Jennifer Joakim, Saunders County legal professional, and Richard Register, deputy county legal professional, labored on what’s believed to be the longest unsolved chilly case in Nebraska historical past: the 1969 homicide of 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese, a highschool junior.
Richard Register: Mary Kay Heese’s unsolved homicide hung over this group for 5 many years. It wanted to be resolved.
Jennifer Joakim: I take a look at this case as … the place the group misplaced its innocence. The place folks have been instructed we’re not going into Wahoo. You are not going out alone.
Richard Register: It was very well-known. A homicide, particularly of this nature, uh, is just not frequent for this space.
Kathy Tull
Natalie Morales (driving down a rural highway with Ted Inexperienced): This proper here’s what Wahoo is actually recognized for, proper?
Ted Inexperienced: Oh yeah —
Natalie Morales: I imply — for cow nation —
Ted Inexperienced: — it is rural — cattle.
Natalie Morales: — corn nation.
Ted Inexperienced: It hasn’t modified a lot.
Ted Inexperienced was the felony investigator for the Saunders County Legal professional’s workplace. He began engaged on the case in 2015.
Ted Inexperienced (in automobile with Morales): So this was the highschool right here.
Natalie Morales: So on that day she had simply completed her —
Ted Inexperienced: Walked residence and began heading north right here on Linden Road.
Murdered teen was “energetic”
Reminiscences of Mary Kay Heese’s homicide loom giant on this small city. Black and white footage was filmed by an area tv station shortly after the homicide. A lot of Wahoo seems to be prefer it did on March 25,1969, when Mary Kay by no means made it residence after faculty.
Ted Inexperienced: So the final place that she was seen was right here on the nook …
Nebraska State Historic Society 
That night, Mary Kay’s dad and mom reported her lacking, and the group got here out in drive to seek for her.
Ted Inexperienced: So that they had Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, church teams, faculty teams … and the Wahoo Police Division, Sheriff’s workplace … all trying to find her.
Nothing was discovered till near midnight, when a farmer noticed Mary Kay’s faculty books and purse stacked neatly on a highway close to a discipline.
Jennifer Joakim: Contained in the books … was her title and so he introduced the books into Wahoo and bumped into … the police that have been trying to find her. … All of them went again to the place the books have been discovered … and so they discovered her physique, mendacity in a ditch … on the facet of the highway.
Not removed from Mary Kay’s bloodied physique, investigators found her sneakers within the highway, tire tracks from a automobile, and shoeprints — probably from the killer.
Natalie Morales: And the way had she died?
Richard Register: Properly, in a horrible method, she was chased down. The — the footprints, which have been preserved by the bottom freezing, confirmed that she received out of the automobile and she or he ran … And you may inform by the strides that she was actually attempting to flee. … After which close to the place her physique is discovered … there is a pool of blood … she’s laying there discarded like trash.
Investigators photographed the scene, measured and made a forged of that shoeprint, and despatched Mary Kay’s physique for an post-mortem. It was decided that Mary Kay had been overwhelmed and was stabbed to loss of life, leaving 14 wounds. No knife was discovered on the scene.
Ted Inexperienced: She has a fairly good mark on her jaw the place she was punched. And … the stab wounds come after that.
Natalie Morales: Stabbing anyone 14 occasions although. What did that let you know concerning the nature of the crime?
Ted Inexperienced: Rage. Rage.
Natalie Morales: Was she sexually assaulted?
Ted Inexperienced: No. No. … however I consider she understood that is most likely the place it was gonna head.
The investigation was initially dealt with by varied legislation enforcement departments. Mary Kay’s clothes was despatched to the FBI to J. Edgar Hoover’s consideration — earlier than the times of DNA testing, to see if something may very well be discovered.
Investigators questioned folks round city concerning the day of the homicide. A witness reported seeing Mary Kay that day at round 5 p.m., getting right into a automobile that had two males, at that road nook.
Natalie Morales: In these early days and weeks, did you assume, oh, they’re gonna — they’re gonna discover whoever did this.
