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- [00:00]
A
Did you know we have a newsletter for the Unforgotten? It's totally free and you can sign up@unforgottenpod.com we're also on Facebook and Instagram and those are great ways to stay in touch. But the newsletter is cool because it's an email that we send straight to your inbox every time we have a new episode. You get to go behind the scenes with the series creators. We also share photos and case files when we have them if you want. We also have a premium version of the newsletter. It's pretty cool because it lets you listen early and ad free. So I hope you'll head on over to unforgottenpod.com and sign up for our newsletter today. Whether you sign up for the free version or the premium version, you're the reason that the Unforgotten is able to shine a light on these unsolved crimes and other cases of injustice that are so important to a lot of people. We just thank you for listening and we thank you for your support. Again, that's unforgottenpod.com, hey everyone, it's Adam.
- [00:53]
B
Rittenberg and Kyle Bonagara, co hosts of the Unforgotten Season three, Finding Dolores Wolf. First of all, I wanted to thank everyone for your support. Last week was an incredible week for the podcast, especially on Apple Podcasts, but certainly really, really grateful for everyone that is listening and subscribing and rating and sharing. Please continue to do so as we finish up here with the last few episodes. So today we're going to break down 41 years, which was episode seven, came out on Monday. And this is a big one. Kyle is obviously there is finally a resolution to this missing person's case that, you know, Jane Doe 16, who was a unidentified remains of a woman who was found in the San Francisco Bay just a few weeks after Dolores went missing. We learn about that. We learn about Kenny Hart, the detective from the Benicia Police Department who we introduced at the very top of the podcast. His was one of the first voices that you heard, but in this episode, he really takes us through his process of how he first learned about Jane Doe 16, what he did then, and really how this case, especially for a veteran detective who's more in a supervisory role at this point in his career. Career, it took over his life and it became his life. And, you know, I think you and I will never forget the first time that we interviewed Kenny on Zoom back in 2020 and seeing, you know, kind of the, the, the, the board that he has behind him, which had a number of pictures, including a picture of. Of Dolores wolf. So this was. Is a big deal episode with certainly Kenny and his process leading up to the identification piece. But when you think back to kenny and what he did and how he got interested in this and all the different things that he did to ultimately make it a reality for this family, what strikes you the most?
- [02:57]
C
It was how quickly he became invested in a case that really didn't seem like the chances of solving it were very good. Right. He gets a call from a neighboring solano county sheriff's department who was relaying a t from the DOE network about it. Just some random theory from someone on the Internet.
- [03:16]
B
Right.
- [03:16]
C
That this Jane Doe body that was found in Benicia 41 years earlier might be the victim of a. Of a serial killer who lived out in modesto. It all could have seemed like such a stretch. And when you kind of are prioritizing your job as a detective as. As they all have to do in Kenny's case, a supervisor of the. Of the detectives in benicia, like, how do you all time. How do you allocate your resources? And so for him to dive in as quickly as he did was, you know, really admirable that he was willing to. To kind of go down that path and see where it led him. And not only that, there were a significant amount of roadblocks right from the start. The fact that benisha pd had inadvertently gotten rid of the case file, he could have stopped after that and have been like, well, you know, without that, it's going to be really hard to move forward. And then he kind of remembers that maybe the coroner's office has some information, he tracks down those documents, and still there wasn't a whole lot to go on. Right. It was a shot in the dark, but it was a shot he was willing to take, even though it didn't go down the path that was originally theorized. And so, yeah, if you're listening to this, you've certainly had a chance to listen to the full episode. So, for me, it was that willingness to do the work was really cool to hear about. And then just know from a procedural standpoint, all the steps he. That he took along the way were fascinating to learn about. And I came away just really impressed with his devotion to the job and interested in that sort of police work. So, you know, I had Kenny over at my house for a few hours several months ago to go over this in detail. We've stayed in touch throughout this process. He's been really helpful for us to make sure that we understand everything as best we can. And so, yeah, thanks to Kenny for making this possible, because we certainly wouldn't have been able to understand the case as well as if it hadn't been for his willingness to participate and be so open about his process.
