It has now been more than 13 years since Eddie Rusboldt’s family last saw him alive. Rusboldt was like so many others who come to D.C. in the summer to see the sites, spend time with friends and hit a few nightclubs.
But unlike most tourists, Rusboldt didn’t make it out of the nation’s capital alive.
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On his last night in town, the 23-year-old Purdue University student got lost and separated from his buddies. Rusboldt’s body was found the next morning just off Dupont Circle in the tree-lined 1900 block of Sunderland Place NW. A medical examiner concluded Rusboldt was beaten to death the night of May 31, 1986. He died of compression of the neck and chest with blunt force injuries to the head and face in what police believe was a robbery that went wrong.
“He probably happened to be at the wrong place, at the wrong time,” said Jim Trainum, head of the Violent Crime Case Review Project. “(The attack) was very viscous, very senseless.”
Mark Rusboldt, Eddie’s older brother, was stationed in Korea with the Air Force when he got the news that Eddie, the sixth of seven children, had been killed. It was the most difficult day of the family’s lives.
“At some point, after awhile you just have to resign yourself, that it’s something that you have to live with,” said Mark Rusboldt, of Orlando, Fla. “We still think about him all the time. It just took awhile to resign yourself that you’re never going to see him and let God do what God does.”
Even though Rusboldt was found in an area that has a lot of foot traffic, investigators were unable to identify any suspects. Witness descriptions varied greatly. One story involved a group of black males, and others described Korean and Vietnamese gangs.
Rusboldt took the summer break to meet with friends in Northern Virginia and D.C. At the end of the night, the friends lost track of Rusboldt and their car.
After roaming Dupont neighborhoods for about 45 minutes, they found the car, but they never met with Rusboldt. The friends drove back home to Arlington. When Rusboldt failed to show up the next day, they called police.
Anyone with information on the case can contact police through the tip line at 888-919-2776 or through a text messaging number: 50-411. The D.C. police department is offering a reward of up to $25,000 to anyone who provides information that leads to a conviction.
