The Dock at Myron Grove: The Unsolved Killing of Alicia Hummel

At 1:30 p.m. on June 1, 2015, Alicia Hummel sent a Snapchat of the boat dock at Myron Grove. The dock is on the Missouri River in rural Clay County, South Dakota. Her caption read, “Finally I’ve been waiting since fall,” Forum News Service reported.

She was 29, a preschool teacher from Sioux City, Iowa, and it was the first day of her summer vacation. She had come to fish.

That afternoon she was found in the river near the same dock. Her death was ruled a homicide. No one has been charged. The case is still unsolved.

Sources for this section: 1, 2, 7, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16

Early Head Start

Alicia and her sister, Erica, were raised by their grandparents, Jan and Duane Folkers. Jan told Dateline she was proud of how much Alicia liked to learn.

She graduated from South Dakota State University in 2009 and earned another degree from the University of South Dakota in 2012. Her friend Jody Hanson said Alicia had thought about a master’s degree. But she “absolutely loved kids.” Starting in 2013, she taught Early Head Start classes for infants and toddlers at the Siouxland Family Center in Dakota City.

She skated for the Sioux City Roller Dames, then stayed on as a non-skating official, helping set up for bouts. “She was a nice gal, always smiling and giggling, helping do whatever she could,” said the team’s coach, Melissa Dittberner.

Her friends told the Sioux City Journal what they remembered. Jean shorts with cowboy boots. Luke Bryan on the car radio. Cheetah print. Pink was her favorite color. On nights out with friends she would have one drink, something fruity.

“She wasn’t just somebody off the street … What happened to her should not define her,” Bethany Svacina, a friend since kindergarten, told the Journal in 2019.

Sources for this section: 9, 10, 11, 12

Time to think

In 2011, while still in college, Alicia married. Bethany told Dateline the couple separated in 2014, and that Alicia “was finally coming to terms with moving on, becoming independent and finding herself again.”

She was living with her grandmother then. Jan told Dateline why Alicia wanted the time away.

“She knew the divorce was coming closer and just wanted some time away for herself to think.”

The day after Alicia died, Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe said her husband was not a suspect at that time, the Sioux City Journal reported. In 2021, Forum News Service reported that he had been questioned, as spouses are in most murder investigations. His location at the time of her death put him more than 200 miles from the scene, Forum reported, “a solid alibi for law enforcement officials.”

Another friend, Amanda Abraham, said Alicia was ready to move on. “She was finally on the path to find her own happiness,” Amanda told the Journal in 2019.

Sources for this section: 9, 10, 11, 12, 14

A month off

June 1 was a Monday, the first day of a month off work. She had posted on Facebook the night before and again that morning that she was going fishing.

She asked friends to come along. No one could, Jan told Dateline. Amanda’s daughter, Angel, told the Journal in 2019 that she remembers Alicia messaging her, “Want to go fishing?” Angel wrote back that she would come out later. Another message never came.

On her way out of the house, Alicia asked her grandfather if he would help her clean whatever fish she caught. Duane said he would. It was the last time Jan and Duane saw her.

She sent friends a Snapchat of her fishing rod on the passenger seat, its tip sticking out of the sunroof, Forum News Service reported.

Sources for this section: 1, 11, 12, 13, 14

The license

Shortly before 1 p.m. she sent a message saying she couldn’t find her tackle box.

At 1:06 p.m. she stopped at the Walmart in Vermillion to buy a fishing license. At 1:19 she texted about the old man who sold it to her. He had told her he hoped she “caught a big one.”

Sources for this section: 13

The dock

Myron Grove is also known as the Highline Area of Clay County. Reports put it about 7, 10 or 11 miles from Vermillion.

She sent the Snapchat of the dock at 1:30.

While she was there, she texted a friend that two people were having sex in a parked car. Forum News Service reported the text was sent at 1:45 p.m. and did not describe the car. A 2023 KCAU report gives the 1:30 Snapchat as her last contact.

Sources for this section: 1, 9, 12, 13, 14, 16

The ramp attendant

A state employee who tended the boat ramps found her in the water near the shore. “State parks have an employee that tends to those ramps, and that was the employee who found her,” Clay County Sheriff Andy Howe said the next day. Other reports call him a Game, Fish and Parks employee or officer. Howe told Dateline the employee reported it right away.

The sources give different times. The Sioux City Journal reported about 2 p.m. Howe gave roughly 2 p.m. in 2021. He told Dateline about 2:20. A Vermillion police captain said about 3 p.m. KELOLAND in 2021 and KCAU in 2023 reported 3:30. The state’s releases said “late afternoon.”

