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Post by Graveyardbride on Sept 5, 2016 17:35:03 GMT -5
Diary Entry Best Clue to 42-Year-Old Labor Day Murders On Labor Day in 1974, Mary (above right) and Susanne “Sue” Reker walked to a nearby store to purchase school supplies and never came home. It has now been 42 years since the morning that has haunted a family in the Minnesota city of St. Cloud ever since. The bodies of the two girls were discovered almost a month after they went missing and their killer has never been identified. Now, investigators are taking another look at a diary entry that could be the most important clue in the case.
It had been a full weekend for the Rekers with a big family reunion and the last-minute rush the start of a new school year brings. Mary was 15 and Susanne, 12. When they were preparing to leave on their shopping trip, Mary, a sophomore at St. Francis High School in Little Falls, told her mother she also wanted to look for a winter coat. On that warm, sunny day, she was wearing blue jeans, brown oxford shoes, a short-sleeved white sweater and an Army fatigue shirt with “REKER” stitched above the left pocket. Susanne was dressed in navy-blue corduroy pants, a white cotton jacket and low-cut boots. Both girls were wearing wire-rimmed glasses.
The manager at Shopko saw the girls shortly before noon and around 1 p.m., Jacob Yunger, a neighbor, chatted briefly with them at Zayre. In a 1977 interview with the Minneapolis Star, Yunger claimed he heard Sue tell Mary: “I don’t want to go with that man. I don’t like him. Let’s not.” According to Yunger, the girls then walked toward the store’s grocery section, which was closed for Labor Day, but in the same general direction as the women’s coat department. Later, Yunger told police he recalled seeing a large, nervous-looking man outside the store about the time he last saw the girls. Another witness reported seeing the sisters at a tavern on the other side of St. Cloud in the company of two men and about a dozen teenagers. He particularly remembered the word REKER on Mary’s shirt. A number of people near the abandoned Meridian Aggregates Quarry southwest of St. Cloud indicated they saw two girls matching the description of the Reker siblings walking toward the popular swimming spot that afternoon.
“They left about 11:15 from what I recall that morning,” Rita Reker, their mother, related. “They said they would be back early.” Mary had just started at an all-girls school the week before about 45 minutes away and she was expecting to meet friends for a ride home that afternoon. “When it got to be 6:30, 7 p.m., my husband went to the police department to report that they were missing,” she added. For 26 days, the agonizing wait continued. “We just knew whatever had happened, it was going to change our entire lives. We knew that.”
It was on Sept. 28, 1974, that two teenagers discovered Susanne’s body at a rock quarry west of Waite Park. She had been stabbed 13 times with a smallish knife and her fully-clothed corpse was partially concealed by a bush. Mary’s body was located by divers on a ledge 40 feet underwater. She had been stabbed six times. Her jeans and panties were strewn on the cliff as if someone had attempted to toss them into the water. Her bra had been cut into four pieces, her panties were cut and her white sweater had been slit in an unusual manner, but what was left of the garment remained on her body.
Mary was afraid. There were indications Mary Reker had been acting strangely before the murders. Her mother, now 80-years-old, confirmed: “I knew something wasn’t right, but she wasn’t saying what it was.” The biggest mystery concerning what might have been troubling Mary was a note discovered after the girls disappeared:
Should I die, I ask that my stuffed animals be given to [my sister] and if I am murdered find my killer. See that justice wins over. I have a few reasons to fear for my life and what I ask is important.
What could a 15-year-old teenager have done to make someone want to kill her? “It’s troubling why she wrote that. Why she had that thought,” Rita admitted.
Suspects. Two years later, on September 25, 1976, Herbert D. Notch Jr., 18, an employee in the Zayre grocery section, and James A. Wagner, 17, abducted a 14-year-old St. Cloud girl from a grocery store where she was working, raped and stabbed her and left her for dead. Both were arrested and charged with attempted murder, rape, robbery and kidnaping. In the 1976 case, a relatively small knife was used, the girl’s sweater was slit up the middle, but wasn’t removed, and her bra and panties were cut from her body and the garments thrown into a lake.
