The Disappearance of Charlotte Lysdale: Minnesota’s First Murder Trial Without a Body

On June 14, 1985, Charlotte Lysdale, a widow living in Pine River, Minnesota, drove to her former home on Lower Hay Lake to meet the man buying the property from her. She was last seen arriving between 6:10 and 6:20 p.m.

The buyer, Jerome Bye, later said he paid Lysdale thousands of dollars during the meeting and that she handed over the deed to the property. He told investigators she left a couple of hours later. No one ever saw her again.

When family members checked on her two days later, Charlotte’s apartment appeared undisturbed. Her car was in the garage. Fresh coffee grounds sat in the kitchen. But Charlotte was gone, and so was her purse.

Two years later, Jerome Bye was charged with murder and several other crimes connected to Lysdale’s disappearance. The case became the first murder trial in Minnesota to proceed without a body. 

Nearly four decades later, Charlotte Lysdale has never been found.

📍 Cass County, Minnesota  | June 1985

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read and written by Aimee Baker

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