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Introducing: The Unforgotten · Devil Town

0:00
Speaker 1: Hey, it's Wes, the creator of Deviltown. I have some
0:03
good news. It took a while, but I work out
0:05
in agreement with the studio that owns Deviltown so I
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can start making new episodes again. I'm hoping we'll be
0:12
back soon. In the meantime, I want to tell you
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about the other podcast I produce, called The Unforgotten. Every
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season is a deep dive into a different case that
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we can't stop thinking about. Here's the first episode of
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season three. Give it a listen, and then head on
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over to The Unforgotten wherever you listen to podcasts to
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get the whole story.
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Speaker 2: In October twenty twenty, Kenny Hart, an investigation sergeant with
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the Benetia Police Department, sat alone in his office thinking
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about what to say. Benetia is a town of about
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thirty thousand on the northern outskirts of the San Francisco
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Bay Area, about a forty mile drive from the Golden
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Gate Bridge. In twenty six years as a cop, Kenny
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had seen it all, homicides, violent, He had patrol duty,
1:02
a stint with a corner's office, and with a sheriff's department.
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He was even pulled in on tips related to the
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infamous Zodiac killings, and during his career he had made
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more than his fair share of death notifications, but he
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wasn't sure any of that prepared him for the call
1:19
he was about to make.
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Speaker 3: I've never delivered this kind of notification, so I'm about
1:24
to change a family's life forever. I had to prepare
1:29
what questions I was going to get asked, and I
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had a whole bunch of questions. My head was spinning
1:33
that at that point in time, and I remember calling Paul.
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He didn't answer, so I left a voicemail, Hi, Paul,
1:43
as Kenny Hart was gonna shippy, can you give me
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a call back?
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Speaker 2: At three five, Kenny was trying to reach Paul Wolfe,
1:53
a longtime college football coach who once led programs at
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Washington State in eastern Washington. But Kenny had only known
2:01
Paul for a few months when they connected about a
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case that had captivated Kenny like few others in his career.
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Speaker 3: There was a little relief that he didn't answer, because
2:10
I don't know if I was fully ready to give
2:12
that news yet. And I'm sitting in my office just
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like wow, had my door closed because I didn't want
2:19
to talk to any of my detectives. I didn't want
2:20
to be distracted because I knew the phone was going
2:22
to ring, probably at any point in time.
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Speaker 2: Kenny tried to steady his thoughts and select his words
2:28
for when Paul called back. Forty one years earlier, in
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July of nineteen seventy nine, Paul's mother, Dolores Marie Wolf,
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vanished from her home in Woodland, California, a quiet suburb
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of Sacramento, about an hour's drive from Benetia. She was
2:45
never seen or heard from again. That's why when Paul
2:49
called Kenny back, it was a conversation that neither man
2:53
will ever forget.
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Speaker 3: I think it was about five minutes later he called
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me back and he goes, hey, Kenny. The first words
3:01
out of my mouth were, Paul, we found your mom.
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Speaker 2: My name is Kyle Bonnagera.
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Speaker 4: And I'm Adam Rittenberg. This is a story about a
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woman's disappearance, but it's really the story of a search,
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a relentless pursuit by a relentless group of people.
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Speaker 5: I said, Wolf, you killed her. I know what everybody
3:32
else knows it.
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Speaker 6: We're going to start a holy rain of hell on him.
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Speaker 5: You can tell me, or was the police tomorrow? Was
3:41
she that? Or I can blow your head off.
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Speaker 4: But without finding Dolores would there ever be justice or closure?
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Would her story fade into the night, just like she
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did in nineteen seventy nine. Four decades later, one phone
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call would change everything. From Free Range Productions This is
4:03
the Unforgotten Season three, Finding Dolores Wolf, Episode one, Life
4:09
of the Party.
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Speaker 2: The first time I heard Kenny Hart tell the story
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of how he found Delores Wolf, he was in the
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same chair where he made that call to Paul. It
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was the fall of twenty twenty, and Adam Rittenberg, my
4:28
college at ESPN, and I were on zoom, completely captivated
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by what he was telling us. Kenny wore a blue
4:36
polo shirt with an embroidered badge that read Sergeant Venetia Police.
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Behind him, a corkboard showed photos of his family, one
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of him in uniform, and a black and white photo
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of a woman with dark hair and a big smile.
