2. Afraid of the Dark

Summary

The Unforgotten

Season 3: Finding Dolores Wulff

Episode 2: Afraid of the Dark

Date: August 11, 2025
Hosted by: Kyle Bonagara & Adam Rittenberg

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Episode Overview

This episode delves deep into the immediate aftermath of Dolores Wulff's mysterious disappearance from her Woodland, California home in 1979. Through firsthand family accounts, it explores the dark suspicions that quickly took root among her loved ones—particularly her children's near-instant certainty about their father's involvement. The episode also unpacks the beginnings of the criminal investigation, family trauma, and the legacy of fear and suspicion that lingered for decades.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. A Family’s Dark Suspicion

• Tom & Paul’s Revelation
  Tom Wolf recounts being abruptly told by his father that their mother was gone and would never return. The chilling finality and emotional coldness immediately sowed seeds of suspicion:

  "From that moment, I believed that he had done something to her and that he was responsible for it." – Tom Wolf [00:09]

• Children Leaving Home
  After this conversation, Tom and Paul left with their uncle and never returned home to live with their father.

  "We, Paul and I went with my uncle to his place and we basically never came back." – Tom Wolf [00:29]

• Immediate Suspicions in the Family
  Dolores’s relatives quickly found Carl Wolf’s version of events suspicious—the premise that Dolores had simply vanished on her own, especially given her documented fear of the dark.

2. Anna’s Story: The Daughter’s Perspective

• Anna’s Background & Injury
  Anna Marie DeMott Wolf, Dolores’s only daughter, shares her unique relationship with her mother and her desire to escape country life for the city and arts (dance/theater). After suffering a serious car accident, Anna was convalescing, leading to the early-morning call to her parents on the day Dolores was discovered missing.

• First Hints of Trouble
  Anna’s early morning call was unusual, and her father’s vague, tired reply only hinted at her mother’s absence. She didn't process the news right away due to her own condition and mental haze.

  "My dad answered the phone and he sounded groggy... He said, your mother's not here. And I didn't think about it..." – Anna Marie DeMott Wolf [05:13]

• Family Alarm & Janet’s Instincts
  Dolores’s sister-in-law, Janet, immediately knew something was wrong after being informed by Carl and hurried to the Wolf house, finding it “spotless” and smelling of disinfectants.

  "I could smell the disinfectants." – Janet [07:40]

• Dolores’s Fear of the Dark
  Family members, including Janet, cited Dolores’s intense fear of the dark as evidence she would never have left the house voluntarily at night.

  "She would not do that because she was afraid of the dark." – Janet [08:03]

3. Dolores’s Disappearance: Early Family & Police Response

• Identification of Carl as Primary Suspect
  Anna and Tom immediately believed their father was responsible, as did other family members. Anna recounted to police her reasons, including estrangement, heavy drinking, prior abuse, and conflict in the marriage.

  "Right away I just said, my dad did it. I think right away I was saying that." – Anna Marie DeMott Wolf [11:07]

• Anna’s Disclosure of Abuse
  Anna reveals to the hosts that her father had abused her as a child, and her mother’s reaction was a stoic “poker face” that left Anna feeling unsupported and undervalued.

  "He grabbed me. So I was hurt and offended... I told my mom and... she just had a poker face..." – Anna Marie [13:03]

• Reporting to Police
  The family, especially Janet and Anna, went straight to law enforcement with their suspicions. Janet was forthright:

  "I told them he's told me he's going to kill her. Now if her car is there, her wedding rings are there and she's not. He probably killed her." – Janet [16:45]

4. Investigation Details

• Sheriff’s Department’s Initial Delay
  At the time, police protocol was to wait 72 hours before investigating a missing person, but the family’s urgency and unified suspicions led to earlier engagement.

• Lead Detective Ron Heileman
  Heileman is depicted as a committed, thorough investigator whose dedication was recognized and appreciated by the family.

  "He was pleasure working with Ron. He was number one, a decent human being, caring, thoughtful, hard working..." – Rick Gilbert, DA [22:43]

• Crime Scene: Physical Evidence
  Heileman, upon searching Carl's car, found:

  • Blood stains on blankets (matching Dolores’s blood type)
  • A single earring in the trunk
  • Four distinct finger marks on the underside of the trunk, leading investigators to believe that Dolores may have been alive and trying to escape

  "Her hands just slid through the soot and stuff and down." – Kyle Bonagara (as Ron Heileman) [26:12]

• Carl’s Inconsistent Statements
  Carl’s explanations—claiming blood was “kool-aid” from a picnic, or the earring landed there by accident—further raised suspicions ([25:14], [25:45]).

• Carl Refuses Polygraph
  After initially agreeing, Carl acquires a lawyer and withdraws from the polygraph, heightening detectives' suspicions ([27:38]).

