FOND DU LAC COUNTY, Wis. More than three decades after James “Jim” Ruland disappeared from Fond du Lac County, investigators arrested his former roommate on a homicide charge even though Ruland’s body has never been recovered. Detectives from the Fond du Lac County Sheriff’s Office took Jerome P. Baier, 83, into custody in the early morning hours of Friday, Sept. 18, 2026, while serving a search warrant at a rural residence near Spencer in Marathon County.
Authorities say Baier is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in Ruland’s death. He was taken to the Fond du Lac County Jail and remained in custody pending an initial court appearance. Baier has not been convicted. District Attorney Eric J.
Toney’s office said the defendant is presumed innocent unless or until proven guilty. A criminal complaint was filed after the arrest, and Fond du Lac County Circuit Court Judge Anthony Nehls signed an arrest warrant. Court officials said the complaint is sealed. Prosecutors said they would not release further details until after Monday’s initial appearance.
Ruland was 40 years old in 1995 and living in the Town of Ripon. Sheriff Ryan F. Waldschmidt’s office said Baier was Ruland’s roommate when Ruland vanished. Earlier local reporting described Ruland as divorced, the father of two children, and in the process of moving to Kiel to live with a different roommate.
Those details come from historical coverage of the missing person case, not from the sealed complaint. Investigators say Ruland was last confirmed seen on Oct. 24, 1995. A witness later reported a possible sighting of him hitchhiking in North Fond du Lac on Oct.
- He has not been seen since. Missing person records from the period state he was last seen by coworkers at Kaytee Products in Chilton. A sibling reported him missing days later after he failed to pick up a paycheck.
Ruland’s vehicle was later found at the Stretch Truck Stop in North Fond du Lac. Federal and state missing person bulletins identify the vehicle as a white Dodge Aries station wagon recovered on Nov. 14, 1995, with the keys in the ignition and personal possessions in the cargo area. Those records describe Ruland as about 6 feet tall and 160 pounds, with brown hair, blue eyes, glasses, and surgical hardware in his skull from childhood head injuries that required shunt implants.
The sheriff’s office said the case began as a missing person inquiry and later became a homicide investigation after evidence collected over many years changed the direction of the work. Authorities have not publicly identified that evidence. They have said only that the investigation produced probable cause for an arrest even without a recovered body. The search for Ruland lasted 31 years.
Officials said crews used human remains detection dogs, ground penetrating radar, aerial searches, large scale excavations of possible burial sites, public safety divers in waterways, and a search of a pig farm manure pit. Those efforts did not locate remains. Baier’s name surfaced in the case long before Friday’s arrest. In the years after Ruland disappeared, FOX 11 reported that Baier pleaded no contest to forging Ruland’s signature on two checks and cashing them.
In 1997, sheriff’s officials told the same station they did not have any reason to suspect Baier in the disappearance. A 2020 review by the Fond du Lac Reporter, drawing on agency archives, described earlier farm searches near the shared Ripon residence and at another farm north of Ripon, including work in pig waste pits. Those searches also failed to produce Ruland’s remains. In 2021, detectives requested additional testing of evidence previously submitted to the Wisconsin State Crime Laboratory after advances in forensic technology.
The sheriff’s office said those results helped corroborate information gathered through interviews and other analysis. Further interviews followed. Officials still have not described the tested items or the laboratory findings. That same period included renewed placement of Ruland’s case in national systems, including the National Crime Information Center, NamUs, and the FBI’s Violent Criminal Apprehension Program.
Waldschmidt said Friday that detectives had remained committed for 31 years “to uncovering the truth behind James Ruland’s homicide.” The Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation and the Marathon County Sheriff’s Office assisted the inquiry. The case is being prosecuted by Toney and Assistant District Attorney Sue Opper. Ruland’s family was notified of the arrest and asked for privacy.
Baier is scheduled to appear at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 21, at the Fond du Lac County Courthouse. Investigators asked anyone with information to contact Lt. of Detectives Alex Volm or Detective Dave Olig, or to use the county tip line. The sheriff’s office said the search for Ruland’s remains has not ended.
Authorities allege that Ruland was the victim of first-degree intentional homicide. That allegation has not been tested in court. The evidence supporting the charge remains sealed.