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Adam and I saw it immediately. This was Dolores Wolf.
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We didn't know it back then, but Dolores's story would
4:59
pull us in unlike anything we had reported on before.
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Speaker 4: Kyle and I spent the next ten months working on
5:05
a piece for ESPN dot com focused on Paul Wolf,
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the college football coach. Our story was published in August
5:12
of twenty twenty one, but Kyle and I couldn't stop
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talking about it. We were captivated by the events that
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led to Kenny's call to Paul, and by all of
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the people connected to this case. We wanted to tell
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the complete story of what happened to Dolores, her disappearance,
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the search for her, and the incredible events that occurred
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in the years that followed. We will do that over
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the course of this podcast. The center of the story
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is Woodland, California. Technically a Sacramento suburb, Woodland has always
5:43
had its own identity. Nicknamed the City of Trees in
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the nineteen thirties, it's a place where Victorian homes and
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old oaks line the streets. Woodland had some dense pockets
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of homes and businesses, but it's also surrounded by a
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vast agricultural area filled with farms and ranches where fertile
6:03
fields yield almonds, alfalfa, pistachios, and other crops. Woodland is
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where Dolores Wolf was born and raised. It's where she
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would then build a life that revolved around her four
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kids and a large family, and it's where she disappeared
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from on the night of July thirty first, nineteen seventy nine.
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To fully understand Dolores and her life in Woodland, you
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have to begin with her family's journey. They were people
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who chose to travel halfway across the world for a
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chance at a new beginning and ultimately the American dream.
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In nineteen seventeen, Frank Roacha, Doloris's father, and one of
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his brothers, left the Azores, a small chain of islands
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off the coast of Portugal, on a steamship to come
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to America. Settling in northern California, they became dairy farmers
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and grew alfalfa outside Woodland. Frank married a woman named Mary,
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and on November fourth, nineteen thirty three, they had their
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second child, naming her Dolores Marie. Here's Dolores's son, Paul.
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Speaker 7: And again she grew up not speaking English. I had
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to learn the language somewhere around that first second third grade.
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So you know, her and her siblings always got put
7:21
behind the years just because they're raised only speaking Portuguese.
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Speaker 4: De Laurus grew especially close to her youngest brother, Matthew,
7:29
who later in life became known as Slick.
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Speaker 5: She's about four or five years older than I, and
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she would read down in their comic books to me.
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We were real typed both like the joke and clown around.
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Speaker 8: I remember one time I was walking by the middle
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bathroom that most people use, and she's stand in front
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of the mirror and she knows them coming and she's
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looking in the mirror and she.
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Speaker 5: Said, you're beautiful. You're gorgeous. You may be the most
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beautiful woman in the world. I said, knock off that crap.
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Speaker 4: Several days later, Slick positioned himself in front of the
8:01
same mirror and waited for his big sister to pass by.
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Speaker 5: That did wow, you are one good looking dude.
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Speaker 8: But she's laughing and she go through on a corner.
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Did she stick to her head backer on a corner?
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And she says, is that mirror lying to you again?
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Speaker 4: Slick became an elite athlete in the area. Many thought
8:21
he could have gone pro and baseball. Dolores, meanwhile, wasn't
8:25
a natural in sports, but one time she convinced her
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brother to come to one of her basketball games.
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Speaker 5: He said, I'm the star of the team that says
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you gotta come watch me play. I go watch you play.
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H cramp. Well, I'll watch girls basketball. So I went
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out there. He never got it in a game.
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Speaker 4: Deloris grew up in the Portuguese community, but she did
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not end up with a man of Portuguese descent. She
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met Carl Wolf in the Sacramento area. He was a
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large man, maybe six foot one too, twenty two hundred
8:58
and thirty pounds, with dark hair. He had grown up
9:01
on a farm in Minnesota without running water, and had
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moved to California shortly after high school. They were married
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in nineteen fifty five at a Catholic church in Davis,
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followed by a two week honeymoon back to Minnesota. Carl
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made a good initial impression on Dolores's large family. Here's
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Delors's cousin, Tony Roache.
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Speaker 9: He was very nice as I remember him. You know,
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he'd gone the driveway, we'd be all playing basketball. He'd
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come out and play basketball with you, stuff like that.
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Speaker 6: So he was really well lived.
