Overview

Last seen: June 29, 1984
Location: 400 block of North Second Avenue, Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin
Age: 27
Classification: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP55020
Doe Network: 4956DFWI

Main circumstances: A neighbor witnessed Cindy during a violent argument with her husband, Norman Jones. Cindy was reportedly bruised, bloody and screaming for help. Police responded, but Norman told officers that Cindy had gone out the back door. Officers did not enter the residence or locate Cindy. She was never seen or heard from again.

Norman later allegedly admitted to another woman that he had strangled Cindy and buried her at a work-related gravel pit in the Park Falls or Medford area. He was charged with Cindy’s murder in 1985, but the case was dismissed after investigators were unable to find her remains.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Cindy L. Jones: The 1984 Wausau, Wisconsin Disappearance and Presumed Homicide

Cindy L. Jones was a 27-year-old mother of three who disappeared from Wausau, Wisconsin, on June 29, 1984, following a violent domestic incident at the home she shared with her husband, Norman Jones. More than four decades later, Cindy’s remains have never been located, and her disappearance remains an active missing-person case.

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: June 29, 1984
Location: 400 block of North Second Avenue, Wausau, Marathon County, Wisconsin
Age: 27
Classification: Endangered Missing
NamUs: MP55020
Doe Network: 4956DFWI

Main circumstances: A neighbor witnessed Cindy during a violent argument with her husband, Norman Jones. Cindy was reportedly bruised, bloody and screaming for help. Police responded, but Norman told officers that Cindy had gone out the back door. Officers did not enter the residence or locate Cindy. She was never seen or heard from again.

Norman later allegedly admitted to another woman that he had strangled Cindy and buried her at a work-related gravel pit in the Park Falls or Medford area. He was charged with Cindy’s murder in 1985, but the case was dismissed after investigators were unable to find her remains.

The Disappearance of Cindy Jones

On Friday, June 29, 1984, Cindy and Norman Jones were at their home on Wausau’s west side with their three children. According to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and later reporting, the couple became involved in a violent argument. A neighbor saw Cindy bruised and bloody and heard her screaming for help. The neighbor contacted police.

When officers arrived, Norman met them at the door. He told police that Cindy had already left through the back door. According to WSAW’s later review of the case, officers did not enter the house and left without confirming Cindy’s whereabouts. Cindy subsequently stopped contacting her family, stopped going to work and disappeared from the lives of her three children.

The Investigation Begins

A missing-person investigation was opened after Cindy disappeared. According to Wausau Police Lieutenant Jennifer Holz, who took over the case in 2019, investigators eventually returned to the Jones residence approximately three months after Cindy vanished and searched the house, including its basement. Nothing was found that led them to Cindy.

The delay became particularly significant because investigators later developed information suggesting that Cindy had not voluntarily walked away. Norman continued to maintain that she had simply left the house, but there was no known subsequent contact with her children, relatives, friends or employer.

An Alleged Confession Changes the Case

A major development came in early 1985.

Investigators learned that Norman had allegedly told a new girlfriend that he killed Cindy. According to information later reviewed by Wausau police, Norman reportedly said he had strangled Cindy and buried her at one of his job sites in the Park Falls or Medford area.

Norman worked for American Asphalt Company, giving investigators reason to examine gravel pits or quarry sites connected to his work. Records reviewed decades later indicated that a private excavator was used to dig at one gravel pit where Norman was known to have worked around the time Cindy disappeared. Investigators also searched areas associated with Park Falls and Medford, but Cindy’s remains were not found.

Norman Jones Is Charged With Cindy’s Murder

In February 1985, Norman Jones was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide in connection with Cindy’s disappearance.

The prosecution faced an enormous obstacle: Cindy’s body had not been found.

In May 1985, the murder charge was dismissed because authorities did not have Cindy’s remains and lacked sufficient evidence to proceed with the homicide prosecution. Norman subsequently left Wisconsin.

Norman was never convicted of causing Cindy’s disappearance or death.

Norman Jones and the Florida Homicide Investigation

After leaving Wisconsin, Norman eventually moved to Florida. Authorities later linked him to the 1990 strangulation death of another woman.

The Charley Project reports that Norman was suspected of strangling a girlfriend in Florida in April 1990. As authorities prepared to arrest him later that year, Norman died by suicide from a prescription-drug overdose in Fort Worth, Texas.

Because Norman died without facing another prosecution in Cindy’s case, investigators lost the person they regarded as their primary suspect and a potential source of information about where Cindy’s remains might have been placed.

A Cold Case Reexamined Decades Later

The investigation did not disappear with the passing decades.

Wausau Police Lieutenant Jennifer Holz took over Cindy’s case in 2019. One problem immediately became apparent: the police department no longer possessed its original records from 1984. Holz therefore contacted the district attorney’s office and obtained its copy of the criminal case file so the investigation could be reconstructed and reviewed.

That review provided investigators with details concerning the original police response, subsequent search of the house, Norman’s alleged confession and the searches of gravel-pit areas.

Investigators also had the benefit of technology unavailable in 1984. Cindy’s DNA information has been entered into NamUs, meaning unidentified human remains entered into the national system can potentially be compared with her case. Police have emphasized that Cindy’s remains could be located somewhere outside Wausau or even outside central Wisconsin.

Latest Investigation Information

As of the latest sources located, there has been no publicly announced recovery of Cindy’s remains and no publicly announced resolution of her case.

WSAW revisited Cindy’s case as part of its Forgotten Wisconsin Cold Cases project in 2023 and again included her case in its 2024 retrospective. The 2023 investigation confirmed that Lt. Jennifer Holz had assumed responsibility for reviewing the case in 2019 and reconstructed portions of the investigation through the district attorney’s surviving criminal file.

An additional development occurred on December 13, 2024, when The Doe Network added Cindy L. Jones as case 4956DFWI, increasing the number of missing-person databases and organizations carrying information about her disappearance.

A November 2025 review of missing people in north-central Wisconsin continued to list Cindy as an endangered missing person whose remains have never been located. The investigating agency remained the Wausau Police Department.

The Wisconsin Department of Justice also continues to maintain Cindy’s official missing-person listing. The state poster identifies her as missing since June 29, 1984 and directs anyone with information to Wausau police or the Wisconsin Clearinghouse for Missing & Exploited Children & Adults.

Why Finding Cindy Still Matters

Cindy left behind three children. Investigators have said the abrupt end to her normal activities—including contact with relatives and attendance at work—supports their belief that she did not simply choose to disappear.

Her remains have never been recovered, and the murder charge filed against Norman Jones in 1985 never resulted in a trial or conviction. For that reason, the established legal status remains that Cindy is a missing person, even though investigators have publicly expressed their belief that she is deceased.

More than 40 years after Cindy disappeared, locating her remains remains one of the central unanswered questions in the case.

Anyone who knows about Norman Jones’s activities immediately following June 29, 1984, his work locations, gravel pits or job sites he visited in the Park Falls or Medford areas, or any other information concerning Cindy’s disappearance should contact the Wausau Police Department.