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Martin County Star Newsmakers
Two Bad Apples, Zero Closure, And A Psychic Walk Into Martin County
Okay. All right. We are back. Uh my Mike and us along with Liz Smith. We are here talking with Tracy Whitehead this morning. This is Newsmakers Podcast, uh season two, episode 18. And we're talking about the um Joanne Bontchus.
SPEAKER_03:Murder.
SPEAKER_00:Murder mystery.
SPEAKER_03:Murder mystery, 50 years strong. 50 years?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I know. I said that, you know, this first came across my desk. Uh, somebody was telling me, and I said, for 50 years, really? I mean, is this relevant? That was kind of my first thought was 50 years. And they go, Yeah, but it's been unsolved. And that's been the kind of the thing that's m sparked my interest is the fact that why is it unsolved? Okay, so we had in our last last podcast, we had two podcasts with uh Chief uh Donovan out of St. James. He's retired now. He's a former chief of police, and he's gotten involved in this case. He was not involved at the time because he was a different county. Right. And but he's got involved since retiring, and he brought his theory, and his theory was that a rich farmer in the area was having an affair with this young lady, and he was afraid that she was maybe going to tell on him. And am I right? This is what he was saying. Pretty much. And and the this is where we left it. Because we don't know, obviously. And then Liz, you have a theory, and your theory is that the Sheriff's Department, I believe, pretty much.
SPEAKER_03:Well, it's it it it was not, I wouldn't say the Sheriff's Department, because of course we respect our our police force. Well, of course we appreciate the the work that all these uh men and women do. Um, but there are there might have been some bad seeds, and there was a couple bad seeds that definitely got charged and uh were imprisoned by bad acts. And one was definitely a murder. He admitted to the murder. He even brought Joanne's Boncha's name up in his trial. So why wouldn't we go to them first? That was my thought. And why in the world would a 21-year-old woman who has her whole life ahead of her jump in with a farmer? Because that is a hard life. That is a hard life for a woman to take on. And it that's a hard life to take on somebody else's responsibilities. What 21-year-old woman with her whole life ahead of her would even go that direction? So I say that's a non-starter for me.
SPEAKER_00:All right. And so and I'm I'm really not even from here, so I knew nothing about the case. Now, Tracy, first of all, welcome. Welcome. It's good seeing you again. Tracy and I have known each other for what, five, six, seven years?
SPEAKER_02:Oh, maybe longer.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, maybe longer. Yeah, yeah. And so it's when when uh Liz came to me and said uh she'd talked to Sarah Kramer, and Sarah's cousin was going to come in. I said, okay. Then I started thinking, I go, wait a minute, I know who this is. So, anyways, good seeing you. So you have some insights on this case also. Give me your background as to why.
SPEAKER_02:I um grew up partly in Shiburn. Um like you said, Sue is uh Sue was the beauty shop owner that Sue Whitehead. That Joanne worked in her shop, which was the front porch of the house that Sarah lives in now.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, I did not know that.
SPEAKER_02:All right. Yes. And um so I was in this town, I lived with my grandparents and my dad. And then um when my dad died, I lived with Bob and Sue for a short period.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:In that house.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, all right.
SPEAKER_02:And um so I know that people, uh the Whitehead family is very well known here. Um my uncle Jim was the deputy sheriff on the case at the time, also.
SPEAKER_00:Oh. And uh so there's a little connection. Yeah, there is a little connection. When did you get involved in this as far as starting to do some research on your own?
SPEAKER_02:Um I went to a meeting probably a good year and a half ago to two years ago in Fairmont. Uh Dave Nutt was a good friend of mine, and he kept inviting me to come down and listen because his dad's involved with it, Jerry Knutt, the former sheriff. And um so I came, and then when Catherine Klymer, who's the author of the book, um found out that I was from the area, knew the people, and pretty well, and related to almost everybody, I think, um asked if I would be interested in doing some research with her.