5. Children’s Lives in the Aftermath

• Tom and Paul’s Experience
  Both boys immediately cut ties and sought refuge with relatives. Tom, upon being told matter-of-factly by his father that “your mom’s not coming back,” felt it was a clear indication of guilt.

  "That to me is what was interesting probably, about the whole thing... those words were what pretty much told me that it was wrong, it was a bad deal that had happened." – Tom Wolf [32:52]

  Janet recalls promising Dolores she would care for the boys if anything happened (“Promise me you’ll take care of my boys.” – Janet [36:43]).

• Family’s Reaction: Anger and Strategy
  The Rocha family, devastated and enraged, rallied their energy to both pressure Carl and support the investigation. They began holding their own meetings, vowing to “make Carl Wolf’s life as miserable as humanly possible.”

  "We said we were going to start a holy reign of hell on him. Woodland was about to get wild." – Tom Wolf [40:21]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• Tom’s Immediate Suspicion:

  "From that moment, I believed that he had done something to her and that he was responsible for it."
  – Tom Wolf [00:09]

• Anna’s First Response:

  "Right away I just said, my dad did it. I think right away I was saying that."
  – Anna Marie DeMott Wolf [11:07]

• Janet About Dolores’ Fear:

  "She would not do that because she was afraid of the dark."
  – Janet [08:03]

• Evidence in the Trunk:

  "There was four distinguishable marks, like four fingers... in my mind, she was in that trunk alive, and she was trying to push up on the trunk lid..."
  – Kyle Bonagara, relaying Ron Heileman's investigation [26:12]

• Carl's Flat Delivery:

  "That was it… that minute I knew it just didn’t make any sense why you would come to that conclusion that fast."
  – Tom Wolf [32:37]

• Janet’s Promise to Dolores:

  "Promise me you’ll take care of my boys."
  – Janet [36:43]

• Family’s Response:

  "We said we were going to start a holy reign of hell on him. Woodland was about to get wild."
  – Tom Wolf [40:21]

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Important Segment Timestamps

• 00:01 – 01:00: Tom describes being told by Carl their mother is gone
• 03:11 – 05:00: Anna shares childhood memories and her injury before the disappearance
• 06:50 – 08:30: Janet’s observations at the Wolf house; Dolores’s fear of the dark
• 11:07 – 12:00: Anna’s immediate suspicion of her father
• 13:03 – 15:20: Anna’s story about abuse and her mother’s response
• 16:45 – 18:00: Janet reports Carl’s threats and suspicions to the police
• 22:43 – 23:16: DA describes Ron Heileman’s dedication
• 24:04 – 26:48: Heileman searches Carl’s car and finds key evidence
• 27:19 – 28:17: Carl evades the polygraph
• 32:29 – 33:16: Tom describes the impact of Carl’s reaction on his suspicions
• 36:43 – 37:14: Janet recounts her promise to Dolores
• 40:21: Rocha family vows to “start a holy reign of hell” on Carl

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Tone & Language

The episode maintains the natural, direct tone of family recollection—a mix of trauma, suspicion, candor, and occasional dark humor. The interviews are emotional, raw, and honest, with a strong sense of justice running through the family’s voice and the hosts’ empathetic questioning.

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Summary

Episode 2, "Afraid of the Dark," powerfully unpacks the first days after Dolores Wulff’s disappearance through intimate family and investigative recollections. The episode highlights how quickly suspicion converged on her husband, Carl Wolf, due to his cold demeanor, contradictory explanations, and physical evidence. The episode sets the stage for a deeper unraveling of the mystery, the family's relentless pursuit of the truth, and the legacy of harm that alternated between personal anguish and community action.

Transcript

[Tom Wolf]

Once I got there, he took Paul and I into another room. My father did. And you know, he basically told us that our mother was gone and she was never coming back. From that moment, I believed that he had done something to her and that he was responsible for it. And that night, I mean, I just said that's. That's not, you know, I said, that's is what I said.

[Kyle Bonagara]

And.

[Tom Wolf]

And we, Paul and I went with my uncle to his place and we basically never came back.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

That's Tom Wolf remembering a moment that changed everything. At just 16 years old, he came home from basketball camp to learn his mother was gone. And his father was already insisting rather coldly that she would never return. The conversation was abrupt, unsettling, and left no room for hope. But what's even more chilling is that it happened just a few days after Dolores went missing. Why would a husband be so quick to declare that his wife was never coming back? Why would he remove hope from his own children? To try to understand that, we need to rewind three days to the morning of August 1, 1979, when a call from Anna Wolf, Dolores only daughter, first hinted that something was wrong. Word quickly began to circulate among Dolores family that she was missing. And no one knew why. I'm Kyle Bonagara.

