Name: Catherine A. Runte
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: May 22, 1979
Location Last Seen: Palatine, Cook Co, Illinois
Date of Birth: October 21, 1950
Age: 28 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 112 lbs.
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Scar on bridge of nose, scar on upper lip, scar on abdomen.
Dentals: Available. Had braces on teeth at time of disappearance.
Fingerprints: Available
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Last seen wearing a jean skirt, with a split up the back; a navy blue top and a white jacket with soft grey stripes.
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Catherine Runte had an emotional and physical fight with husband on May 22, 1979. She left the house on foot and has not been seen or heard from since.
The husband claimed Catherine Runte had mental problems and was afraid of being hospitalized. He told police she walked out of the house, taking only a purse containing credit cards and a small amount of cash, and leaving her car behind. He reported her missing three days later after his own search for her was fruitless A private investigator he hired was also unable to learn what happened to her.
Runte lived in the Spinnaker Cove subdivision in Palatine. Relatives said at the time that she had been looking forward to her mother's upcoming second marriage and had lifelong friends in the area. Her coworkers said she seemed happy with her part-time job as an Interior designer for a Barrington firm.
Eight months before she disappeared, a man and woman armed with pistols forced their way Into her home and handcuffed her to a beam in the basement. For several hours they ransacked the house and took more than $5,000 worth of jewelry and furnishings. Runte's stepdaughter, one of two who lived at home, found her when she returned home from high school. Police are uncertain if the the home invasion has any relation to her disappearance.
Several months after Catherine Runte disappeared, a telephone company serviceman discovered a wire tap on her mother's home phone In Carpentersville. No one knows who placed the wiretap or whether it could be related.
None of the credit cards Mrs Runte had with her has been used. Area cab companies told police she was not picked up the night she disappeared.
Her family told police that Mrs. Runte had argued previously with her husband during their six years of marriage and that she left for periods of a couple of hours "to cool off." On one occasion, she was gone for several days but informed her family of her whereabouts.
Agency Name: Palatine Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Mike Tulley
Agency Phone Number: 847-963-6458
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 79E251032
NCIC Case Number: M742780886
Palatine Police Department
Newspaper Archive
NamUs MP #17889
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
Return Home