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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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00:28:51,120 --> 00:28:56,080
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.