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Speaker 4: The couple's first child was born in nineteen fifty seven,
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and they also named him Carl, but everyone would call
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him Carly, and for the purpose of clarity in this podcast,
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so will we. Their daughter, Anna Marie, was born in
9:46
nineteen fifty nine, and as far as anyone could tell,
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Carl and Dolores Wolf were a happy couple growing a
9:52
family together. Tom was born in nineteen sixty three and
9:56
finally Paul in nineteen sixty seven. Here's Tom.
10:01
Speaker 10: She was the best mother anybody could ever want. Her
10:04
kids were always perfect, and that's how I grew up.
10:08
We were always treated with her doing nothing but being
10:12
positive and praising us and lifting us up. I truly
10:16
believed I was great because of her. She was in
10:20
the middle of everything we did. Now, before I drove,
10:24
she was going to pick us up at the end
10:26
of basketball practice or football practice or something like that.
10:31
We figured we'd wait for an hour or two before
10:34
she made it because she was always late, and we
10:37
just learned how to live with that. That was just
10:39
her nature.
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Speaker 4: This is Delaur's nephew, David.
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Speaker 11: I remember she was always smiling, always laughing, would pretty
10:48
much do anything that we wanted as kids. If we
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wanted to go to McDonald's, she was the one that
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would take us.
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Speaker 6: If I was.
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Speaker 7: Going to spend the night over there.
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Speaker 11: She was always for it, and she was always in
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a good mood, at least when I was around.
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Speaker 4: After Deloris's kids grew older, she took a job as
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a secretary to the principal of Woodland High School, and
11:12
she got to know everyone from the football team to
11:15
the faculty to the cheerleaders. Most kids went to great
11:19
lengths to avoid the principal's office, but they came to
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see Dolores. Here's Tom.
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Speaker 12: The troublemakers loved her. The troublemakers were the ones that
11:30
were in the office, and so she would deal with them. Yeah,
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some of my best friends were the troublemakers, and partially
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because they loved her and how that whole relationship was.
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Speaker 4: The laws also remained very connected to her Portuguese roots.
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She served as president of the Yolo Cabrillo Civic Club,
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which raised scholarship money for high school students of Portuguese descent,
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and made sure her children understood their heritage. Here's Paul.
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Speaker 7: We would always go to Portuguese functions, whether there are
12:02
relatives or just they always have Portuguese feet. They call
12:06
soapas feed, which is this disgusting orange soup with bread
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and I would never touch that crap. But we'd have
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all these things where we'd go to or the Cabrilla Club,
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which were local Portuguese functions that we were involved in,
12:19
and you know, you do dances and those types of
12:21
things as a child, We do all that stuff.
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Speaker 4: When we talk with members of her family, they all
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describe to Laurus the same way, warm, funny, and devoted
12:31
to her family and community. Maybe this is naive of us,
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but when we think of someone who disappears, we often
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imagine them isolated, unprotected, and vulnerable. The Laurus Wolf seem
12:45
to have a strong support system around her. But there
12:48
was another side to Dolores's life, a depressing reality she
12:51
dealt with in private and occasionally in public. This is
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her sister in law Janet.
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Speaker 13: She always had chokes. She was very humorous, but then
13:02
she had such a terrible sadness and crying over her
13:07
life with Carl Wolf.
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Speaker 4: As Janet alluded to, the warmth and laughter that defined
13:13
Dolores's life, masked something much darker. After the break, Kyle
13:18
will pull back the curtain to reveal the private torment
13:21
she endured.
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Speaker 2: No one in the family we spoke to could pinpoint
13:36
when exactly the marriage started to unravel, but Janet remembers
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episodes of Dolores crying about how Carl treated her as
13:45
far back as nineteen sixty three when they were pregnant.
13:48
At the same time, this would have been when Dolores
13:51
was pregnant with Tom, her third kid. Things got progressively
13:56
worse as Carl's business has faltered. First there was a
13:59
gas station in town, then a U haul business attached
14:03
to it. Those ventures had mixed results but ultimately failed.
14:09
As that happened, Carl started drinking more heavily, and those
14:13
on the roach of side began to worry about his behavior.
14:17
Speaker 9: My other cousin name also Carl. It was Carl Shu
14:20
that he was my mom's nephew. He worked for Carl
14:23
Wolf at the station. And Carl had went in and
14:27
he used the bathkeroot while he was working his shift,
14:30
and he noticed a hole in the wall and he
14:33
glassed up there and he just thought, oh, I'm sure
14:36
it's nothing. And he looked and he realized that you
14:39
could see right into the office of the station through
14:42
that hole.