Kathy Tull: Oh yeah. Yeah.
Mark Miller: Oh, yeah.
Mark Miller and Kathy Tull are Mary Kay’s cousins.
Natalie Morales: These are a few of Mary Kay’s private belongings proper …
Kathy Tull: Mm-hmm.
Kathy Tull: … that is her 4H –
Natalie Morales: was she pleased with what she did on the 4-H?
Kathy Tull: Oh yeah — take a look at how tiny she was. (holds up T-shirt)
Natalie Morales: Yeah.
Kathy was 9, and Mark was 8, after they discovered Mary Kay had been murdered.
Mark Miller: She’s the oldest of us cousins. So, she all the time regarded out for all of us.
Kathy Tull: She was a 17-year-old lady energetic.
Kathy recollects being picked up early from faculty the day Mary Kay’s physique was discovered.
Kathy Tull: They usually instructed us we needed to come to Wahoo.
Kathy’s household drove to her cousin’s residence. Once they received there, Kathy noticed and heard Mary Kay’s mother, Dorothy.
Kathy Tull: Once we went in, it was simply — you may hear her wailing. It is the type of ache you’re feeling throughout the room.
Natalie Morales: And on the time, did they let you know how she was discovered or was that an excessive amount of to inform … the cousins, the children?
Kathy Tull: I believe we heard it.
Mark Miller: … after they instructed us, then it was on the information.
The household, and the group, couldn’t perceive why Mary Kay had been focused. There have been no solutions, simply worry.
Kathy Tull: And I bear in mind … considering, “I am scared.”
Mark Miller: Every little thing modified. What our dad and mom allowed us to go do.
Natalie Morales: You did not have the freedoms that you simply had earlier than …
Mark Miller: We misplaced so many various issues due to it … our dad and mom eager to overprotect us.
However being overprotective didn’t guarantee security. Mary Kay’s dad and mom, particularly her father, had all the time been very watchful and cautious with their daughter.
Ted Inexperienced: She had a really strict father and … she was shy. … She very a lot wished to slot in. … And there was a gaggle of ladies that may … put make-up on her in the beginning of the day and alter her garments out. So she would slot in socially. After which on the finish of the varsity, she’d change again. She wished to be part of the gang.
Mary Kay was attempting to take part at school actions — working towards baton twirling, hoping to be a majorette. A part of becoming in for Mary Kay additionally concerned attempting to get a date for an upcoming faculty dance. Mary Kay had even written a letter to a different cousin asking him to be her date.
CBS Information 
Natalie Morales (studying letter): “Will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me …”
Natalie Morales: … simply wished a date –
Kathy Tull: Mm-hmm.
Natalie Morales: — and so she would take her cousin …
Natalie Morales: … this was March 18th, 1969. … So only a week earlier than … she died.
Investigators thought that maybe the strain to discover a date and slot in led the often shy Mary Kay to get into that automobile with the boys at that road nook.
Kathy Tull: I believe she was so naive, she had no clue that one thing unhealthy may occur to her.
Richard Register: She simply wished to get a boy to go to the dance along with her. And sadly, the dance she went to was her loss of life.
Why was Mary Kay Keese killed?
Ted Inexperienced, previously the investigator for the Saunders County Legal professional’s Workplace, believes the 2 males who picked up 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese on March 25, 1969, have been driving to an space recognized regionally as The Grove.
Ted Inexperienced: Pure parking and occasion spot.
Natalie Morales: So youngsters coming down this manner, they have been — two issues in thoughts, both partying or hooking up?
Ted Inexperienced: Or hooking up. These have been the 2 issues on everyone’s thoughts.
Inexperienced’s concept of the crime is that when Mary Kay realized the boys’s intentions, she fled the automobile, and one of many males ran after her, finally stabbing her to loss of life. However individuals who knew Mary Kay puzzled why she received within the automobile the 2 males.
CBS Information 
Ted Inexperienced: She would not get right into a automobile with anyone that she did not know. … She knew these guys.
