Transcript
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The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
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All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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Cold and Missing also contains adult themes and languages.
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Listener discretion is advised.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Solkowski.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
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And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
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Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
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I'm Ali.
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And I'm Eli.
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Welcome back everyone.
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So, if this is your first time joining us or maybe you haven't listened in a few weeks,
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this is a part two episode.
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So, it is highly recommended that you go back and listen to last week's episode because
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otherwise some things in this episode might not make sense.
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Yeah, I 100% agree.
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There's a lot of details that Ali has, you know, strung together for us to really give
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us a narrative here.
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So, this episode, I think, just won't make as much sense unless you have the details
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of the first part.
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All right.
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Well, with that being said, let's get into part two of the cold case of Rose Burkert
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and Roger Atkison.
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Just as a small content warning at the top, there are some cases of animal cruelty that
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we'll talk about.
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So, as we already mentioned, this is part two of the Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison
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murder case.
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And this takes place in September of 1980 at the Amana colonies in Iowa.
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So, last week we left off on the timeline pretty early.
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Rose and Roger's bodies had been discovered in a somewhat strange crime scene in their
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hotel room.
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A lot of the timeline over the years was getting new information about the crime scene and
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the days leading up to the murder, which we went over in the last episode.
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I want to jump back into the timeline just to talk about a few updates that have happened
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over the years since the murders in 1980.
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So, on Monday, September 15th, 1980, this would have been just two days after the bodies
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are discovered.
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Police are trying to track down all of the hotel guests that were at the Amana holiday
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in that night.
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They start with those closest to room 260 and move outward.
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They're also looking for all employees of the hotel and nearby businesses that could
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have seen anything related to the brutal murder of Rose and Roger.
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Police do manage pretty quickly to find all those in the neighboring rooms.
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They all say they didn't hear anything unusual, and they didn't see anyone out of the ordinary.
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Everything was normal to them.
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The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigations, the DCI, head to St. Joseph, Missouri to talk
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to members of the community to try and gather more leads.
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Police over the next week will continually ask the public that anyone who might have
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seen Rose and Roger drive from Missouri to Iowa that weekend, or maybe saw them out and
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about, to please call investigators.
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At the one-year anniversary of the murder in September of 1981, Iowa investigators asked
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the FBI to create a profile.
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And police say, quote, the FBI was contacted and went over the entire case file.
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As a result of their study, they have submitted to our agency a psychological profile of the
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person or persons sought in the Amana case.
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However, at this time, we cannot reveal the contents of the FBI report to the public,
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end quote.
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By 1992, 12 years after the murder, police working Rose and Roger's case are convinced
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that it was someone that knew them.
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A detective working the case says, quote, it was someone who knew one or both of them.
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My opinion, after 29 years in the business, is that it was just some gruesome, kind of
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vindictive type homicide, end quote.
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In 2020, police revealed that over the last few years, with advances in technology, that
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they have been able to send in evidence from the hotel room for DNA testing.
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One of the items specifically was a towel that appeared to have been used by the killer
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to clean up after the murder.
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The towel contained both Roger and Rose's blood, and it was tested for touched DNA.
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And there was an unknown DNA profile on the towel that is believed to be the killer's.
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However, police have not been able to find a match for the DNA profile.
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So I wanted to take a minute here to talk about some other crimes that have been linked
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to Rose and Roger's murder.
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Within days of finding Roger and Rose, police are able to connect with police in Galesburg,
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Illinois to discuss a similar case that they have.
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Galesburg police have been investigating the June 1980 murder of William R. Kyle.
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So this took place about two months before Roger and Rose.
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William R. Kyle was 25 years old and was found murdered at the Sheraton Inn in Galesburg,
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Illinois.
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Within weeks of Rose and Roger's murder, Iowa County police say, quote, detectives
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from Galesburg were here this week checking with our people.
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The cases are similar and they're trying to determine whether there is a connection.
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So far, no connection has been made.
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We're looking at all possibilities.
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You have to figure whoever did it is either mad at hell at the person they're attacking
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or they get their kicks out of doing this kind of thing, end quote.
