Dakota Spotlight podcast issues 'Open Letter to a Killer' in Diede/Anderson missing persons case

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What happens when two people suddenly vanish, when they're just gone, disappeared off the face of the earth?

Sure there's the immediate loss of two loved ones, two family members, two community members, two friends. But as the years drag on, the aftershocks of two missing people reverberate on and on.

This episode, the last scheduled episode of this season of Dakota Spotlight, pulls back the curtain on the decades of pain, loss and questions suffered — often in silence — by those who knew and loved Kristin Diede and Bob Anderson, two Minnesotans gone missing in North Dakota in August 1993.

Law enforcement haven't charged anyone for the likely homicides of Diede and Anderson. But in this episode, Dakota Spotlight addresses the unidentified killer of the duo, and exposes the damage that person has done to many people — family, friends and others — for decades.

In this season of Dakota Spotlight, the podcast tackles a live, multi-part investigation that spans multiple states including Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota, in which host James Wolner and co-producer Jeremy Fugleberg try to figure out what happened to Kristin Anderson and Bob Anderson, who vanished in North Dakota on Aug. 15, 1993.

Photo Gallery — tap side arrows to see photos

1/17: Bob Anderson

2/17: The Wishek Star newspaper published this missing persons poster in the spring of 1996

3/17: Chase Anderson takes a break from his meeting with law enforcement investigators on Sept 30, 2015. His father, Bob Anderson has been missing since August 15, 1993 when he disappeared alongside Kristin Diede.

4/17: 23 years after his disappearance, five members of Bob Anderson's family huddle up before meeting with investigators to discuss the case. Sept 30, 2015 in Napoleon, ND

5/17: Bob Anderson's 1979 Dodge van is being held as evidence in Logan County, ND. It was found abandoned without license plates in Aberdeen, SD five days after Kristin and Bob were last seen in Wishek, SD. The VIN (Vehicle Identification Number) had been filed off the chassis.

6/17: Kristin Diede, who went missing on Aug. 15, 1993, is pictured here on a missing poster later placed around town by friends in Bloomington, Minnesota

7/17: A 1993 'plot map' showing the Diede family farm. Kristin Diede and Bob Anderson were last reported to have been headed to the farm on August 15, 1993. They have never been seen or heard from since then.

8/17: According to this article from the Wishek Star, BCI investigators sent dive teams to a local dam to look for clues in the case in 1996.

9/17: A rural road in Logan, County, ND

10/17: Map showing location of the Diede Famiy Farmstead North of Wishek, North Dakota. Kristin Diede and Bob Anderson were last reported heading there on August 15, 1993. They have never been seen or heard from since then.

11/17: Bob Anderson's Van was reported as abandoned at the train depot parking lot, downtown Aberdeen, South Dakota on August 20, 1993

12/17: on Thursday, October 10, 2021

13/17: Kristin Diede's senior photo. Wishek High 1982

14/17: Bob Anderson with

15/17: Wes Meidinger, in his days as a trooper in the North Dakota Highway Patrol.

16/17: Bob Anderson, pictured in a missing poster created by friends after he went missing in August 1993.

17/17: Kristin Diede and Bob Anderson taking a stroll in the woods. May 1, 1993

Police are tight-lipped about the case, but the duo works with Kristin and Bob's family members, friends and allies to untangle why they went to North Dakota, what exactly took place on Aug. 15, 1993 — the last day they were seen and why the couple has never been found.

The investigation reveals the painful holes ripped through people's lives when their loved ones disappear without a trace. The mystery of Diede and Anderson's disappearance continues to haunt many whose lives they touched.

People in this episode

• Chase: Son of Bob Anderson. Chase had long been told his dad had abandoned him, and had lived a troubled life with addiction and prison time. He later found out his dad actually hadn't abandoned him, but had instead vanished in 1993 and authorities believed he had been murdered.
  
• Dan: Dan was a reporter at WCCO television in Minneapolis in 1995. He flew to Wishek, North Dakota, to pursue the missing persons case, was met with hostility from the Diede family and believes he was followed around town and back to the town's airstrip. He remains haunted by the experience.

• Dean: Bob's brother, and the last Anderson family members to see him alive. He recalled a happy family, and a childhood growing up on a hobby farm.

• Debra: Bob's sister, who recalled how he was quiet and supportive, and how much she looked up to her big brother.
  
• Diane: Bob's sister, who shared numerous memories of her brother, and their family — including a father who promoted education and told her she could do what she aspired to do in life. Diane and her husband Mike have kept careful notes and gathered information over the years about the missing persons case.

• Heather: A neighbor of Kristin in Bloomington, Minnesota. She and a friend, Tiffany, befriended Kristin, helped coax her out of her shell after her marriage to Clyde had collapsed, and were the first to report her missing to law enforcement. Heather says she had a confrontation with Clyde as he visited Kristin's apartment building after she went missing — a confrontation that left her shaken and scared.

• Molly: An advocate at Cornerstone, a domestic violence shelter and advocacy program in Bloomington, Minnesota. Molly became Kristin's case worker and helped her navigate her relationship with her estranged husband Cylde, including her pursuit of a domestic assault charge against him.

• Susan: Former executive director of Cornerstone, a domestic violence shelter in Minnesota, where Kristin sought help. Susan has been a steadfast advocate for Kristin's case. She points out that many people often vanish with little media attention or public interest, including Indigenous and Black women, and that poverty is a factor as well, including for missing white women such as Kristin.

• Tiffany: A neighbor of Kristin Diede in Bloomington, Minnesota. She and friend Heather befriended Kristin. Tiffany was the last person Kristin was known to have called before vanishing with her boyfriend, Bob. She later reported them missing to Bloomington police and felt blown off.

People in previous episodes

• Betty: Kristin's mother, now deceased, who told James the family had no photos of Kristin.
  
• Brenda: Kristin's sister, who recalled her sister enjoying cards and other games, and remembered hearing about Kristin and Bob going missing not long after returning from a trip over the weekend Kristin disappeared.
  
• Clyde: Kristin's estranged husband. They married in 1983 and had two kids together, Mitchel and Deanna. He was convicted of 5th-degree domestic assault against Kristin, and issued a no-contact order for her, in May 1993, three months before she vanished. Later, a friend of Heather claims she had a confrontation with him outside Kristin's apartment in Bloomington. In March 1994, Clyde got a divorce from Kristin and obtained full custody of their two children. Later that year he moved to Winner, South Dakota, and opened a chiropractic practice.
  
• Larry: Kristin's brother, who was in Wishek the weekend Kristin and Bob disappeared and remembers her as happy person but one who didn't talk much about her problems.
  
• Mike: Bob's brother-in-law, married to Diane. Together with his wife, Mike has kept up a detail series of notes tracking what's known — and not known — about the missing persons case of Kristin and Bob.

• Sandra: Kristin's sister. Sandra saw Kristin and spoke with her at their brother Larry's place before Sandra and other members of Kristin's immediate family left for a trip to Idaho on Saturday, Aug. 14, 1993 — the day before Kristin vanished.
  
• Sherri: Kristin's niece, who explained that Kristin had grown estranged from the Goebel family. She mentions that after years of uncertainty, it's hard to keep up hope Kristin is alive.
  
• Travis: Nephew of Kristin. He has made it his mission to better understand what might have happened to his aunt and her boyfriend in 1993.
  
• Wes: Retired trooper of the North Dakota Highway Patrol, stationed in Wishek, North Dakota, on Aug. 15, 1993. Kristin and Bob visited Wes on that day, the day they disappeared, to ask about legal issues regarding Kristin, Clyde and their children before leaving for the Diede farm.