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00:10The murder of Mary Kay Hessey has been on the minds of the people of Wahoo, Nebraska, for 56 years
00:17now.
00:22I remember being about nine years old, out in the front yard.
00:27My mom came out and said, hey, get in this house right now. A girl in Wahoo has been murdered.
00:32And I remember that plain as day. It didn't happen that often in Nebraska. Murders were rare.
00:41Mary Kay Hessey was a 17-year-old high school student from Wahoo, Nebraska, who was killed by stabbing in
00:501969.
00:52The Mary Kay Hessey case is unique because of how many people have tried to solve it, and they just
00:59hit brick walls right and left.
01:01I'm Bob Frank. Back in 1999, I was a sergeant in charge of the Nebraska State Patrol Cold Case Unit.
01:16She was running. You could see the struggle. The blood on the ground and the footprint showed there was a
01:21struggle in this area.
01:23Her shoe and another spot of blood was found, and then her body.
01:28I'm hoping the integrity of the evidence is still there, as far as it's not too old to test, as
01:35far as DNA.
01:38We're hoping after 30 years we can pull a fingerprint off those books.
01:43The purse was found at the crime scene, and this stuff has been in here for the last 30 years.
01:50Rabbit's foot with a key and a nail clipper on it.
01:53Better be dead sure than...
01:55Than sure dead.
01:56Kind of ironic, isn't it?
01:58With the makeup, the pencils, the handkerchiefs, the Kleenexes, just your normal 17-year-old's purse.
02:05I have one prime suspect.
02:08What I'll say right now is he knows who did it or he was there.
02:11I can't positively say he did it yet.
02:15What did you learn about what the connection was between him and Mary Kay?
02:20Through reports that we had, they were both at the Wigwam Cafe about the same time.
02:25How long did you end up working this case?
02:28We probably stayed on it for about a year.
02:31Did you think, well, I couldn't make any more headway here?
02:34It's never going to be solved?
02:35Well, it got to the point where working with a grant, we had X amount of funds to expend per
02:41case, and we had reached our maximum.
02:44It was one that I really wanted to solve for the community, but it just didn't turn out that way.
02:53My name is Ted Green, and I was the criminal investigator for the Saunders County Attorney's Office.
03:00Her body was found where, roughly?
03:03That's roughly right here.
03:04From here in the ditch.
03:05Yep, laying, yep.
03:06When you're first assigned this case, did you think, well, I'm the guy, I'm going to solve this, I'm going
03:12to get the answer?
03:13No, but I don't let go. I won't give up. And I was putting this puzzle back together.
03:21What happened after more than 50 years in this case?
03:24The puzzle came together. We finally got a full puzzle with all the pieces in place.
04:01The puzzle came together.
04:19Mary Kay Hessey's unsolved murder hung over this community for five decades.
04:28It needed to be resolved.
04:31I look at this as the case where the community lost its innocence, where people were told,
04:38we're not going into Wahoo, you're not going out alone.
04:43Jennifer Jochum, Saunders County Attorney, and Richard Register, Deputy County Attorney,
04:49worked on what is believed to be the longest unsolved cold case in Nebraska history,
04:55the 1969 murder of 17-year-old Mary Kay Hessey, a high school junior.
05:02It was very well-known. A murder, especially of this nature, is not common for this area.
05:10This right here is what Wahoo is really known for, right?
05:15I mean, we're cow country.
05:16It's real.
05:17Corn country.
05:18It hasn't changed much.
05:21Ted Green was the criminal investigator for the Saunders County Attorney's Office.
05:25He started working on the case in 2015.
05:29So this was the high school here.
05:31So on that day, she had just finished term.
05:34Walked home and she started walking north here on Linden Street.
05:39Memories of Mary Kay Hessey's murder loom large in this small town.
05:45This black-and-white footage was filmed by a local television station shortly after the murder.
05:51Much of Wahoo looks like it did on March 25, 1969, when Mary Kay Hessey never made it home after
06:00school.
06:02So the last place that she was seen was here on the corner.
06:09That evening, Mary Kay's parents reported her missing, and the community came out in force to search for her.
06:17So they had Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, church groups, school groups, and the Wahoo Police Department and Sheriff's Office all
06:24searching for her.
06:26Nothing was found until close to midnight, when a farmer spotted Mary Kay's school books and purse stacked neatly on
06:34a road near his field.
06:36Inside the books was her name, and so he brought the books into Wahoo and ran into the police that
06:45were searching for her.
06:47They all went back to where the books were found, and they found her body lying in a ditch on
06:54the side of the road.