[Adam Rittenberg]

And I'm Adam Rittenberg. This is The Unforgotten Season 3 Finding Dolores Wolfe Episode 2 Afraid of the Dark.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

When Adam and I started reporting the story in 2020, Anna was one of the only people not willing to be interviewed. And we understood her hesitancy. It's asking a lot to discuss deeply personal memories with strangers, let alone a family trauma with a pair of reporters. She declined through her brother Paul, and we went along reporting the story. But as we learned more about the family and everything that happened, we heard a lot about Anna being one of Dolores kids. Of course she was central to the story, but she was also the first person to learn about her mother's disappearance, the first to speak with her father, and one of the first to go to police. So this time we were really hoping she would reconsider. In January 2025, I exchanged texts with Anna and then we chatted on the phone a bit. She lives in Texas with her husband now and has two adult daughters. After a short feeling out process, she decided she was ready to open up about what she went through. Everyone who lived through this had a unique experience, but Anna's was particularly complicated and it's something she has tried to distance herself from for most of her adult life.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

My Name's Anna Marie DeMott was Wolf. She was my mom. Dolores was my mom. Well, I was the only girl, so we had our own separate kind of a thing. She was so full of love for the boys, of course, and they all got involved in Little League and all that fun stuff and we were all supportive. We all went together to the games and all that, but we had our own special mother daughter stuff. And she was into teaching me cooking and cleaning and all that kind of stuff back in that era, you know, that was just kind of the thing you did.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Anna has held on to the good memories of her childhood, but also made it clear that growing up in rural woodland in the 60s and 70s did not suit her like it did most of her family.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

I didn't play football and I didn't raise cattle. And so it was just. I was a lot different. I wasn't. I never wanted to be the country girl, you know, I wanted to get to the big city and be around all the dance and theater and whatever.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

After high school, Anna enrolled at San Jose State to study dance and theater, but put off college to save money for a car working at a small clothing shop in town. Five weeks after buying the car, a bad accident left her hospitalized with a broken neck, jaw and nose.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

And so I was gonna pick things up and go back to college, but for a while I was kind of out of it and swollen and neck brace and variety of things. So I didn't know what I wanted to do at that point in time, but I really wanted to get out of the house. I think I was still 19, I was either 19 or 20, and I moved out and I went to Sacramento and that wasn't my long term plan, but that was what I did to get out.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

The injuries from Anna's car accident had serious long term effects. They changed both the trajectory of her life and left her to deal with intense physical pain, which is what led her to call her parents home at 6:01am on August 1, 1979.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

Well, I'd had a really crazy night. I was kind of wigging out, so it's totally unlike me to call at that time. But my dad entered the phone and he sounded groggy, like he was sleepy. And he said, you, mother's not here. And I didn't think about it because I just gone through my own little crazy stuff. And I said, well, I was actually thinking of talking to you about my back because you have the back issues. And then he just didn't say much about it. There was not Much of anything else other than that, because he was asleep and I was just wherever I was at in my state of mind. And so he. We just hung up.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

In the moment, Anna didn't really process what she was told. Her father said her mother wasn't there, which would have been unusual given how early it was. But he didn't belabor the point. And Anna wasn't in the frame of mind to really press for details. She was more focused on her own issues. And her father had complained of back pain for years. Something he dealt with through pills and alcohol. Anna doesn't remember receiving any real advice for her back though. And she went on about her day. Not long after he spoke with his daughter, Carl began making calls that raised alarms in the family. One of his first calls was to the home of Matthew Rocha, Dolores youngest brother, who would become known as Slick. Carl and Dolores youngest son Paul had spent the night there to celebrate the birthday of his cousin David. Slick was at work, and so Carl talked with Slick's wife Jim, Janet.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

When she disappeared, he called and said, Dolores isn't here. She hasn't been here all night. Her car is here, her rings are here, but I don't know where she is. And I said, well, I know one thing. She wouldn't go any place by herself. I was fixing breakfast for all the boys for the birthday party. So I said, well, I'll be over.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Before leaving the house to make the 10 mile drive to the Wolf's place. Janet didn't tell her kids or Paul where she was going. Her intuition was to fear the worst. That Carl had followed through on his many threats and had actually killed Dolores. She'll never be able to shake the memory of him telling her he knew a way to kill her and not get caught.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

So I went over there and I'm trying to look around and see if I could see anything that I might need to pass on. And the house was spotless. I could smell the disinfectants.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

The story Carl tried to sell was that Delora simply walked off in the middle of the night. It didn't make sense to anyone.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

We had a neighbor that had a swimming pool and everything. And when she'd be over with the two boys to visit, even at night, they'd invite us over. But she wouldn't go. She was afraid to go just a fourth of a mile of that next door to our neighbors to watch the kids swim. She would not do that because she.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Was afraid of the dark.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

She was afraid of the dark after.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Getting home from work. Slick also went over to the Wolf home.