Working that concept, investigators in 1969 questioned males on the town, particularly ones who may have crossed paths with Mary Kay. They used what was then a brand-new crime fixing device: polygraphs.
Richard Register: They polygraphed just about all the male inhabitants of each the faculties. I imply can, are you able to think about the uproar would occur as we speak? … They usually have been in search of that as their silver bullet.
One of many folks polygraphed and questioned just a few days after the homicide was Joseph Ambroz, 22 years previous on the time. Ambroz had been seen weeks earlier than the homicide speaking to Mary Kay round city. They each frequented The Wigwam Café, a restaurant which nonetheless stands as we speak. Ambroz stood out, as he was new to city. Investigators discovered he was on parole after having been convicted of forgery and escaping from custody.
Richard Register: He wrote a $10 unhealthy examine, together with his buddy up in … Wayne, Nebraska. They get stopped for that and so they escape this little county jail up there. And … they catch up in California and convey him all the best way again.
Ambroz served about three years after which moved to Wahoo.
Ted Inexperienced: And he is out on parole. He is received a job. He is working at a packing plant.
Natalie Morales: So, a slaughterhouse.
Ted Inexperienced: And, yeah. Slaughterhouse. And — she knew him.
Authorities say they discovered that Ambroz was recognized to mingle with highschool women and had a repute for having a mood. He additionally drove the kind of automobile, much like this one, that somebody mentioned they noticed close to the crime scene.
Streetside Classics 
Ted Inexperienced: An area resident … had seen two vehicles go away that evening. One automobile was a white over pink, ’56 Chevy … The second automobile … was a white over blue ’56 Chevy with two darkish haired males in it, driving at a excessive fee of velocity. Ambroz drove that white over blue … He is an individual of curiosity.
Ambroz denied any involvement within the homicide. And his polygraph appeared to help that. Ambroz mentioned he had an alibi: that the evening of homicide, he was hanging out at varied places together with his good friend Wayne Greaser, who was additionally questioned and polygraphed.
Richard Register: Wayne Greaser was … simply that wannabe child who was simply following round Ambroz. … And so he is — he says he is with him.
However whereas being questioned, Ambroz did talk about issues, says Inexperienced, that received him in bother with the legislation, and he was instantly despatched to jail.
Ted Inexperienced: He blows his parole proper within the pre-polygraph interview. … He violates it, says I am shopping for booze for minors. I am having intercourse with minors … so he is booked, parole violation.
However not for Mary Kay’s homicide.
Natalie Morales: Why did this case not transfer alongside additional on the time?
Jennifer Joakim: That is — that is an excellent query.
Observe up within the preliminary investigation, prosecutors say, appeared to be missing, with inexperience an element. Vehicles weren’t checked for blood, and suspects’ shoe sizes weren’t in comparison with shoeprints discovered on the scene.
Richard Register: This was the start of the State Patrol. As a result of earlier than that they simply gave tickets for rushing. … And so these folks have been thrown into this new investigative unit.
Jennifer Joakim: There have been different companies concerned. … And it did not appear to be there was actually a lead … investigator.
Richard Register: They usually have been simply counting on these polygraphs.
For many years, the case sat chilly.
Sgt. Bob Frank (1999): After seeing the images and looking out on the case, you’ll be able to visualize it, I imply all the things is similar after 30 years, it is all the identical, nothing has modified.
Then, 30 years later, in 1999, with the creation of the Nebraska State Patrol Chilly Case Unit, Mary Kay’s homicide was getting consideration once more. “48 Hours” cameras adopted Sgt. Bob Frank as he labored the case.
Sgt. Bob Frank (1999 | referencing a 1969 crime scene picture whereas on the crime scene): And her physique was discovered proper in right here and that is the place we’re at proper there …
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And we spoke with Frank once more in 2025, now retired from the State Patrol.
Bob Frank (2025): One factor about doing chilly circumstances you discover is that tales develop, tales change. … And so, , attempting to separate reality from fiction is usually tough.