06:55Not far from Mary Kay's bloodied body, investigators discovered her shoes in the road, tire tracks from a car, and
07:04shoe prints potentially from the killer.
07:08And how had she died?
07:10Well, in a horrible way, she was chased down.
07:13The footprints, which were preserved by the ground freezing, showed that she got out of the vehicle and she ran,
07:19and you could tell by the strides that she was really trying to escape.
07:23And then near where her body's found, there's a pool of blood, she's laying there discarded like trash.
07:32Investigators photographed the scene, measured and made a cast of that shoe print, and sent Mary Kay's body for an
07:40autopsy.
07:41It was determined that Mary Kay had been beaten and was stabbed to death, leaving 14 wounds.
07:48No knife was found at the scene.
07:50She has a pretty good mark on her jaw where she was punched, and the stab wounds come after that.
07:59Stabbing somebody 14 times, though, what did that tell you about the nature of the crime?
08:04Rage. Rage.
08:06Was she sexually assaulted?
08:07No. No.
08:09But I believe she understood that's probably where it was going to head.
08:15The investigation was initially handled by various law enforcement departments.
08:20Mary Kay's clothing was sent to the FBI, to J. Edgar Hoover's attention, before the days of DNA testing, to
08:29see if anything could be learned.
08:33Investigators questioned people around town about the day of the murder.
08:37A witness reported seeing Mary Kay that day at around 5 p.m., getting into a car that had two
08:44men at that street corner.
08:46In those early days and weeks, did you think, oh, they're going to find whoever did this?
08:53Oh, yeah.
08:54Mark Miller and Kathy Toll are Mary Kay's cousins.
08:57These are some of Mary Kay's personal belongings, right?
09:01This is her 4-H.
09:03Is she proud of what she did at the 4-H?
09:05That's how tiny she was.
09:07Kathy was 9 and Mark 8 when they learned Mary Kay had been murdered.
09:13She's the oldest of those cousins, so she always looked out for all of us.
09:18She was a 17-year-old girl full of life.
09:22Kathy recalls being picked up early from school the day Mary Kay's body was found.
09:27And they told us we had to come to Wallyville.
09:30Kathy's family drove to her cousin's home.
09:32When they got there, Kathy saw and heard Mary Kay's mom, Dorothy.
09:39When we went in, it was just, you could hear her wailing.
09:46It's the kind of pain you feel across the room.
09:49And at the time, did they tell you how she was found, or was that too much to tell the
09:54cousins, the kids?
09:55I think we heard it.
09:56When they told us, then, it was on the news.
09:59The family and the community could not understand why Mary Kay had been targeted.
10:06There were no answers, just fear.
10:10And I remember thinking, I'm scared.
10:13Everything changed.
10:15What our parents allowed us to go do.
10:18You didn't have the freedoms that you had before.
10:20We lost so many different things because of it.
10:22Our parents wanting to overprotect us.
10:26But being overprotective did not ensure safety.
10:31Mary Kay's parents, especially her father, had always been very watchful and careful with their daughter.
10:37She had a very strict father.
10:40And she was shy.
10:43She very much wanted to fit in.
10:45And there was a group of girls that would put makeup on her at the beginning of the day and
10:51change her clothes out.
10:53So she would fit in socially.
10:55And then at the end of the school, she changed back.
10:58She wanted to be a part of the crowd.
11:01Mary Kay was trying to participate in school activities, practicing baton twirling, hoping to be a majorette.
11:08Part of fitting in for Mary Kay also involved trying to get a date for an upcoming school dance.
11:15Mary Kay had even written this letter to another cousin, asking him to be her date.
11:21When you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me, I just wanted a date.
11:26And so she would take her cousin.
11:28This was March 18, 1969, so just a week before she died.
11:35Investigators thought that perhaps the pressure to find a date and fit in led the usually shy Mary Kay to
11:43get into that car with the men at that street corner.
11:47I think she was so naive, she had no clue that something bad could happen to her.
11:51She just wanted to get a boy to go to the dance with her.
11:55And unfortunately, the dance she went to was her dad.
12:18Ted Green, formerly the investigator for the Saunders County Attorney's Office, believes the two men who picked up 17-year
12:26-old Mary Kay Hessey on March 21st.
12:28And on the 25th, 1969, we're driving here to an area known locally as The Grove.
12:35Natural parking and party spot.
12:37So kids coming down this way, there were two things in mind, either partying or hooking up?
12:44Or hooking up.
12:45Those are the two things on everybody's mind.
12:48Green's theory of the crime is that when Mary Kay realized the men's intentions, she fled the car and one
12:55of the men ran after her, eventually stabbing her to death.
