Kristin Joy Diede (born Valarie Goebel) as a child
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What happened to Victor Newberry of Glen Ullin ND, found dead next to his vehicle in 2014?
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Trooper Meidinger – One of the last to see them
I was busy doing paperwork and these two individuals came into the office . . .
The following interview is an excerpt that took place on Friday September 25th, 2015 between myself and retired North Dakota State Trooper Wes Meidinger. This interview will be published in print in its entirety at a later date.
Twenty-two years ago Robert Anderson and Kristin Diede disappeared from Wishek, ND. Since then, some of the once clean and original factual details regarding the disappearance of Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson have been kicked around a bit. More than kicked around in some cases. In some instances, the original hard facts have been beaten up and embellished and are now instead tagged with faulty jagged edges. An impatient and careless researcher can easily get nicked when haphazardly grasping for any rusty clue that comes along. This creates a dilemma. To not follow every and any lead is to risk overlooking the truth. The downside? Hours (or perhaps years) of looking in the wrong places, following decomposed clues and walking down dead-end paths.
One such detail concerns the last confirmed sightings of Robert Anderson and Kristin Diede. More precisely, there has been some cluttered information regarding an interaction with a North Dakota State Trooper who was said to be one of the last known persons to have interacted with Diede and Anderson. While some have questioned if the event occurred at all, there has also been erroneous information circulating regarding the identity and current whereabouts of this trooper. On top of that, there is speculation about what that meeting was all about and what exactly transpired.
Before this particular detail gets abused and contaminated any further, I felt it was important to secure the facts first hand from the Trooper himself. I finally tracked him down after pursuing a few false leads. He is alive and well and his name is Wes Meidinger.
For twenty-five years, seventeen of which were spent in the Wishek area, Wes Meidinger served as a North Dakota State Trooper. Meidinger is the trooper who met Kristin and Robert on the last day they were seen.
Now retired from the force, Trooper Meidinger met with me at his home in Bismarck, North Dakota on the evening of Friday Sept 25th, 2015.
As he recounts events in a no nonsense and matter of fact fashion, Meidinger broadcasts an element of calm stability. After having met him it is not at all difficult to imagine how he served the North Dakota public with a steady demeanor. A demeanor which conveys clearly that he has little to fear, and nothing to hide.
While modern day technology (and the crime that goes with it) has transformed the console of a squad car into something that resembles a lunar landing module, Trooper Meidinger recalled an era of law enforcement that is no longer with us. It was an era when a state trooper had only three radio channels to maneuver and when the flashing light overhead was confined to “off”, “yellow” or “red”.
The following is his account of that Sunday afternoon on August 15th, 1993, the day he became one of the last known persons to have seen or spoken with Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson.
MEIDINGER – It was a Sunday afternoon. It was a weekend I was working. And I had a small office in the Wishek Police department. I was busy doing paperwork and these two individuals came into the office and were inquiring about validity of court orders pertaining to child custody and things of that nature. Now, whether they had a court order or were looking to get one I don’t know. They never showed me a court order but it sounded to me like they had one. And we just spoke briefly and I referred them to the Logan County State Attorney Gerald Kuhn. Whether they contacted? They did not contact him in my presence, whether they did that afterwards? Of course that was in the days before cell phones so they would have had to go to a landline somewhere if they did. Like I say a brief encounter uh Anderson didn’t say a whole lot.
wolner – Ok I was going to ask you about that if he spoke.
MEIDINGER – He didn’t say a lot. Now they didn’t seem like they were agitated or really antagonistic. Nothing indicated that, although I got a sense that there was some, what would you call it? There was some turmoil regarding the custody of the kids. And from what I could gather her intention was to take them with her to Minnesota. Minneapolis area somewhere, suburb I don’t know. It was their intent, as far as I know, to go out to the Diede farm and take them with them.
wolner – And that’s Alvin and Laura Diede’s farm outside of Wishek?
MEIDINGER – Yes. They left. We probably spoke 15 minutes maybe. And I didn’t get to hear anything more about that until, I believe, the Anderson Family started inquiring about who, what, where and what was going on. How much later I don’t know.
wolner – I know the first articles to appear in the Wishek Star Newspaper were published in 1996. Could it have been a full 3 years later?
MEIDINGER – I would have thought it was sooner than that but that was the next indication that there was something wrong. From there, the investigation included the Logan County Sheriff Steve Engelhardt and the Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent, I’m thinking it was Mike Quinn and I did not participate in that investigation. Those folks are experts on documentation and things like that.
Whether I documented the occurrence I honestly don’t know, if I did it would be in the Jamestown office, I’m not sure, just something brief. Being as it was all verbal without any specific interaction I doubt there is an incident report.
wolner – Did they ever ask you to accompany them or anything like that?
