Gene Meyer was convicted of the sexual assault and murder of Betty Rolf in 1988

APPLETON – A murder in the Fox Valley that has been unsolved for more than three decades has finally ended in a conviction.

A jury found 68-year-old Gene Meyer guilty of the sexual assault and murder of Betty Rolf in 1988 after a week-long trial. The 12-member jury deliberated for about three hours and reached its decision shortly before 1:50 p.m. Tuesday.

Members of Rolf’s family were emotional after the verdict and some hugged prosecutors.

Meyer showed no visible emotion toward the jury’s verdict and barely took his eyes off the judge’s table.

Defendant Gene Meyer, 68, is led out of court as a jury deliberates. Meyer will be arraigned on Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Outagamie County Court in Appleton, Wisconsin, on charges of first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with the use of a dangerous weapon. Gene Meyer is charged with the sexual assault and murder of a 60-year-old. Meyer was arrested in Washington about 34 years later, in 2022, after a familial DNA search in 2019 identified him as a suspect. Investigators learned that Meyer had once lived a mile from where Rolf's body was found in 1988. Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

On November 6, 1988, Rolf left for work early in the morning, walking from her home in the 1300 block of West Spencer Street to the Country Aire Banquet Room, 2311 W. Spencer St., in the town of Grand Chute. Rolf was doing laundry in the banquet hall.

Rolf never showed up for work that day. Her family called the police the next morning and shortly after, police found her body under the Spencer Street bridge, behind a concrete pillar next to the railroad tracks.

Rolf was partially clothed and was beaten and strangled with the strap of her purse.

Trial of Gene Meyer, 68, charged with first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with use of a dangerous weapon in Outagamie County Court on Tuesday, May 21, 2024 in Appleton, Wisconsin. Gene Meyer is charged with sexual assault and the murder of 60-year-old Betty Rolf in 1988. Meyer was arrested in Washington about 34 years later, in 2022, after a familial DNA search in 2019 identified him as a suspect. Investigators learned that Meyer had once lived a mile from where Rolf's body was found in 1988. Wm. Glasheen USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin

The investigation lasted decades and was periodically revisited over the years as DNA technology advanced. Then, in 2019, investigators began conducting a familial DNA search that eventually identified Meyer as the prime suspect. He was arrested in 2022 in Washington, where he had lived since the murder, and extradited to Wisconsin.

During the trial, prosecutors argued that Meyer attacked Rolf that day as she was walking across the Spencer Street Bridge, sexually assaulted her and then killed her. They said Meyer then fled Wisconsin and never voluntarily returned to the state.

Meyer’s lawyers argue that the DNA evidence only shows that Rolf and Meyer had sexual contact sometime in the days before her death, not that it was a sexual assault. According to numerous witnesses, Rolf was actually killed by her husband, who physically and emotionally abused him.

Lawyers summarize the evidence again in the closing argument

Tuesday morning began with jury instructions and closing arguments.

Outagamie County Assistant District Attorney Nicholas Grode delivered the prosecution’s closing argument. He presented a PowerPoint presentation that explained the elements of the two crimes – first-degree murder and first-degree sexual assault with the use of a dangerous weapon – and reviewed testimony and evidence from the trial that pointed to Meyer’s guilt.

Grode summarized the evidence an expert testified about at the start of the trial – that there was a “25 octillion to one” chance that Meyer’s DNA would be found on a swab of Rolf’s body and on the gloves she was wearing as hers Body was found.

Despite the defense’s argument that there was no evidence that Rolf was raped, Grode argued that the injuries on Rolf’s body and the evidence at the crime scene indicated that he had been sexually assaulted, beaten and strangled.

Grode also said there was no evidence that Rolf was ever unfaithful to her husband, but if she had had consensual sex with someone, it would be extremely unlikely that Rolf would have chosen Meyer, who is 30 years her junior and the same was old like her eldest son and was homeless at the time.

“When you go back to the jury room, don’t check your common sense at the door,” Grode told jurors.

During the defense’s closing argument, defense attorney Jennifer Kelley claimed that the prosecution tried to exploit fears by dwelling on Meyer’s time homeless and in poverty.

“You’re trying to play into your homeless stereotype,” Kelley said.

If the prosecution’s picture of Meyer is accurate, Kelley said, it makes no sense that Meyer would have attacked Rolf without taking the contents of her purse – including $30 in cash.

Kelley reminded the jury that one of Rolf’s friends testified that Rolf planned to leave her abusive husband. Kelley also noted that as recently as 2005, Rolf’s son asked whether his father was responsible for his mother’s death, and Rolf’s daughter once called her father evil.

Kelley implored the jury to return a verdict of acquittal if they have reasonable doubt or “competing hypotheses” about Rolf’s murder.

“Even if you conclude that it’s likely that Gene did it, it’s still an acquittal,” Kelley said.

Since it is the prosecution’s duty to prove Meyer’s guilt, a counterargument gives prosecutors the last word before the jury. District Attorney Melinda Tempelis addressed the jury to dispute some of Kelley’s statements in the defense’s closing argument.

Tempelis made it clear that she does not want the jury to reach a verdict influenced by bias at all, but rather that the prosecution presented evidence about Meyer’s temporary living situation to show what parts of the Fox Valley area he was familiar with .

She also said that Rolf’s husband’s DNA was not found on Rolf’s body and law enforcement had ruled him out as a suspect.

“(Rolf’s husband) was not a good man, there’s no doubt about that. I’m not here to say he was a good husband or a good father,” Tempelis said.

However, there is no evidence that Rolf’s husband killed her, she continued. However, there was ample DNA evidence of Meyer’s involvement in Rolf’s brutal attack.

“He says he didn’t know Betty… and yet it’s his DNA that’s in her. It’s his DNA that’s on these gloves,” Tempelis said.

A punishment date has not yet been set. Outagamie County District Court Judge Mark Schroeder said attorneys should check their availability after about six weeks so a pre-sentence investigation can take place.

RELATED:The trial of a man accused of the sexual assault and murder of Betty Rolf begins on Monday

RELATED:“Who would do something like that?” Murder of Betty Rolf, 60, in 1988 is being reviewed by the Outagamie County Sheriff’s Department

Contact Kelli Arseneau at 920-213-3721 or [email protected]. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter, at @ArseneauKelli.

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