[Tom Wolf]

So I went over there and I immediately walked into her bedroom and he's saying, what do you want to go back there for? I always felt this guy was a wimp. But anyway, all of her personal belongings were there. You name it. Her purse, her medication, her car keys were there, her car was there. And she's going to walk out at 2 or 3 o' clock in the morning in the dark? I don't think so.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Word spread quickly among the Rocha family. No one had heard from Dolores. And even if you set aside her well known fear of the dark, the idea she would leave town on her own without telling someone in the family wasn't something anyone was willing to seriously consider. Here's Dolores cousin Debbie Baker, who had last seen her two days before following the anniversary party in Woodland.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

Delores would not have run away. She would not have left her kids. She would not have left her father. She was very close to her father and her kids. She was very family orientated. And there's no way she would have just left on her own and then left everything. Didn't take any clothes, left her car, left her glasses, her ring. And she's going to walk five, because I think it's five miles from town to Hillcrest and walk in the dark when I had to walk her across the street.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

After 45 years, memories fade. So the specifics of the timeline were a bit tricky to piece together. The way Anna first remembered it. Several days passed before she was in touch with anyone from the family. But Debbie confidently recalls getting in touch with Anna that day.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

Nobody could figure out where Adam Marie was. And I remember she lived in an apartment complex in Sacramento and my Uncle Les lived in the same complex. So I called him and I said, can you find out, go to the manager or something to find out where Anna Marie is. So he finally found her. It took a little while and I called her and I said, anna Marie, your mother is missing.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Anna processed the news differently than she had during that hazy early morning call with her dad.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

And she said, my father killed her. And always remember. I can't. It's not something you're going to forget.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Here's Anna.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

Right away I just said, my dad did it. I think right away I was saying that.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Do you remember why you thought initially that your dad was responsible, where the gut instinct came from?

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

There were things that made him very unlikable. And I wanted to get out of there. And I didn't think about him hurting my brothers. I was just get me out of here. And because he was really the only kind of bad guy in the picture, I just thought he did it because he's rotten.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

But there was more to it than that. Whenever Anna had come up in our conversations with members of the family, especially when we were first getting started, there was a reluctance to really talk much about her. There was no animosity or anything like that. But it was an uncomfortable subject, like a third rail no one really wanted to touch. And it was easy to understand that they were being protective of a story that was only hers to tell. When I spoke with Anna, I asked her about the conflict in her parents marriage. I was trying to understand how far back the problems went and where they came from.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

I honestly don't know. I mean, when you're a kid, you think it's all about you, right? You have this self centered life. You just think so?

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Yeah.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

I don't know. I mean. Yeah, yeah. You know, my opinion is a little bit crazy because I'm thinking it was about me or whatever.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

So you thought that the problems with the relationship was related to you somehow, that it was your fault somehow?

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

This is where it gets a little bit weird and awkward, but I don't know. Yeah, I mean, I had, I had, I had a period. Okay. I had a period. I don't know if I should get into this stuff.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

On a podcast I told Anna we didn't have to get into anything that she wasn't comfortable with and we could move on. But she continued.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

I was like 12 and I had already grown up and developed a lot and it was a time where I think he was drinking or whatever and he, you know, he grabbed me. So I was hurt and offended. And at 12, your mentality, I mean, it's so hard to know what to. But, but I think somewhat shortly after I told my mom and then it seemed like she didn't, didn't. She just had a poker face, you know, it seemed like she didn't do anything. So at 12, that, that just, it kind of made me feel like it kind of affected my value, self value. I, I didn't, I thought I was being silly. I was making a big thing out of nothing. I just, you know, it just, it just. Because there was no response, so she didn't believe me, you know, I just didn't know what to think. So I just kind of let it go and didn't do anything. But of course it built up inside of me and everything.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Dolores, response to what Anna had shared and her perceived lack of action Impacted Anna's relationship with her mother and her own self confidence. Only years later, after Anna returned to woodland with her daughters, did she learn how much the incident had truly affected her mother. She heard a story from her uncle Slick, who she calls by his given name, Matthew.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

My uncle Matthew shared with me that at some point in time she went to him and I think his wife at the time, I'm not sure Janet. And she was like hysterical about this whole thing and I had no idea. She just kept really cool about it to me because that was what she believed was the best thing to do. Of course, you know.

[Kyle Bonagara]

Right.

[Anna Marie DeMott Wolf]

So that happened. So there wasn't a whole lot, I mean, you know, stories happen and people want to make it sound like, like it was a horrifically bad. But it left me in a position of, you know, kind of avoiding him in a lot of ways and just kind of always trying to prove myself and, you know, as a valuable person.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

The abuse Anna experienced at the hands of her father as a 12 year old had an effect that would last decades. As you'll find out, she had the most complex relationship with Carl Wolf of any of his children After Dolores disappeared. But immediately after it happened, she was clear eyed and convinced that her father was responsible. The day after her mother went missing, Anna went to the police and shared with two detectives her reasons for why she felt her father should be the primary suspect in her mother's disappearance. She told him about the conflict in the marriage, she told them about his heavy drinking. And she told them about her own history of abuse, which she said started in the sixth grade when he would fondle her. The abuse continued into her teenage years when he would speak to her using sexual overtones while they were alone. After the break, you'll hear from Adam on the beginning of the police investigation.