MEIDINGER – No they didn’t.
wolner – Did you happen to see what vehicle they were driving?
MEIDINGER – The office was in a basement, no. I did not see the type of vehicle.
wolner – As far as you know then there was just the two of them, nobody else outside or with them?
MEIDINGER – Yes, as far as I know there was just two of them, they were the only ones that came into the office.
I then asked Trooper Meidinger if Robert and Kristin seemed to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
MEIDINGER – There was no indication that they were intoxicated or anything like that.
We need to thank Trooper Wes Meidinger for his contribution to the continued search for Robert Michael Anderson and Kristin Joy Diede.
You can also contribute! If you have any information pertaining to this case contact the Logan County Sheriff, the North Dakota Bureau of Investigation or send us an email at unsufferus@gmail.com
You can also help by sharing this webpage on social media, Facebook, Twitter etc.
Local business post Bob and Kristin missing persons flyer.
Many thank to all the businesses in Napoleon, Wishek, Ashely and Ellendale who eagerly agreed to post the flyer for Bob and Kristin last weekend
. You can download, print and post your own poster by clicking Reward Flyer Download
See Rare TV NEWS COVERAGE!
Oct 29, 2015
After dropping her son and daughter off at relatives in Wishek, North Dakota, in 1993, Kristin Diede vanished with her friend Robert Anderson. ND investigators suspect foul play.
First broadcast almost 20 years ago to this day, this seems to be the only TV news coverage of this case. Broadcast in October 0f 1995 by WCCO TV in Minnesota. Click the > Play button. There are a few seconds of static before the video starts.
No arrests have ever been made in this case. Kristin Joy Diede (born Valeri Goebel) and Robert Michael Anderson's bodies have never been found. There have never been any confirmed sightings of them. If you have any information about this case, contact someone: This website. unsufferus@gmail.com Logan County Sheriff's Department 701-754-2495, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 1-800-472-2185 or 701-328-5500
WISHEK NATIVE LODGED NEAR ABANDONED VEHICLE
October 27th, 2015
A native of Wishek who was questioned by investigators in the disappearance of Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson, may have lodged near Anderson’s abandoned vehicle.
Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson disappeared from Wishek, ND, in 1993.
A few days later, the van they had been travelling in was found abandoned
100 miles away, in Aberdeen, South Dakota. See full case description here.
According to Chase Anderson, Robert Anderson’s son, investigators told him in 2008 that a native of Wishek, North Dakota, who was involved in an ongoing conflict with Kristin Diede, spent the evening of August 15th or August 16th, 1993 at the Ward Hotel in Aberdeen. The hotel is just one block from the rail road station parking lot where Robert Anderson’s 1979 Dodge van was abandoned. Chase Anderson states that investigators believed in 2008 that, although the vehicle was not reported as abandoned until August 20th 1993, the vehicle may have been observed at that location as early as August 16th by rail road employees.
The native of Wishek stayed at the Ward Hotel on the night of August 15th or August 16th, Chase Anderson recollects. Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson were last seen alive in Wishek on August 15th, 1993.
Chase Anderson also recalls being told that the individual, who was closely associated with Mrs Diede, had been questioned early on about Diede and Anderson’s disappearance and that when investigators asked why a person would drive 100 miles to stay in Aberdeen at that time, the individual said ‘to drink beer and see some strippers.’
When contacted by phone on October 23, 2015, Mark Sayler, Senior Agent at the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation stated that he is unable to comment on this story because the criminal case is still active and ongoing. However, other sources close to the investigation corroborated Anderson’s statement, although they could not confirm the name of the hotel.
When reached by phone this week however, three former employees of the Ward Hotel were unable to recall any story about investigators looking into a hotel guest in the 1993 to 1995 era.
More than two decades after investigators first looked into the matter, a previous owner and manager of the hotel, Sue Tonner, has no recollection of law enforcement inquiring about any lodger. Mrs Tonner noted however that she had employed several college students to manage the front desk at that time, and it is possible investigators spoke with one of those members of her staff and not with her.
A hotel employee, Bonnie Weber, who occasionally worked the front desk, has no recollection of any investigators looking into the matter. Nor had she ever heard such a story from co-workers.
When I reached him by phone, another previous employee of the hotel, David Swain of Aberdeen, offered some insight into the Ward Hotel back in that era, before the building was converted into condominiums.
“I started working there in eighty-two and worked there until ninety-seven. I worked the front desk at first and then in 1987 I started tending bar. Then I managed the bar from 1990 to 1997.
I met a lot of characters. That was quite a hotel to work in. You got such a variety of people at that place. It was still a halfway decent hotel. We had the bankruptcy judge that would stay there. The bus driver, that was back when the buses would still came through Aberdeen. We had a variety of people. We had dancers because they worked down town. Strippers.