13:00But people who knew Mary Kay wondered why she got in the car with the two men.
13:05She wouldn't get into a car with somebody that she didn't know.
13:08She knew these guys.
13:10Working that theory, investigators in 1969 questioned males in town, especially ones who could have crossed paths with Mary Kay.
13:21They used what was then a brand new crime-solving tool, polygraphs.
13:26They polygraphed virtually the entire male population of both the schools.
13:30I mean, can you imagine the uproar would happen today?
13:33And they were looking for that as their silver bullet.
13:36One of the people polygraphed and questioned a few days after the murder was this man, Joseph Ambrose, 22 years
13:45old at the time.
13:47Ambrose had been seen weeks before the murder talking to Mary Kay around town.
13:52They both frequented this restaurant, the Wigwam Cafe, which still stands today.
13:59Ambrose stood out as he was new to town.
14:03Investigators learned he was on parole after having been convicted of forgery and escaping from custody.
14:11He wrote a $10 bad check with his buddy up in Wayne, Nebraska.
14:16They get stopped for that and they escape this little county jail up there.
14:21And they catch up in California and bring him all the way back.
14:27Ambrose served about three years and then moved to Wahoo.
14:32And he's out on parole.
14:34He's got a job.
14:35He's working at a packing plant.
14:36So a slaughterhouse.
14:38Yeah, slaughterhouse.
14:39And she knew him.
14:41Authorities say they learned that Ambrose was known to mingle with high school girls and had a reputation for having
14:49a temper.
14:50He also drove the type of car similar to this one that someone said they saw near the crime scene.
14:57A local resident had seen two cars leave that night.
15:02One car was a white over red 56 Chevy.
15:05The second car was a white over blue 56 Chevy with two dark-haired males in it driving it at
15:12a high rate of speed.
15:14Ambrose drove that white over blue.
15:17He's a person of interest.
15:20Ambrose denied any involvement in the murder.
15:23And his polygraph seemed to support that.
15:28Ambrose said he had an alibi, that the night of the murder, he was hanging out at various locations with
15:34his friend Wayne Greaser, who was also questioned and polygraphed.
15:39Wayne Greaser was just that wannabe kid who was just following around Ambrose.
15:43And so he says he's with him.
15:45But while being questioned, Ambrose did speak about things, says Ted Green, that got him in trouble with the law.
15:52And he was immediately sent to jail.
15:54He blows his parole right in the pre-polygraph interview.
15:59He violates.
15:59It says, I'm buying booze for minors.
16:02I'm having sex with minors.
16:04So he's booked parole violation.
16:07But not for Mary Kay's murder.
16:10Why did this case not move along further at the time?
16:13That's a very good question.
16:16Follow-up in the initial investigation, prosecutors say, seemed to be lacking, with inexperience a factor.
16:23Cars were not checked for blood.
16:26And suspect's shoe sizes were not compared to the shoe prints found at the scene.
16:31This was the beginning of the state patrol.
16:34Because before then, they just gave tickets for speeding.
16:37And so these people were thrown into this new investigative unit.
16:40There were other agencies involved.
16:42It didn't seem like there was really a lead investigator.
16:47And they were just relying on those polygraphs.
16:52For decades, the case sat cold.
16:57After seeing the pictures and going through the case, you can visualize it.
17:00I mean, everything's the same.
17:01After 30 years, it's all the same.
17:03Nothing has changed.
17:04Then, 30 years later, in 1999, with the creation of the Nebraska State Patrol Cold Case Unit, Mary Kay's murder
17:13was getting attention again.
17:15And 48 Hours Cameras followed Sergeant Bob Frank as he worked the case.
17:21Her body was found right in here.
17:24And that's where we're at, right here.
17:25And we spoke with Frank again in 2025, now retired from the State Patrol.
17:32One thing about doing cold cases you find is that stories grow.
17:36Stories change.
17:38And so, you know, trying to separate truth from fiction is sometimes difficult.
17:44To try to get to the truth, Frank, in 1999, scoured the old case reports.
17:51He noticed that Joseph Ambrose and Wayne Grieser, the men who were each other's alibis, kept coming up in witness
18:00statements.
18:01And I started talking to other people who had been told by these two individuals that they had done this
18:06homicide.
18:07Grieser had died by suicide in 1977.
18:11Ambrose was long out of jail, having served a year and a half for that parole violation after Mary Kay's
18:18murder.
18:18He had moved around and worked as a truck driver.