SPEAKER_00:So that's so you know Catherine also then. And we're we're gonna reach out to her too. Uh I'm we're gonna try and put the whole thing and let people make up their own minds. Yep and and what if we stumbled across something? Wouldn't that be nice? Yes. Okay, so tell me what you know.
SPEAKER_02:Um so we've um I think the story has changed for several people. For myself, I was never sure that she got stopped on the side of the road by a cop. Um the things that I had heard about her was um contrary to what her parents, of course, would want the public to know. And also um, you know, when you start talking about a dead person, you don't ever say bad things about them.
SPEAKER_01:Right, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:So um as far as I knew and have been able to find out, um, she was probably involved with maybe not doing drugs or selling drugs. She was like a delivery person, I believe. This is my theory, people. So don't quote me. You're on the air, you're being quoted. I know. Um, but I have been told um who she's hung around with and um by two police officers from Martin County that um they were watching one gentleman who was a known drug person, and and her car would be seen very often at his place. He was also a known rapist. And um why a single young woman would go to that guy's house, I would never know. Um, but she was seen at his house very frequently, so that could have been her source. May I ask what drug of choice we're talking about? I do not know. I do not know. I'm thinking some of the rougher hard drugs from the crowds that sometimes she would be seen around. Huh.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay, so let's see if I have my dates on here still. I don't. Um Okay, it was a it was a Thursday. Was it a Thursday?
SPEAKER_03:Thursday night she went missing and then they found her body.
SPEAKER_00:On on Friday afternoon?
SPEAKER_03:Because it was the Wednesday.
SPEAKER_00:Well, Friday 7 a.m. I have we heard the shotgun.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. Right, right, right. Her body was found about 3, 3.30 on Friday afternoon.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's when they actually found it officially, right?
SPEAKER_03:So then she went missing on Wednesday? She went out Wednesday night.
SPEAKER_00:Wednesday night, Wednesday night, Thursday morning. Thursday morning, 1230, she went missing.
SPEAKER_03:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:So Tracy, I mean let me see if I'm understanding what you're saying. So you're saying you don't believe that her she was in the car. It maybe was left there by somebody else?
SPEAKER_02:By the people that took her.
SPEAKER_00:That took her. Explain then the two shoes that were found by the car. And the the foot dragging marks. That could have done obviously by somebody else. They could have planted that. They could have planted the shoes.
SPEAKER_02:They could have stopped her by the car uh on the way. Um my theory is from what I have talked to people about and um seen was I believe she went to a party after she left the bar with people. And um that things were getting out of control. I I believe there was probably drugs involved. There um I believe whoever she had went partying with parked her car there to be found.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_02:And her shoes, I'm not sure how if I know a lot of people think that she got taken in the middle of the road and her shoes around the shoes were actually found in the middle of the road. Oh, they were. Oh, okay. And Severts, the pharmacist from Sherburn, when he first seen the car sitting there when he was coming up to Trimont to deliver medications at the nursing fair at the hospital, um had stopped and he put actually put them on top of the car. Somehow they got down on the off the car next to it.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so he comes by in the morning.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah. About five o'clock.
SPEAKER_00:About five o'clock, he sees his shoes, he puts them on top of the car. Yeah. Then he goes out and does his delivery. He comes back or or somebody else.
SPEAKER_02:He noticed it on his way back.
SPEAKER_00:That they were on top of the car now. Yeah. No, that's where he left them. Yeah. Now they're thrown down.
SPEAKER_02:When the cops got there, they were on the top of the car.
SPEAKER_00:That's interesting.
SPEAKER_02:And and it could have been, you know, it could have been her dad that happened to be there first. And that said, Yeah, a lot of things.
SPEAKER_00:Here's what I find odd, though, and you're gonna have to explain to me, is nobody at that party has ever come forward and said, Yes, she was here.
SPEAKER_02:No. There's never been anybody that said there was a party.
SPEAKER_00:Okay.
