A 55-year-old cold case may have finally been solved after police took a 77-year-old man into custody for a 1969 murder.
Joseph Ambroz, 77, was arrested in Ponca City, Oklahoma in connection with the 1969 murder of 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese.
Heese was reported missing by her family after she disappeared in 1969. Investigators at the time said she exited a car and attempted to run, but footprints at the scene suggested someone had caught her, according to First Alert 6.
The girl's body was found on March 25 of that year on a country road near Wahoo — approximately 55 miles west of Omaha — with more than a dozen stab wounds.
Heese was a high school senior at the time of her death. Evidence suggested that she fought back against her attacker.
Police never found a suspect and Hesse's family said she never would have gotten into a car with a stranger.
Earlier this year, the girl's body was exhumed from her grave at a local cemetery. It's unclear what evidence was uncovered from analysis of the body — police have declined to reveal that information — but a Saunders County grand jury reportedly saw enough to indict Ambroz.
US Marshals arrested Ambroz on November 18 and he was charged with one count of first-degree murder, according to the county sheriff.
Hesse's cousin, Kathy Tull, told First Alert 6 that she was relieved that someone was finally identified as a suspect.
“We kept calling state patrol. We kept calling and calling and calling, and where the case was with new evidence,” Tull said. And when we put up our own tip line. That’s when things really took off.”
Amrbroz is currently being held in a jail in Oklahoma. He has waived his extradition, meaning he will likely be taken back to Nebraska this week to face murder charges.
His first court appearance is expected sometime this week.