- [05:23]
B
Right. And again, I think it needs to be stated, again, that this is a case that impacted him maybe like none other in his career as a guy that is part of all sorts of cases. A lot of dark things that he saw in his career. As he noted in the episode, a lot of these big calls that he makes or he's made in his career have been bad news. And he was able to make a call that again, changed the family's life forever, as he poignantly states in that one juncture. I think, again, just seeing the relationship that he now has with. With. With Paul and the family. We'll get into that a little bit later on in the. In the podcast. But, you know, his. His involvement certainly stood out to me. How even his then your girlfriend or fiance and now wife, Beth, who also has a prominent role in law enforcement in the Bay Area, she was right there with him every step of the way, trying to figure out if this was indeed Dolores. And he obviously makes that call to Paul, and then it triggers a ton of notifications. And you got to hear all the different reactions in this episode from Dolores, other children, and then you certainly. Something that I know stuck with both of us was the description of Paul driving up to Slick to tell him in person so that he could really explain it to him. Slick was, I think, in his late 70s at that time, around 80 years old and, you know, not in the best of health. How do I convey this incredible discovery to Dolores's younger brother, who, you know, like many had probably given up hope that she would ever be discovered. So that was a really emotional element. Yeah.
- [07:03]
C
And I think hearing about what it meant to Slick that he gets to, you know, be next to her in a cemetery certainly is an emotional high point in the whole series. Maybe, you know, for some people that that will be the emotional high point. Hearing about what it'll mean to know that he'll. His final resting place will eventually be next to his sister. It was something that he had, you know, certainly doubted would be the case for. For over four decades. And hearing him even be able to joke about it, I was going to, you know, give her a hard time for not telling us where she was. Like you very cool moment. And then I also Thought it was interesting to hear some of, like, the other reactions, right. There was, like, a lot of praise and appreciation for what Kenny did. But there's also the other side of it, right, that, you know, her body was discovered 48 days after she went missing, about an hour away, one county over. It makes you question what, what happened? Why was this possible? Now, as we do, you know, outline in the, in the episode, there was no head attached to the body. There's no arms attached to the body. Wasn' a straightforward process to identify the remains. But that you had. But that you were able to identify that it was a woman of 45, you know, in her 40s, about the same height as Dolores, hair color, you know, had given birth multiple times. There were a lot of boxes to check off that would have pointed towards Dolores if anyone would have tried to have made that comparison. So the fact that that never happened, and I know is, is something that has really bothered a lot of the family members, and, you know, they're all in different places on how to feel, but it really makes you question what happened. And I don't think we'll ever know for sure exactly why they weren't able to try to make a match there. But it is something that we tried to figure out in next episode. I know there are a lot of questions about what that process looked like. We'll get into that as much as we can in episode eight. So look forward to that. Because again, you're kind of blown away by, hey, this should have been solved. Tom put it perfectly. This is something that should have been solved 40 years ago, and they're dealing with it now. It raises questions about what would Carl's life have looked like, facing justice, you know, you know, what do you have been charged? All those things we'll get into. But, yeah, I, I know when I heard the story the first time I heard the story and I found out that it was. She was in such close proximity, both geographically and. And just from a time standpoint, you know, you, you, you question really and really, Benisha police in Solano county, why there wasn't more outreach? Because we know from talking with Ron Highland, the detective in Yolo county, that he consistently did as much as he could to make this case, you know, stand out to local law enforcement agencies.
- [09:45]
B
Right? And that's what we're really going to get into. Like, this is definitely not the end. There's a lot more questions to be answered because of what you just outlined, Kyle. And we're going to get into that in episode eight, Making Sense of It all, which will be coming out here soon because, yeah, what was missed, what could have. What action could have been taken? Were there notifications made by others? And, you know, not to give too much away. Yes, there were. This could have been solved a little bit earlier and wasn't. So again, it's why this was a bittersweet moment for some, I would say most in Dolores, Dolores Wolf's family because of the circumstances around her identification. So we'll get into that. Making Sense of it all. Episode 8 will be coming out in just a few days. Again, can't thank you enough for your continued support of the podcast for Kyle. I'm Adam, and we'll see you again soon. Thanks.