Nebraska has gotten $226,098 in federal grant money to reopen and try to solve 30 homicides committed since 1970. Authorities will select the cases and take up half of them this year and half next. Cuming County
Jeanne “Jean” Kassebaum, 54, of West Point
Circumstances: Found dead in her whirlpool bath at 10:30 a.m. Aug. 21, 1999, in the home she shared with her husband, Gary, in the Cottonwood Chimes Lake subdivision northwest of town. An autopsy showed she had been strangled.
Dawson County
Christi Jo Nichols, 22 when she was reported missing, Gothenburg
Circumstances: Last seen with her husband, Mark, Dec. 10, 1987, at a Gothenburg bar. A day earlier, she had visited a Cozad attorney and told him she wanted a divorce. Her body never was found, although the Nebraska State Patrol said in February 1988 that she most likely was dead.
People are also reading…
Hall County
Ernestine “Tina” Ruschy, 58, Grand Island
Circumstances: Found dead the morning of July 26, 1984, at Oakley Draperies Co., 402 W. Fourth St., Grand Island. She had been raped and stabbed several times around her neck.
Harlan County
Donald Bennett, 72, of Alma
Circumstances: Found strangled and stabbed May 10, 1988, in his home at 508 Everett St. in Alma. His body had been dragged from the bathroom to a bedroom, and someone had rummaged through the house but didn’t steal anything.
Holt County
Aletha Harley, 80, O’Neill
Circumstances: Found dead Feb. 20, 1990, at the bottom of a staircase in her home. Her death originally was thought to have been an accident, but later was determined to be a homicide.
Keith County
Robert Heelan, 54, Ogallala
Circumstances: Stabbed to death Dec. 20, 1987, during a robbery at the House of Bottles in Ogallala.
Lancaster County
LeRoy Dorman, 59, Lincoln
Circumstances: Found beaten and stabbed to death in his apartment at 228 S. 17th St. on Sept. 27, 1988. Investigators have said they believe they know who killed Dorman but have never had enough evidence to make an arrest.
Tina McMenamin, 18, Lincoln
Circumstances: Found stabbed and sexually assaulted in her apartment in Tierra Briarhurst Park, near 27th Street and Nebraska 2, on July 25, 1995. DNA from a single strand of blond hair found clutched in her hand led police to a Lincoln man who was held in jail for two years, then released after additional DNA evidence excluded him as the person from whom the hair came.
* Mario Reyes, 31, and Jose Garcia, 23, Lincoln
Circumstances: Found dead of smoke inhalation in a garage at 500 S.W. First St. shortly before 1 a.m. May 21, 1998. The two men had been living in the garage, and police believe someone padlocked the door and then set the garage ablaze with them inside.
Valley County
Cathy Beard, 31, of Ord
Circumstances: Last seen May 31, 1989, getting into a dark pickup with Loup County license plates after leaving the Someplace Else Tavern, where she worked part-time as a waitress. Remains found southeast of Ord in April 1992 were identified as those of the brown-haired, hazel-eyed woman, who had suffered blunt and sharp-instrument injuries, inflicted before and after her death.
Saunders County
Mary Kay Heese, 17, of Wahoo
Circumstances: Found stabbed to death March 25, 1969, in a field southeast of Wahoo. Her parents reported the Wahoo High junior missing that evening. Her homicide is the oldest on the Nebraska State Patrol’s books.
May McReynolds, 97, Ashland
Circumstances: Found in her home on Nov. 6, 1977. McReynolds, who had been sexually assaulted, died about two weeks later but managed to describe her attacker first.
Jim Larsen, 51, Cedar Bluffs
Circumstances: Died Jan. 16, 2003. Investigators described his shooting death as “suspicious,” and hope DNA testing can determine if his death was a homicide, suicide or accidental.