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But by the one year anniversary of the manna slayings, police say, quote, although we have
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checked several reports from across the country, we still believe that the only apparent comparison
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with the double murder lies with the slaying in Galesburg, Illinois.
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That case involved the slaying of a man in a motel room on June 25, 1980.
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There are definite similarities in the two slayings, end quote.
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William Kyle was a traveling salesman.
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He was found murdered in room 217 in the Sheraton Motor Inn in Galesburg, Illinois, right off
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of Interstate 74.
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William was found slumped over on the side of a bed face down with a blanket covering
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his torso.
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He had been killed with what police believe to be a hatchet.
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Under a chair in the room, William's wallet had been emptied onto the floor and near his
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body a tube of toothpaste had been emptied into the carpet.
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It's unclear exactly when, but a third case comes to light and appears to be connected
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to both Rose and Roger's murder and then William Kyle's murder.
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The third murder is of a 23-year-old male in Meridian, Mississippi on October 26, 1970,
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so 10 years before the two other murders.
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This man, Jack McDonald, was found murdered in room 412 at the Travel Inn Motel.
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He was found bent over the side of the bed, face down, and killed with an axe, hatchet,
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or machete.
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Toothpaste had been squeezed into the toilet and Jack's wallet was missing from the room.
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The FBI has an alert out on all three of these cases and it ties them together.
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They're asking specifically for police agencies to come forward if they have any other similar
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cases on their books.
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Specifically, the things that seems to tie them together is being found in a motel room
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off of a busy interstate, the toothpaste found in a weird spot of the room, and then being
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murdered with an axe, hatchet, or machete.
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Now over the years, there have been several suspects that have come to light in Rose and
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Roger's murder specifically.
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So one lead that police run down in 1980 is that the murder of Rose and Roger was done
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by cultists in the area.
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According to police, reports of cattle in the area had been mutilated and sacrificed
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as part of a cult ritual.
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The newspapers reported that the group were ultimately looking for a human sacrifice and
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would have found this in Rose and Roger.
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Police never say officially that they rule this out, but this lead never seems to go
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anywhere.
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Police are also forced to look at Roger's coworkers who were working out on the assignment
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with him.
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It was likely that some of his coworkers knew where he was headed that weekend and possibly
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even knew about Rose since she came to meet him during the work week.
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In addition, all of the telephone installers and repairers would carry a machete on them
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in the event they needed to cut down tall grasses in the course of their work.
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And of course, a machete is one of the suspected weapons that could have caused the injuries
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on Rose and Roger.
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Galesburg, Illinois police have a suspect that they like in their case.
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And since they think that the murder of William Kyle and Roger and Rose are related, Galesburg
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police therefore believe that this man also murdered Rose and Roger.
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Their suspect is Raimundo Esparza.
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He was someone struggling with heroin addiction in 1980 and was facing houselessness.
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Multiple witnesses placed him at the Travel Inn Motel that evening with a bag of tools
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the night that William was murdered.
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Esparza died in 1983.
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Later on in the investigation, police point to how the victims were found as possible
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clues as to who the murderer or murderers are.
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The fact that Roger was found only in his undershorts but Rose was fully clothed seemed
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to suggest to investigators that whoever the killer was, was likely someone that Roger
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was very comfortable with.
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Comfortable enough to undress in front of, but maybe someone that Rose didn't know
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as well.
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This linked with the fact that there was no forced entry into the hotel room and the
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chairs that were pulled up to the side of the bed as if there was a conversation happening
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also suggested that the killer was known to them in some capacity.
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Police do heavily consider that Roger's wife, Marcella, or her family could be involved
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in the crime.
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This has turned up quite a bit when Marcella's uncle confesses to 16 murders.
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Her uncle, Charles Ray Hatcher, was from St. Joseph, Missouri and was arrested for a murder
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charge when he first came to police attention.
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While in jail, awaiting trial for that murder charge, he slipped a guard a map that led
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police to another body.
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Charles Hatcher ends up being a serial killer.
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Five murders have been linked to him, but he confessed to 16.
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Even Roger's family think about Marcella and her family.
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They point to a few odd instances.