SPEAKER_03:And again, where was she held for 36 hours? To me, that has to be more than an impromptu situation. Um You think some planning went into that? There had to have been some planning that went into that. And to drop her body back again um a mile away from where her her car was found. That to me, it just seems, you know, too much planning involved for it to be just a somebody got a little wild. I don't know.
SPEAKER_02:So I also brought a psychic in. Although that's right, who had mentioned that. And um she Martin County also had brought a psychic in way back. And um I was told by Jerry Nutt that my psychic friend was very much the same as what that psychic, who was a a nationally world-renowned psychic, it cost ten thousand dollars to bring him in. In in 1975? In I think it was 78. It was a couple years after it had happened.
SPEAKER_00:And what was the findings from the psychic?
SPEAKER_02:That's this is what I am going from. I trust my friend very much. Um known her a long time. She um she showed us a place at the lake that she felt they had partied. And um not far from um where she was found, not far from the gravel pits. But she was also um out of it most of the time when she could feel her being present. Um I believe maybe she was drugged or drunk. I know there was a s a small amount of alcohol still in her body at autopsy time. There was no drugs found on her in her body, but I have to look, I'm a lab tech. So what we test for back then was probably minuscule compared to what we can test for now. And maybe it was something that they couldn't test for, or the amount in her body wasn't high enough to turn positive. Um, so she I'm gonna go into a few details about how she was found. She was found in a very shallow ditch. She was found with um her pants and underwear were beside her. Her she had pure white pants on that night. And she had a bra on and a little zip up, you know, jacket type shirt over top of that. The shirt was on, unzipped, the bra was on, but it was above the breast. And uh when I started looking into this, everybody said, Oh, they did that to embarrass her, to show, you know, leave her there. And the more I thought about it, the more I thought, you know what? She had a gunshot wound to the head, to the left temple. A gunshot point blank because the barrel mark was on her head. Um, there would have been blood everywhere. There was no blood on her clothes, white pants, blonde hair. She got washed. I was the probably the first person to say that. They washed her up. Get rid of the blood, get rid of any DNA that they would have left.
SPEAKER_03:So you think that she was shot before she w came to the ditch? There um there there's been testimony that there was a gunshot heard at 7.30 in the morning. You don't think that was correlated at all?
SPEAKER_02:Yes, I do believe it correlated to when she actually was shot. I do believe she was in gunshot hearing range of um trying to think of of where they dropped her body. The farm. I'm trying to think of those people's last names.
SPEAKER_03:I think they were saying it was right, but I think they said that Troy Olsen maybe have heard heard the the gunshot.
SPEAKER_02:No, it was Donnie Faber Jr. Donnie. I've heard him say it himself.
SPEAKER_03:Oh, oh, okay. It was the other gentleman that said that he saw the bus drive by on the school bus or something. Something, sorry.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, there was supposed to be a little kid that thought he seen something in the ditch. He never said it.
SPEAKER_03:But okay, so you think that they washed her off before they dropped him off or dropped her body. They don't you don't believe she was killed on that ditch. Okay. No.
SPEAKER_00:Now the chief said he explained, I don't know, I think it was in episode two, maybe you hadn't heard that yet. He explained the gunshot and no blood and the fact that they shot down and the blood would would go down her throat. That's, you know. I'm going to I'm going to not make a comment only because he's more of a professional than I am on that. That's just was his explanation for the no no blood. It seems a little far-fetched, but.
SPEAKER_02:It is a little far-fetched. Um the autopsy report, which I have seen, uh, states that um the shot did not come out of the other side of her head. It didn't come out anywhere. And they found um that so they believe that the um back in those days everybody reloaded their shells. You know. It could have not been loaded right. It could have been wet. It had a paper plug in it instead. Now they use plastic. It could have gotten that wet. Um, but it did not come out the other side of her head. Her head literally almost every bone in the top of her head was broken. It like it exploded, like you've seen those cartoons where people's head and then it went back down. Her face was not touched. There was her face was still had makeup on, still looked like her.