18:22Bob Frank knew at some point he would want to talk to Ambrose, but first wanted to take a new
18:28look at the old evidence.
18:34In 99 now, are you hoping you're going to get some sort of DNA?
18:38Something.
18:39Something.
18:54So here's the evidence bag.
18:56By 1999, when Sergeant Bob Frank led the Nebraska State Patrol's cold case unit, advances had been made in forensic
19:04science that were not available in 1969, when Mary Kay Hessey was murdered.
19:1048 Hours cameras filmed Frank going through Mary Kay's belongings as he looked for DNA and fingerprints.
19:19Among the items tested were Mary Kay's school books, found stacked at the scene.
19:25We're hoping for prints to come off.
19:27It's been 30 years.
19:28The theory was that Mary Kay left the books and her purse in the car.
19:32The killer noticed the items and, not wanting to be linked to her belongings, dumped them.
19:39So we know it was probably the suspect that put those books on the road.
19:43What we were looking for there was any type of fingerprint evidence.
19:48A fingerprint examiner worked to find and lift prints off the school books, including one titled Building a Successful Marriage.
19:58Were there any fingerprints that came forward?
20:01No.
20:02This is what we really had them concentrate on, were these gloves.
20:05She was wearing these at the time, wasn't she, Mr.
20:08We were looking for somebody else's blood on those gloves.
20:13They also tested Mary Kay's clothing.
20:16Let's see, these clothes were cut off at the autopsy.
20:18When I see this, it just motivates me more.
20:20I mean, it's something you want to solve.
20:22It's something you want to get closure on.
20:24I'll tell you the truth, when I put this out and laid it out, the first thing I thought of
20:27was Mrs. Hesse.
20:29Frank spoke several times with Mary Kay's mother, Dorothy, over the course of his investigation.
20:35That's when she started the high school.
20:3848 Hours spoke with her as well in 1999.
20:42I don't think it'll be solved.
20:45I really don't.
20:46It's gone all these many years, and I've just given up hope.
20:51Hope would be diminished again when the forensic testing led nowhere.
20:57Still, Joseph Ambrose and Wayne Greaser remained at the top of Frank's suspect list.
21:03In May 1999, Frank decided to question people who knew Ambrose and Greaser
21:09around the time of the murder, and had been named in prior police reports.
21:14That's why I want two guys in there, so one guy can really watch
21:17how these guys are reacting to the questions being asked them.
21:21The thought was the passage of time might make someone more forthcoming,
21:26and the investigators took several steps to try to help that along.
21:30We created an atmosphere to where it appeared we were a full-fledged task force looking at this case.
21:36If he's giving you a hard time...
21:38In fact, there was no designated HESI task force, nor was it getting hot.
21:44It was just one of the measures taken by Frank and his team
21:48as they tried to see if anyone would give new information.
21:52I wrote their names down on the board and some numbers behind those names,
21:57which don't really have any relevancy either.
21:59Investigator Jay Peterson...
22:01But it's just going to get them to thinking that we know a heck of a lot more about them
22:05than perhaps we actually do.
22:07They also tried to make the setting a bit uncomfortable for those being interviewed.
22:12Did you grease the table down, too?
22:14Yeah, I guess.
22:15What we did was we took a bottle of furniture polish, we waxed the table,
22:18we waxed these chairs, so when they sit down,
22:21they're not going to be able to get into a comfort zone.
22:24So keep them on edge a little bit,
22:26and hopefully that'll get them talking a little bit, too.
22:30We put electronic devices in to record in the room.
22:34We let these people know when we brought them in
22:36that they were going to be monitored constantly.
22:38But despite all those efforts, nothing usable was learned.
22:43We had people telling us that Wayne Greaser told us this.
22:47Joe Ambrose told us this, but it was all hearsay evidence.
22:51You know, we didn't have that witness that was there
22:54or, you know, knew the facts directly.
22:56So Frank decided it was time to interview Joseph Ambrose himself.
23:01We will just go see what we can get by knocking on the door.
23:04Let's do it.
23:06In September 1999, Frank traveled to Orange Park, Florida,
23:10where Ambrose was living.
23:12Working with local law enforcement,
23:14Frank went to Ambrose's home, where he answered the door.
23:18You Mr. Ambrose?
23:19Yes, sir.
23:20And willingly went to be questioned
23:22at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
23:25Recall for me what you did that night.
23:27I mean, you know, you've been questioned about it before.
23:29No.
23:30So, you know, tell me what you did.
23:31Ambrose said on the day of the murder,
23:33he got off work around 5.30,
23:36went home,
23:37and then went to a club until closing time.
