WISCONSIN RAPIDS, Wis. (WSAW) - If you’re from Wisconsin, then you know going out to the bars to socialize is totally normal. Especially if you’re in your twenties. If you live in a small town, like Wisconsin Rapids, it’s also not unheard of to go out by yourself knowing you’ll probably run into someone you know.

That’s likely what 21-year-old Deidre Harm thought when she hired a babysitter on June 10, 2006. What she didn’t know though, is she’d never get the chance to see her baby girl ever again. Now, 18 years later, investigators say they’re ready to close the case, but with no one in custody.

Before you read any further, this episode is going to be different. That’s because we’re going to do something we typically don’t. We are sharing with you upfront who investigators believe killed Deidre Harm; his name is Christopher Revak.

“We’re still looking for some more information. There’s no doubt in my mind who I believe did this — Chris Revak," Wood County Sheriff Shawn Becker said. “Nothing is going to change my mind to say that he didn’t.”

Christopher was a Wisconsin Rapids native and was living in Douglas County, Missouri in 2009 when he was accused of murder in a different case.

We’ll go into details about how the sheriff’s office there connected him to their victim but before that, we’ll explain why Sheriff Becker is sure Chris is their man and the key to solving Deidre’s case.

That being said, Christopher Revak was never on Wood County’s radar before his arrest in Missouri. In fact, no one has ever been charged with Deidre’s murder. Now, thanks to critical interviews withmay have his family, wife, and girlfriend, plus circumstantial evidence, Sheriff Becker and his team are sure they know Christopher is responsible.

To make their case, the sheriff’s department gave NewsChannel 7 access to never-before-released documents, maps, and photos to help share their perspective.

“I think that some people still question that he’s not responsible for it, but I think it’s fair to give more information out to say this is why we think this way,” Sheriff Becker said.

So, let’s go back to 2009. On the morning of July 30, the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department received an anonymous call about Deidre Harm’s case which they shared with the county.

“A Crime Stoppers tip had come in that stated Chris Revak, who was living in Ava, Missouri, that’s pretty close to Branson, Missouri, had been arrested for a homicide down in that area,” Sheriff Becker explained.

It had been nearly three years since Deidre’s remains were found by hunters about five miles out of town. Even though the case was still active they hadn’t had a solid lead in a long time.

Soon their interest would only grow when they received an email from the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department saying 36-year-old Christopher Revak, their suspect in a murder case there, may also be connected to Deidre Harm’s death.

At the time of his arrest, Christopher was an EMT for Taney County, Missouri. He had a daughter and stepdaughter from a previous marriage and was married to Johanna Revak, who also worked for the department.

Chris would land on investigators’ radar after being at the same bar as 36-year-old Rene Williams who disappeared two years before in 2007.

According to the Douglas County Sheriff’s Department, physical evidence near Rene’s car and inside Christopher’s truck would connect him to her death. Later, in a 26-page handwritten letter, Johanna described that under immense pressure and fear of her husband, she helped load Rene’s body into their truck days after her death.

However, it was Chris who said he accidentally strangled her and eventually got rid of her body.

This is only scratching the surface of Rene Williams’ case and you probably have a lot of questions. It also seems possible that Rene wasn’t Christopher Revak’s only victim. The Douglas County Sheriff has suggested that Christopher may have been responsible for a total of four deaths across several states.

While collecting evidence on Rene’s death, deputies in Missouri there say they came across some important information.

“They said, ‘You know what? Hey, they were in Wisconsin Rapids the weekend that Deidre Harm went missing,’” Sheriff Becker said.

Read through the work schedules from the Taney County Ambulance Service, it shows that Chris was granted vacation starting June 6, 2006, through June 12. On a separate form, for June 13 and 14, Chris wrote, “We will still be in Wisconsin with family.”

