In response to a Curious Minnesota inquiry, the Minnesota Star Tribune launched an investigation in late 2023 into the unsolved 1963 kidnapping and murder of Barbara Ann Foshaug and Melissa Ann Lee, and the subsequent law enforcement investigations into their deaths.
How the Star Tribune’s story about an unsolved 61-year-old Twin Cities abduction and murder came to be
We obtained more than 3,000 pages of investigative documents not previously made public.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
January 31, 2025 at 4:39PM
Using a variety of sources and Minnesota Data Practices Act requests, we obtained more than 3,000 pages of investigative documents not previously made public from the closed archives of the Minneapolis Police Department, the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office and Sheriff’s Office, and the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension. Those files contained transcripts of interviews with witnesses, memorandums and notes made by investigators and supervising agents, including several hypotheses about aspects of the case, along with raw polygraph tests. The amount of material reflected the thousands of hours that authorities devoted to the case from 1963 to 1974.
Most everyone associated with those investigations has died. However, we tracked down relatives and others who might have been connected to the main players in the case.
We were touched by the passionate interest in the case of two relatives of the girls: Colleen Duden, who was not yet born when Barbara, her father’s sister, died; and Joy Roney, Melissa’s aunt and childhood playmate. Both women tried years ago to find out more about what happened and encouraged us to pursue the story over the past year.
Joseph Daly, a retired criminal law professor at what is now Mitchell Hamline School of Law in St. Paul, reviewed the Star Tribune’s investigation.
“Based on your article I do not believe that a prosecutor could prove beyond a reasonable doubt who murdered the little girls,” Daly said. “It is such a sad story. I am sure it has troubled all the police officers who have worked on this case for so many years and family and friends who knew the children.”
He added: “This case needs to be investigated more deeply by the police. … One can only hope the truth will eventually be revealed and the murderer will be revealed by hard, nonspeculative evidence.”
However, it appears that the hard evidence that was collected in the case — which was substantial — has long since disappeared.
The co-defendant is serving a life sentence.