23:41Unlike his previous interview,
23:43where his now-deceased friend Wayne Greaser was his alibi,
23:47he did not mention being with Greaser.
23:50But you had said in interview reports,
23:51and I have those interview reports,
23:53that you were with Wayne.
23:59Frank also asked many questions about Ambrose's job
24:03at a slaughterhouse.
24:05I worked on a kill floor.
24:06Kill floor?
24:07Yeah.
24:07Since Mary Kay was stabbed to death,
24:10Ambrose was asked about his access to knives.
24:14Was there a special type of instrument you had to use for that,
24:16or was it just a regular knife?
24:17No, I had, I think, like, three different knives.
24:21But Ambrose was adamant he had nothing to do
24:24with Mary Kay's murder,
24:25even when Frank implied they found someone's DNA at the scene.
24:30We have a wonderful thing called DNA.
24:32Right.
24:33And we're going to be able to show who she struggled with.
24:36Right.
24:39Again, you know,
24:40we have all this little bits of information here or there
24:42that fit together that you were there.
24:44Not necessarily that you did it,
24:45but that you were there when it happened.
24:47Okay?
24:47Well, that, that's yet to be proven.
24:50I mean, I wasn't there.
24:52Like I said, I had nothing to do with it.
24:54And you're free to take blood, anything you want.
24:57Okay.
24:58Despite Ambrose's cooperation,
25:00Frank found several things suspicious,
25:03like Ambrose's explanation for giving different versions
25:06of where he was at the time of the murder.
25:09Well, I don't remember everything.
25:11The reports here indicate a size 9 1⁄2 shoe at the scene.
25:15And there was that shoe print found at the scene,
25:18which was the same size that Ambrose wears.
25:22You got a 9 1⁄2 shoe.
25:23Okay, another coincidence.
25:25Yeah.
25:25Okay.
25:26Frank also asked Ambrose about a report from 1972
25:29before Wayne Greaser died,
25:32in which a friend of Greaser informed authorities Greaser
25:35had confessed to him that he and Ambrose drove Mary Kay to the field
25:40and that it was Ambrose who killed her.
25:43When Frank brought it up, Ambrose got agitated.
25:46I had nothing to do with it.
25:47I don't know what Greaser was saying.
25:49And that's all I got to say.
25:50After the interview, Ambrose gave his blood for DNA testing
25:54and submitted to another polygraph.
25:57Nothing incriminating was found at his house.
26:00And his DNA did not match any found on Mary Kay's items.
26:05We presented what we had to the county attorney at the time,
26:08and he just felt there was not enough to even take it forward.
26:12In 2000, Frank stopped working the case,
26:16but held out hope that one day something would be found.
26:20We needed something to drive this case forward.
26:38What exactly happened in this field in 1969
26:42was still a mystery when Ted Green, in 2015,
26:46then the investigator for the Saunders County Attorney's Office,
26:50started looking into Mary Kay Hessey's murder.
26:53It was putting this puzzle back together.
26:56He had collected reports from all the different agencies
27:00that worked the case over the years.
27:02He found memos and statements that had never been filed.
27:07Then I started going through the list of names
27:10and all those volumes and re-interviewing,
27:12and so I was able to start tracking down individuals.
27:16Green says one of those people told him
27:19that Ambrose had seen Mary Kay,
27:20not just at that cafe they frequented,
27:23but also around town,
27:25and that Ambrose told him
27:26he wanted to have sex with Mary Kay.
27:30And he says, well, Mary Kay was up in her driveway
27:32twirling her baton,
27:34and he had made the comment that,
27:36yeah, the suspect told me
27:39he wanted to do her.
27:41Green, like Frank,
27:42focused his investigation on Joseph Ambrose.
27:45Green says another person told him
27:48he had seen Ambrose and Wayne Greaser
27:50arguing that night.
27:52They got into a fight that very night
27:54about some girl,
27:56and this guy's coming forward
27:58and saying this fight occurred,
27:59and nobody paid attention to him.
28:02Green also re-interviewed a co-worker of Ambrose
28:05who said Ambrose told him after the murder
28:08that, quote,
28:08I can do six months,
28:10but I can't do life.
28:11For Green,
28:13this was Ambrose's motive.
28:15Green theorized that Ambrose
28:16could deal with serving six months
28:19for a parole violation,
28:21but not more for attempting
28:22to sexually assault Mary Kay.
28:25He knows he's going back.
28:26It's not a place he wants to go.
28:28So you believe he killed her
28:30because he was trying to make sure...
28:32He was going to, yeah.
28:33She didn't report him.