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Speaker 2: What Tony is suggesting here is that Carl was using
14:46
the hole to act as a peeping tom.
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Speaker 9: That was clearly a sign that we're dealing with somebody
14:53
that wasn't right.
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Speaker 2: Another woman we spoke with, who's now eighty years old
14:58
and didn't want to be recorded for this podcast, told
15:01
us her husband worked part time at the gas station.
15:05
One day he saw Carl push Delores up against a
15:08
wall of the station. The man confronted Carl about his
15:11
treatment of Dolores, but was told to quote mind his
15:14
own business. He never returned to work a day for
15:18
Carl Wolf again and didn't even collect his final paycheck.
15:22
Carl just had a way of making people around him
15:24
feel uncomfortable. After the gas station failed, Carl began working
15:30
at the Farm Bureau of Insurance company in Woodland, where
15:33
he pursued his female secretary despite her clear rejection. She
15:37
would tell police that Carl parked outside her home to
15:41
watch her and that she eventually quit her job to
15:43
get away from him. Here's dozen Debbie Baker.
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Speaker 14: We would be over there and we'd spend the night,
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and we'd be sitting on the couch and watching TV,
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and the boys had gone and taken their shower bath
15:58
in Each one of the boys would come out in
16:01
their underwear. We were all kids. But then Wolf would
16:04
come out too in his underwear and it wasn't boxers,
16:08
it was you know, and I seeing a grown man
16:12
and you're a kid in him dress like that, So
16:14
he was a strange person.
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Speaker 2: On another occasion, Debbie, who was twenty three when Dolores
16:21
went missing, was getting ready to take a bath at
16:24
the wolf House, but Carl tried to make her do
16:27
it with the door open.
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Speaker 14: He tried it with me that I couldn't close the door,
16:32
and then I, I'm not going to get in the bathtub,
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and I closed the door, and I think I locked
16:39
it because I was afraid.
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Speaker 2: Debbie also remembered Carl's drinking, something she witnessed firsthand.
16:48
Speaker 14: Above the ovens. There was a cupboard in he had
16:51
vodka bottles, and he'd pull that out and just drink
16:54
straight out of the bottle.
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Speaker 2: Despite the story about the gas station incident, no one
16:59
in the family was aware of any kind of physical
17:02
abuse from Carl. If Carl was hitting Dolores, she never
17:06
told anyone, and there was no obvious signs, bruises or
17:09
anything like that. But that wasn't the case for Tom.
17:13
He took a lot of physical abuse, so.
17:16
Speaker 6: We got into fights.
17:17
Speaker 10: I didn't have much of a chance against him physically
17:21
at the time, so I didn't get very far. I
17:24
just kind of took a beating, and then towards the
17:26
end where I started to fight back. Then we got
17:28
into some pretty tough ones. And the worst one was
17:31
I got hit across the side of the head and
17:33
it popped my ear drum and had to have minor
17:37
surgery on that to fix that.
17:39
Speaker 2: When Carl and Dolores would get into arguments, it was
17:42
common for her to call her brother Slick. He would
17:45
come and get her and she would stay with him
17:47
and Janet for a while as things cooled off.
17:50
Speaker 5: Well, one time she caught me up and how long
17:53
before this has happened? To go get her? And I
17:55
went and get her, and I was believe in he.
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Speaker 6: Gethered at her.
17:59
Speaker 8: I'm going to kill you. I didn't think much of that.
18:02
I felt like I was a whimp. No, I didn't
18:05
say anything. I should have said, this has haunted me.
18:08
I should have said right then and there, if she dies,
18:11
you died, is what I should have said, But I
18:14
didn't say anything.
18:16
Speaker 2: On one occasion, Dolores stayed with Slick for about a month.
18:20
Then one day he returned home and saw her walking
18:23
out with her luggage.
18:25
Speaker 8: Said, well, are you gone, Jiff, I'm going to go home.
18:28
I say you can stay here, shif. I don't care
18:30
if you stay here for the rest of your lives,
18:33
and she says no, Let's see if I can work
18:35
it out.