To attempt to get to the reality, Frank, in 1999, scoured the previous case stories. He seen that Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser, the boys who have been one another’s alibis, stored arising in witness statements.
Bob Frank: And I began speaking to different individuals who … had been instructed by these two people that that they had performed this murder.
Greaser had died by suicide in 1977. Ambroz was lengthy out of jail, having served a year-and-a-half for that parole violation after Mary Kay’s homicide. He had moved round and labored as a truck driver. Bob Frank knew in some unspecified time in the future he would need to speak to Ambroz however first wished to take a brand new take a look at the previous proof.
Natalie Morales: In ’99 now, are you hoping you are gonna get some type of DNA?
Bob Frank: One thing.
Testing the crime scene proof
By 1999, when Sgt. Bob Frank led the Nebraska State Patrol’s Chilly Case Unit, advances had been made in forensic science that weren’t out there in 1969 when Mary Kay Heese was murdered. “48 Hours” cameras filmed Frank going by means of Mary Kay’s belongings, as he regarded for DNA and fingerprints. Among the many gadgets examined have been Mary Kay’s schoolbooks, discovered stacked on the scene.
Bob Frank (1999): Uh, we’re hoping for — for prints to come back off. … it has been 30 years.
The speculation was that Mary Kay left the books and her purse within the automobile. The killer seen the gadgets, and never eager to be linked to her belongings, dumped them.
Bob Frank (2025): So, we all know it was most likely the suspect that — that put these books on the highway. What we have been in search of there was any sort of fingerprint proof.
A fingerprint examiner labored to search out and carry prints off the schoolbooks, together with one titled, “Constructing a Profitable Marriage.”
Natalie Morales: Had been there any fingerprints that got here ahead?
Bob Frank: No. No.
Bob Frank (1999): This what we actually had them focus on have been — have been these gloves. …
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Man (1999): — and she or he was carrying these on the time, wasn’t she?
Bob Frank: Sure … We have been in search of, um, — anyone else’s blood on, on these gloves.
Additionally they examined Mary Kay’s clothes.
CBS Information 
Bob Frank (1999): After I see this, it simply motivates me extra. I imply, it is — one thing you wanna remedy. It is one thing you need — you need to get closure on. I let you know the reality after I put this out and laid it out, the very first thing I considered was Mrs. Heese.
Frank spoke a number of occasions with Mary Kay’s mom, Dorothy, over the course of his investigation.
Dorothy Heese (1999, photographs): That is when she began the highschool.
“48 Hours” spoke along with her as nicely, in 1999.
CBS Information 
Dorothy Heese (1999): I do not assume it will be solved. I actually do not. It is gone all these a few years and I simply, I’ve simply given up hope.
Hope can be diminished once more when the forensic testing led nowhere. Nonetheless, Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser remained on the prime of Frank’s suspect listing.
In Might 1999, Frank determined to query individuals who knew Ambroz and Greaser across the time of the homicide and had been named in prior police stories.
Bob Frank (1999): That is why I need two guys in there so one man can actually watch how these guys are reacting to the questions being requested of them.
The thought was the passage of time would possibly make somebody extra forthcoming. And the investigators took a number of steps to attempt to assist that alongside.
Bob Frank: We created an environment to the place it appeared we have been a full-fledged process drive this case.
In truth, there was no designated “Heese process drive,” nor was the case “getting scorching,” as an indication on the door implied. It was simply one of many measures taken by Frank and his group as they tried to see if anybody would give new data.
Jay Petersen (1999): I wrote their names down on the board and — and a few numbers behind these names, which do not actually have any relevancy both.
Investigator Jay Petersen.
Jay Petersen (1999): However it’s simply gonna get them to considering that we all know a heck of much more about them than maybe we truly do.
Additionally they tried to make the setting a bit uncomfortable for these being interviewed.
INVESTIGATOR (1999): Did you grease the desk down too?
JAY PETERSEN: Yeah.
Jay Petersen (1999): What we did was we took a bottle of furnishings polish. We waxed the desk, we waxed these chairs. … So, after they sit down, they are not gonna be capable of get right into a consolation zone. … So, preserve ’em on edge somewhat bit and hopefully that’ll uh, get them speaking somewhat bit too.