28:35Yeah.
28:35Green was frustrated
28:37with the initial investigation's
28:38lack of follow-up.
28:40Especially disturbing to him
28:42was that Joseph Ambrose's car
28:44that looked similar to this
28:46was long gone
28:48and had never been examined.
28:50Why wasn't this in those reports?
28:52These are basic questions I was asking.
28:56While Green worked the case,
28:58this man, Josh Eberhardt,
28:59a friend of Kathy Toll,
29:01Mary Kay's cousin,
29:03wanted to bring attention
29:04to the decades-old murder
29:06that continued to haunt the family.
29:08The way that I could feel their pain
29:10when I spoke with them,
29:12I couldn't let it go.
29:14I knew I wanted to help them somehow.
29:16That help came in 2019
29:18when Josh, with the assistance of Kathy,
29:22set up a Facebook page tip line.
29:24And I started writing the post for this page
29:28and I was trying to pull at the heartstrings
29:29of the community.
29:32Dear Mary Kay,
29:3450 years have come and gone
29:35since someone took you from us all.
29:38I sit here at my computer every day
29:41working to find justice for you.
29:45Josh hoped the post might jog people's memories.
29:49Tips came in that went nowhere.
29:51But then...
29:54Somebody came forward with a really big tip.
29:58The tip involved a reservoir
30:00not far from the murder scene.
30:02The person had heard stories about men
30:05taking apart a car
30:06that looked like the one Joseph Ambrose drove
30:09and pushing the car into the water
30:12shortly after Mary Kay's murder.
30:15We heard the words
30:16white over blue, 50s Chevy.
30:19So we knew it was important enough
30:21to pass to Ted
30:22and he took it from there.
30:24Ted Green also thought it was important.
30:27He always wondered
30:28what happened to the car
30:29witnesses reported
30:30seeing Mary Kay get into.
30:33A car he believed
30:34belonged to Joseph Ambrose.
30:36You think it's the Chevy
30:38that's in that lake?
30:39Yeah.
30:40They got rid of the car.
30:42There was blood on it.
30:43It was a murder scene.
30:44It was a murder scene.
30:45I think the murder weapons there also.
30:48So Green tried to determine
30:50what was at the bottom of that reservoir.
30:52It was a process
30:54seen here that went on
30:56for about five years
30:59including having a portion dredged.
31:01And we started coming up
31:03with bits and pieces
31:04of weird steel.
31:07But he needed
31:08to come up with more.
31:11Civilian divers
31:12cracking cold cases.
31:15Then Green saw
31:16a YouTube video
31:17from an underwater
31:18search and recovery dive team
31:20called Adventures with Purpose.
31:22The organization
31:23is primarily focused
31:25on searching underwater
31:26for missing persons.
31:28Called him up and said
31:29this is an active
31:30ongoing investigation.
31:31We don't have a body in there.
31:33I'm looking for evidence.
31:35And they agreed to do it.
31:37Two-tone piece of fiber.
31:39Two different colors.
31:41Piece of metal.
31:42Same metal we've been pulling up.
31:43We pulled up more
31:44and more metal.
31:45We also pulled up
31:48fiber consistent
31:49with the color
31:50of the interior
31:50of the car
31:51we're looking for.
31:52Still though,
31:53they could not prove
31:54the metal and fiber
31:55were from a car.
31:57To determine anything more,
31:59the reservoir
32:00would need to be drained,
32:01which was not feasible.
32:05If the reservoir
32:06couldn't provide more clues,
32:09Green and the county attorney
32:10thought perhaps
32:11Mary Kay herself could.
32:14In 2024,
32:16the decision was made
32:17to have her body exhumed
32:19and perform another autopsy.
32:23The first autopsy
32:25was not a quality autopsy,
32:27or at least by today's standards.
32:29Obviously, it's science.
32:31Things evolve.
32:32But first,
32:33the family had to consent.
32:36Green and Kathy Toll
32:37had been in close contact
32:38through the course
32:39of his investigation.
32:41Kathy was always pushing
32:43to learn more,
32:43so she gave her permission
32:45to have Mary Kay's body exhumed.
32:48It was hard.
32:53Anything that maybe would
32:55give the answers
32:56we were looking for,
32:57but it was a hard choice.
33:01But what kind of answers
33:02could be found
33:03from a body
33:04that had been buried
33:05for more than 50 years?
33:08We didn't know
33:08what we were going to find.
33:22Mary Kay had been buried
33:24for 55 years
33:25when her casket
33:26was lifted out of the ground
33:28to perform another autopsy.