18:36
Speaker 2: The pattern went on for years. Carl and Dolores would fight,
18:40
one of them would leave, They would stay away for
18:43
days or weeks, then try to reconcile. In April of
18:48
nineteen seventy nine, it had gotten so bad at home
18:51
that Dolores didn't just leave for a relative's place. She
18:55
got her own apartment in town about five miles away,
18:59
But all that seemed to do was make things worse.
19:02
There was a consensus among the family that Carl felt
19:05
so enraged by the idea of divorce and being forced
19:08
to split their marital assets that dolores is moving out
19:12
had the effect of an animal being backed into a corner.
19:17
Cousin Tony lived in the same apartment complex Dolores moved to,
19:21
and one night he received a call from his sister
19:23
Mary asking him if he could go to the Little
19:26
League fields because Carl had used an ice pick to
19:29
pop the tires on Dolores's car. Dolores's son, Carly, was
19:33
already there, but he could use an extra pair of hands.
19:37
Speaker 6: And I said, yeah, I'll help him. Tide to drive
19:40
all over. I helped him. He had to go pick
19:42
up tires and because she only had one spare and
19:45
we fixed them all. Well, we'll get ready to leave.
19:48
I go, Carl, you can go home. He's going back stampace.
19:51
I'm going. I'll follow her back, make sure she gets
19:53
to her apartment.
19:54
Speaker 2: When Tony arrived at the complex, Carl was waiting in
19:57
the parking lot.
19:59
Speaker 6: Dolaws had just pulled into her parking spot.
20:01
Speaker 9: So I put my car on part and I went
20:04
running towards her apartment. Because after she ran, he followed her.
20:07
As back when you're twenty two years old and athletic.
20:10
I beat Carl to the door, and he immediately stopped
20:13
and started backpedaling.
20:15
Speaker 6: And I said, get the you know what out of here,
20:17
wolf and you guys are crazy. I just want to
20:19
talk to him.
20:21
Speaker 2: This came just after the family suspected Carl of trying
20:24
to poison Dolores.
20:26
Speaker 9: She gave him a key to her apartment and at
20:28
one point he put kerosene in her mouth.
20:31
Speaker 6: And the reason we know it was kerosene because she
20:33
just smelled it.
20:34
Speaker 9: And then she gave it to my sister married and
20:37
she worked at the health department. She took it helps
20:38
one had to test it and it was confirmed to
20:40
be kerosene.
20:48
Speaker 2: For me, this story was something that I've always had
20:51
a tough time trying to, you know, to understand, because
20:54
even if they didn't believe Carl was going to go
20:57
through with his threats, the fact that there was Ki
21:00
seen in her milk felt like a clear attempt to
21:03
kill Dolores. I don't know how else you could look
21:05
at that and come to any other conclusion.
21:08
Speaker 4: Right, it shows a level of sophistication beyond a drunk eye,
21:11
you know, just kind of rambling and making threats, sometimes
21:15
not drunk and more direct. But this is a clear attempt,
21:18
like you said, and you know it was brazen. I mean,
21:21
it was something that I think could have been traced
21:23
back to Carl Wolf, but also maybe provides a peek
21:27
inside what he was thinking and how he was plotting
21:31
to actually have this as an option to get rid
21:35
of his wife as opposed to you know, just the
21:38
just the verbal threats against their life.
21:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's a level of premeditation to this, but I
21:43
think that's really important when you're talking about a potential
21:46
murder a disappearance. In some cases, if there's an accident,
21:50
you could try to explain it another way, But you
21:52
can't explain this If there's kirascene in milk. It was
21:54
clearly put there by a person with the intent to
21:57
do harm and to do nothing about that after it
22:00
was found. There's really not a good explanation for that
22:03
part either.
22:04
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, other than the fact that Dolores just had
22:07
this block against taking the next step going to the
22:09
police filling out a full report about all the threats
22:12
that Karl had made against her. But to me, Kyle,
22:14
it makes me again think about her family not taking
22:18
him seriously. How could you not take him seriously after
22:22
this was uncovered, that he wasn't just a drunk making threats,
22:26
that he wasn't just a guy who wanted to avoid
22:29
a divorce settlement, That this guy was actually capable of
22:33
doing something extreme, and yet nothing happened from that point.
22:39
I think that's probably the most difficult part for her family.
22:44
Speaker 2: Even after he busted Tom's eardrum, Dolores made up a
22:48
story to tell the doctors that the injury occurred when
22:50
Tom jumped into a pool. She always resisted further action
22:55
against Carl, even though she had people ready to act.