Deidre was last seen on Saturday, June 10 smack dab in the middle of that vacation request. Interviews with his family also placed him in Wisconsin Rapids that day. The couple, plus Chris’s two kids, made the trip to Wisconsin because his little sister was graduating high school and their family was throwing a party for her.

It seemed like a lead worth following, but Wood County would never get the chance to interview Chris. On July 26, 2009, one day after being arrested for 2nd-degree murder and four days before Wood County was notified about Chris, he took his own life in jail.

“I think some of the reasons he did that is probably because he knew the writing was on the wall. That he had hit rock bottom at that point, not only for the one homicide, but likely on Deidre’s case and maybe more,” Lt. Investigator Scott Goldberg said.

That didn’t mean an end for investigators in Wisconsin.

Several Wood County deputies made the 10-hour-plus drive south to Missouri to talk to Chris’s wife.

Before we get into what she said, we need to go back to 2006 a bit.

On June 10, 2006, Deidre Harm was a 21-year-old single mom looking for a fun night out. So, she hired a babysitter and left her downtown Wisconsin Rapids apartment to walk to some nearby bars by herself, but she never made it home.

The next day on June 11, a friend and her father reported her missing to the Wisconsin Rapids Police Department.

It’s not clear exactly how many bars Deidre went to, but according to the witness statements, we know she went to at least two; Four Stools and the Finish Line.

The bartender at the Finish Line says she saw Deidre leave, with a man trailing not too far behind.

For months, family and friends were interviewed in hopes of trying to figure out who the man was or what could have happened to her. We asked about what kind of past Deidre had — specifically, any romantic relationships, drug use, or crime.

“There were other people that we felt were suspects,” Sheriff Becker explained. “One being a drug dealer that Deidre bought drugs from before. So, there was that out there, and information was coming in because with any type of investigation like this that we’re looking at as a homicide, you want any information that comes in, and then you keep following up on it until it just doesn’t fit anymore.”

To be clear, this is not an attempt to victim blame, we’re simply trying to understand if a risky lifestyle was something that could’ve contributed to her disappearance or a possible suspect.

There has been a lot of online speculation on whether the department was pegging the murder on Chris because he was dead, essentially making him an easy scapegoat.

“It’s very important for the public to know that when I read those reports, the countless numbers of people that were interviewed and possible suspects in the beginning, I can’t even give you a number. How many people were talked to early on in this case that basically had been eliminated because they were this person or that person, or were able to prove that they just didn’t have that connection,” Lt. Goldberg said. “So, the evidence was followed, and that’s why that’s where we are today. That’s why we’re speaking so clearly that it’s Chris at this point.”

For months, Deidre’s face and name were plastered across the area including on the news .

It wasn’t until five months later on November 20, that hunters came across human remains in a secluded, privately owned wooded area near the Wood County Rifle range in Seneca and about five miles from the downtown area.

Forensic testing and dental records determined the remains belonged to Deidre. None of Deidre’s clothing was ever found and the only personal items recovered from the area were two rings.

Since the remains had been out in the elements for so long, it’s nearly impossible to say how Deidre died. Investigators consider maybe she walked out there on her own, but ultimately because of where her body was found, and without clothes, it was determined that the manner of death was homicide.

It’s also when the Wood County Sheriff’s Department took over.

At first glance, the area off Marsh Road might seem like a random spot. However, investigators say it’s a very popular place for people to be doing things that they really shouldn’t.

To see the area for ourselves, NewsChannel 7 took a ride out there with the sheriff and saw what he meant.

Looking around, there is so much trash just dumped and left to rot along the road. Items from tires and mattresses to large appliances are all over. It’s also a popular area for teens to party and drink at, and is often referred to as ‘Blueberry.’

“They call it a high-low road out there where basically, kids will party and then they mud and they goof around,” Lt. Goldberg said. “We’ve had issues and been called out there countless times over the years to try to break up these underage drinking parties.”

It’s also a spot very familiar to Chris, that is according to his brother, who also says Chris used to party there with friends as a teenager.

