Overview

Last seen: July 1, 1995
Location: West Allis, Wisconsin
Age: 36
Remains discovered: May 11, 1998
Remains location: Tomorrow River near Amherst, Portage County, Wisconsin
Identification established: 2014
Identification publicly announced: April 25, 2016
Case reference: MP14404

Main circumstances: Glaser disappeared in the summer of 1995 but was not formally reported missing until October. Skeletal remains were discovered nearly three years later in the Tomorrow River, but initial DNA testing did not identify them. Advances in DNA testing eventually led to a match with Glaser. Authorities withheld her identification while investigators pursued leads. Publicly available case information continues to describe the circumstances of her death as under investigation.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Susan M. Glaser: Wisconsin Woman Missing Since 1995 Identified Through DNA Years Later

Susan M. Glaser was 36 years old when she disappeared from West Allis, Wisconsin, on July 1, 1995. What began as a missing-person investigation would eventually become a decades-long mystery involving unidentified skeletal remains, advances in DNA technology and questions that remain unanswered more than 30 years after Glaser vanished.

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: July 1, 1995
Location: West Allis, Wisconsin
Age: 36
Remains discovered: May 11, 1998
Remains location: Tomorrow River near Amherst, Portage County, Wisconsin
Identification established: 2014
Identification publicly announced: April 25, 2016
Case reference: MP14404

Main circumstances: Glaser disappeared in the summer of 1995 but was not formally reported missing until October. Skeletal remains were discovered nearly three years later in the Tomorrow River, but initial DNA testing did not identify them. Advances in DNA testing eventually led to a match with Glaser. Authorities withheld her identification while investigators pursued leads. Publicly available case information continues to describe the circumstances of her death as under investigation.

Susan Glaser Disappears From West Allis

Susan M. Glaser disappeared from West Allis on July 1, 1995. According to later police information, a family member went to the West Allis Police Department on October 19, 1995, and reported that Glaser had not been seen since July. Police opened a missing-person investigation and entered her into the National Crime Information Center as missing.

The months between Glaser’s disappearance and the filing of the missing-person report became an important part of the case. A later account quoted in the Websleuths case discussion states that Glaser’s estranged boyfriend died by suicide in October 1995 after reportedly making what were characterized as suspicious statements concerning Susan. That information should be treated as an investigative detail rather than proof that he was responsible for her disappearance or death; the publicly available material reviewed does not establish that conclusion.

Human Remains Found in the Tomorrow River

Nearly three years after Glaser disappeared, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office received a call on May 11, 1998, reporting what appeared to be human bones in the Tomorrow River near a former wayside along U.S. Highway 10 in the Town of Amherst.

An extensive search resulted in the recovery of a pelvis and two lumbar vertebrae, as well as numerous pieces of clothing. Authorities confirmed that the disarticulated bones were human and submitted them for DNA analysis. At the time, however, testing did not produce a match to a known person. Investigators eventually exhausted the available leads, leaving the identity of the person unknown.

For years, Susan Glaser’s disappearance and the unidentified remains in Portage County effectively existed as separate mysteries.

New DNA Testing Reopens the Door

A major break came in February 2014, although it initially had nothing to do with Glaser.

The Criminal Division of the Ramsey County Attorney’s Office in Minnesota requested the unidentified person’s DNA profile while investigating its own missing-person case from 1997. The Wisconsin remains were not a match for that case, but Minnesota authorities recommended that the old evidence undergo new testing because DNA technology had advanced considerably since the original analysis.

The remains were transferred to the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension in April 2014. The BCA completed a new analysis the following month and submitted the resulting profile to the National Missing Person DNA Database.

That step finally connected the two cases.

DNA Identifies Susan Glaser

On July 7, 2014, the Portage County Sheriff’s Office was notified that the updated DNA profile matched a profile connected to the West Allis missing-person investigation opened in 1995. The unidentified remains recovered from the Tomorrow River belonged to Susan M. Glaser.

The identification was an enormous development, but authorities did not immediately tell the public.

West Allis police asked that information concerning the DNA match remain confidential while investigators followed new leads. Police said the secrecy was intended to prevent potential suspects from learning that investigators now knew the identity of the person whose remains had been recovered years earlier.

Susan Glaser Publicly Identified in 2016

The identification finally became public on April 25, 2016.

CBS 58 reported that West Allis detectives and the Portage County Sheriff’s Office were working together and described the investigation at that time as ongoing and active. Authorities were examining the circumstances surrounding both Glaser’s disappearance and the discovery of her remains. No suspect was in custody when the announcement was made.

The Charley Project now lists Glaser’s missing-person case as resolved because her remains were identified, while specifically stating that her death remains under investigation.

What Happened to Susan Glaser?

Identifying Susan answered one of the central questions in the case, but it did not publicly answer how she died or how her remains came to be in the Tomorrow River roughly 130 miles northwest of West Allis.

The available public record does not establish a definitive cause or manner of death. Likewise, although accounts surrounding the case have drawn attention to statements reportedly made by Glaser’s estranged boyfriend before his death in 1995, the sources reviewed do not establish that he killed Glaser or transported her remains to Portage County. Those distinctions are important in a case in which significant pieces of the investigative record have never been made public.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of September 2026, the most recent substantive public case description located during research continues to state that Susan Glaser’s death remains under investigation. The Charley Project, crawled in 2026, still carries that status.

A Websleuths discussion devoted to Glaser’s case also remains active and received activity as recently as June 17, 2026, although that activity did not contain a new investigative development. Community discussion should not be confused with an official police update.

The West Allis Police Department currently states that it continues investigating unsolved deaths and long-term missing-person cases classified as cold cases and encourages people with information about unresolved cases to contact the department. Its current non-emergency number is 414-302-8000, and anonymous information can be provided through Crime Stoppers at 414-476-CASH (2274).

No credible public announcement located during this research documents an arrest, criminal charge, publicly identified suspect, or official resolution explaining Susan Glaser’s death.

A Mystery Partially Solved by DNA

Susan Glaser’s case demonstrates how advances in forensic DNA testing can give a name back to unidentified remains many years after their discovery.

When bones were recovered from the Tomorrow River in 1998, available testing could not connect them to Susan. Sixteen years later, improved DNA analysis and an unrelated Minnesota missing-person investigation prompted authorities to test the evidence again. That decision ultimately produced the identification investigators had been unable to make in 1998.

Susan was no longer an unidentified person, and her family finally knew that she had been found.

But identification was not the same as solving the circumstances of her death. The enduring questions are what happened to Susan after she disappeared from West Allis in July 1995, when she died, and how her remains ended up in the Tomorrow River near Amherst.

More than three decades after Susan Glaser disappeared, those questions remain part of the mystery surrounding her case.