A 55-year-old cold case may have been solved when police arrested a 77-year-old man for the 1969 murder.
Joseph Ambroz, 77, was arrested in Ponca City, Oklahoma, for the 1969 murder of 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese.
Heese’s family reported her missing after she disappeared in 1969. According to First Alert 6, she exited a car and attempted to flee, but tracks found at the scene indicated that she had been apprehended.
The girl’s body was discovered on March 25 of that year on a country road near Wahoo, about 55 miles west of Omaha, with more than a dozen stab wounds.
Heese was a high school senior when she died. The evidence revealed that she fought back against her attacker.
Police never uncovered a suspect, and Hesse’s family claimed she would never have gotten into a car with a stranger.
Earlier this year, the girl’s body was unearthed from a nearby cemetery. It’s unclear what evidence was discovered during the corpse examination — police have failed to divulge that information — but a Saunders County grand jury apparently found enough to prosecute Ambroz.
Ambroz was detained by US Marshals on November 18 and charged with one count of first-degree murder, according to the county sheriff’s office.
Kathy Tull, Hesse’s cousin, expressed relief to First Alert 6 that a suspect had finally been identified.
“We continued phoning the state patrol. Tull stated, “We kept calling and calling and calling until we found out where the case was with new evidence.” And when we set up our own tip line. “That’s when things really took off.”
Amrbroz is currently being imprisoned in an Oklahoma jail. He has waived extradition, therefore he will most likely be transported back to Nebraska this week to face murder charges.
His first court appearance is due this week.