Key facts
- Name: Marchelle “Shelly” Hansen
- Age at disappearance: 23
- Last seen: November 12, 1987
- Location: Phillips, Price County, Wisconsin
- Status: Still missing — the 40th oldest of roughly 170 open missing-person cases in Wisconsin
- Investigating agency: Price County Sheriff’s Office, Phillips, Wisconsin
The letters home
The last time Shelly Hansen saw her mother was October 11, 1987. They spent the visit picking apples at Waldo Orchards near Random Lake, where Shelly had grown up, and somewhere among the trees Shelly surprised her mother with news: she might be pregnant.
Two weeks later, a letter arrived confirming it. The due date was in July. She wasn’t going to have an abortion. The father, she wrote, was going to pay the medical bills and “all of this stuff — dresser, bed, stroller, walker, everything. And my agreement is not naming him as father to anyone.”
“All I want to know is you’re with me and same with everyone in the family,” she wrote. “If not, I’ll do it on my own.”
Shelly was 23, working two jobs in Phillips — second shift at the Marquip Corp. factory and shifts at the IGA grocery store — and living in the Starlite Apartments just north of town. She’d graduated from Ladysmith High School in 1982, worked at Phillips Plating, and built a quiet working life in the Northwoods. On November 12, 1987, she finished her factory shift and vanished. Her abandoned car was found in the parking lot of a resort more than ten miles away.
She was two to three months pregnant. She never told anyone the father’s name. In nearly forty years, no one has found her, and no one has been charged.
The suspect nobody named
For decades, the public story of Shelly Hansen’s disappearance centered on the unknown father of her unborn child — the man with the money, the secrecy agreement, and the motive to keep his name out of it. Reports speculated about him for years without naming anyone.
In June 2026, Wisconsin Watch and Civic Media published what unsealed court records had been holding: investigators had a named suspect all along, and the public was never told.
His name was Michael D. Raskie. In February 1989 — fifteen months after Shelly vanished — Raskie was convicted of a brutal attack on his own wife and sentenced to seven years in prison. He served 28 months and was paroled in December 1991. According to the records, the Price County Sheriff’s Office suspected his involvement in Shelly’s disappearance at the time — but there is no public indication police interviewed him about it until 2004.
The details stack up in the affidavit for a search warrant, unsealed in 2017:
- A former Marquip employee — Shelly’s coworker — told a Phillips police officer in the spring of 1988 that investigators should look at Raskie. Days later she told the county’s lead homicide investigator, Richard Heitkemper, that she had seen Raskie and Shelly locked in an intense conversation the day Shelly disappeared.
- In 2003, a former Phillips police officer belatedly reported seeing Raskie’s vehicle parked at Shelly’s apartment on the night she vanished, according to former Sheriff Wallace Krenzke.
- The affidavit states Raskie was rumored to have been responsible for Shelly’s disappearance as early as September 1989.
- It took five more years of investigation before deputy and lead investigator Christopher Jarosinski signed the affidavit seeking Raskie’s DNA.
Raskie has never been charged in connection with Shelly Hansen’s disappearance, and the presumption of innocence applies. In 2024, Price County Sheriff Brian Schmidt gave a television interview about the case without mentioning that Raskie had ever been a lead suspect. Shelly’s family declined to comment on the 2026 reporting. Her siblings, the reporting notes, are divided — nearly four decades of not knowing will do that.
Theories: what might have happened
The father of the child killed her. This has been the dominant theory since 1987: a man paying for silence, facing exposure, with a pregnant 23-year-old who’d just told her mother everything. The secrecy agreement in Shelly’s letter reads, in hindsight, like a vulnerability — she had promised not to name him, which meant if something happened to her, the one person who could explain it was someone nobody knew to look for. What undercuts a conclusion: the father’s identity has never been publicly established, and no one has been charged.
Michael Raskie was involved. The unsealed records make this the most documented theory: the intense conversation on her last day, his vehicle at her apartment that night, the rumors dating to 1989, the DNA affidavit. His 1989 conviction for a brutal attack on his wife establishes a capacity for violence. What must be said clearly: he was never charged, never publicly named as a suspect until the 2026 reporting, and suspicion — even investigators’ suspicion — is not evidence. The presumption of innocence stands.