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The day before the murder, Marcella stopped by her brother and sister-in-law's home
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and broke down crying, which was uncharacteristic of her.
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Larry Atkisson said, quote, did she know something was going to happen?
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End quote.
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They also pointed the fact that Marcella was the beneficiary for several life insurance
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policies that Roger had, and they can't shake the detail from the crime scene that the chairs
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were pulled up.
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Larry says, quote, somebody more than one person sat there and talked before they did
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it.
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End quote.
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Marcella, of course, denies any involvement in her ex-husband's murder, and today she
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has become an advocate for his case.
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She had no idea that Roger was having an affair.
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She says, quote, it surprised me when I found out.
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I didn't know of this girl.
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I didn't even know she existed.
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End quote.
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Marcella says that when her uncle confessed to the other murders, she herself went to
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the police to ask if he could have been involved.
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Police never get into specifics, but they say they rule Hatcher out as a suspect.
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Police also look at Rose's ex-boyfriend, who it seems she was genuinely scared of.
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Just weeks before her murder, she went to the police department and made a report that
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should anything happen to her, it was because of her ex-boyfriend.
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He was stalking her at this time, sitting in a van outside of her home and work around
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the clock.
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She would often find threatening notes on her car windshield when she left work.
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Rose had bought a dog for protection, but she came home one day to find the dog killed
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and hanging in front of her house.
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She heavily suspected the ex-boyfriend.
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Rose was in the process of making a plan to move and change jobs in order to try to shake
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her ex-boyfriend.
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Police say they rule him out when he has a strong alibi and he passes a polygraph test.
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Police also look at a farm hand that worked down the road from Rose's home in Savannah,
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Missouri.
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According to Rose, she had woken up once to find him standing over her bed.
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Police were able to put him in the Amana area on the night of the murder since there was
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a farm convention taking place nearby that had brought a lot of St. Joseph residents
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to the area.
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As the last suspect I wanted to mention was the bartender at the Holiday Inn.
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There were reports that him and Rose had a confrontation in the bar area that evening.
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The bartender was living in his truck while working at the Holiday Inn.
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He often would just park his truck in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn and when he
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got off of work, he would still be on premises.
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The day after the murder, the bartender left town.
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He even left his last paycheck behind.
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He never picked it up.
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When investigators are trying to find him to question him, they locate his truck that
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was left abandoned in Iowa City.
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It takes a few months, but police are able to finally track the bartender down to North
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Carolina, but he had enlisted in the Army at that point and had actually been stationed
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to Germany.
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When police finally sit down with him to interview him, he says that he ran because he was nervous
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that police would blame him, that his lifestyle of living out of the truck would make him
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an easy target.
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Police say that it takes a few tries, but he eventually does seem to pass a polygraph
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test and they rule him out.
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But that is all we know about the murder of Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison.
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So if you know anything regarding the unsolved double-slaying of Rose and Roger, please contact
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the Iowa County Sheriff's Office at 319-642-7307 or contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
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at 515-725-6010.
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So that is part two.
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I wasn't sure what I expected for part two, but I just really appreciate again, and I
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know I said it when we began the episode, but the details you've managed to kind of
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piece together for this to follow a narrative I think is, one, it's really cool just that
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you're my wife and it's cool to see you do this work, but that it's also important.
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I think the more a clear narrative is present in cold cases, the more likely it becomes
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that the case or cases can be solved.
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So even when podcasts are doing this kind of work, I do think it makes a difference
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and I really think that it makes a difference here.
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Well, thank you.
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I struggled a little bit with how I wanted to structure, and if you're a longtime listener,
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you might realize that this episode is a little bit outside of how we normally even go about
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telling the case and going over the stories.
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And hopefully our listeners enjoyed it too, and yeah, it just helps get more and more
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people talking about all of these cases, Rose, Roger, William, and Jack.
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All of these cases, kind of, it's difficult to speak about one without speaking about
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the others.
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So I'm glad that we expanded and just got more in depth, which brings me to my first
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question or maybe comment.
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The interstate being right there for all of them.
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It's such a key in these cases because it's an easy escape.
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At least for me, you can tell that there was thought behind that this is very much planned.