Her car was parked in the lot by the dock. Her keys were on the front seat, KELOLAND reported in 2021. Investigators listed her purse, her phone and her fishing pole as missing, Forum News Service reported.

The employee was never named publicly. Howe said in 2021 that he was questioned at length and “was very helpful.”

Sources for this section: 1, 6, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16

Attached to her phone

Early that afternoon, Amanda had gotten a Snapchat of Alicia holding her fishing rod. That evening, friends told Amanda no one had heard from her.

“She was one of those people who was attached to her phone,” Amanda told the Journal. She hoped Alicia had dropped it in the river. “That would be like her. She could be kind of clumsy,” she said. “I figured I’d get a picture of her with all the fish she caught later.”

Her family and friends reported her missing at 5:20 p.m. Her family was told of her death at 10:30 that night.

Sources for this section: 10, 13

The sedan

On Tuesday, June 2, the Attorney General’s office asked for information about any suspicious activity at Myron Grove between 1 and 3 p.m.

“This suspicious activity may have involved a dark colored sedan with tinted windows and a loud exhaust system.”

“It did appear suspicious, given the nature of the scene down there,” said Vermillion Police Capt. Chad Passick. “We’re hoping the people in that vehicle might have information that would be helpful.”

Late that afternoon, Howe spoke at the Clay County Courthouse. “I think it would be premature to say we have a suspect at this time,” he said. Investigators had not determined whether she had company, he said, and they had not found her phone.

In 2021, Forum News Service reported that the employee who found her had seen a dark sedan with a loud exhaust driving away on the only road in and out of Myron Grove. The employee couldn’t name the make or model. Investigators never found the driver. “We get tips even to this day about that car,” Howe said in 2021.

Sources for this section: 1, 9, 10, 11, 14

The autopsy

On June 9, the state said preliminary findings showed blunt force trauma to the head and incision wounds to the neck. It called the case “an ongoing homicide investigation.” The final report came on June 24.

“…her cause of death was due to drowning with contributing circumstances of an incised wound to the neck and blunt force injuries to the head. Toxicology reports were negative for any alcohol or controlled substances.”

Howe said in 2019 that no murder weapon was ever found. In 2021 he said the autopsy report had not been released to her family because the investigation was still open.

Sources for this section: 2, 3, 12, 14

June 13

Her friends had planned her 30th birthday party for June 13. Amanda got a reminder about it after she heard Alicia had been found. “I saw that reminder and …” she told the Journal. Her voice trailed off.

Alicia was buried at Memorial Park Cemetery in Sioux City. Her casket was pink.

Sources for this section: 10, 12

The reward

The state issued a reward poster in December 2015.

“A $5000.00 reward is offered for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person (s) involved.”

The state called it an anonymous reward.

Sources for this section: 4, 5, 6

The sandbar

About a year after she died, local college students found her purse on a sandbar in the river, Forum News Service reported in 2021. The cash and credit cards were still inside. The phone was not.

Sources for this section: 14

The cross

In 2018, Dateline reported that Jan and Duane were offering $5,000. Every year they went to the dock and put up a cross. “We can’t get her back, so finding answers is all we have left,” Jan told Dateline.

That year Howe told Dateline there had been “hundreds and hundreds” of tips, but no suspects or persons of interest. In 2019 he told the Journal that several suspects were still being investigated. He didn’t name any.

“Not one person has come forward to us to tell us they were there,” Howe said in 2019. “But yet traffic goes in and out of there all the time.”

Sources for this section: 11, 12

The phone

On the sixth anniversary, the phone was still thought to be missing. In December 2021, Howe told Forum News Service otherwise.

“We found a cellphone. It’s Alicia’s phone. Yes, we did discover the cellphone during the investigation.”

He would not say when, how or where it was found. He would not say whether her fishing pole had turned up. Four days later, KTIV reported that investigators said the phone was found at the scene. Howe would not say how or when, or what it showed.

Howe told Forum there had been suspects over the years, but no case had gone to the county prosecutor. He also spoke about the car in Alicia’s text. “Whether they were involved or not, I would very much appreciate visiting with them,” he said. “No such person has ever approached us.”

“We’ve been seeking digital records pretty much since the first day,” Howe said. “I’m optimistic as I sit here today that we’re going to clear this case.”

Sources for this section: 14, 15

The list

In June 2023, Howe told KCAU he had no updates to share. A state agent from the Division of Criminal Investigation met with him regularly to review the case. “The case is active in our minds here and actively discussed,” he said.

Her name is still on the state’s list of unresolved cases, under June 2015.

Sources for this section: 7, 16

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