Some in and around St. Cloud suspect Michael J. Bartowsheski, a man who lived six blocks from the Reker family and was sentenced to life in prison in 1979 for the stabbing death of an 8-year-old girl in Colorado.
A fourth suspect in the Reker murders was the Rev. Richard Eckroth, a monk at St. John’s Abbey in Collegeville. The Reker sisters were with a group of church youths Eckroth took to a lakeshore cabin in Beltrami County two years before their deaths. Later, the priest was fingered by numerous men and teenagers and accused of more than 360 counts of sexual molestation of boys under his care. However, all Eckroth’s known victims were male and he insisted he had nothing to do with the murders of Mary and Susanne. Finally, in the 1990s, at the insistence of Fred and Rita Reker, he submitted to, and passed, a polygraph test. Eckroth died in May 2015.
There also have been suggestions that serial killer Harvey Carignan, currently serving a 400-year sentence in Minnesota, killed the sisters because he was actively abducting, raping and killing women and girls in the region at the time. The body of one of his victims, who disappeared August 10, 1974, was discovered 29 miles from St. Cloud, and on September 8, 1974, he lured June Lynch and Lisa King, both 16, into his car in Minneapolis and raped and bludgeoned them to death. Less than a week later, he abducted Gwen Burton from a Sears parking lot and left her for dead. Though she survived, Burton suffered permanent disabilities. Two females he assaulted September 18 managed to escape. Two days later, he abducted and killed Kathy Schultz. But even though Carignan was definitely in the area at the right time, all his victims were bludgeoned and his weapon of choice was a hammer, not a knife.
Case still active. Eleven years ago, the Reker case was presented to the Vidocq Society, a nonprofit organization, the members of which are experts in various fields of criminal investigation. Following review, Stearns County Sheriff John Sanner announced the Society “supported and confirmed that the person(s) of interest identified by local investigators ... were, in fact, the trail to follow.”
Chief Deputy Bruce Bechtold still considers the Reker murders a top priority in Stearns County and a new investigator took over the case this summer. Profilers have maintained a young man in the area at that time is likely behind the murders and may have had an accomplice. While Bechtold indicated he would not discuss any names, there is a sense they could be close. “The people we have looked at, or are currently looking at, are all alive,” Bechtold disclosed.
“I’m convinced there are people around him that would know and it’s time to tell,” Rita added.
Rita and Fred Reker went on to bring up four children, determined the killer wasn’t going to take their lives, too. Fred died three years ago, but with so many cold cases back in the spotlight, Rita is confident there will be closure in her lifetime. “I’m wondering is this the year it’s going to be solved? I still keep hoping,” she said.
If you have any information on the Reker case, call the Stearns County Sheriff’s office at 320-251-4240. There is a $50,000 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case.Sources: WCCO, August 31, 2016; David Unzine, The Saint Cloud Times, September 1, 2004; Behind the Pine Curtain; Minnesota Department of Corrections; and BadlandsColdCase.
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Post by Sam on Sept 5, 2016 19:15:32 GMT -5
The only way that I can see that the priest could be involved is if the girl knew something about him that he didn't want her to tell. If it's any of the men that's named, then I'd say it's one of the men that tried to kill the other girl, or maybe both of them. If they killed the Reker girls and got away with it, they could have thought that they'd get away with it again. But it might be someone else that no one knows about.
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Post by jason on Sept 7, 2016 12:57:21 GMT -5
It was almost a month before the bodies were found and one of them was underwater, so I doubt there's any DNA to test. After 42 years, unless someone comes forward with information, I don't think ordinary police work is going to catch the killer, or killers.
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Post by natalie on Sept 7, 2016 16:26:00 GMT -5
These two sound promising, considering they coincidentally worked in the store that the girls happened to be in that day, used a similar weapon in killing the St. Cloud girl, and her clothing was cut in the same odd manner that Mary's was, even dumped in a similar matter, with the intention of it going into the water. I guess that without evidence though, it's going to be hard to prove without a shadow of a doubt whether or not they were involved, and if there was DNA on her clothing, it's probably deteriorated by now.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Dec 9, 2016 0:20:51 GMT -5
Investigators Take a New Look at the 1974 Reker Sisters Murder
Stearns County investigators are taking a new look at one of Minnesota’s most notorious murder mysteries, the unsolved case of two St. Cloud girls killed 42 years ago. The Reker sisters walked out of their home in 1974 to buy school supplies. It was the last time their mother saw them alive.