SPEAKER_00:That's amazing.
SPEAKER_03:Was it smudged from parting the night before? Her her mascara wasn't running.
SPEAKER_02:Not that I've heard, but I don't, and I also don't know how much makeup she really used either.
SPEAKER_03:Right, right, right, right, right. Because yeah, even even in in general, to make it to 1230 without being smudged would be Yeah. I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, right. I always look like a raccoon by three hours in. Um but then then do you have a theory on where the body would had been held for those for the so you just I am uh still looking.
SPEAKER_02:Actually, I'm going tomorrow to look at at different spots. Um to I'm my friend, the psychic, is gonna be back up tomorrow in Sherburne with me looking and talking to people.
SPEAKER_00:So so uh in your view and in the view of many others, this case is still wide open, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. We're not gonna rest until we find who's done this, if we ever do. I don't know. Yeah. But okay, let me go back. So y your theory is she went to a party. Yes. Thing got out of hand.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:And sh I from what I understand from the chief was she was a little bit uh she didn't mind getting into uh arguments or a fight with somebody. No, she she stood up for herself and and she fought back. So uh at my guess here is at that party something happened.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah, she probably wanted to go home and they weren't gonna walk.
SPEAKER_00:And they weren't going to whomever. And so they did something, whomever this is, took her, they went somewhere, somebody drops the car off, throws the shoes in the middle of the road, set the whole scene up, and we she shows up 36 hours later. Yes. Dead.
SPEAKER_02:Yes. And um, you know, she's a 21-year-old girl. She smoked. Yeah. Her cigarettes were in the car. I don't care if you're just walking down the street, you're gonna grab your cigarettes and take them with you.
SPEAKER_00:It's like a cigarettes like a cell phone now.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:You never leave them behind.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and that, and then back to the clothes. You know, everybody said, Oh, they did that to embarrass her. And it's like I think they tried to put them back on her after they washed them, clean them. And sorry, guys are good at taking women's clothes off, but not put putting them back on.
SPEAKER_00:We don't have a lot of experience. We don't have a lot of experience with that.
SPEAKER_02:And I I think they they just and rigamores would have said in. So harder to dress somebody that's very stiff. Um, one of her arms was up in the air, so it's not like she was, you know, in even in a position to be able to do it well. But the person who ever did needed help getting her body into that ditch. So you're being in Regamortis.
SPEAKER_00:So do you have any theory then on Liz says that she believes that the police, some aspect was involved.
SPEAKER_03:Again, this is not the police department. This is two bad actors.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, you're right. Not the police. Yeah. No, two bad actors. And and we already know that from Chief that uh there were a couple of sheriffs' deputies who were charged. They were charged, they went to prison over other crimes. But but they knew this young lady.
SPEAKER_02:They were state troopers. State troopers, you're right.
SPEAKER_00:So when I say police, I I I know I'm lumping them all together, and I don't mean to do that. Um, but a couple of state troopers who were obviously bad.
SPEAKER_02:People will know who you're talking about if you say state troopers.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, yeah. Well, he had names. It was it was a null a Nelson and then and Nelson was charged and was in jail in Texas. Is that correct? Yes. Yes.
SPEAKER_02:No. Um oh he was the rep he was arrested, I believe, for molesting his own child.
SPEAKER_03:T children, but admitted to some he admitted to that Elmore murder. And then he had a buddy whose name was not Nelson.
SPEAKER_00:I don't have it down here. I'll tell you my notes.
SPEAKER_03:But it's it's it's in it's in the book. But so so this other gentleman was also ch uh charged with with uh um imprisoning his children and arrested. But they're both dead now. The other one was Rodney Johnson. Thank you. Thank you. So so so I guess to me, and and the fact that she came in contact with with the gentleman that had run the cafe. Um Johnson also. Right, right. Jerry Johnson. So that was also a Johnson insanity. Yeah. Um, since she came in contact with so many bad guys, I mean, and just to bring in a random third, fourth, fifth person is just too out there at only being 21 years old, having met so many terrible, terrible people. Um, but you you believe that she was part of a drug ring?