[Kyle Bonagara]

Foreign.

[Adam Rittenberg]

To Carl Wolf and visiting the house on the morning after Dolores disappeared. Dolores's sister in law, Janet, wasted no time before contacting the Yolo county sheriff's department to report a missing person.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

So I went in there and I told him he's told me he's going to kill him, but I didn't think he could really do it. She told me he threatened to kill her. Now if her car is there, her wedding rings are there and she's not. He probably killed her.

[Adam Rittenberg]

In the meantime, Carl had also contacted the sheriff's department to report his wife missing. And later that afternoon or early evening, a deputy arrived at the Wolf house to perform a welfare check. Carl was there and so were his oldest son, Carly and His sister in law, Janet. Carl would tell the deputy that the night before he took pain medication for some dental work he had done and went to bed early. He admitted there had been disputes in the marriage, but said everything had seemed fine. Carl told police that when Anna had called early that morning, he hadn't yet searched for Dolores. Seeing her side of the bed untouched, he assumed she'd been gone all night. He said he later found all of her personal items, her driver's license, credit cards, reading glasses, her wedding ring in her purse. And when she didn't turn up, he made several phone calls to locate her. Other than Carl, the last person confirmed to have seen Delores was her son, Carly. He was 22 at the time and lived in town with his wife, Heidi. He told the deputy that he had briefly swung by the house around 9:30 the night before and had exchanged brief hellos with his mother, who he said was wearing a white nightgown and sitting in an easy chair in the family room, which had a large window facing the street.

[Tom Wolf]

At that time, I was bailing hay and we were going to bail that night and I went there to get supplies to bail hay and I met her at the back steps in the garage. I was head man and she just met me there. And I could see she was upset and flustered and she didn't really say a lot. I was in a hurry, so I didn't give him much thought other than fighting and like been arguing. So I just said, hello, I'm going to go work. And then I turned and left.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Carlie told us he didn't learn of his mother's disappearance until the middle of the following day, when he was eating lunch at a place outside Woodland with some of his colleagues. His wife Heidi, had found out from Janet and was driving around trying to find him. Carly, who admits he's not a very reflective person, actually forgot how he reacted to the news. But Heidi didn't. She said he said five. The old man killed her.

[Tom Wolf]

I felt that way because she wouldn't leave. I didn't think her leaving was kind of an option. I mean, her car was there. She wouldn't have just walked off. Her purse, everything was there. She was just gone. She's just not the type of person to leave in the dark by herself anyplace.

[Adam Rittenberg]

At that time, the Yolo County Sheriff's policy was to wait 72 hours before formally opening a missing person's case. But the department interacted with multiple members of the Rocha family, and in the 48 hours after they Reported Dolores missing. They all said essentially the same thing. Delores wouldn't just leave. Carl must have done something. In Slick's first conversation with the sheriff's department, they told him to keep talking with Carl because it could help with the investigation. But that strategy backfired. Right away, Slick couldn't hide his contempt for Carl.

[Tom Wolf]

I went home, I called him up on the phone. I said, wolf, you killed her. You know it, I know it, and everybody else knows it. And I hate to say this, but what I told him over the phone was, if you don't tell the police where she's at by tomorrow, I'm gonna slit your throat. I was real good at that. But Anyway, it wasn't 15 minutes and the police called me up.

[Kyle Bonagara]

That.

[Tom Wolf]

Now, ain't that something? A murderer called the police for protection.

[Adam Rittenberg]

You'll hear more about exactly why Slick was so confident in his ability to kill in a future episode. But he was in the Army's elite 101st Airborne Division and conducted several operations, often by himself. As the Vietnam conflict broke out in the late 1950s.

[Tom Wolf]

I hadn't been out of the service that long. Under covert work I did there, I would have no problem killing them. I really had that strong urge. But then my relatives made a good point. He said, you've got to raise Dolores kids, the two youngest ones. If you do that, you end up in jail. What good will that do you? And that made sense.

[Adam Rittenberg]

For the time being, the roaches let law enforcement do their thing. There were multiple detectives and officers involved in the investigation, but one of them, a man named Ron Heileman, became the lead on the case. I've seen a picture of Ron from around this time. He had a thin mustache, brown hair and dark, serious looking eyes. In the photo, he wore a silver blazer with a funky shirt and a maroon tie, looking very 1970s detective like. Heileman had been with the Yolo County Sheriff's Department for nearly nine years at the time of Dolores disappearance. Ever since he finished his military service, he initially worked in narcotics before moving into the investigative unit. Heileman had worked several homicides, mostly in West Sacramento, where there were a lot more cases than out in the rural parts of the county. He had a strong reputation in the law enforcement community. Here is the Yolo county district attorney at the time, a man named Rick Gilbert.