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Yeah, the interstate, all of the hotels were just off of busy interstate.
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So like you said, easy in, easy out as far as a getaway.
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Everyone was away from their home, which just kind of makes you vulnerable in general.
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There were a lot of similarities in all of these cases, up to the toothpaste kind of
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being in weird parts of the room.
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The FBI has an alert out with all of the details of these three cases because they seem to
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be so linked together.
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So it's like if there are any other cases out there, probably where there's toothpaste
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somewhere odd in the room, specifically in a hotel off of a busy interstate, that it's
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likely linked or could be linked in some way.
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That was my second note or comment, just that the toothpaste was present in a similar looking
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crime.
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I don't know why, but that part of it just really, it gives me the heebie jeebies.
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I don't know.
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It's so odd.
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I don't know.
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I think maybe it's because it's an everyday item that all of us use each day and for it
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to be involved obscurely, but in such a violent sense.
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I don't know.
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Yeah, I just think the toothpaste, like how you said, it really does tie these cases together.
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And I just wanted to talk more about when you brought up cults.
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And I don't know how much detail you have around that, but you know, if you engage with
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true crime, this was definitely a time where cults and satanic panic, I mean, that panic
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was everywhere for a while.
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So I really, I wanted to dive into this part of it a little bit just to have some more
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clarity there.
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Yeah, this definitely feels like that time where cults and like satanic panic were definitely
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like taking root and becoming these like scary monsters like lurking in every town.
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That was definitely like starting to happen here.
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I don't have much information about like, kind of specifically who this cult would have
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been or like what they were after.
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Like, it just referred to cultists like going after cattle and like eventually they would
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want to do a human sacrifice.
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And it was happening around the Amana colonies, I believe it's like where that activity was
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happening.
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But outside of that, I don't know much about the cult, but it was mentioned a couple of
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times.
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So it really was something they were looking into.
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Thank you for that clarification.
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I think it was just worth mentioning again, or circling back to the subject.
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And I know we're bouncing around a little bit, but there was you know, there was a lot
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of information.
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So these were some of the questions I walked away with are just like key points that I
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picked up on as I was listening to you.
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And the next thing I had written down was multiple life insurance policies.
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I forgive me for not, I just couldn't remember who that was connected to.
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And I wanted just more details around that.
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So Marcella, that's Roger's wife at the time, was the beneficiary of I believe it was three
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different life insurance policies.
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I don't think it's necessarily that strange that there were three, none of them were really
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that large of an amount.
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Like it wasn't like a really like eyebrow raising amount.
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It was kind of normal when you added all of them up.
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I can't remember off the top of my head, but I don't think it was more than $100,000.
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I don't even think it was really close to it.
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So that was just one thing that kind of made Roger's brother and sister-in-law like kind
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of suspicious of Marcella and her family.
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And especially knowing what Marcella's uncle was eventually convicted of, of being a serial
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killer that made them all very suspicious.
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That part of learning the details of these cases was just, as I was listening, really
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what I said to myself was that that's very unfortunate because it makes it very difficult
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to not draw a connection after someone is convicted of being a serial killer.
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So I feel for her in this, it seems like she in the wake of all this like, you know, loss,
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she was also being surprised by a lot of information and not in a good way.
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So I just really feel for her.
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I hope that she's led a peaceful life since.
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And I also thought it was really cool that she still advocated for him.
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I mean, of course, you know, but I'm glad that things worked out for her.
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Yeah, I believe she wrote a book or is very close to finishing up writing a book about
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this case in general and kind of like from her perspective too, like you said, like she
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found out like a lot of bad news throughout this.
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One thing she mentions is like, you know, when police came to inform her about, you
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know, that Roger was dead, she was like, no, his ID was stolen because he's in Missouri.
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Like, he's not in Iowa.
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Like she was very confused about everything.
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She was like, someone stole his ID.
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It's not him.
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But ultimately, it was him.
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And you know, finding out about the affair through all of this too, it's, I can't imagine
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what she had to go through.
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There are like some things that I would really love to know in all of this.
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Like I would really be interested just to know what the FBI profile said about the suspected
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killer.