SPEAKER_02:Um I believe she wanted to have money. And you're not gonna make a lot of money being a hairdresser.
SPEAKER_00:In sure money.
SPEAKER_02:And just out of school. Um there was many stories told. Um, they tried to say that she owned um the beauty shop downtown, where Sarah has her shop now. And that is not true. Uh Mrs. Swift owned that. And um we have found where she worked for her in that shop, would fill in for her, but she only had checks thrown out to Sue Whitehead for chair rental in Sue's shop.
SPEAKER_03:Right. So they just pumped her up to be something, you know. And I mean that that that's that's nothing. I mean, that's just business. You say where I own something when you really are just a renter and you're just managing.
SPEAKER_02:She had that car. Right. That was only like 400 of them were made. I think it cost like six thousand dollars back in those days. That was an expensive car. She had a$200 leather coat in the backseat of her car. Um, she wanted to live bigger than she was. At 21, that's well, that's pretty standard. Yeah, pretty common, yeah. And I think maybe she just got involved with um, hey, I don't I do not believe she did drugs. I really don't. Um, I believe she just delivered and got paid for doing that.
SPEAKER_00:Um there's you know and there's there's a hundred theories with that that can go all kinds of ways because uh this could be something that went bad and she wanted to be paid and they didn't want to pay her and you know that kind of a thing. Yeah. Easily uh you could see so you you and obviously it wasn't it wasn't uh a a crime of uh passion. Of of well not a passion, but I'm gonna say uh they didn't rob her. Now they left the coat in the backseat and her car and all that. This wasn't just somebody who, you know, saw an opportunity and took a car because they didn't do that.
SPEAKER_03:No, that's a good point, Mike.
SPEAKER_00:You know that is a good point. It's it's so it's obviously to me anyway, from an outsider looking in, this is somebody that knew her on some level. Some level. And then there was some sort of according to you, Liz, there was some sort of a a plan. There had to be been a plan. A plan was in place. I I've seen and I've read, you know, stories where it happens and then somebody now all of a sudden, oh shoot, we did this. Now we gotta c figure a way to cover it up. But and that, of course, it could have been there too.
SPEAKER_03:But right, right, right.
SPEAKER_02:But this is just me.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. No, I damn just me too. I don't know, I don't know anything.
SPEAKER_02:So Well, and knowing Joanne, she probably, you know, if she wanted to go home, she's probably cussing at them and saying, you know. And they might have been trying to scare her with the gun. You know, it's right.
SPEAKER_03:I I I I see I I see what you're saying, but there didn't seem to be any defensive wounds for that that kind of a conversation for her to been been held, to have been held. That's the part that I don't understand still on the 30 hours is is is no defensive wounds. Um if the clothes were clean, what was she wearing for those 30 hours? Uh and if if she was that yeah, and and the fighting back.
SPEAKER_02:That's and that's where we're we're running into um where was she held if she didn't have her clothes on for a while.
SPEAKER_00:And if you even find where she was held, how would you prove that now, 50 years later?
SPEAKER_01:Right.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. You know, you're gonna have a really hard time coming up with a uh hey, this is it. We saw uh, you know, whatever, unless she wrote I was here on a wall somewhere. Right. You know, if you know a good crime show would have done that because they always they always I love to watch tracker and all those kind of shows, you know. And they find everybody within 30 minutes, and I'm like, this is great. I'm always saying, hey, put them on this case. Right. But that's not the way reality is, is it? No. Where are you going from here? Um I mean, where where do we where do we go? I I I didn't look at this and I keep thinking, how are you gonna solve this unless somebody raises their hand and says, I was at the party. And now that person is gonna be in their middle 70s, and he's gotten away with it now for 50 years, he's why he's not gonna go, by the way, I actually was there and I saw Jimmy Joe do this, you know, but you're an accessory now for 50 years. Yeah. You're gonna take that to the grave, right?