The girls were found three weeks later in a quarry outside St. Cloud. “Considering the condition of Mary and Suzanne’s bodies, they didn’t even fight back. Someone just stabbed them to death,” Rita Reker, their mother, said at the time. No one has ever been charged with their murders.
Advances in DNA Add to Hopes of Solving Case. But the Jacob Wetterling case is proof that a fresh look at old evidence can make a difference. Advances in DNA testing gave investigators the break that ultimately led them to Danny Heinrich, Jacob’s killer. On October 22, 1989, 11-year-old Wetterling, his brother and a friend were returning from a convenience store, where they had gone to rent a movie. The three were stopped by a masked gunman who emerged from a gravel road, abducted Jacob, ordered the other boys to run to a nearby wooded area and threatened to shoot them if they looked back. Despite a massive search, the boy was never found. Heinrich was named a person of interest in the Wetterling case in October 2015 because his DNA taken back in 1990 matched DNA found on evidence obtained in the abduction of a boy in Cold Spring in 1989. He couldn’t be charged in that case because the statute of limitations had lapsed, but Heinrich was arrested for possession of child pornography and then subsequently named a person of interest in the Wetterling case.
Chief Deputy of the Stearns County Sheriff’s office, Bruce Bechtold said they are looking at the case like it is brand new. “We haven’t done any DNA analysis on any of the evidence we have for six, seven years,” Bechtold advised. Among the items to be re-tested at the state’s crime lab are the clothing of the two girls. Stearns County is also putting additional investigators on the case. They’re going through the files and making an outline of things to follow up on.
Last week, the family met with investigators and gave them names of people who have never been interviewed, but might know something. “Profilers tell us they feel it was somebody very young and my own feeling is that this person had an accomplice,” Mrs. Reker said. “I don’t think anyone could do this by themself.”
A Similar Crime May Hold Clues. In September, Fox 9 investigators profiled another crime with striking similarities to the Reker murders and the story helped generate calls from the public. “We’ve got several leads from that,” Bechtold confirmed. It happened in 1976, almost two years to the day after the Reker girls’ bodies were found. Sue Dukowitz, 14, a clerk at a St. Cloud convenience store, was kidnaped at gun point by two teenage boys. She was taken to a gravel pit outside town and sexually assaulted. One of the boys then pulled out a knife and stabbed her.
One of the teenagers involved spoke with Fox 9, agreeing to an interview as long as his identity was not revealed. (As indicated in the article above, his name is James A. Wagner). According to Wagner, on Saturday, September 25, 1976, the two teens were driving around St. Cloud and stopped at a convenience store called The Dairy Bar. “He says let’s just go in and knock over this store, no big deal,” recalled Wagner. They went into the store with a gun. Fourteen-year-old Sue Dukowitz was at the register while her father, the owner, was doing work next door. The boys ordered her to hand over the money from the till and then ordered to get into the car with them. Notch drove south of town on a dirt road which, at that time, led to a secluded gravel pit. “He always had this knife and he was playing with it,” the accomplice added. “I just have dreams all the time of this poor girl,” he claimed. He said Notch parked the car off the road. The girl was tied up with tape and Notch used his knife to slice through the front of her sweater. He also cut off her bra and underwear. After sexually assaulting her, he stabbed her. “He had no remorse at all, none, like hitting a bug on your windshield,” his accomplice revealed. The two thought Dukowitz was dead and left her body covered with brush, but she survived and was able to give a description of her kidnapers to police.