Bob Frank: We put digital units in to — to document within the room. We let these folks know once we introduced them in that they have been gonna be … monitored continuously.
However regardless of all these efforts, nothing usable was discovered.
Bob Frank (2025): We had folks telling us that … Wayne Greaser instructed us this … Joe Ambroz instructed us this … nevertheless it was all rumour proof, ? We did not have that witness that … was there or knew the info straight.
So Frank determined it was time to interview Joseph Ambroz himself.
Bob Frank (1999): We’ll simply go see what we are able to get by knocking on the door. … Let’s do it.
In September 1999, Frank traveled to Orange Park, Florida, the place Ambroz was residing. Working with native legislation enforcement, Frank went to Ambroz’s residence the place he answered the door and willingly went to be questioned on the Florida Division of Legislation Enforcement.
BOB FRANK (1999): Recall for me what — what you probably did that evening? I imply, if — , you have been questioned about it earlier than.
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Yeah. Uh –
BOB FRANK: You already know, inform me what — what you probably did.
Ambroz mentioned, on the day of the homicide, he received off work round 5:30, went residence after which went to a membership till closing time. Not like his earlier interview, the place his now deceased good friend Wayne Greaser was his alibi, he didn’t point out being with Greaser.
BOB FRANK (1999): However you had mentioned in interview stories, and I’ve these interview stories, that you simply have been with Wayne.
JOSEPH AMBROZ: OK. I — it is doable. I will let you know, it has been a protracted — it is doable I used to be with him.
Frank additionally requested many questions on Ambroz’s job at a slaughterhouse.
JOSEPH AMBROZ (1999): Uh, I labored on the kill ground.
BOB FRANK: Kill ground?
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Yeah.
Since Mary Kay was stabbed to loss of life, Ambroz was requested about his entry to knives.
BOB FRANK (1999): Was there a particular sort of instrument you had to make use of for that? Or was it only a common knife?
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Uh, no. I had, uh, I believe like three completely different knives however …
Ambroz was adamant he had nothing to do with Mary Kay’s homicide, even when Frank implied they discovered somebody’s DNA on the scene.
BOB FRANK (1999): We’ve an exquisite factor referred to as DNA —
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Proper.
BOB FRANK: And we’re gonna be capable of present who she struggled with.
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Wonderful.
BOB FRANK: … Um, once more, , now we have all this little bits of data right here and there that match collectively that you simply have been there. Not essentially that you simply did it, however that you simply have been there when it occurred.
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Properly that – that — that is but to be confirmed. I imply, I wasn’t there. Like I mentioned, I had nothing to do with it. And, uh, you are — you are free to take blood. Something you need.
Regardless of Ambroz’s cooperation, Frank discovered a number of issues suspicious – like Ambroz’s clarification for giving completely different variations of the place he was on the time of the homicide.
JOSEPH AMBROZ (1999): I do not bear in mind all the things.
BOB FRANK: … The stories right here point out a dimension 9 1/2 shoe on the scene.
And there was that shoeprint discovered on the scene, which was the identical dimension that Ambroz wears.
BOB FRANK (1999): You bought a 9 1/2 shoe. Once more, one other coincidence.
JOSEPH AMBROZ: Yeah.
Frank additionally requested Ambroz a couple of report from 1972, earlier than Wayne Greaser died, during which a good friend of Greaser knowledgeable authorities Greaser had confessed to him that he and Ambroz drove Mary Kay to the sector, and that it was Ambroz who killed her. When Frank introduced it up, Ambroz received agitated.
JOSEPH AMBROZ (1999): I had nothing to do with it. I do not know what Greaser was saying. And that is all I received to say.
After the interview, Ambroz gave his blood for DNA testing and submitted to a different polygraph. Nothing incriminating was discovered at his home, and his DNA didn’t match any discovered on Mary Kay’s gadgets.
