Harold Schroetter missing 2009

Harold Schroetter went missing from his residence in Falcon Heights, MN on 26 February 2009. He was a postal worker in St. Paul and had never missed work for unexplained reasons before his disappearance. Harold was in the process of ending his relationship with his live-in girlfriend and changing the beneficiaries of his estate at the time of his disappearance. He was also excited to recently find out he was to become a grandfather. Authorities located Schroetter’s red Chrysler under suspicious circumstances in the area of Arlington Ave, and Jackson St. in St. Paul on March 1, 2009.

Authorities believed foul play was involved in his disappearance and he is believed to be deceased. Blood from Schroetter was found in the trunk of his girlfriend’s car, a white Chrysler 300. A new trunk liner had been purchased and replaced shortly after his disappearance.

This case has been designated by the Spotlight on Crime Fund of the Minnesota Department of Public Safety for a $50,000 reward. The reward of $50,000 is separate from any reward offered to be paid by Crime Stoppers of Minnesota, which is an offer of up to $1,000 for information submitted through the Crime Stoppers website.

Crime Stoppers of Minnesotan 800-222-8477
Or submit a tip online

Judge declares man ‘murdered,’ but police seek more evidence for charges
StarTribune By Joy Powell Star Tribune | March 18, 2013 — 1:09pm

Despite probate ruling, police still seek evidence against the girlfriend of a St. Paul postal carrier who vanished in 2009.

Four years after the postal carrier and Navy veteran Harold “Hal” Schroetter vanished, a Ramsey County probate judge has declared the Falcon Heights man dead — murdered on his way to his estate attorney’s office to remove his estranged girlfriend as beneficiary.

As with four metro women slain recently trying to leave relationships, Schroetter, 57, was kicking out his girlfriend. His body hasn’t been found.

But that hasn’t deterred investigators and police from pursuing leads to answer the question of what happened to him.

Investigators say the motive was an inheritance worth as much as $750,000. Ramsey County Probate Judge David Higgs recently blocked the girlfriend, Jacqueline “Jackie” Dubay of St. Paul, from collecting insurance or other benefits from the death.

“By a preponderance of the evidence, the court has determined that Jacqueline Dubay intentionally and feloniously murdered Decedent,” Higgs wrote in probate findings and conclusions filed Jan. 31.

Even though the civil probate court concluded that Dubay, 50, is responsible for Schroetter’s slaying, she hasn’t been charged in criminal court, which requires more evidence.

Dubay did not return calls seeking comment.

“I would like to see this case prosecuted because that would give closure to the family and hopefully bring the person who’s responsible for the crime to justice,” Ramsey County Attorney John Choi said. “But we need more evidence in the Schroetter case.”

A $50,000 reward is still being offered for information leading to an arrest and a conviction in the case.

“The investigators and the prosecution have a strong suspicion about who committed this murder, but the reality is that we have to prove this case beyond a reasonable doubt,” Choi said. “And we know through past experience that obtaining a conviction when you don’t have a body raises a whole host of issues in terms of probability.”

The Schroetter case differs from that of Kira Trevino, who was last seen on Feb. 21. Her body hasn’t been found, either, but authorities did find “copious” amounts of her blood in her St. Paul home — enough to charge her husband, Jeffery D. Trevino, with second-degree murder. “In the Schroetter case, you don’t have a lot of blood and there’s potential for an explanation of a number of things,” Choi said. “We just keep plugging away.”

What do siblings know?

Investigators want to talk with anyone who spoke with or saw Jackie Dubay or her brother, Jay Dubay, in late February 2009.

Jay Dubay, 44, of Lake Park, Minn., allegedly replaced a liner in his sister’s trunk a week after Schroetter disappeared. Schroetter’s blood was found elsewhere in the trunk, said St. Anthony Police detective Tim Briski and agent Mike Wold of the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Cold Case Unit.

The investigators say that the siblings are lying for each other and that they declined polygraph exams.

Investigators, St. Anthony Police Chief John Ohl and probate papers say Schroetter was preparing to boot Dubay and her three daughters from his house in the 1300 block of W. Larpenteur Avenue.

Schroetter was worried, he confided to his estate attorney during a phone call on Sunday, Feb. 22, 2009. He set up an appointment with her for his day off, Feb. 26, 2009, to change beneficiaries and get a notice of eviction for Dubay.

“He told her that he had mentioned to Jackie that he was going to change his beneficiaries and she made a veiled threat that ‘You better think twice about doing that,’  ” Briski said. “He wanted to get it on record in case something happened; he wanted her to know.”

Schroetter had caught Dubay using his credit card, Briski added.

Schroetter had told post office co-workers that he was breaking off with Dubay and that she had threatened to frame him on bogus child-porn charges, investigators and a co-worker said.

On the last weekend he was seen alive, Schroetter saw his son, Nick Schroetter, 32, and gave him some personal items. He told his son he was changing his will and beneficiaries and mentioned he’d been threatened, but downplayed it.

When he missed his Thursday morning appointment with St. Paul attorney Laura Hage, she spent the day trying to reach him on his cellphone.

The next day, Hage called his house. Dubay answered. She said Schroetter wasn’t there. The attorney told her to report him missing or she would. Dubay called the police.

“She claims that she slept in the basement that night and heard him up in the kitchen getting ready at 6 a.m. and then he left,” Briske said. “She had told us that he had planned on doing some northern Minnesota casino junket, and she assumed that he was gone doing that.”

His car, however, was seen that afternoon in his driveway, one of many inconsistencies that investigators noted.

Finding his car

Co-workers knew something was wrong when Schroetter didn’t return after his day off. “He never missed a day,” Briski said. “He was ex-military, always on time.”

