Could Jimmy Hoffa be buried at the former site of Milwaukee County Stadium? One cold-case group believes so

Could the answer to one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history be lying just outside Helfaer Field, the youth baseball diamond adjacent to American Family Field, home of the Milwaukee Brewers?

An organization called "The Case Breakers," which has dedicated itself to gathering new information on some of the country's biggest cold cases and other unsolved crimes, has zeroed in on an area that used to be Milwaukee County Stadium. It says it has information suggesting Hoffa's body was moved to a site around third base at the venue in September 1995.

The Case Breakers say they have a piece of evidence that first pointed them in Milwaukee's direction, and they have also deployed some high-tech resources to accurately locate the possible body … but, uh, also a dog that can locate human remains through concrete?

OK, let's explain some of this.

Who was Jimmy Hoffa?

Hoffa was the Teamsters president from 1957-71 and an American labor union leader who famously became involved with organized crime, leading to convictions of jury tampering and fraud. He spent more than four years in prison. In late July 1975, Hoffa disappeared from a restaurant in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, just outside of Detroit, and his body has never been found.

He was declared legally dead in 1982, and rumors of his remains' whereabouts have surfaced regularly. The FBI has attempted to exhume his remains five times at spots in Michigan and twice at locations in New Jersey, though neither of those is the Meadowlands Sports Complex, where a popular urban myth believes Hoffa was buried during construction of the old Giants Stadium, which opened in 1976.

Why would Jimmy Hoffa be in Milwaukee?

The Case Breakers believe Hoffa's remains were moved to Milwaukee County Stadium in 1995.

The piece of evidence upon which they've built this theory is a playing card left by Sgt. Harold Walthers for his niece. According to the group's research, Walthers had been indicted for jewelry robbery and became an associate of Chicago mafia don Joey Aiuppa. In 1996, a year before he died, Walthers showed the ace of spades to his niece, Michelle, a county deputy, and indicated that "if something happens to me, you'll know what to do."

On the card is written Hoffa's name, as well as Aiuppa's, and "3rd Base Milwaukee Ball Park 9-16-95."

A member of the Case Breakers team with a long history in law enforcement, Jim Zimmerman, had a preexisting relationship with Michelle, who dug up the card in 2020 after Zimmerman's research had connected Walthers to some level of involvement in Hoffa's disappearance.

Are we supposed to literally interpret that as 'under third base' at County Stadium?

The Case Breakers appear to think so.

In fact, they utilized aerial photographs and GPS satellite images to find exactly where third base was located, within 5 feet.

Perhaps the biggest scandal here is that it appears home plate isn't exactly where a commemorative marker indicates, inside the Helfaer Field complex (the Little League field built inside the American Family Field parking lot where old County Stadium once stood) on the third-base side.

Instead, they've located an area on the walkway outside the Helfaer gates. They've been looking into this location since they learned of the card three years ago.

This is where a dog named Moxy comes in

The Case Breakers team came to the site Oct. 2, 2023, with a K9 cadaver-seeking dog named Moxy, who has a reputation for locating bodies. Moxy, who has assisted in search-and-rescue missions and body recoveries, apparently barked and nosed her way into four "hits" at the stadium's old third-base location.

The leader of Case Breakers, Thomas J. Colbert, told Fox News that the next natural step is to dig at the site, and his team claims federal agents have agreed to at least explore that possibility.

Hold on, are they really going to tear up part of the Brewers parking lot to look for Jimmy Hoffa?

It's unclear to us. Neither the Brewers nor the FBI immediately returned requests for information on their level of cooperation.

Can we go back to when you said Jimmy Hoffa was buried at third base? In the middle of a baseball season?

While it's true the Brewers were out of town on a road trip Sept. 16, 1995, the Brewers still had nine games to play that season, so it seems a little unlikely that conspirators could have buried a body legitimately below third base. We can find video of a Brewers game from Sept. 26, 1995, and third base sure looks pristine as always! Not that a screen capture tells us much. Certainly no more than a dog that can sense the dead under concrete.

Are we sure "Milwaukee Ball Park" is County Stadium, even?

Surely the conspirators would have been counting on the eventual demolition of the stadium?

The demolition that awaited County Stadium couldn't have been part of the equation. In fact, the very date that's written on the card is about the time local fans were facing the strong likelihood that the Brewers would leave Milwaukee without a new stadium; financing had not been approved. Some were even worried that the 1995 season might be the team's last in town without an agreement.

On Sept. 21, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel identified state Sen. Peggy Rosenzweig as one of the Milwaukee-area legislators pushing for Racine County to be added as the fifth county in the sales tax region that would help pay for a new stadium, a proposal that was meeting resistance from state Sen. George Petak, who represented Racine. As Brewers fans know well, one month later, Petak would change his mind, casting a swing vote that would potentially alter the course of baseball history in Wisconsin.

In other words, while there were questions who (if anyone) would be playing inside County Stadium, nobody was yet sure that the site would become a construction zone in the next few years.

Is 'The Case Breakers' like, a podcast or something?

There is some heft around the operation The Case Breakers run, including work with numerous experts in forensic sciences and law enforcement. No, it's not "just another true crime podcast."

The organization has specialized in following some of America's most baffling stories, including Hoffa, D.B. Cooper, the Zodiac Killer and the Atlanta Murders. The organization's website proclaims that it had a hand in solving aspects in all four cases.

In 2021, the Case Breakers announced they had identified the Zodiac Killer, but police and FBI pushed back on that assertion.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Cold-case group believes Jimmy Hoffa could be buried in Milwaukee