If you look at the pictures of the area, you’ll notice the dirt road ends with a locked metal gate but it doesn’t do much to stop trespassers. Anyone could just walk around it, but a truck wouldn’t fit.

Instead, the sheriff’s department believes Chris used his four-wheeler, which is now owned by his brother Jason. Investigators measured the height of the handlebars and confirmed that it could fit if you lifted the gate a few inches.

In multiple witness statements, including his wife’s, we know Chris drove up to Wisconsin with his four-wheeler in the back of his truck. It was also seen downtown the night of Deidre’s disappearance.

Investigators believe Chris used the four-wheeler to drive Deidre’s body several miles to dispose of it.

After finding Deidre’s body in the woods, police interviewed witnesses and bar staff who say they remember seeing not only Deidre, but also a man trailing behind.

That’s how they developed the sketch below.

There are two issues with the sketch. The first is about a tattoo. Reports say the mystery man seen with Deidre the night she disappeared had a tribal tattoo on his left arm. Based on several photos of Christoper, it doesn’t look like he has any tattoos on his arms.

Guess who does though. Christopher’s high school friend Brent who was with Christopher the night Deidre disappeared.

Christopher’s brother Jason says Chris had plans to meet up with Brent that night. Police confirmed Brent and his girlfriend did meet up with Christopher and they went to several bars.

NewsChannel 7 has not been able to confirm what Brent looked like back then, but it’s possible that the witness may have got Christopher and Brent confused.

According to the reports, Brent‘s tattoo was also on his right arm. So, it’s unclear how reliable the tip really is. Either way, we know police interviewed Brent, and we can reasonably assume that they looked at him a little closer before eliminating him as a suspect. Although, we can’t say for sure.

Another question is Christopher’s hair. In the sketch and photo used to compare the two, the hair length is about the same, with his bangs falling over the forehead. If you were to see any pictures of Chris after June 11 though, you would see that his hair is much shorter — a buzz cut actually.

The weird thing though is police know he got a haircut the literal day after Deidre was last seen. How you may ask?

“We get a phone call from Jason Revak, and he wanted to meet with myself and one of the investigators or detectives at Wisconsin Rapids,” Sheriff Becker said.

In August of 2009, Christopher’s brother Jason volunteered to sit down with a lawyer present, to be interviewed.

“So we sat down with him at the library, at the police department, and he just started talking with his attorney, and we didn’t have to ask a lot of questions,” Sheriff Becker added.

We asked Sheriff Becker, what was it like to get this kind of information after so many years.

“Kind of surreal,” he said. “When you know, because we‘re starting to get the information coming in on Chris and being responsible for Deidre’s death, and we‘re like, ’Okay, what? What is that going to bring us?’”

Jason described Chris as being the reading type with just a few friends. Jason said he noticed Chris start to change in high school, saying he wasn’t very well-liked. When it came to alcohol, Jason told investigators Chris would often become confrontational both physically and verbally and get into fights when he was drinking. He described their relationship as being pretty distant, especially after Chris moved to Missouri.

Then on June 10, 2006, about 20-25 family members gathered in Wisconsin Rapids to celebrate the brother’s youngest sister.

She had just graduated from high school, and they were going to have a party for her. Overall, the day seemed to go well. Witnesses say Chris was seen drinking beer pretty consistently throughout the day, but he wasn’t out of control.

After the party, the family cleaned up and some of the men including Christoper went to a local bar and stayed until about 7:30 pm. After, Jason says he went to his mom’s house to take a nap and woke up around 9 p.m. to a now-intoxicated Chris asking him to go downtown.

“Jason didn’t really want to do that,” Sheriff Becker said. “He wasn’t a big drinker, and just didn’t really feel like he wanted to be part of it.”

He eventually folded though, and Johanna stayed home with the kids.