SPEAKER_03:Right, right. And and again, with with that that comment, you know, who can carry that kind of a secret or that long? I I still go back to a couple of bad actors versus a group of individuals hanging out.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I know I can't carry a secret for more than about 20 minutes, so I'm not sure.
SPEAKER_02:Well, and the a really interesting thing too was on when they were looking her clothes over for DNA, touch DNA, uh-huh, there was a spot on the inside of her waistband of her pants. Okay. And um, they could never um match it to anything, anybody. Well, in 2016 to 2017, DNA testing changed so much and became so much better. And the BCA of Minnesota actually took all of the specimens they had and redid DNA with the new testing. And the one on the inside of the waistband, there was also one on a leg. Okay. Which was not a fingerprint, let's say. It was a different specimen. Okay. And um the one, but the one on the waistband just is very interesting. It turned out to be three people. It turned out to be two men and one female. Were they named? No. They um one is associated with another uh assault, rape, that happened about the same time in to a young fifteen-year-old girl that is renamed remained nameless, and um will remain nameless because she doesn't know how to be her. No, I don't either.
SPEAKER_00:And uh So what are they gonna do about it? So they know who these people are.
SPEAKER_02:Only one.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, they know one is all. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_02:So there's some um more testing going to be done, trying to. Really? You like the genealogic, the newest thing is to do genealogical DNA testing, which is like a compared to the family type of thing? And it's going backwards. So you got it takes a little longer to get it done. I do know there's one specimen that I know of that's in process right now.
SPEAKER_03:And who's paying for this?
SPEAKER_02:Uh Martin County.
SPEAKER_03:Martin County, still testing. So is there a sheriff that you've been in con? Is there is there a contact person at the department that you're familiar with? Where would you go if you wanted information from the county?
SPEAKER_02:Um, I work with Catherine, so I rely on what she gets from them. Okay. They will not talk to most people. Probably Catherine had to get special permission to even see pieces of things like the autopsy. And um I've seen the search warrant that they used for the gentleman that Mickelson um thinks did it, um where where they did get his DNA with a search warrant. And he did not match. But I also say just because they didn't match doesn't mean they weren't there. Just means nobody found any of their DNA.
SPEAKER_00:You know, I was looking here at uh Truman Tribune, our good friends over there, uh Nikki and and Neil Meyer at the true uh the Tribune, they had an article in, let me see, this was November 5th. So just two weeks ago. They had an article in Martin County Cold Case, murder now fifty years old. It says Martin County Sheriff's Office asked anyone with any information about the bonchist murder. To contact the office says they are still working on the case. They are.
SPEAKER_02:Matt Owens is the the uh deputy sheriff that's in charge of it.
SPEAKER_00:Trevor Burrus, Jr. Okay. And they're there over the past several years, it says our office has asked for and received help from multiple cold case investigation organizations. We've consulted and worked with digital and media labs, forensic labs, and other state and local agencies and private citizens, even a documentary film crew. Yes. Okay. Oh, it is?
SPEAKER_02:Yes. They have already been down and filmed like the scene where it happened and stuff.
SPEAKER_00:What's this going to come out? Any clue?
SPEAKER_02:No. Maybe next year? They have interviewed, done the all the interviews they needed with Jerry Nutt and Pat Owens.
SPEAKER_00:Okay. Well that'll be fun to watch.
SPEAKER_02:Yes.
SPEAKER_00:Or not fun, that's the wrong word, but that'll be interesting.
SPEAKER_02:It's the same um production crew that did um Jody Husentroot from Algona. Okay.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. I do know that.
SPEAKER_02:Yeah.
SPEAKER_00:Um anyway, it goes on. And so M Martin County, they have not turned this into a, you know, they haven't closed it.
SPEAKER_02:It's never been closed.
SPEAKER_00:It's it's definitely cold, but they haven't closed it.