A court-ordered psychiatric evaluation indicated Notch had a “fearlessly savage quality. In the right situation, a homicidal individual ... who seems to lack any significant remorse ....” Notch was offered a deal and pled guilty to robbery and kidnaping, but the charges of attempted murder and sexual assault were dismissed. He was sentenced to 40 years in prison, but was released after serving 10 and continued adding to his rap sheet. One of his subsequent convictions was for holding a woman against her will at knife point. Wagner served seven years for his rôle in the crime and has been in trouble since. However, he assured Fox 9 investigators he knew nothing about what happened to the Reker girls.
When contacted by Fox 9 concerning the Reker case, Notch said, “Let me tell you something. Don’t bother me any fucking more.”
“I would say it’s a short list of people that have been on the radar for a number of years,” Bechtold advised, but declined to reveal if Notch was on the list. He would not say if Notch was on that list.
Sources: Jeff Baillon, KMSP-TV; and Stearns County Sheriff's Office.
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Post by madeline on Dec 9, 2016 15:16:36 GMT -5
If Notch was the killer, then he and Mary Recker must have known each other, and if the diary entry is about him, then he must have threatened her in some way.
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Post by elocsoul on Apr 5, 2017 22:23:14 GMT -5
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Post by elocsoul on Apr 5, 2017 22:24:57 GMT -5
If Notch was the killer, then he and Mary Recker must have known each other, and if the diary entry is about him, then he must have threatened her in some way. They did know each other. Mary Reker stayed overnight quite often at relatives homes in the weeks leading up to the murders. The relatives lived in a tiny village of Luxemburg, MN - less than 2 miles from where Notch lived. They were also seen sneaking out of church just moments apart in the middle of service.
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Post by catherine on Apr 6, 2017 1:23:54 GMT -5
Thank you for telling us about the book. I've already started reading it.
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Post by Joanna on Apr 6, 2017 13:18:27 GMT -5
They did know each other. Mary Reker stayed overnight quite often at relatives homes in the weeks leading up to the murders. The relatives lived in a tiny village of Luxemburg, MN - less than 2 miles from where Notch lived. They were also seen sneaking out of church just moments apart in the middle of service. Thank you for sharing this information and letting us know you have written a book about the case. I plan to read it as soon as I have time and I'm sure many others who access our site will read it too.
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Post by elocsoul on May 12, 2017 20:38:04 GMT -5
Herb Notch died yesterday. I am praying that with his passing, law enforcement will be able to make a statement that will give Rita the answers she has sought for more than 42 years. What a fitting gift that would be on Mother's Day weekend.
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Post by Joanna on May 12, 2017 22:43:08 GMT -5
Herb Notch died yesterday. I am praying that with his passing, law enforcement will be able to make a statement that will give Rita the answers she has sought for more than 42 years. What a fitting gift that would be on Mother's Day weekend. Thank you for this information. Do you know if his death was accidental or of natural causes?
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Post by elocsoul on May 13, 2017 7:10:19 GMT -5
Herb Notch died yesterday. I am praying that with his passing, law enforcement will be able to make a statement that will give Rita the answers she has sought for more than 42 years. What a fitting gift that would be on Mother's Day weekend. Thank you for this information. Do you know if his death was accidental or of natural causes?
He had been in the hospital for several weeks due to liver failure, caused by excessive alcohol abuse. Despite his death, there is hope for resolution in the case. Investigators are said to have been working vigorously on the case recently. Perhaps they developed DNA evidence, or perhaps new information surfaced.
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Post by mnstarlily on May 16, 2017 18:24:59 GMT -5
Is it possible to do DNA tests on the Reker sisters clothing? I also heard that evidence disappeared or walked out of Law Enforcement hands.I still think there are political reasons for this case not being solved or even worked on.
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Post by catherine on May 17, 2017 9:14:06 GMT -5
Is it possible to do DNA tests on the Reker sisters clothing? I also heard that evidence disappeared or walked out of Law Enforcement hands.I still think there are political reasons for this case not being solved or even worked on. The article above, "Investigators Take a New Look at the 1974 Reker Sisters Murder," that was posted last December, quotes a deputy as saying, "We haven’t done any DNA analysis on any of the evidence we have for six, seven years," so there must still be something left for testing. Herb Notch has a long criminal record, so his DNA will be on file.
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