After reading the witness reports from Jason, Brent, several bartenders, and a DJ, it’s difficult to give a proper timeline of what happened next.

Several things are likely to blame, the biggest being alcohol, but also just time passing and memories fading.

What we do know is Jason says he begrudgingly agreed to go out with Chris after 9:30 p.m. and started at the Finish Line. Chris would leave several times to go find Brent, who he eventually met up with at Four Stools. Both Brent and Jason described going to at least three to five bars with Chris separately over three hours. So essentially, Chris was hoping between his brother Jason and his old friend Brent while also bar hopping himself.

As for Deidre, we know she was also at Four Stools and the Finish Line around the same time so it is possible they ran into each other once if not several times. Neither Jason nor Brent say they remember seeing her though.

However, a bartender from the Finish Line does. She was responsible for the initial sketch put out by police and looked at it again in 2009.

“She had moved out of the area, down to Texas, and gave her a call like, ‘Hey, we got some information on you to take a look at a picture. I’m going to email it to you,’“ Sheriff Becker said. ”Once I emailed it to her, and she called me back immediately.”

She said three words; “That’s the guy.”

Brent says he last saw Chris around 11 p.m., and Jason says Chris drove them home around midnight, 12:30 a.m.

After getting back to their mom’s house, Chris said he wanted to go out again, to which Jason said no. Then, after getting into an argument about going back out, Chris left again.

Jason says he talked to Johanna about Chris’s bad behavior, especially after drinking. Then the two went to bed.

What happened in the hours that followed, we still don’t know.

Both Jason and Johanna, say Chris turned back up around 5 am.

“Joanna’s sleeping on the floor next to both of the girls that were there, and they get woken up by mom making breakfast. Then Chris comes in, and he’s filthy. He’s really dirty — mud all over him," Sheriff Becker said.

When the family asked why he was covered in mud, Chris told them he got his truck stuck at Blueberry and it took him all morning to wash it off.

If you’re wondering why Chris was out at Blueberry, we don’t really know that either. It’s nowhere close to their mom’s house and as stated earlier, about five miles west of the bars downtown.

After coming home, Jason says Chris quickly went to the bathroom and showered.

“Then he’s washing his clothes, and Joanna thinks that, well, that’s very odd, he never washed his clothes,” Sheriff Becker said. “I’m the one that’s always washing the clothes, but they observed that.”

That’s not all that was cleaned. After they pointed out some leftover mud on the back of the truck Chris washed it off.

Then Chris insisted they go four-wheeling hours before they planned to. When Jason got into his brother’s truck, he noticed that the inside was spotless. Unlike just the day before, when Jason says he remembers seeing rags, trash, and food wrappers when they went out the previous night.

On Sunday though, the truck was completely cleaned out. The garbage was gone and the dashboard was shiny. Even the ashtray had been cleaned and all of the seats were dry except the drivers.

Once they got to the ATV park, Chris started riding around, but after just one lap, he got sick and decided to leave. Later that day, he had his wife Johanna give him a haircut, which was documented by someone taking pictures.

“Then he had the kids and his half-sister, Stephanie, put the cap and gown on and started taking more pictures now with what they’re exactly wearing the day before,” Sheriff Becker said.

If you’re wondering why, Chris said he accidentally deleted the original photos from the camera, but Jason believes his brother did it on purpose.

Sheriff Becker is also highly suspicious about Chris changing his appearance.

Wood County investigators believe Christopher cut his hair to change his appearance so he would not look the same if anyone noticed him downtown the night Deidre went missing.

“What else is important after that haircut, is later in the day they leave unexpectedly to go back to Missouri,” Lt. Goldberg said. “That‘s very important because Chris’s mom became upset that they were leaving early. Ultimately, because of Chris‘ actions, his fiancé says, ’Hey, we‘re leaving, we’re leaving town.’”

Phone data was also requested but after so many years, a subpoena specialist confirmed the only activity June 10-11 was a call by him to his voicemail. Cellular tower data places him in central Wisconsin the weekend Deidre went missing.

