UWO anthropology prof heats up cold cases through forensic investigations

It was a warm August evening in 1983 when Starkie Swenson decided to take a ride out on his bike around the town of Neenah. Unbeknownst to Swenson, it would be the last time he would be seen alive. Although the perpetrator was found, his body would remain missing for the next 30 years. That is, until Dr. Jordan Karsten, an Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, decided to dig a little deeper.

Karsten keeps a flexible mindset whenever he first starts a search for remains.

“Sometimes you show up to a place where you don’t know if there’s a body but you have some intelligence that suggests there is,” he said. “You organize a team and sometimes you find them on the surface, but sometimes you have to excavate. It’s a little bit of a search.”  

The remains that Karsten was searching for were ultimately found by two hikers at High Cliff State Park, but Karsten and his team still played a pivotal role in solving the case. This is not the first time he has been called in to help solve a murder mystery. 

“I started studying human remains as a college student. After I graduated with a Ph.D. and started working at UW Oshkosh, the Winnebago County Coroner saw that I was a skeletal expert and asked if I could help them with a case,” he said. 

Despite his impressive success and gathered expertise in the field, Karsten didn’t originally set out to become an anthropologist. Rather, he seemingly stumbled upon his passion by chance. 

“I took a general education class when I was a college student,” he said. “I had never heard of it, I had never thought of it before, but I loved the class.” 

From there, Karsten’s dedication and forensic prowess led him to help the Department of Justice, the F.B.I, and other sheriff offices around the state. Now, he’s turned his sights toward the Laurie Depies case, involving an Appleton resident who went missing in 1992. In 2010, a convicted serial killer from Indiana took responsibility for her death, but no evidence was ever found to support his claims. Karsten is hopeful that a breakthrough on the case could occur.

“I realized that most people who live in this area know the disappearance of Laurie Depies,” he said. “That, to me, was interesting because if everybody knows about it and talks about it, there’s a chance that there are people out there who have some information that could be helpful.”

Karsten will cover the cold case in season two of his murder mystery podcast, Cold Case: Frozen Tundra. In the first season of the podcast, Karsten covered the details and story of the Swenson case. The mystery that shrouded Swenson’s disappearance inspired Karsten to create the podcast.

“We were going to do a big search and involve a lot of students. I figured, what better way to outline the details of the case than in a podcast that students could listen to and understand,” he said. “The Swenson case also has a really interesting story.”

The podcast was a success and Cold Case: Frozen Tundra drew in listeners from all over Winnebago County. Now, with a large number of listeners, Karsten hopes to bring more attention to the Depies case. 

“I figured that if we’re going to cover that case and its details, there might be a way to help because we have a lot of listeners on the podcast,” he said. “If some of them are listening and they tell their friends, they may have some information that could be helpful.”

While he continues to work on his podcast and various forensic jobs, Karsten still puts the teaching he does as a professor first. He thoroughly enjoys spreading his passion for anthropology. 

“My favorite part of the job is teaching people all of anthropology,” he said. “It’s a highly varied discipline, studying ancient bones and modern bones, and there’s so much that can be done.”

His energy and enthusiasm for anthropology beam through the classroom and inspire countless UW Oshkosh students. Noah Alford, a West alumni and former student of Karsten, thoroughly enjoyed his class.

“The lectures were really interesting,” he said. “Dr. Karsten does a great job of keeping everyone engaged.”

Between all of his forensic work, Karsten still finds time to teach multiple classes a year. He brings energy to every class he teaches. Alford took one of his classes as a general education requirement. 

“Initially, I wasn’t very interested in anthropology,” he said, “but he made it very exciting.”

Karsten is dedicated to his work and likes to bring teams of students to get on-the-field experience. His effort to bring these cold cases back to life helps bring closure to countless affected families.

“The most exciting part is being able to identify someone who’s been missing for a long time,” he said. “It allows the family to know what happened to their loved one and give them a proper burial to bring them some closure.”

By Max Carlin

March 18 2022

Volume 118 Issue VI