[Tom Wolf]

He was pleasure working with Ron. He was number one, a decent human being, caring, thoughtful, hard working. As a detective, he was willing to do stuff. He wasn't lazy about it. He was committed to his Cases, he interfaced in a positive way. He was one of the guys that you wanted to work with if you were a DA because he got the job done. This case was one of those cases, you know, it gets kind of under your skin and you get committed to it. He demonstrated that early on he wanted to solve the case.

[Adam Rittenberg]

We talked with Ron on the phone back in 2020. At the time, he was 75 years old and living in Grass Valley, California, about 70 miles from Woodland on the way to Lake Tahoe. Our interview with Ron was unique because we didn't have to ask many questions. We asked him a few general ones about his involvement to get started. But before long, he was walking us through the investigation in incredible detail. It had been 41 years, so his recall wasn't perfect. And he told us when he got to parts of the story where that was the case. At one point, he spoke for about 30 minutes straight without Kyle or I chiming in with a question. Ron's official involvement started on August 4, three days after Dolores was reported missing, when he visited Carl at the house.

[Kyle Bonagara]

When I went out and made first contact with him, he was cordial, but he didn't seem upset at all. So we asked if we could look around the house. And so we were checking. Like I said, it was probably three days before I actually made contact with him. We didn't see any signs of blood. We had an ID person come out and check it out, see what they thought. They didn't see any.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Without anything of note inside the house, Ron search moved to the rest of the five acre property, starting with Carl's 1974 Oldsmobile parked in the garage.

[Kyle Bonagara]

And I asked him if we could look inside the car. He said, well, sure. Like I said, he was cooperative. And then didn't see too much of interest in there. It was pretty clean. Ask him to open the trunk. And then that's when I noticed these looked like kind of those packing blankets, perfectly thick, and they were folded up there and there was some spots on it. And to me, all these years and working a lot of homicides, it looked like blood stains.

[Adam Rittenberg]

When Ron asked Carl what the stains were, Carl didn't have a good answer. Initially, he said it was probably kool aid from a picnic.

[Kyle Bonagara]

So I opened the blanket up and I see even a little bigger spot. Looks the same, but I still think it looked like blood to me. So I asked him if we could just take the blanket and maybe check out, see if we could find out what those spots were. And he says, sure.

[Adam Rittenberg]

As Ron Took the blankets out. A single earring fell back into the trunk.

[Kyle Bonagara]

And I said, do you recognize this? And he said, no, no, I don't know. He said, maybe it's hers. And I said, well, do you know how it would get in the trunk here? And he says, no, it must have been on the blanket after we had that picnic or something.

[Adam Rittenberg]

The third piece of evidence that Heileman found that day seemed even more suspicious that something terrible had happened at the house on Hillcrest Drive.

[Kyle Bonagara]

And then I noticed the top of the trunk lid. There was four distinguishable marks. Like, four fingers would have reached up, and just the tips of the fingers slid, like, about six inches. And it was greasy, like a little, so we couldn't get any prints. But in my mind, she was in that trunk alive, and she was trying to push up on the trunk lid, and her hands just slid through the soot and stuff and down.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Ron had the car towed and had the spot on the blanket tested by the Department of Justice's crime lab, which not only confirmed it was blood, but a match to Dolores blood type. At the time, they couldn't test for DNA, so they couldn't confirm if it was Dolores blood. After that first interview with Carl, seeing the evidence in the car and then in speaking with family members, Ron felt strongly that Carl was probably responsible for whatever had happened to Delores.

[Kyle Bonagara]

The first child I contacted was Anna Marie. She was adamant that her dad had done something with her mom, and she was telling me some things about it. Different arguments, some things they gotten in, and she was sure he'd done something to her.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Early on, Ron asked Carl if he was willing to take a polygraph, and he agreed.

[Kyle Bonagara]

So I set one up right away. And then, of course, I got a call the next day. He had lawyered up. And then he told me, oh, I got an attorney now. They said I shouldn't take a polygraph. Of course, I went into the. Why he got an attorney? Because he told me he wanted to cooperate. He says, those aren't very good anyway. He said, those polygraphs, I just don't believe in them. I said, we got experts that can do it, and if you're telling the truth, it'll show that. And then that's the first I knew, you know, about the attorney.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Ron and the rest of the sheriff's office stayed in close contact with the DA's office. Here's the DA, Rick Gilbert, again.