23:00
Speaker 9: Is always saying, I don't want you to tell none
23:01
of the guys because I don't want the guys to
23:03
confront Carlo.
23:05
Speaker 6: So they were always trying their best.
23:07
Speaker 9: To keep her happy because they were worried that he
23:10
would take it out on her. And yeah, at that
23:14
point it was clear that there was major problems and
23:18
that he did have girlfriends.
23:21
Speaker 6: And at that point.
23:22
Speaker 9: Is when us guys started talking and Delors would beg it.
23:28
You'd say, please, don't go beat Carl up, because I'll
23:31
be honest with you. There were people in the family
23:33
that wanted to do harm, you know, and at least
23:36
make a threat that if you go too far, this
23:40
is gonna happen. Delus begged us, never, never, never to
23:44
do it. You know, he'll never hurt me. She beg
23:48
and beg and beg, and so and every would tell
23:50
us today, out of their business, Yeah, out of their business.
23:53
Speaker 2: So we did with people like Slick or Janet or
23:57
Debbie Floris was open about the horror her husband put
24:00
her through, but she always seemed to hold on to
24:03
hope that things could get better, that things could be tolerable.
24:08
This was clearly a symptom of an abusive relationship, but
24:12
all she wanted to do was focus on raising Tom
24:15
and paul. I drove up to Woodland in February twenty
24:18
twenty five and met Debbie at her home in town.
24:22
We sat down at her kitchen table and over a
24:25
couple hours discussed Dolores's life as her pet cockateal Fred
24:29
tripped away in the background. May twenty fourth, nineteen seventy
24:34
nine is a date Debbie remembers well. It was a
24:37
Thursday night, just before her birthday, and the TV show
24:41
Barney b. Jones was on at ten pm on Thursdays.
24:45
Her older brother had just gotten out of the Navy,
24:47
and she got into an argument with him about who
24:49
had controlled the TV. That night, Debbie went to bed
24:53
and then a little bit before ten o'clock the phone.
24:56
Speaker 14: Rang and it was Dolores. Since she was very upset,
25:00
she begged me. She goes, will you come over because
25:03
Wolfe had called her, and she goes, I'm afraid he's
25:06
going to show up or something, But would you come over?
25:08
And I said yes, and I got dressed went over there.
25:11
So it was about ten or so around that time,
25:14
and we're sitting there talking and I was on the
25:17
couch and she was in a chair cause for me
25:19
and I start hearing like the jangle of keys, and
25:23
then I looked and I could see the doorknob was
25:26
moving a little bit. So when I saw the door moving,
25:29
I went over and looked through the people and I
25:31
could see it was him, and I said, Dolors isn't alone.
25:35
I'm here, and then he goes, well, let me talk
25:38
to you. I want to tell my side of the story.
25:41
And I asked Delais and she let him in. So
25:44
I opened the door let him in, and he sat
25:46
on the couch next to me, and he was just
25:48
saying that she needed to come back because her kids
25:52
needed her and all that, and I think I mentioned
25:55
divorce and he put his finger in my face, looking
25:59
at me straight in the eye, and he goes, I
26:01
will see her dead before she gets my property or
26:06
my kids. And I said, you're threatening to kill her,
26:09
and he goes yes, And I mean every word I say,
26:13
and he left shortly after. Dolores was scared to death.
26:19
Speaker 11: In the moment.
26:20
Speaker 6: Did it feel like the threat was real or did
26:21
it feel like.
26:22
Speaker 11: It was just him talking and trying scared.
26:25
Speaker 14: No, I really thought he would do it because of
26:28
the different things he was doing following her around. I
26:31
don't know how to explain it, but it was like
26:33
I could see it in his eyes.
26:35
Speaker 6: He meant it.
26:36
Speaker 14: And I'm not the best at analyzing people, but it
26:40
scared me, and you know, it worried me a lot.
26:43
And then a few days later, she moves back at
26:47
the house and she I believes that. My mom asked,
26:51
why did you go back? And she goes because he
26:54
ignores me when I'm at home. She felt safe for
26:57
being at home with him, and she missed Paul and Tom.
27:00
She was he wouldn't let her see it the kids.
27:04
Speaker 2: Debbie was one of several family members who heard Carl
27:08
make threats. There was one in particular that still haunts
27:12
Dolores's sister in law, Janet more than four decades later.
