On March 25, 1969, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese by no means returned residence from college in Wahoo, Nebraska. Hours later, her physique was discovered overwhelmed and stabbed to demise on the facet of the street outdoors of city.
Investigators tried to retrace Mary Kay’s final identified whereabouts. One witness noticed Mary Kay get right into a automotive with two males on a avenue nook close to her residence. However investigators on the time had been unable to determine who was in that automotive. Weeks become months with no arrests. Mary Kay’s homicide would stay unsolved for many years.
“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales experiences on how the homicide was lastly introduced again into focus in “The Girl from Wahoo,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Kathy Tull
In 2015, a brand new investigation was launched. Ted Inexperienced, a legal investigator with the Saunders County Lawyer’s Workplace, was assigned to the case.
“Each legal investigation is a puzzle,” Inexperienced advised “48 Hours.” For Inexperienced, a part of determining that puzzle was studying extra about Mary Kay Heese.
Mary Kay’s youthful cousins, Mark Miller and Kathy Tull, keep in mind Mary Kay as a contented one that at all times appeared out for them. However they stated that happiness was generally challenged by the struggles of adolescence.
Inexperienced realized Mary Kay got here from a strict residence beneath the eyes of watchful mother and father. It was a unique state of affairs at highschool. “There was a gaggle of ladies that might get her collectively and put make-up on her initially of the day and alter her garments out,” Inexperienced stated.
“She needed to slot in,” Miller advised “48 Hours.”
A part of that need to slot in was Mary Kay’s want to attend the native Sadie Hawkins dance — a preferred occasion at the moment the place the ladies ask the boys to attend.
Tull advised “48 Hours” that the shy Mary Kay struggled to discover a date. Tull nonetheless has a letter from Mary Kay, written every week earlier than her homicide, asking her cousin Jerry to attend the dance together with her.
“If we come over to get you on Friday the twenty eighth or Saturday the twenty ninth, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?” Mary Kay wrote within the letter. “You may put on sportswear (not a tuxedo or something) as a result of it is not a proper dance […] Do not carry any cash to get in as a result of the ladies are to pay for all of it together with the tickets and meals.”
As Inexperienced realized extra about Mary Kay, he got here to 1 conclusion. “She would not get right into a automotive with anyone that she did not know,” he stated.
The items of the puzzle had been coming collectively for Inexperienced, who centered on two names that saved arising within the previous case recordsdata: Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser, each interviewed within the days following Mary Kay’s homicide.
Joseph Ambroz, 22, was dwelling in Wahoo and labored at a slaughterhouse at the moment. He was additionally on parole after serving time for forgery and escaping custody.
Greaser was mates with Ambroz. “He was simply that wannabe child who was simply following round Ambroz,” stated Deputy Saunders County Lawyer Richard Register, who labored on the case.
Inexperienced and Register advised “48 Hours” Ambroz knew Mary Kay. They each frequented the identical café and had mutual mates. Inexperienced and Register additionally imagine Mary Kay thought Ambroz was not a menace, however a chance to slot in with the group.
Inexperienced believes Ambroz and Greaser took Mary Kay to a well known celebration spot close to city and sooner or later Mary Kay tried to flee the automotive. Inexperienced says he believes Ambroz went after her and finally stabbed her to demise.
“She simply needed to get a boy to go to the dance together with her. And sadly, the dance she went to was her demise,” Register stated.
Greater than 5 a long time after Mary Kay Heese was discovered lifeless, 77-year-old Joseph Ambroz was arrested for her homicide.
In July 2025, Ambroz took a plea deal and pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit first- diploma homicide. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail. Greaser, who had died by suicide in 1977, was named as the opposite individual conspiring to kill Mary Kay.
For Mary Kay’s cousins, the plea deal and sentence had been an injustice. They are saying Ambroz stole Mary Kay’s future.
“He received all these years to dwell, and Mary Kay by no means had the possibility to dwell,” Miller advised “48 Hours.”