You never knew who would walk in. We had the famous trial attorney Gerry Spence. He came into town once, they had moved a trial to Aberdeen and he got someone off on a murder charge. He rented out the whole fifth floor for his crew.”
“So it wasn’t like they were the worst rooms. They were just small. The hotel was built in 1927. There were rooms you could rent without a bathroom and you could get those for like ten bucks. There were all sorts of rooms for all sorts of people. A suite was only 40 bucks.”
I asked David Swain what the guest register and check-in process looked during the time when he worked front desk.
“We had an index card system. When you working the desk, you would write all their information on it and they had like a file turnstile that had the room number on it and you put the card in there so you knew which rooms were occupied. So I suppose they never kept the cards for too long. The only one I ever kept was – I checked in Bob Allison, he was a center- fielder for the Minnesota Twins in the 1960’s. So I kept his card as a souvenir. I should have kept Gerry Spence’s card but I didn’t know who he was really at the time.”
When asked if he remembered if guests were required to show an ID in order to check in, David Swain says: “You know, I think they wrote their name down and that was it. They could have written down anything.”
Kristin Joy Diede and Robert Michael Anderson were never witnessed in Aberdeen together. The fact that they were last seen in Wishek, ND, and the fact that law enforcement believe that they were victims of homicide, would possibly indicate that the van was placed in Aberdeen by the person who murdered Kristin and Robert. If that drive originated in the Wishek area, how did the driver of the van get back to Wishek? Did a killer have an accomplice or co-conspirator?
Did you work at the Ward hotel in 1993? Contact us!
Please help investigators solve this case by sharing this on Facebook and Twitter.
No arrests have ever been made in this case. Kristin Joy Diede (born Valeri Goebel) and Robert Michael Anderson's bodies have never been found. There have never been any confirmed sightings of them. If you have any information about this case, contact someone: This website. unsufferus@gmail.com Logan County Sheriff's Department 701-754-2495, North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation at 1-800-472-2185 or 701-328-5500 More * Google map of walk from Ward Hotel to Train Depot * Google map of drive from Wishek to Aberdeen. * One of the last sightings of Kristin and Robert * Interview with Robert's son, Chase Anderson. * The Cold, Frozen voices of Kristin Diede and Robert Anderson * Check back soon to see the only TV news coverage on this case which was broadcast in 1995
Seeking Victor Larson!
We would be interested in speaking with a gentlemen named Victor Larson. Victor was one of Kristin Diede’s neighbors in Bloomington at the time of her and Robert Anderson’s disappearance.
Kristin may have telephoned Victor in Bloomington from Wishek just before she went missing.
We would very much like to come into contact with Victor. If you know Victor Larson please contact us.
Bismarck Tribune runs Bob & Kristin front page
I previously wrote that about the uncanny lack of media coverage in North Dakota regarding this case.
The Bismarck Tribune ran its first story about the case last Sunday.
It was front page news on a Sunday. Read it Here
Kristin Joy Diede & Robert Michael Anderson – Bismarck Tribune
Authorities investigating human bone found in Bismarck river
This morning, the associated press ticker revealed the following:
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Authorities are investigating a human jaw bone found in the Missouri River in Bismarck.
Police say a man wading in the river near a boat landing found the bone Sunday when he stepped on it. The man notified authorities.
Police sent the bone to the state medical examiner, who determined it’s a human bone. A DNA analysis will now be done to try to determine its origin.
We only share this here and now because of the fact that we just days ago announced a $5000 reward for anyone who can lead authorties to the remains of Kristin and Bob.
In 1996, Sandra Mary Jacobson dissapeared in Bismarck, ND. According to information found here, her car was found abandonded the next day at Centennial Beach near the Missouri River.
$ 5000 dollar reward offered
September 20, 2016 – Bismarck, North Dakota
Today, kristinjoydiede.com in association with the family members of Robert Michael Anderson, announced a new reward in the amount of five thousand dollars for anyone who successfully discovers human remains belonging to either Kristin Joy Diede or Robert Anderson.
Click here for full information.
Or
Print your own flyer to put up in your area. Reward Flyer Download
Heather Found – ‘Kristin was my neighbor in MN’
Heather has been found!
In a previous post, we expressed interest in getting in touch with any friends of Kristin Diede’s from during her time in Bloomington, Minnesota, in particular a woman named Heather.
Last night we finally received the phone call we have been waiting for and were able to speak to not just Heather, but also an additional friend and neighbor of Kristins and who reported Kristin as missing.
We will be interviewing these individuals soon, both of whom have explicit memories of Kristin’s disappearance.
Check back soon for interviews.
