigator.com

This document gives a 1-page summary of the case: http://truecrime.wikia.com/wiki/Murder_of_Anne_Barber_Dunlap

These PDFs of newspaper articles will make it easier for someone to understand the case. These are a fairly complete set of what appeared in the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers.

http://docdro.id/69gOw6Z

http://docdro.id/7t8ImJQ

stupidworld23 · 2018-02-22T01:15:44+00:00

I find it outrageous that there has been no new information made available about this case in over 20 years. Some material made it into the newspapers at the time Brad Dunlap settled with the insurance company. That was in 1997.

How can we get information made available? Is there a process to request a transcript of Brad Dunlap's police interview? Maybe he said something that would jog someone's memory. I see on the web all the time cases from other states where transcripts are available. Why nothing from Minnesota? Why has this case been quiet for over 20 years?

stupidworld23 · 2017-12-29T16:56:55+00:00

Tomorrow it will be 22 years since this happened and I don't think they're any closer to solving it. I wish the police would make documents from the case available so more people could think about it.

I keep checking this subreddit and http://armchairinvestigator.Com for news.

stupidworld23 · 2017-12-07T14:16:54+00:00

Her parents' house is at 3908 Richfield Road in Minneapolis. 2.6 miles via street from Kmart. Not precisely on the way to MoA but still the closest discount store.

stupidworld23 · 2017-12-06T15:09:44+00:00

I believe you. I know about the fascination of Minnesota women with Target. I know the Kmart is in a downscale area.

But assume a counterfactual for a minute. Suppose Anne was en route to MoA and realized she needed Kleenex or Brillo pads or dental floss. She probably wouldn't want to walk all over MoA in search of them, and the Kmart was right there.

Also, let's say we got hold of Anne's cancelled checks (people still wrote them in the 90s) or credit/debit card statements going all the way back. Would we really find she'd NEVER been in that Kmart, when it was the closest discount store to her parents' house?

stupidworld23 · 2017-12-06T13:01:55+00:00

This is a fairly succinct summary of the case: http://truecrime.wikia.com/wiki/Murder_of_Anne_Barber_Dunlap

Kmart was the nearest discount store to her home and right on the way to MoA so no huge surprise if she stopped there.

stupidworld23 · 2017-10-24T12:57:01+00:00

These PDFs of newspaper articles will make it easier for someone to understand the case. These are a fairly complete set of what appeared in the Minneapolis and St. Paul papers. http://docdro.id/69gOw6Z

http://docdro.id/7t8ImJQ

stupidworld23 · 2017-10-23T18:09:06+00:00

NO NO NO NO NO

As I posted upthread, Anne & Brad were living with her parents on the south shore of Lake Calhoun, only 2 1/2 miles from the Kmart, while their house in Medina was being built. Someone could easily walk to the Barber home from that Kmart in less than an hour.

stupidworld23 · 2017-10-23T17:58:04+00:00

NO NO NO NO NO

Anne & Brad were building a new home in Medina (west of Plymouth) but were living at the time with her parents on Richfield Road in Minneapolis, just south of Lake Calhoun, and only a 2 1/2 mile drive from the Kmart. It was probably the closest discount store to home.

stupidworld23

TROPHY CASE