Bob Frank: We offered what we needed to the — to the county legal professional on the time and he simply felt there was not sufficient to even take it ahead.
In 2000, Frank stopped working the case, however held out hope that someday, one thing can be discovered.
Bob Frank: We would have liked one thing … to, to drive this case ahead.
Fb publish results in new tip in 2019
What precisely occurred in that discipline in 1969 was nonetheless a thriller when Ted Inexperienced, in 2015, then the Investigator for the Saunders County Legal professional’s Workplace, began wanting into Mary Kay Heese’s homicide.
Ted Inexperienced: It was placing this puzzle again collectively.
CBS Information 
He had collected stories from all of the completely different companies that labored the case over time. He discovered memos and statements that had by no means been filed.
Ted Inexperienced: Then I began going by means of the listing of names and all these volumes and reinterviewing and so … I used to be capable of begin monitoring down people.
Inexperienced says a kind of folks instructed him that Ambroz had seen Mary Kay not simply at that café they frequented, but in addition round city, and that Ambroz instructed him he wished to have intercourse with Mary Kay.
Ted Inexperienced: And he says, nicely, Mary Kay was up in her driveway twirling her baton … and he had made the remark that, yeah, the suspect instructed me, he wished to do her.
Inexperienced, like Frank, targeted his investigation on Joseph Ambroz. Inexperienced says one other particular person instructed him he had seen Ambroz and Wayne Greaser arguing that evening.
Ted Inexperienced: They received right into a struggle that very evening about some lady and … this man is coming ahead and saying this struggle occurred and no person paid consideration to him.
Inexperienced additionally reinterviewed a co-worker of Ambroz —who mentioned Ambroz instructed him after the homicide that, “I can do six months, however I can not do life.” For Inexperienced, this was Ambroz’s motive. Inexperienced theorized that Ambroz may cope with serving six months for a parole violation, however no more for making an attempt to sexually assault Mary Kay.
Ted Inexperienced: He is aware of he is going again … it is not a spot he desires to go.
Natalie Morales: So that you consider he killed her as a result of he was attempting to verify –
Ted Inexperienced: He was going to, yeah, she –
Natalie Morales: She did not report him.
Ted Inexperienced: Yeah.
Inexperienced was pissed off with the preliminary investigation’s lack of follow-up. Particularly disturbing to him, was that Joseph Ambroz’s automobile was lengthy gone and had by no means been examined.
Ted Inexperienced: Why wasn’t this in these stories? These have been primary questions I used to be asking.
Whereas Inexperienced labored the case, this man, Josh Eberhardt, a good friend of Kathy Tull — Mary Kay’s cousin — wished to deliver consideration to the many years previous homicide that continued to hang-out the household.
Josh Eberhardt: The way in which that I may really feel their ache after I spoke with them, I could not let it go … I knew I wished to assist them someway.
That assist got here in 2019, when Eberhardt, with the help of Kathy, arrange a Fb web page tipline.
Josh Eberhardt: And I began writing the posts for this web page, and I used to be attempting to drag on the heartstrings of the group
Josh Eberhardt (studying publish): Expensive Mary Kay … Fifty years have come and gone since somebody took you from us all. … I sit right here at my pc day-after-day, working to search out justice for you. (cries)
Eberhardt hoped the posts would possibly jog folks’s reminiscences. Ideas got here in that went nowhere. However then —
Josh Eberhardt: Any individual got here ahead … with a very massive tip.
The tip concerned a reservoir not removed from the homicide scene. The particular person had heard tales about males taking aside a automobile that regarded just like the one Jospeh Ambroz drove and pushing the automobile into the water shortly after Mary Kay’s homicide.
Josh Eberhardt: We heard the phrases, white over blue, ’50s Chevy … So we knew it was essential sufficient to move to Ted, and he took it from there.
Ted Inexperienced additionally thought it was essential. He all the time puzzled what occurred to the automobile witnesses reported seeing Mary Kay get into. A automobile he believed belonged to Joseph Ambroz.
Natalie Morales: You assume it is — the Chevy that is in that lake?
