Two juveniles were charged with arson related to the fire, which caused $75 million in damage, or $232 million in 2022 dollars. However, charges were later dropped. Why?
In the latest update from the Dakota Spotlight podcast's Season 5: A Better Search for Barbara Cotton, host James Wolner interviews a someone who may have seen the 15-year-old girl, gone missing from Williston, North Dakota, in 1981.
A seemingly happy family ended in tragedy after the father bludgeoned his wife to death, suffocated his 9-year- and 22-month-old children, lit his house on fire and then hanged himself 38 years ago.
On May 17, 1981, Karla Jo Nieland was found dead inside a vehicle belonging to her boyfriend, John Keep. Authorities arrested Keep and charged him with second- and third-degree murder — one year later, a jury found him not guilty. The case remains open.
The Mathis case, the trial and the questions that remain to this day are the subject of a new book, "South Dakota's Mathis Murders: Horror in the Heartland" by long-time South Dakota journalist Noel Hamiel. The book is available to purchase on Monday.
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine into its second month, and as reports emerge that Russia's nuclear forces have been placed on high alert, the culture of the late Cold War has made a swinging comeback.
An unsolved case turns cold on the Western Edge of North Dakota, but police never give up in trying to solve it. Nearly 10 years after a pair of gruesome murders caught Dickinson by surprise, police solve the case with a confession a decade in the making.
