Wallace Lembke, 62, was last seen on December 13, 1982, at a tavern on Wells Street in Milwaukee. He worked nights as a janitor at Templeton Middle School in Sussex and phoned in sick on December 14, then didn’t report to work on December 15; family members reported him missing on December 16. He lived alone with two dogs.

Two weeks after his disappearance Lembke’s car was found abandoned in the parking lot of a Howard Johnson’s Motor Lodge in Wauwatosa. Traces of blood and his bloodied eyeglasses were located in the trunk, which shifted investigators toward foul play. He is described as 5 feet 7 inches, 165 pounds, brown hair, blue eyes, with a shorter left leg that required a shoe lift. He may have been wearing blue cotton work pants or blue jeans and a western-style button-down shirt when he disappeared.

The case remains unsolved and the Delafield Police Department continues to seek information. Did anyone in Milwaukee or Wauwatosa in December 1982 remember seeing Lembke, his car, or anything unusual near the Howard Johnson’s lot?