SPEAKER_02:It's never been closed in 50 years.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Wow. What other news do you have? What are the interesting facts? Um You're fun.
SPEAKER_02:All of all of the um things that I look into are like, where where did people live? You know, Joanne lived one block away from me growing up. Oh yeah. Um You knew Joanne. Yeah. Her step nephew lives in that house, yeah. Oh, does he really? Because her her sister owned that house at one time. I see. Yeah. Um or I should say her brother and and sister-in-law. But um just to figure out where everybody was at that time. And um in that process, it's interesting to find other things that other people have done.
SPEAKER_00:So do you have an So do you have at home? Do you have at home a great big board with little pic oh yeah right there? With little pictures on it, but little drawings different types of things. No. She was showing me a uh suitcase she's got that she carries with her with all of your information, huh? Yes. All right.
SPEAKER_02:Very good. Um one of the stories that I found very interesting that we found I we ran across when I first started was a four-year-old boy that had been killed up between Trimont and Chevrontobe. Um, on a farm. His grandpa was babysitting. Parents were gone somewhere, and the neighbor kids from the nearby farm had come over to play. And uh when they went to go inside, uh the the one kid was missing, couldn't find him, searched all over, couldn't find him. And um when he was found, he had been buried inside of a pile of hay on the farm with a knife stab to the back.
SPEAKER_03:Yes, this was in the 1970s. And what was this child's name?
SPEAKER_02:Um I would have to pull that out of my suitcase. I cannot.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, it's okay, yeah.
SPEAKER_02:And um it ended up the um BCA, I believe, came in and gave lie detector tests to the kids that were there. And um one of them did not pass and he gave himself up that he accidentally did it. It was a like a serrated hunting knife. Um and that kid actually ended up being a pallbearer to this kid's. But it's it's no, it's thought to believe he really killed him. I mean, you don't just accidentally stab somebody in the back. Oh wow. Yeah. But they didn't process him because he was 14, I believe.
SPEAKER_03:That that was something that Chief also um made note of, and I noted in the book that that Catherine Klymer wrote that again, so many bad actors in the community. Yes. It it it it is it is disheartening. Yes. But at the same time, we do know that we're a good community that rallies together and and can encourage each other, but yeah, there's it's it's not it's not all lollipops and and marshmallow topping is out here.
SPEAKER_02:No, yeah. Kid in high school and that hung around, um, attacked one of his classmates, took her out on a date, attacked her, and then threw her body out in the bushes at her home and left her there. And that was a Martin County case as well? Yes. Yeah. Um I can't even count how many people have iterated, well, when I babysat for so-and-so, he always tried to do this or that, or you know.
SPEAKER_03:Well, you know, I do you know, I do remember that we did need to get uh sexual assault laws in in place after the 70s and 80s, and and we did need to be able to learn, and our our children need to be taught our daughters to speak up much better for for themselves than we were than we were ever taught to. Yes. Um, and I'm so thankful for that. Yes. You know, but it yeah, it it yeah, and lots of bad stories.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, so let's wind this up. Tracy, what's your theory?
SPEAKER_02:My theory is she she wanted to go out partying, um and ended up with the wrong people. And for whatever happened, um if they were trying to scare her, if they were trying if she had done something against them that they didn't like, um who knows? Yeah, that maybe you never know. You know, I have heard that she was a informant to the cops for drugs, too, but I've never seen any evidence to that.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, all right. All right, so if you have a theory, folks, give us a call here at the Martin County Star. We we we're gonna keep this podcast open and you know, look at different look at different views. We're gonna try and get a hold of Catherine and see if she won't come on, and maybe Liz is gonna reach out to the Sheriff's Department and see what they know and see if they want to come on. Um, our number though is 507-764-6681. Tracy, it's been good seeing you again. Yeah, been nice talking to us. Good to meet you, Jones. Yeah. Thanks, Mike. Okay, you're welcome. All right, folks. Uh so stay tuned, right? Stay tuned. Okay, we'll see you guys later. Bye.
