Belleville East High School Campus
Belleville, Illinois
In June 1988, a terrifying murder shocked Belleville, Illinois, and raised disturbing questions about a possible St. Clair County serial killer.
Audrey Cardenas was only 24 years old. A native of Texas, Audrey was working as a newspaper intern at the Belleville News-Democrat when she suddenly disappeared. After missing two days of work, police were notified, and a massive search was launched across the Belleville area.
Several days later, a jogger made a horrifying discovery on the Belleville East High School campus. Audrey's decomposed body was found hidden in an overgrown creek bed. Investigators believed she had suffered a massive throat laceration.
Police eventually arrested Rodney Woidtke, a mentally ill transient who confessed to the murder following hours of interrogation. Woidtke was convicted and sentenced to 45 years in prison. But the case was far from over.
Woidtke later recanted his confession and continued to insist he was innocent. Even more disturbing, investigators were already examining other murders of young women in St. Clair County, Illinois, particularly around Belleville and Millstadt. The FBI suspected that a serial killer may have been targeting women in the area.
In 1989, Dale Anderson was convicted of murdering a mother and her young son. FBI profiler Robert Ressler later examined similarities between the crimes and believed Anderson could have been responsible for other murders.
Woidtke eventually won his freedom following a 2001 retrial.
Today, the Audrey Cardenas murder remains one of the darkest true-crime mysteries in Belleville, Illinois—a case surrounded by unanswered questions, a disputed confession, and the chilling possibility that a serial killer once stalked the streets of St. Clair County.