27:17
Speaker 13: When they were in dispute, Dolores told me, he's telling
27:20
me he's going to kill me, and I believe him.
27:22
I said, Oh, Dolores, you know when it's yourself, you
27:25
don't know people like that in the family. I said,
27:28
I can't believe he could actually do that. I couldn't
27:32
believe he could.
27:32
Speaker 5: Do that to her.
27:34
Speaker 13: But then he starts coming to talk to me and
27:37
bringing the boys over, and he said, I'm going to
27:40
kill her. And I said, Carl, you can't possibly mean
27:43
that I'm going to kill I said, and then she'll
27:46
be gone. You'll be in jail, and what the kids,
27:50
What are you going to do?
27:51
Speaker 6: Well?
27:51
Speaker 13: I know a way to do it and not get caught.
27:55
Speaker 2: The threats and the tension were building into the hot
27:57
summer of nineteen seventy nine. After the break, Adam will
28:01
tell you about when everything boiled over.
28:10
Speaker 4: On a Sunday afternoon in late July nineteen seventy nine,
28:14
about one hundred people gathered in the parish hall of
28:17
Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Woodland. They were there to
28:21
celebrate the fiftieth wedding anniversary of Antone and Anna de
28:25
Laurus' uncle and aunt. We tracked down some Super eight
28:29
film of the party, a three minute silent clip that
28:32
offered a rare glimpse into Dolores' World. The guests sat
28:37
at tables covered with white tablecloths and drank from styrofoam cups.
28:42
About halfway through the footage, De Laurus appeared in a
28:45
bright blue dress, a white flower in her dark hair,
28:49
standing next to her father, with cousin Tony holding his
28:52
infant daughter nearby.
28:54
Speaker 6: Well had at Blath my parents' fiftieth.
28:57
Speaker 9: Well, it gives on a hall full of Portuguese people,
28:59
basically a few, but we had a great time.
29:03
Speaker 4: The night before, Dolores had helped make sandwiches with some
29:06
of her cousins and arrived early the next morning to
29:09
set up with Debbie, who had collected some seven up
29:12
bottles for centerpieces.
29:14
Speaker 14: And we wrapped them in gold foil and made up
29:17
and we were putting daisies in there. Delors and I
29:19
were in the bathroom and the only people there were Delores,
29:23
my mom and I and my mom was in the
29:25
hall and Delorse goes, I'm going to be an opera singer.
29:28
And she starts singing like she's at the opera, and
29:31
my mom comes in and she goes, God, there are
29:35
moose calls, and we just started laughing. But see that's
29:38
how Dlorus was Delaurus couldn't make anybody laugh her personality.
29:42
You know, you could be at a funeral and Delorus
29:45
could come in and make everybody laugh.
29:48
Speaker 4: Dolores's outgoing personality was on display throughout the party. She
29:52
flashed her big, toothy smile as she enjoyed time with
29:55
her family. Woodland was the type of place at that
29:59
time where the local newspaper, the Woodland Daily Democrat, published
30:03
a brief story with a large headline and photo about
30:06
the party, listing many of the family members in attendance.
30:10
Tony remembers everyone having a good time, but off to
30:13
the side, a man stood alone, tending the bar but
30:17
not really talking to anyone. Carl Wolf didn't look like
30:21
someone who wanted to be there.
30:23
Speaker 9: The whole time Wolf bartending. They had a bar set up.
30:27
You could tell they're on the outs, you know, he's
30:30
behind the bar the whole time to Lordship Oh, mingling
30:32
with all the family, and he's behind that bar, and
30:35
he's not leaving behind that bar because I think at
30:37
this point he kind of felt.
30:38
Speaker 6: Like an outcast. So I didn't go up to the bar,
30:41
but everybody else did.
30:43
Speaker 9: But you could tell right dyl and there glance and
30:46
watching that they were on the outs. They were on
30:49
the outs big time, because yeah, I don't even know
30:52
if they even talked up. They didn't drive there together.
30:55
I know that for a fact.
30:57
Speaker 4: The party marked the celebration of Antone and ant and
31:00
their marriage, but for Dolores it provided a brief reprieve
31:04
from her own. She had moved out of the house
31:06
on the outskirts of Woodland a few months earlier, and
31:09
had only recently returned to be under the same roof
31:12
as Tom and Paul, who were then sixteen and twelve.
