Shivangi Sinha
In 1991, Elmer Holmgren made a strange phone call to his son, Ken Holmgren, and told him something that would stay with him for years. Elmer said that he would be calling again within a few days and warned Ken that if he did not hear from him, he should get in touch with an ATF agent. However, Ken never heard from his father again, and the events that followed only deepened the doubts and suspicions surrounding the case. Authorities and investigators eventually suspected that Elmer’s disappearance was linked to Sante Kimes, a convicted killer who had been associated with him around the time he vanished. NBC’s ‘Dateline: The Devil Wore White’ pieces together the available information in the case and reconstructs the timeline of events to provide a clearer understanding of the mystery.
Elmer Holmgren Had Been Working as an Attorney When He Disappeared Without a Trace
Elmer Ambrose Holmgren was born in the 1940s to Elmer and Helen Holmgren. By the 1990s, he had established himself as an attorney and had worked in Florida for quite some time. However, after his employer passed away, it became a difficult period for him professionally, and he struggled to find stable employment. Eventually, Elmer moved to Las Vegas, Nevada, where he began working for a wealthy couple, Sante and Kenneth Sr. Kimes. Elmer also had a son named Ken Holmgren, with whom he shared a close relationship. The two used to talk frequently, and Ken always knew his father as a good man who had lived a simple and straightforward life.
In January 1991, Ken got a phone call from his father in which Elmer told him about the fact that he was working with the Kimes family. In early February 1991, the son received another call from his father, but this time, Elmer said something strange. He allegedly told Ken that he would get back to him within three days and warned that if he did not, Ken should get in touch with two ATF agents. Elmer allegedly even gave him a phone number to contact the agents, but the follow-up call never came. Ken has never heard from his father since then and believes that he has passed away. However, Elmer’s remains have never been found, and there has never been a formal investigation or legal proceedings directly connected to his disappearance.
Elmer Holmgren Had Allegedly Confessed to His Involvement in a Suspected Arson
After the February 1991 phone call from his father, when he did not hear back from him within the promised time, Ken Holmgren said that he contacted the ATF agents whose information Elmer had allegedly given him. According to Ken, the agents later came down to his office and informed him that his father had allegedly been placed in protective custody at some point, but they had eventually lost track of him. Ken further stated that a few days later, one of the ATF agents contacted him again and claimed that his father had allegedly been connected to a suspected arson case involving one of the Kimes family’s properties in Honolulu. Back in September 1990, a beachfront property owned by Sante and Kenneth Kimes Sr. had suddenly erupted in flames in the middle of the night.
At the time, the property reportedly carried a $900,000 lien, and the homeowners had filed an insurance claim following the fire. According to the official records, the fire department allegedly determined that the Honolulu fire had been intentionally set. While the names in the official documents have been redacted, the records reportedly state that one person had hired a suspect to set the house on fire. The ATF agents allegedly told Ken that his father had confessed to being involved in it. Ken has claimed that his father had allegedly been approached by ATF agents and was working with them in an effort to potentially implicate the Kimes couple in the suspected arson case.
Elmer Holmgren’s Disappearance Case Has Never Been Officially Investigated
Ken Holmgren has further stated that he had been told that, just two weeks before Elmer Holmgren disappeared, his father had allegedly been sitting with the agents inside his apartment when Sante and Kenneth Sr. Kimes unexpectedly walked in. As mentioned in the episode, Ken said that his father quickly made an excuse. According to the account shared with him, that was allegedly the last time the ATF agents ever saw Elmer. Kent Walker, Sante’s older son, stated in his 2001 book Son of a Grifter that during an argument between his mother and Kenneth Sr., he allegedly overheard both of them blaming each other for a killing. He explained that, from what he understood, his mother allegedly struck a man with a hammer while Kenneth Sr. allegedly held him down.
Kent said he spoke to the police about what he had heard, but since he did not know the victim’s name, nothing could be done at the time. In 1998, when Sante was arrested in connection with the case of Irene Silverman, Elmer’s suspicious disappearance was also brought back into the news. Since then, Kent has maintained that he believes the person Sante was referring to in 1992 was allegedly Elmer himself. There has never been an official investigation into the case of Elmer’s disappearance, but his family believes he has passed away. Both Sante and Kenneth Sr. have since passed away, and there are still many unanswered questions surrounding the case.
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