GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — As it goes for detectives assigned to the disappearance of Deanie Peters, Paul VanRhee is not the first, but he hopes to be the one to solve the decades-old cold case.
He hopes that, by laying bare its facts and black holes, someone will come forward with a memory, a feeling they haven’t been able to shake after all this time. He hopes this will be the missing piece, will explain what previously has been unexplainable.
“It’s just come to this point,” VanRhee said. “The witnesses are aging. The family is aging. It’s just come to a point where it's something we want to do, to try to get the information we need to solve the case.”
It’s true. Deanie’s mother, Mary Peters, is 79. Her brother, William, is 51. Her friend, Kathy Weeks Kingma is 59.
When Deanie walked out of the Forest Hills Central Middle School gym on February 5, 1981, never to be seen again by any of them, they were all much younger then. Forty-five years later, memories fade. People pass.
“At this point in time, we’re not really worried as much about tainting the investigation,” VanRhee said.
“The time is now.”
WATCH: Detective on Deanie Peters case says it can be solved
So, VanRhee shared with FOX 17 the evidence in Deanie’s case. Carefully kept under lock and key in the basement of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, it’s long spent its life in storage, only accessible by law enforcement. Now, for the first time, it’s been brought to the light to be seen.
VanRhee thinks the publicity could bring people back to that cold Thursday night at the middle school, could compel people to share what’s either been forgotten, kept secret or simply thought inconsequential.
“We want to provide as much information as possible because somebody does know what happened,” he said. “I think as long as this case is reviewed and actively followed, and we’re actively receiving tips, it’s solvable."
As for the newly revealed evidence, it is large yet lacking. In plastic tote upon plastic tote, there are messily written notes from former deputies and detectives, tapes of witness statements, maps of the middle school, maps of search areas and dig sites, photos of Deanie, a copy of her yearbook, her dental impressions, a hairbrush and many more physical items and old bits of documentation.
None of it has so far provided a definitive answer to why she disappeared, where her body may be buried and who may have wished harm upon the girl from Cascade.
“It’s almost like having all of these puzzle pieces but no picture of what it looks like all put together,” VanRhee said. “There’s a piece of the puzzle we don’t have, but I also think that one piece might be all we need.”
In 2020, VanRhee was assigned to Deanie’s case. At the time, he “didn’t know a lot” about it. When she disappeared, he had yet to be born. Still, as a no-body-no-scene crime, he knew it was “one of the most difficult cases you can investigate.”
“I saw it as an opportunity,” he said.
Years later, VanRhee now knows it intimately, down to the finest detail. He’s combed through what’s contained in the totes and conducted new interviews with those close to Deanie and others who were at the school. VanRhee feels as if he knows Deanie, too.
“Not only do I feel like I know Deanie, based on all the information we received from people who knew her at the time, but I also feel like I know a lot of people in her life,” he said. “It’s affected a lot of people because of how mysterious it’s been, and there have been no answers as to what happened to her after she walked out.”
During our interview, VanRhee described to me Deanie’s life as a teenager in the eighties. A California kid who looked older than she was, the 14-year-old spent nights and weekends with friends, had crushed on high school boys and, like her peers, wasn’t subject to the stricter parenting of today.
“I think knowing what she was doing gives perspective on her life,” VanRhee said. “She had a lot of friends of different age groups.”
While there are theories as to how these relationships could have played a part in her disappearance, VanRhee prefers to stick to the verifiable who, what, when and where of the case as “there’s information on each one of those theories that would refute” them.
“I think the focus needs to be on that day, that specific time,” said VanRhee, referring to the date of Deanie’s disappearance.
While it’s often been said that no one ever saw Deanie again after she walked out of her middle school gym to go to the bathroom, the detective has interviewed parents and students who say they saw and even spoke with her in the hallways, including a student who, waiting for a ride after band practice, says she saw Deanie walk out of the school’s southwest doors and into the parking lot.
These witness accounts have largely remained private until now. They also remain part of a mystery; one VanRhee believes, after all this time, can be solved.
“I know for a fact we haven't talked to everybody who was there, and it would be nice to have everybody's statement,” he said. “What they saw or what they didn't see.”
Specifically, the detective wants to know if anyone at the school remembers seeing a group of three of four high school-aged boys who, at the same time Deanie was at the school, were seen banging on the building’s front doors and asking for a “Dean Peters.”
VanRhee and the investigators on the case who came before him have also been unable to identify a number of cars in the school parking lot, including a yellow-green, Nova-style car believed to have been driven by this same group of boys, and also a “souped-up” green car with a loud exhaust that, according to a witness, picked up a long-haired girl wearing a coat and scarf and drove away.
While these never-before released details may be unrelated to Deanie’s disappearance, they could also be “vital,” VanRhee says, and bring closure to the Peters family.
“In a case like this, it is a frustrating case to work,” he said. “I hope at some point it might also be the most fulfilling case to work if we can get to the bottom of it.”
Submit a tip
The Kent County Sheriff's Office is actively pursuing any information in the disappearance of Deanie Peters. If you have a tip, you are encouraged to contact detectives through the methods below.
- Call: (616) 632-6125
- Online form
- Silent Observer: (616) 774-2345 or online form
