Name: Diane Van Reeth
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: August 10, 1995
Location Last Seen: Tuscon, Pima County, Arizona
Date of Birth: February 2, 1960
Age: 35 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'7"
Weight: 140 lbs.
Hair Color: Dark brown, medium length
Eye Color: Brown
Nickname/Alias: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Unknown
Dentals: Unknown
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Diane Van Reeth disappeared August 10, 1995, after she left her Winterhaven home for work. She never arrived at TEP, where she was a research coordinator in the tax services office.
Tucson police recovered Van Reeth's maroon 1992 Ford Aerostar van about two blocks from her home in a parking lot near East Fort Lowell and North Country Club roads. Her keys were not in the van, and there were no signs of a struggle in the vehicle.
Her husband, John Joseph Kalhauser, was arrested on fugitive and forgery charges, and also faces a 1980 attempted-murder charge in Chelmsford, Massachusetts. Kalhauser's initial explanation for the disappearance of the mother of two was that she ran off with another man.
Kalhauser, who used the alias Stecchi while he was on the run from a 1979 murder attempt in Massachusetts, and van Reeth married in 1986. She filed for divorce in July 1995 and disappeared the next month, after her attorney told Kalhauser that she wanted sole custody of their children and that he should move out. Van Reeth's identification cards were found wrapped in a red cloth behind a metal cabinet at the manufacturing firm where Kalhauser once worked. The discovery was made as the firm was moving to a new shop.
Kalhauser maintains it is unknown whether van Reeth is dead. He was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 1999. Kalhauser talked about dumping his wife's body in a Mount Lemmon mine shaft. A Massachusetts jury convicted him in 1996 for shooting his former fiance's boyfriend. He was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Kalhauser also was convicted of manslaughter in 1971 for killing a 52-year-old man. Kalhauser, then 17, spent a year in prison for the slaying before he was released.
After her disappearance Van Reeth's mother obtained legal custody of the couple's two young sons.
Van Reeth is a native Tucsonan who graduated from Cholla High School. She is a certified public accountant, and graduated from the University of Arizona in 1988 with a degree in accounting. She was hired by TEP in March 1991.
Agency Name: Tucson Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Maria Cheek, Detective
Agency Phone Number: (520) 791-4444
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 9508100532
NamUs Case Number: 35452
NamUs
The Arizona Daily Star - Aug. 13, 1995 & May 14, 1999
Added: Prior to 2011; Last Updated: 02/11/2024 - By: kc
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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