She left to start over. The abandoned car ten miles away, the pregnancy, the family tension in her letters (“If not, I’ll do it on my own”) — could Shelly have walked away from everything? Against it: she left no note, took nothing that suggested a planned departure, never contacted her mother or six siblings again, and never surfaced in nearly forty years. Women who leave to start over don’t usually stay gone from everyone, forever.
Of Wisconsin’s roughly 170 open missing-person cases, Shelly Hansen’s is the 40th oldest. Her mother, who picked apples with her that October day, died without answers. Somewhere there is a man whose name was never spoken — and, according to records kept quiet for decades, a suspect whose name was never spoken either.
Have information?
Contact the Price County Sheriff’s Office in Phillips, Wisconsin, or the FBI at 1-855-CALL-FBI (1-855-225-5324). In an emergency, dial 911.
Timeline
- 1982 — Shelly Hansen graduates from Ladysmith High School; later works at Phillips Plating and moves into the Starlite Apartments near Phillips.
- October 11, 1987 — Last visit with her mother in Random Lake; apple picking at Waldo Orchards; tells her mother she might be pregnant.
- Late October 1987 — Letters home: due date in July, no abortion; the father will pay expenses; she has agreed not to name him.
- November 12, 1987 — Finishes her shift at Marquip Corp. and vanishes; her car is found abandoned at a resort parking lot 10+ miles away.
- Spring 1988 — A coworker urges police to investigate Michael Raskie; reports seeing him in an intense conversation with Shelly the day she vanished.
- February 1989 — Raskie convicted of a brutal attack on his wife; sentenced to seven years.
- September 1989 — Raskie is rumored to be responsible for Shelly’s disappearance (per later affidavit).
- 2003 — A former officer reports seeing Raskie’s vehicle at Shelly’s apartment the night she vanished.
- 2004 — First public indication police interview Raskie about the case.
- 2017 — Search-warrant affidavit seeking Raskie’s DNA is unsealed.
- June 2026 — Wisconsin Watch/Civic Media reveal the hidden suspect; family declines comment.
- Today — Still missing.
FAQ
Is Shelly Hansen still missing?
Yes. As of October 2026, Shelly Hansen has been missing for nearly 39 years. Her case is the 40th oldest of roughly 170 open missing-person cases in Wisconsin.
Was Shelly Hansen ever found?
No. Neither Shelly nor any trace of her has ever been found. Her abandoned car was located the night she vanished, and nothing since.
How old would Shelly Hansen be today?
Shelly was 23 when she disappeared in November 1987 — she would be 61, turning 62, today.
Who was the father of Shelly Hansen’s baby?
It was never publicly established. Shelly wrote to her mother that the father would pay her medical bills and expenses, but that she had agreed not to name him to anyone. She was two to three months pregnant when she vanished.
Who is Michael Raskie?
Raskie is a man Price County investigators suspected in Shelly’s disappearance — a fact kept from the public until unsealed records were reported in June 2026. He was convicted in 1989 of a brutal attack on his wife. Coworkers placed him in an intense conversation with Shelly on the day she vanished, and his vehicle was reportedly seen at her apartment that night. He has never been charged in her case, and the presumption of innocence applies.
How can I help?
Share this case file. If you have any information, contact the Price County Sheriff’s Office in Phillips, Wisconsin, or the FBI at 1-855-CALL-FBI.
Sources
- News: Wisconsin Watch / Civic Media, “Nearly 40 years after Shelly Hansen vanished in Wisconsin’s Northwoods, unsealed records reveal a hidden suspect” (June 19, 2026); The Sounder (Random Lake), December 1988.
- Reference: The Charley Project; NamUs.
- Media: The Trail Went Cold podcast, ep. 468 (Feb 4, 2026).
Found an error? Tell us via the About page and we will fix it promptly and note the change here. Last verified October 2026.