As for Deidre, she didn’t have a cell phone and would often borrow from others.

When Johanna was questioned by the sheriff’s department and was presented with all of their information, she agreed that there were just too many red flags and too many coincidences, saying she felt responsible.

For what she feels responsible for is unclear and the report doesn’t elaborate. She also went on to describe Chris’s personality as “Jekyll-and-Hyde-like,” especially when he was drinking.

If you’re waiting for the “smoking gun,” there isn’t one.

After reading all of the provided documents provided, there’s hardly any physical evidence linking Chris to Deidre. When it comes to circumstantial evidence though, Sheriff Becker has that in spades.’

He also believes many people out there will agree that Chris is the one responsible.

You might be wondering, if the sheriff’s department is so certain they know who is responsible for Deidre’s death, why hasn’t Chris been charged?

The simple answer is you can’t charge a dead person. So that only leaves two other options; leave the case open or close it.

During our interview, the sheriff and Lt. Goldberg said the decision would be left solely up to the then Wood County District Attorney Craig Lambert.

In an email from DA Lambert, he said, “I have reviewed the case file and discussed my view of the evidence with the Sheriff’s Department. The Sheriff needs to decide whether to keep the investigation open.”

After returning to the sheriff, he was just as surprised to learn that the decision was up to him. Lt. Goldberg also says DA Lambert’s response was disappointing. He feels their department has collected enough evidence to support a comprehensive closure, however, the DA told him while they were close, they just weren’t there yet.

It’s also important to note that the DA did not seek re-election and as of Election Day on Nov. 5, Jonathan Barnett will soon take over.

Both Lt. Goldberg and Sheriff Becker say they’ve already been in contact with the new DA about this case and will work with him to hopefully close it in the future.

Both of them share that closing this case also brings closure to the family. They said bringing the family peace of mind through understanding what took place and no longer dealing with a mystery is what they’re after.

They can’t do it without more information though.

While they’re grateful for the interview with Jason, in the years since, both Johanna and Jason have refused to cooperate. They’re decisions that honestly baffle investigators, but they have their suspicions.

“She’s protecting something, and we really haven’t figured that exactly out,” Sheriff Becker said. “From the last time that I talked with her on the phone, leaving Missouri, I just felt that she’s got to be protecting something.”

Johanna has since remarried and moved to Michigan. Unfortunately, the sheriff’s department can’t make her talk.

“You don’t have to honor a subpoena from out of state, and she was living in Missouri, the last we know now she’s in Michigan. So we still would like to talk to her, because we feel that there’s probably more information out there that she would have. Same with Jason,” Sheriff Becker said.

We also reached out to both Johanna and Jason.

Johanna never returned our message. Jason did answer a phone call, but he simply said, “Not interested.”

It’s not just those two who can help. The sheriff’s department says someone out there, maybe someone reading this right now, might have critical information. They just need you to come forward.

“Maybe Chris told some more information, or maybe somebody saw him leaving that area where her remains were found, or someone else, maybe another relative or friend that he reached out to while he was in town,” Lt. Goldberg said. “It really boils down to, you owe it to the victims, the victim’s family, and the victim that’s not here with us now. We’re still looking for some more information.”

In our research, there is a Facebook page called We will never forget Deidre Harm . It’s a page dedicated to Deidre’s memory.

Reading the posts and looking at her pictures gives a feel for the kind of person she was, but more importantly what kind of person she could’ve been.

Now, 18 years later, investigators are working to deliver the justice Deidre and her family deserve.

Deidre, you have not been forgotten.

If you know anything about the death of Deidre Harm from downtown Wisconsin Rapids on June 10, 2006, contact the Wood County Sheriff’s Department. You can also call CrimeStoppers at 1-877-325-7867 or use the P3 app.

To listen to the podcast, click the play button.