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I imagine that the profile might have said that the killer or killers were known to Rose
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and Roger because that's something that the police feel pretty confident of later whenever
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they're talking about the investigation is that somebody, it was somebody that knew them.
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But then you have these other two tied in.
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So could it just have been a random thing?
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And then the fact that no one heard anything like that to me raises a ton of questions
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because then it's kind of like, yeah, they probably knew the person because you think
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there'd be some shouting or yelling or something if somebody just like walked into your hotel
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room that you didn't know.
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Yeah, I think the profile concept would shed a lot of light because the way in which these
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people were murdered was a very specific way down to, I think you said hatchet and axe
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maybe.
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But that's a specific instrument or weapon to use to kill someone.
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And there's also a skill set involved in handling an instrument like that.
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So the profile concept, I think, would shed a lot of light and bring some clarity that
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I hope we get to have someday.
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But it just, I don't know.
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Yeah, it's all very strange.
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And it does suggest that there are two people because if you have to keep two people under
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control while you murder them in this specific way with an axe or a hatchet or machete, I
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think police eventually kind of ruled it down to a roofer's hatchet or a machete.
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So these are very specific weapons being used and something that would take a second.
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I guess I don't know for sure.
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But it's like two people, I don't know.
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It's just like, how did you keep everyone under control and quiet while this was happening?
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That raises so many questions.
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And how is there not a bigger struggle?
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Just sounds, thumping, shouting.
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It's just, it boggles my mind how it happened.
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And then you also have that specificity with William and Jack's murder as well.
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The same weapon was used, which is not your everyday weapon.
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Yeah, again, I think tying all of these together and discussing it in detail was really the
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right move here for our podcast.
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I'm really glad that we continued to dive into Rose and Roger's cases, but also Jack
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and Williams.
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I think it was kind of necessary.
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It makes more sense.
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The details of the first murders, not that they become any more clear to me, just that
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they are repeated overall makes the story or narrative and timeline more clear for me.
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Yeah, this is one of those cases where it definitely feels solvable.
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There appears to be multiple crime scenes.
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So that's a lot of chances of evidence of DNA.
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I know there was a partial fingerprint that was lifted from the hotel room of Rose and
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Roger.
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So there are things out there.
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And in 2020, we learned we do have a DNA profile.
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So I think this case can be solved.
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I honestly wouldn't be surprised if more cases are eventually linked to it.
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The toothpaste, I keep coming back to that.
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This is pure speculation on my part.
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But I wouldn't be surprised if once we find out who this is, other people come forward
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and they're like, yeah, I had an argument with him and he went into my bathroom and
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put my toothpaste everywhere or something like that.
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You know what I mean?
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Like it's such an interesting or odd thing to do.
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That's like I guarantee he's done it somewhere else.
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But with that, if you know anything regarding the unsolved double slaying of Rose and Roger,
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please contact the Iowa County Sheriff's Office at 319-642-7307 or contact the Iowa Division
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of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010.
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Thank you so much to everyone who rated and reviewed us.
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We had some really nice ones again come through this week.
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I appreciate it so much that you would take the time out of your day to leave such thoughtful
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and kind reviews.
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And also, I'm so glad that so many of you are enjoying this podcast and listening week
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over week and case over case, like to see this audience grow and to see the community
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kind of grow around the podcast.
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It's been really incredible.
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So thank you so much for being here.
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Thank you for rating and reviewing.
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Thank you for listening.
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And thank you for sharing with other people like other folks who might be interested in
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these types of cases.
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If you're not already, please follow us on our Instagram at Cold and Missing.
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There we will have pictures.
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We have pictures from last week as well that show some of the crime scene layout and a
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couple photos from the crime scene.
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Nothing graphic, but just a couple photos.
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And we also have on our website all of our old cases.
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So you can go in there.
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You can search by state.
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And if you or someone you love needs a transcript, we have transcripts for all our episodes on
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our website, www.coldandmissing.com.
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But that's all I have.
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Thank you so much for listening to Cold and Missing.
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I'm your host, Allie.
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And I'm your co-host, Eli.
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Have a good week and stay safe, y'all.
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Stay safe, y'all.
