The Evidence That Led to an Arrest 38 Years After Pregnant Woman’s Murder

For nearly 40 years, the questions surrounding Ronna Bremer’s disappearance have been left unanswered. 

The 22-year-old vanished from her home in Ozark, Mo., on the evening of December 20, 1988, when she was seven months pregnant. At the time of her disappearance, the mom of two was living with her husband, Joel Bremer, who claimed he was not home when she vanished. 

After investigators questioned witnesses, they couldn’t charge anyone due to lack of evidence, including the absence of a body. However, things changed once a skull was anonymously sent to police, which was eventually identified as Ronna’s. Even with the confirmation, the case remained cold until November 2024 when updated DNA testing ultimately led to Joel’s arrest in 2026.

Joel told investigators that he and Ronna had been fighting the night she vanished and that he left the home. He further explained that he went to his workplace and planned to wait until it opened to pick up his paycheck. However, he began walking home because of the cold weather. He later returned and fell asleep in the living room with his children, so he wasn’t aware that his wife was missing until the next morning. Joel reported her missing on December 22. 

Joel’s sister, Barbara Gray, told police that Ronna called her around 10:30 p.m. on the night of her disappearance asking whether Joel was at her house, but Barbara said she didn’t know where he was. Barbara then sent out her husband, David, and another family member, John Simpson, to look for Joel. 

Simpson alleged that he went to Ronna and Joel’s home, but David took him home before they found Joel. On the contrary, David claimed he never went out looking for Joel or went to his home. 

In 1991, a human skull was found in the woods near David’s house and anonymously sent to the Greene County Sheriff’s Office. The rest of her remains had not yet been found. 

Meanwhile, the sheriff sent the skull to Colorado State University, where a facial reconstruction was made in hopes of helping name the victim, but to no avail. In 1997, Ronna was officially declared dead. 

Years later, in 2001, an examiner confirmed through dental records that the skull belonged to Ronna.

The same year, a man—who remained anonymous—claimed that David had confessed to killing a woman.

“Apparently he didn’t choke her long enough,” the witness stated. “He was laughing, telling me, uh, he ‘had to choke the b---- twice.’ You know, she wouldn’t die.”

The man also said that his girlfriend found the skull but was too afraid to come forward and sent it to a nearby county. 

After the Christian County Sheriff’s Office (CCSO) labeled Ronna’s murder as a cold case in 2016, the office reopened it in November 2024 and reinvestigated with help from a documentary team.

During the investigation, the team used updated forensic technology on original evidence and gained more information on Joel and Ronna’s relationship. This information led them to Iowa and Nebraska, where the couple lived before moving to Missouri. Authorities soon discovered that Joel had previously been arrested for domestic assault against Ronna while he and Ronna were living in Iowa.

This wasn’t the first time Joel got in trouble with the law. At the time Ronna’s remains were being identified, Joel was serving a seven-year prison sentence after pleading guilty in 2001 to two counts of felony sexual abuse. According to court records, he sexually abused his daughter when she was 11 years old.

In July 2016, Joel pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography and was sentenced to 18 years in prison without parole. He was also sentenced to a lifetime of supervised release. His appeal was denied and he is still a registered sex offender. 

The documentary team also interviewed the same witnesses from 2001, including the anonymous man. His story remained the same. They spoke to Ronna and Joel’s daughter, Samantha, who was 3 years old at the time of her mom’s disappearance. Samantha recalled a car pulling up to her home on the night of her mom’s disappearance, with Ronna saying, “There he is”—seemingly referring to Joel—and then leaving the house. 

The documentary team believed that two people disposed of Ronna’s body, focusing on David and Joel. When confronted, David said he didn’t kill her and didn’t confess anything to anyone. Neither David nor Joel was charged at the time.

However, after evidence from 1989 was reevaluated via an updated forensic DNA test, investigators revealed that the DNA profile linked back to Joel. 

Joel was indicted on July 24, 2026, and arrested in Kansas City on July 31, where he was extradited to Christian County. He was booked at Christian County Jail on August 2 and charged with two counts of second-degree murder in connection with Ronna and her unborn child’s deaths.

“What’s been going on for the last 30-some years, it’s so close to the point of being adjudicated and somebody being brought to justice that I think it brings satisfaction for everybody,”  Sheriff Brad Cole of the CCSO told KY3.

Cole also noted the case was complex to figure out as “there just wasn’t a whole lot of information at the time or any tangible evidence to put their hands on to move forward with the investigation.”

Cole praised everyone who helped out on the case over the years: “Technology is great, but you still have to rely on the people that work these cases to be able to put that technology to work and implement it to ask the right questions during these interviews and make sure we get the information we need to get to a point of getting someone charged.”

Joel first appeared in court on August 3, where he pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. 

“My sister was a lovely person,” Ronna’s sister, Deanna Stevens, told Cold Justice. “She was very carefree and fun. It’s unfortunate that someone so evil snuffed that out of her.”