Ted Inexperienced: Yeah … They removed the automobile.
Natalie Morales: There was blood on it. It was a homicide scene.
Ted Inexperienced: It was a homicide scene. I believe the homicide weapon is there additionally.
Ted Inexperienced 
So, Inexperienced tried to find out what was on the backside of that reservoir. It was a course of, seen right here, that went on for about 5 years, together with having a portion dredged.
Ted Inexperienced: And we began arising with bits and items of bizarre metal.
However he wanted to provide you with extra.
Then Inexperienced noticed a YouTube video from an underwater search and restoration dive group, referred to as Adventures with Goal. The group is primarily targeted on looking underwater for lacking individuals.
Ted Inexperienced: I referred to as ’em up and mentioned … that is an lively, ongoing investigation. We do not have a physique in there. I am in search of proof. They usually agreed to do it.
Ted Inexperienced: We pulled up increasingly metallic. We additionally … pulled up fiber … in keeping with the colour of the inside of the automobile we’re in search of.
Nonetheless although, they may not show the metallic and fiber have been from a automobile. To find out something extra, the reservoir would have to be drained — which was not possible.
If the reservoir could not present extra clues, Inexperienced and the county legal professional thought maybe Mary Kay herself may. In 2024, the choice was made to have her physique exhumed and carry out one other post-mortem.
Jennifer Joakim: The primary post-mortem was not a top quality post-mortem or at the very least by as we speak’s requirements. … Clearly, it is science, issues evolve.
However first, the household needed to consent. Inexperienced and Kathy Tull had been in shut contact by means of the course of his investigation. Kathy was all the time pushing to be taught extra, so she gave her permission to have Mary Kay’s physique exhumed.
Kathy Tull: It was — it was laborious. I, uh — something that possibly would get the solutions we have been in search of, nevertheless it was a tough selection.
However what sort of solutions may very well be discovered from a physique that had been buried for greater than 50 years?
Ted Inexperienced: We did not know what we have been gonna discover.
What clues may Mary Kay Heese present?
Mary Kay had been buried for 55 years when her casket was lifted out of the bottom to carry out one other post-mortem. Remarkably, say prosecutors, her physique was well-preserved, permitting a pathologist to be taught extra about her knife wounds.
Jennifer Joakim: The second post-mortem was extraordinarily useful. It added readability to the … method of killing.
In line with investigators, the style during which Mary Kay was stabbed was in keeping with how slaughterhouse staff are taught to kill animals.
Richard Register: The angle, precisely how her physique was confirmed within the post-mortem, is precisely how they have been instructed to do it.
For Ted Inexperienced, it was one other piece of the puzzle tying Joseph Ambroz, who had labored on the kill ground of a slaughterhouse, to Mary Kay’s homicide. There was additionally that shoeprint on the homicide scene — a dimension 9 1/2.
Ted Inexperienced: And he wore a 9 1/2 shoe. And that is the dimensions of the shoe that was there.
However it was extra than simply the dimensions. Inexperienced says it was additionally the sample of the print. It matched a prison-issued shoe that Ambroz, on parole on the time of Mary Kay’s homicide, may have been carrying.
Ted Inexperienced: So these little consistencies are beginning to add up.
Natalie Morales: At what level although … do you’re feeling you will have sufficient … that you could then go to the county legal professional’s workplace and say, I believe I’ve received a fairly good case right here?
Ted Inexperienced: It was his interview.
In 2021, Inexperienced interviewed Ambroz, touring to Ohio the place he was residing. In line with Inexperienced, folks instructed him that they had seen blood on Ambroz’s automobile across the time of the homicide. Inexperienced says when he requested Ambroz about this, he admitted there was blood on his automobile as a result of he ran over a deer or rabbit.
Ted Inexperienced: He mentioned that blood is on the left rear fender.
Natalie Morales: The again — the again fender.
Ted Inexperienced: You do not hit a deer or rabbit on the left rear fender and put blood on that. And he admitted the blood was there the evening of the murder.