33:33Remarkably, say prosecutors,
33:35her body was well-preserved,
33:37allowing a pathologist
33:39to learn more
33:40about her knife wounds.
33:42The second autopsy
33:44was extremely valuable.
33:46It added clarity
33:48to the manner of killing.
33:51According to investigators,
33:53the manner in which
33:53Mary Kay was stabbed
33:55was consistent
33:56with how slaughterhouse workers
33:58are taught to kill animals.
34:02The angle,
34:03exactly how her body
34:04was showed in the autopsy,
34:06is exactly how
34:07they were told to do it.
34:08For Ted Green,
34:10it was another piece
34:11of the puzzle
34:11tying Joseph Ambrose,
34:13who had worked
34:14on the kill floor
34:15of a slaughterhouse,
34:16to Mary Kay's murder.
34:18There was also
34:19that shoe print
34:20at the murder scene,
34:22a size nine and a half.
34:24And he wore
34:25a nine and a half shoe,
34:26and that's the size shoe
34:27that was there.
34:28But it was more
34:29than just the size.
34:30Green says
34:31it was also
34:32the pattern of the print.
34:33It matched
34:35a prison-issue shoe
34:36that Ambrose,
34:37on parole
34:38at the time
34:39of Mary Kay's murder,
34:40could have been wearing.
34:42So these little
34:43consistencies
34:43are starting to add up.
34:45At what point, though,
34:46do you feel
34:47you have enough
34:48that you can then
34:49go to the county
34:50attorney's office
34:51and say,
34:52I think I've got
34:53a pretty good case here?
34:54It was his interview.
34:55In 2021,
34:57Green interviewed Ambrose,
34:59traveling to Ohio,
35:00where he was living.
35:02According to Green,
35:03people told him
35:04they had seen blood
35:05on Ambrose's car
35:06around the time
35:07of the murder.
35:08Green says
35:09when he asked Ambrose
35:10about this,
35:11he admitted
35:12there was blood
35:13on his car
35:14because he ran over
35:16a deer or rabbit.
35:18He said that blood
35:19is on the left rear fender.
35:21The back fender.
35:23You don't hit a deer
35:24or a rabbit
35:25on the left rear fender
35:26and put blood on that.
35:27And he admitted
35:27the blood was there
35:28at the night of the homicide.
35:29Green believed
35:30Ambrose pinned Mary Kay
35:32on the car trunk
35:33and the blood was hers
35:35from those 14 stab wounds.
35:38In 2023,
35:40Green presented
35:41his investigation's findings
35:42to the county attorney.
35:44The witness statements,
35:45the shoe print evidence,
35:47Ambrose's interview.
35:49The prosecutors knew
35:51it would be
35:51a challenging case.
35:53The murder weapon
35:54was never found,
35:55nor was there DNA evidence
35:57connecting Ambrose
35:59to the killing.
36:00But they also knew
36:01time was running out.
36:03We were getting
36:04to a point that
36:0555, 56 years ago
36:08this occurred.
36:09So we're starting
36:10to lose witnesses.
36:11So the decision
36:13was made
36:13to take it
36:15before the grand jury.
36:17The grand jury
36:18quickly indicted
36:19Joseph Ambrose
36:20for the first degree
36:21murder of Mary Kay Hesse.
36:24The then 77-year-old
36:27was arrested
36:28on November 18,
36:292024 in Oklahoma,
36:31where he was living.
36:33Ambrose was then
36:34extradited to Nebraska.
36:36Thrilled to death.
36:37I was thrilled.
36:38Thrilled to death.
36:38Finally.
36:39Finally.
36:40Mary Kay will have justice.
36:43For Mary Kay's family,
36:45the arrest was gratifying,
36:47especially for Kathy.
36:48She had promised
36:49Mary Kay's mother,
36:51Dorothy,
36:51who died in 2007,
36:53that she would fight
36:54for justice
36:55and not forget
36:56Mary Kay.
36:58This is Aunt Dorothy
36:59asking for us
37:01to continue to search
37:02for whatever happened
37:03to Mary Kay.
37:04I didn't want
37:04to let her down.
37:05I told her
37:06that I would not stop,
37:08that I would continue.
37:09Kathy and Mark
37:10were preparing themselves
37:11to finally have
37:12some answers
37:13to 56 years
37:15of questions
37:15about what happened
37:17to Mary Kay.
37:18There were pretrial hearings
37:20where Ambrose
37:21appeared frail
37:22and on oxygen.
37:25Months passed
37:26and then,
37:27in July of 2025,
37:29Kathy and Mark
37:30got news
37:31they were not expecting.