On the evening of March 1, 2009, police found Schroetter’s car a couple blocks from the Post Office branch on Arlington Avenue near Rice Street where he worked. The red Chrysler Crossfire was left with its doors unlocked — something his family said he wouldn’t do — in a lot on Jackson Street at Timberlake Road.

Investigators want to talk with anyone who saw such a vehicle in that area or who saw a white Chrysler 300, the model of car driven by Jackie Dubay.

On March 5, 2009, Jay Dubay picked up a $252 trunk liner from a car dealer, replacing one in Jackie’s car days before a police search, Wold and Briski said. Two spots of Schroetter’s blood remained in the scrubbed trunk, they said.

Wold said that Jackie Dubay gave a “lame” excuse that Schroeder cut himself while changing lights but that one blood spot was deep inside the trunk.

From around Feb 26 until March 5, 2009, when St. Anthony police interviewed them, the siblings exchanged 250 to 300 texts and numerous calls, but apparently didn’t text before or after that, Wold said.

Jay Dubay did not return a reporter’s calls.

Nick Schroetter and his mother, Bonnie Schroetter, who divorced Hal in 2000, pray for a break in the case.

“It’s an open wound,” Bonnie Schroetter said, adding that Hal deserves a military burial at Fort Snelling. “And it can’t close because you know that they’re out there, and they need to be held accountable.”

Cold Case Revisited: Missing Mail Carrier Harold Schroetter
WCCO April 26, 2011 at 6:45 pm

FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. (WCCO) — As Caroline Lowe prepares to start a new adventure at KSBY in California, she’s spending the next couple of weeks revisiting cold cases she’s profiled over the past several decades as a crime reporter for WCCO.

Lowe keeps a wall of photos of the victims next to her desk so she’ll never forget them. When she clears out her desk for the last time, Lowe said she’ll put the photos in an album to take with her to California.

Many of the victims’ relatives have contacted her in recent days and before she departs, Lowe will be sharing their stories.

It’s been more than two years since Harold Schroetter left his Falcon Heights home on a February morning. Schroetter, who was 57 years old, has not been seen since and police suspect foul play. A woman who lived with the postal carrier reported him missing.

Several days after he disappeared, Schroetter’s car was found near Jackson Street and Arlington Avenue in St. Paul. His blood was found in the trunk of his roommate’s car.

His family and police believe he was murdered. His son would like a chance to bury his dad.

“I know it would mean a lot to my dad because he served his country, he was very proud of that, to be able to actually be buried out at Fort Snelling, which is what his plan was,” said Schroetter’s son Nicholas. “He wanted to have a proper military funeral and everything that was due to him for his 20 years of service. It’s partly for me but a lot also for what I knew that he wanted and what he has a right to.”

Investigators have suspected foul play almost from the beginning.

“They need to be held accountable,” said Schroeder’s former wife, Bonnie. “I still think someone out there knows something and that someone will come forward, do the right thing.”

Spotlight on Crime has posted a $50,000 reward to help solve the crime.

Anyone with information on what happened to Schroetter should contact St. Anthony Police at 612-782-3350 or the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension at 651-793-7000.

Harold Schroetter
Missing Veterans Published February 26, 2009 · Updated January 7, 2018

Read more: http://www.missingveterans.com/2009/harold-schroetter/

Harold “Hal” Schroetter is a U.S. Navy Veteran who went missing from Falcon Heights, Minnesota on the morning of February 26, 2009. Harold Schroetter’s car, a red 2004 Chrysler Crossfire was found abandoned in St. Paul, Minnesota on March 1, 2009.

According to a 2013 news report, a Ramsey County probate judge has declared Harold Schroetter dead and said that he was murdered by his then estranged girlfriend, Jacqueline “Jackie” Dubay, as he was on his way to his estate attorney’s office to remove Jackie as the beneficiary to his life insurance.

Investigators say the motive was an inheritance worth as much as $750,000. Even though the civil probate court concluded that Dubay, 50, is responsible for Harold Schroetter’s slaying, she hasn’t been charged in criminal court, which requires more evidence.

Harold Schroetter is 56 years old as of the date he went missing in February 2009. Harold Schroetter is described as a white male standing 5 feet 10 inches tall and weighing approximately 170 pounds. Harold Schroetter has brown hair, hazel eyes, and scars on his chest. Harold Schroetter was last seen wearing a brown leather jacket, red sweater, blue jeans, brown shoe-boots, and prescription glasses. If you have any information about the whereabouts of Harold Schroetter, contact the St. Anthony Park Police at 612-782-3350 reference case #09001493. (NamUs MP # 5287)

Jacqueline M. DuBAY, 52

“Jackie” life-long resident of St Paul, Mn died suddenly on Thursday, June 18, 2015 at the age of 52. Jackie is survived by her loving daughters Mallory, Allison & Kalley, brothers Joseph (Pam), John (Betsy), Jimmy (Marilyn), Jeffrey (Doreen) & Jay, sister Janice (Dennis) along with many nieces & nephews. Jackie is preceded in death by her mother Ruth, father James, brother Jerome & husband Ed Leithauser.

After high school Jackie worked for Gannon’s Restaurant followed by a long career with the USPS. Jackie spent the last several years as a volunteer for the Department of Indian Work where she thrived helping others less fortunate. She was especially fond of the elders who in turn loved working with her. Jackie truly loved her girls, they meant the world to her!

Devoted & supportive, she was always happy to be the den mother to all their friends with kindness, fun & a lot of patience! She had a sparkle in her eye, a steadfast smile & was always accepting of others.

A visitation will be held on Wednesday, June 24th from 2:00 PM – 5:00 PM to be followed with a meal & memorial service at the Department of Indian Work, 1671 Summit Avenue, St Paul, MN. Memorials to Jackie’s daughters preferred.

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