Arrest Made in Case of Mother’s “Gruesome” 1987 Workplace Abduction, Murder

Derby Wagner-Richardson, 28, was a mother of two who “worked her tail off” to raise her children, according to Spingola. She held three jobs, including weekdays at a nursing center in Kenosha and as an instructor at the YWCA in Racine. On the weekends, Derby worked third shift as a security guard at Racine’s Styberg Engineering company, from where she was abducted.

The doting mother was described as having a tough time in her teenage years, according to Lt. Lauer. At 16, she found work as a dancer at a local bar owned by Fred Wagner-Richardson, the man she’d later marry and with whom she shared two daughters.

“There was quite a bit of abuse history, both physical and mental,” Lauer told Cold Justice. “I think it was kind of a living nightmare for a long time for her.”

On March 22, 1987, Derby — who was supposed to check in on the hour of her 12-hour shift at Styberg — failed to clock in at 1:00 a.m. Her supervisor searched the property and called the police when he found no signs of the employee. However, things seemed a little off in the building’s lunchroom and a connecting office, where Derby regularly folded her children’s laundry.

Left behind was Derby’s jacket with the arms pulled through and a broken clock, among other items.

“There were signs of a struggle at a nearby office where the door had actually been kicked in,” said Spingola. “It appears Derby had been attacked and abducted in her own car.”

Police arriving at the 1987 scene found no sign of Derby or her Pontiac Sunbird. But within hours, they found a good amount of the missing woman’s items across town, scattered around roadsides heading away from Racine. Objects included Derby’s makeup bag, car keys, and bloody clothes.

The following morning, around 8:00 a.m., an officer found Derby’s car parked in front of the Styberg Engineering building. The official recognized blood dripping from the trunk of the vehicle.

Police found Derby’s unclothed body inside. The victim only wore one sock, and she had white duct tape still around her mouth. Her throat had been crudely slashed, and her wrists were cut “to the bone,” according to Spingola. The scene was described by Det. Lauer as “gruesome.”

Nothing of physical value could be used as evidence, making it a largely circumstantial case.

Tensions between the couple ratcheted up on March 21, 1987 — just 12 hours before Derby was attacked — when Derby and Fred met with their lawyers to finalize their divorce. Fred stood to lose a good chunk of his income, including a reported 50% of the properties and 25 percent of rent: sums estimated to be about $250,000.

On the way out of the meeting, Fred appeared so visibly upset that Derby’s attorney called authorities and requested she have police protection.

“I don’t like to be hurt,” Fred allegedly said as he left the meeting.

Twelve hours later, Derby was abducted and killed.

“He was the only person in the world that benefitted from Derby’s death,” Spingola told Cold Justice. “Be we gotta prove that.”

Those closest to Derby, including her now-deceased mother, Ruth (who became an advocate for mothers of murdered children), seemed to think Fred was the most probable suspect. It didn’t make sense to her relatives, including Derby’s aunt, Ellie Schmidt, and Derby’s brother, Bryon Linder, that anyone else would want to harm Derby.

“She was a really good mom,” Linder said of Derby. “She kind of put it all on herself, and I guess it wasn’t enough.”

Cold Justice conducted interviews with many of Derby’s friends and coworkers, including Kelly Williams Cherry, who watched the Wagner-Richardson children on the night of Derby’s murder. She was one of the many people who Derby opened up to about the abuse she faced at the hands of Fred.

“Every time she left the house, she’d always say, ‘Please, under no circumstances — if he comes over here, do not open the door for [Fred],’” Cherry told Siegler and Scarvers. “’I don’t want him nowhere near the girls.’”

Fred would raise his daughters following Derby’s murder.

A Theory of What Happened

Revisiting the crime scene, investigators theorized that since there were no signs of forced entry, the assailant likely followed Derby inside. Derby regularly brought her children’s clothes to work to fold, and backed her car to the door of the lunchroom to take the laundry back and forth.

It was believed the killer gained entry while Derby made one of the trips.

Based on the jacket with the inside-out sleeves, it appeared someone attempted to grab Derby from behind, though she managed to wriggle away and head for the nearby office. Marks on the door suggested Derby locked herself in the office before her killer forced his way inside and attacked her.

“At this point, Derby is likely unconscious,” Spingola speculated. “The suspect taped her mouth with the white duct tape and carried her out to the trunk of her car.”

The tape suggested that the homicide was premeditated and, according to Spingola, Derby’s personal items were strewn across town “in an attempt to throw off investigators.” It was possible that the killer feared they’d be their number one suspect.

Investigators believed the killer took Derby to another location, stripped her down, and killed her, before bringing the car back to her place of work, perhaps because the killer had to retrieve his vehicle.

There were no signs of a sexual assault despite Derby being unclothed.

“With no signs of a sexual assault, I think this was done, actually, to either torture her or humiliate her once her body was found,” Spingola told Cold Justice. “Derby’s killer wanted her to suffer, even after her death.”