31:17
Carly and Anna Marie had moved out but lived nearby.
31:20
The Wolves were in marriage counseling, but the problems in
31:23
their home weren't going away. Carl had threatened to kill
31:27
her multiple times, both Dolores's face and in front of
31:31
her family. Those threats had been mostly written off as
31:34
the ramblings of a spiraling alcoholic, but Dolores expressed real concern,
31:40
especially when talking with her sister in law Janet Oh.
31:44
Speaker 6: She said it more than one. Well, she would be.
31:46
Speaker 15: Over there, staying with the two boys. They told me
31:50
he was threatened to kill her. I mean I'd stay
31:52
up at night with her. The letter talked, and that
31:55
was when it first started thought. She said to me,
31:58
if that happened, you can't care my boy. The sort
32:02
of of course, they said, that's not going to happen.
32:11
Speaker 4: Delorus was a devout Catholic and the idea of divorce
32:15
was still taboo for some in the church. Even if
32:18
she knew in her heart that her marriage was over
32:20
and expressed that to others, she felt a looming sense
32:24
of obligation to try and salvage things. Before Dolores moved
32:28
back in with Carl and the two boys, she had
32:30
actually filed for divorce, but it was something not many
32:34
people knew.
32:36
Speaker 14: We were having a good time at the party, and
32:39
later on he wanted to go home, and so she
32:42
finally went because he was demanding, and he can make
32:46
it the whole party miserable if he wanted to.
32:50
Speaker 4: Dolorus went home with Carl, but she soon returned to
32:53
Debbie's house to pick up some leftover sandwiches from the party.
32:57
Speaker 14: They had a big fight at home before she came home,
33:00
so that's why she came late. And she parked across
33:04
the street and she had her bags of sandwiches, and
33:08
I walked her to her car because she asked me
33:10
to because she was afraid. She didn't like to dart.
33:14
And I walked her to her car and I stood there.
33:17
She drove away, and I stood there and watched her
33:20
till she turned the corner. And that's the last time
33:23
I ever saw her.
33:25
Speaker 4: That was a Sunday night. Two days later, Woodland was
33:28
sweltering in the summer heat. By late afternoon, temperatures had
33:33
soared into the high nineties. In a marriage counseling session
33:37
at four point thirty at the church, the laws indicated
33:40
things with Carl were going well, but he did not agree.
33:44
Carl told the therapist that he was disappointed with the
33:46
state of their marriage, but they did not discuss the
33:49
threats he had been making or anything that made the
33:52
therapist concerned about the loris as well being. Carlin Deloris
33:56
drove separately to the counseling appointment. When it was over,
34:00
Carl swung by the grocery store to pick up bread
34:02
and milk. When he got home, he mowed the lawn.
34:07
Neither of the kids who lived at home was home
34:09
that night. Tom the sixteen year old, was away at
34:13
a week long basketball camp in the Bay Area, and
34:16
Paul was spending the night at Uncle Slick in Aunt
34:18
Janet's house celebrating his cousin David's thirteenth birthday. That left
34:24
Carl and Dolores alone. What happened that night would change
34:28
a family forever. While the details of exactly what happened
34:33
will likely never be truly understood, one thing was clear.
34:37
By the next morning, Delorus Wolf was gone.
34:44
Speaker 2: This season on Finding Dolores Wolf right.
34:47
Speaker 5: Away, I just said, my dad did it.
34:49
Speaker 6: Everything we could do to make his life for them,
34:53
we were doing it.
34:54
Speaker 7: I've been involved in a lot of crazy things, but
34:57
at the end of the day, still your father in jail.
35:01
Speaker 6: I gotta get him out of jail pretty soon. I'm
35:04
on a stance and I'm just accused of the murderer.
35:07
How on the hell we get.
35:08
Speaker 14: To this point?
35:14
Speaker 4: The Unforgotten is a Free Range production. Season three, Finding
35:18
Dolores Wolf is written and hosted by Kyle Bonagura and
35:21
me Adam Rittenberg. The story is edited and produced by
35:25
Wes Ferguson, the executive producer at Free Range. Audio editing
35:30
by Aislan Gaddis, audio production and sound design by Austin
35:33
Sissler with East Side studios in Austin, Texas. Special thanks
35:38
to ESPN