[Tom Wolf]

Within the first week, we knew that there was a disappearance, an unlikely disappearance, given who she was. She was well known in the Community Woodland and those days is a small town. You know, they're prominent folks. You knew the family. Carl Wolf wasn't known to me, I didn't know him, but I will tell you, he was a known person in a small community. Not, not always positive. So the fact that she was gone under the circumstances, that just seemed odd. I was immediately suspicious and being looked at. You don't know at that point if it's a kidnapping or if it's a homicide or a combination. But there was little comfort in the notion that she just decided to walk, go away. Nobody was looking to find where she was vacationing in the Bahamas.

[Adam Rittenberg]

As you'll hear over the course of this podcast, Dolores family would develop a strong relationship with Heileman as he conducted his investigation. They felt he was committed to the case in a way that others in law enforcement and the judicial system were not. As the search for Dolores took many bizarre twists in the months and years that followed, the Rochas knew Heileman stood with them as they sought answers about what had happened. You'll also hear about the family's frustrations with Gilbert and the DA's office about the reluctance to file charges against Carl Wolf without a body. As Heileman began the early stages of his investigation, Dolores, two younger sons were dealing with the immediate effects of their mother's disappearance. What would happen to Tom and Paul, only 16 and 12 at the time? After the break, you'll hear from Kyle about how life changed immediately for Dolores K.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

On the night Dolores went missing, Tom Wolfe had called the house from the basketball camp he was attending at St. Mary's College in the Bay Area. He dislocated his thumb that night and needed to call home to get parental approval for treatment.

[Tom Wolf]

It was like 8 o' clock at night or something. And to my surprise at the time, my dad answered, which that would not have been typical. But this is the night she disappeared.

[Kyle Bonagara]

And so I talked to him briefly.

[Tom Wolf]

He talked to them, gave them the.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Approval, they took care of it. I didn't think anything of it.

[Tom Wolf]

You know, I always thought about that.

[Kyle Bonagara]

Later as to exactly what was going.

[Tom Wolf]

On at that point when I called and for whatever reason he answered, that was always something that I thought back on.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Tom wouldn't find out about his mother's disappearance for a few more days. In the meantime, the Roaches tried to shield Paul from what was happening as much as they could. Paul had expected the sleepover for his cousin David's birthday to be a one night thing, but the stay was extended. This wasn't unusual and meant he got to spend more time with his favorite cousins. Here's cousin David.

[Tom Wolf]

Well, as a kid, you're like, yes, that's all we cared about. And I think that went on for a couple days because it was the summertime, so that probably went on for two or three days. And then I remember thinking, man, what's wrong? Something's wrong here. Because even then I was like, there's something they're not telling us. So I remember my parents telling Paul that his mom had disappeared, and they're not sure where she's at.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Tom expected his dad to pick him up from the camp and was surprised instead to see his girlfriend and her parents arrive when it was over. He still remembers being happy to see them and not his dad. But it was also the first sign something wasn't right back home. They brought him back to his house, and when he saw there were several people there, Slick and Janet, other family members, he knew something strange was going on. That's when Carl told Tom and Paul that Dolores was gone.

[Adam Rittenberg]

When he said, you know, your mom's not coming back, was it matter of fact, do you remember the tone of his voice?

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Yeah, it was.

[Tom Wolf]

That was it.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

And that's when I knew that, because obviously our relationship was strained to begin with. That, to me, is what was interesting probably, about the whole thing, was that I'd never witnessed any physical abuse, but.

[Tom Wolf]

Yet that minute I knew it just didn't make any sense why you would come to that conclusion that fast. And I really think those words were what pretty much told me that it was wrong, it was a bad deal that had happened.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Let's dig in on this for a minute, Adam, because I think this is a really important moment in this story. It's really the moment for Tom, especially where he believed that his father killed his mother and really set his life in a different course. Paul's life in a different course. Really, everyone around Dolores, their lives all changed when they started having these suspicions.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Right. I mean, I think the reaction is what you always look for when something traumatic happens. And his reaction and the choice of language was something that his immediate family noticed right away. The police noticed right away. To go right to, she's not coming back, obviously not admitting that he had done anything, but to go right to that conclusion right off of the bat, it's highly, highly suspicious. And, you know, it was a consistent position that Carl had. He didn't come off of that. He went right to it the day after, essentially. And I think it certainly added to the suspicion of his culpability.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

And it also revealed that he wasn't some cunning criminal. Right. His response was very telling to the people around him that he was responsible or probably responsible. If he had thought it out a little bit more, you would have thought that he would have faked his response to those around him, that he would have pretended to be concerned, he would have done everything he could to find her, knowing that wasn't going to happen. But that he didn't, just, for me, revealed him as kind of a bumbling idiot that did a bad thing and just assumed he would get away with it for whatever reason.