37:33A plea deal
37:34had been reached,
37:35not for first-degree murder
37:37as charged,
37:38but for conspiracy
37:39to commit
37:40first-degree murder.
37:43As part of the deal,
37:45Ambrose pleaded
37:46no contest,
37:47which meant
37:48he did not have
37:49to give any details
37:50about the murder.
37:52The family never
37:53got the chance
37:54to say no.
37:56Kathy and Mark
37:57say they weren't
37:58consulted about the deal,
38:00which also named
38:01the deceased
38:02Wayne Greaser
38:03as the other person
38:04conspiring
38:05to kill Mary Kay.
38:07It was a blow
38:08to Kathy and Mark
38:09and to Ted Green.
38:12There's no justice
38:13for Mary Kay.
38:15There's no justice
38:16for the family.
38:17And no answer.
38:18And no answer.
38:20In an email
38:21to 48 Hours,
38:22Joseph Ambrose's
38:23attorney stated that
38:24Mr. Ambrose
38:26maintains his innocence.
38:28Due to Mr. Ambrose's age,
38:30he states he took
38:31the plea bargain
38:32due to his health issues,
38:34since he may not
38:35have lived until trial
38:36to try to clear
38:38his name.
38:39He gets off.
38:40I didn't do it.
38:42Really?
38:44I'm sorry.
38:45If you're going
38:45to fold like that,
38:47I laid my keys
38:49on the table
38:49and walked out
38:50two minutes
38:50after he pled.
38:52I retired right
38:53then and there.
38:55I understand
38:56with some folks
38:57the plea deal
38:58wasn't particularly
38:59appealing.
39:00County attorney
39:01Jennifer Jochum
39:02knew there would
39:03be backlash
39:04for accepting
39:05the plea deal.
39:06But she also felt
39:08as they proceeded
39:09to trial,
39:10the case was
39:11only getting weaker.
39:12You know,
39:12you have to look
39:13at the odds
39:13of even getting
39:14to trial.
39:16There were chain
39:17of custody issues
39:18from the evidence
39:19going through so many
39:20hands over the years.
39:21And with some witnesses
39:23dead,
39:24testimony could be
39:25deemed inadmissible.
39:26It was leaving them
39:28uncertain the case
39:29could be proven
39:30beyond a reasonable doubt.
39:33We had to analyze
39:34the case
39:35and the evidence.
39:36It was important
39:37to get the conviction.
39:40But since Mary Kay's
39:41murder occurred
39:42in 1969,
39:45sentencing guidelines
39:45from then
39:46would have to be used.
39:48A conviction
39:49of conspiracy
39:50to murder
39:51in 1969
39:52carried only
39:54two years
39:55of prison time.
39:56We're bound
39:57to use those statutes
39:58as they existed
39:59at that time.
40:01Oh, I'm angry.
40:02I'm plain angry.
40:04On August 27,
40:062025,
40:07just before formal
40:09sentencing was to occur,
40:11we spoke with Kathy
40:12and Mark.
40:13They already knew
40:14the maximum sentence
40:15that could be imposed
40:16was two years.
40:18We all know
40:19this isn't justice.
40:21His thing was
40:22he didn't want
40:22to die in jail.
40:23He didn't want
40:24to die in prison.
40:25Mary Kay didn't want
40:26to die that day either.
40:27At sentencing,
40:29Kathy and Mark
40:29addressed the court.
40:31I remember Mary Kay
40:33Hessey
40:34as a person
40:35who would never
40:35hurt anyone.
40:37Joseph Ambrose
40:38chose to say nothing.
40:41Mr. Ambrose,
40:42is there anything
40:42you wish to say
40:43before a sentence
40:44is imposed?
40:45No.
40:46The maximum penalty
40:47under the law
40:49as it existed
40:50in 1969
40:51and which is applicable
40:53today in the matter
40:54is two years
40:56of imprisonment.
40:57Due to Nebraska's
40:59good time
41:00sentencing reduction
41:01law,
41:02Joseph Ambrose's
41:03sentence was cut
41:04in half.
41:05With time served,
41:07he was released
41:08on November 15,
41:092025.
41:11He got all these
41:12years to live
41:14and Mary Kay
41:15never had the chance
41:16to live.
41:17For Mary Kay
41:18Hessey's family,
41:20the quest for justice
41:21after more than
41:2350 years
41:24remains elusive.
41:26She didn't deserve
41:27this at all.
41:28She was a 17-year-old
41:30girl full of life.
41:35țin
41:36για
41:45î
41:59許
42:00verl
42:00襟
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