[Adam Rittenberg]

Well, he didn't have any more details about why he was so confident she wouldn't be back. You know, she told me she was leaving. I saw her go that direction. And so again, from a family member questioning him standpoint and also from police questioning him standpoint, it's a very highly questionable, suspicious explanation that there wasn't anything more you could add. And yet you were so sure of yourself that she wasn't going to be walking through the door, that she wasn't reachable by phone or wherever. I think it wasn't just the fact that he knew she wasn't coming back, but really couldn't provide any details as to what happened. And obviously all the other evidence that was at the house to suggest that someone didn't just, you know, run away and plan to do that. It all pointed to something much more sinister that happened.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Tom wasn't shy about letting others in the family know exactly what he thought happened. Here's his aunt Janet.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

After his dad told him his mother wasn't there, he came right to our house and he said he killed her. I know what he did. And so what I told him is, okay, I'm going to be friends with your dad till the sheriff's department has a time to check things, things out. I'm going to convince him that you guys are better off, under the circumstances, staying at our house. And I was able to do that.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

Janet and Slick taking in the boys was actually something they had both discussed with Dolores. Adam and I first interviewed Janet in 2020, but I also paid her a visit in the spring of 2025. She and Slick got divorced a few years after Dolores disappeared. She's remarried now. She's in her mid-80s and lives in woodland. We sat down at her kitchen table for a lengthy chat, and she said.

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

To me, jan, I know he's going to kill me. Promise me you'll take care of my boys. I said, of course I would, Delores, but that's not going to happen. You know, I couldn't even believe that could happen. But she asked me more than once, promised me that you'll take care of my boys, and I did.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

I mean, just sitting here 45 years later, that obviously left a strong impression for you. How often have you thought about those conversations over the last four decades?

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

Many times. Yeah. And I think about Dolores.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

When you think about her, like, what.

[Tom Wolf]

Do you think of?

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

That kind of brings a smile. I see you're smiling right now. What makes you smile about her?

[Janet (Dolores' sister-in-law)]

Well, there's a lot of things, but, like, she just loved my dad. When they'd get together, oh, man, she'd wave to him and they'd go sit down and huddle and tell their stories and laugh and have such a good time.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

At 12 years old, Paul was too young to fully process everything that was going on. But by staying with his cousins, he had some semblance of normalcy.

[Tom Wolf]

At first, that was our comfort zone. So, like, whenever we spent the night somewhere, it was always at my cousin's house. So it was easy for us to do do at that time. But my dad asked us what we wanted to do initially, and it was like, well, I just want to stay there until things calm down. And that went on for about a week. And then the second week, we actually went back and stayed with him for about a week in the house. And that was, for me, got pretty uncomfortable. And then we asked to go back to my uncle and aunts. They asked us, and I just wanted to do that. And my brother Tom was way more direct than me. He's like, yeah, I'm not staying here. I'm not going to be with him. He was pissed off. And then my dad was asking me in the garage, well, don't you want to stay with me? I go, I do, but I want to be with Tom. I'll never forget that. Out on the garage. My brother's out there with my uncle and aunt, the car, and he's standing there, and I'm looking at him and telling him, I'm going to go with them. And that was hard.

[Adam Rittenberg]

And at that time, did you already suspect that it was.

[Tom Wolf]

No, that didn't happen then. Okay? I didn't. I tried not to believe that I didn't. And it wasn't like everyone around me was telling me he did it, because they weren't saying that to me. Nobody was saying that.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

So would you still see him on occasion then, or. How did the relationship evolve from there.

[Tom Wolf]

Every once in a while he would pop up at an event. We used to have animals at 4H events and FFA events, and he'd pop up at something like that. When I would take the bus home from Woodland to my uncle and aunts that live between Woodland and Davis, I'd get dropped off on a country road and there was nothing out there. Me and maybe a few other kids and my aunt would pick me up. But sometimes I would go and I could see my dad's car right there waiting like he was there. So, like he would show up when I would get off the bus two or three times, or at least that. I don't know what he was going to try to do, but I think the fact that my aunt was there picking me up, he didn't interfere.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

At that time, Paul and Tom were mostly kept away from their father and they settled into living with their uncle, aunt and cousins. Life was as normal as it could be for them. They ran around Slick's property engaging in shenanigans typical for most boys their ages. The roaches were nowhere near done with Carl Wolf. They were just getting started. While the official investigation began to take shape, a segment of the roaches weren't going to wait around. They began meeting and strategizing at their dinner table. They did so with two objectives. To find their beloved Dolores and to make Carl Wolf's life as miserable as humanly possible.

[Tom Wolf]

We said we were going to start.

[Narrator (Kyle Bonagara)]

A holy reign of hell on him. Woodland was about to get wild.

[Adam Rittenberg]

The Unforgotten is a Free range production. Season 3 Finding Dolores Wolf is written and hosted by Kyle Bon and me, Adam Rittenberg. The story is edited and produced by Wes Ferguson, the executive producer at Free Range. Audio editing by Aislin Gaddis Audio production and sound design by Austin Sisler with Eastside Studios in Austin, Texas. Special thanks to ESPN.