Inexperienced believed Ambroz pinned Mary Kay on the automobile trunk, and the blood was hers from these 14 stab wounds.
In 2023, Inexperienced offered his investigation’s findings to the county legal professional: the witness statements, the shoeprint proof, Ambroz’s interview. Prosecutors knew it could be a difficult case. The homicide weapon was by no means discovered, nor was there DNA proof connecting Ambroz to the killing. However in addition they knew time was working out.
Jennifer Joakim: We have been getting to some extent that … 55, 56 years in the past, this occurred, so we’re beginning to lose witnesses. … So the choice was made to take it earlier than the grand jury.
The grand jury rapidly indicted Joseph Ambroz for the first-degree homicide of Mary Kay Heese. The then-77-year-old was arrested on Nov. 18, 2024, in Oklahoma, the place he was residing. Ambroz was then extradited to Nebraska.
Mark Miller: Thrilled to loss of life.
Kathy Tull: I used to be thrilled.
Mark Miller: Thrilled to loss of life that lastly, lastly … Mary Kay can have justice.
For Mary Kay’s household, the arrest was gratifying, particularly for Kathy. She had promised Mary Kay’s mom, Dorothy, who died in 2007, that she would struggle for justice and never overlook Mary Kay.
Kathy Tull: That is Aunt Dorothy asking for us to proceed to seek for no matter occurred to Mary Kay …
Kathy Tull: I did not need to let her down …
Kathy Tull: I instructed her that I’d not cease, that I’d proceed.
Kathy and Mark have been making ready themselves to lastly have some solutions to 56 years of questions on what occurred to Mary Kay. There have been pre-trial hearings the place Ambroz appeared frail and on oxygen.
Months handed, after which, in July 2025, Kathy and Mark received information they weren’t anticipating. A plea deal had been reached — not for first diploma homicide as charged — however for conspiracy to commit first-degree homicide. As a part of the deal, Ambroz pleaded no contest, which meant he didn’t have to provide any particulars concerning the homicide.
Lee Enterprises 
Mark Miller: The household by no means received the prospect to say no.
Kathy and Mark say they weren’t consulted concerning the deal, which additionally named the deceased Wayne Greaser as the opposite particular person conspiring to kill Mary Kay. It was a blow to Kathy and Mark — and to Ted Inexperienced.
Ted Inexperienced: There isn’t any justice for Mary Kay, there is not any justice for the household.
Natalie Morales: And no reply.
Ted Inexperienced: And no reply.
In an e mail to “48 Hours,” Joseph Ambroz’s legal professional said that, “Mr. Ambroz maintains his innocence … As a result of Mr. Ambroz’ age he states he took the plea discount as a result of his well being points … since he might not have lived till trial to attempt to clear his title.”
Ted Inexperienced: He will get off — I did not do it, actually? … I am sorry, if you happen to’re gonna fold like that, I laid my keys on the desk and walked out two minutes after he pled. … I retired proper then and there.
Jennifer Joakim: I perceive with some people the plea deal wasn’t notably interesting.
County legal professional Jennifer Joakim knew there can be a backlash for accepting the plea deal. However she additionally felt, as they proceeded to trial, the case was solely getting weaker.
Jennifer Joakim: You already know, it’s a must to take a look at the chances of even attending to trial.
There have been chain of custody points from the proof going by means of so many fingers over time. And with some witnesses useless, testimony may very well be deemed inadmissible. It was leaving them unsure the case may very well be confirmed past an affordable doubt
Jennifer Joakim: We needed to analyze the case and the proof. … It was essential to get the conviction.
Kathy Tull 
However since Mary Kay’s homicide occurred in 1969, sentencing pointers from then must be used. A conviction of conspiracy to homicide in 1969 carried solely two years of jail time.
Jennifer Joakim: We’re sure to make use of these statutes as they existed at the moment.
Kathy Tull: Oh, I am offended. I am plain offended.
On Aug. 27, 2025, simply earlier than formal sentencing was to happen, “48 Hours” spoke with Kathy and Mark. They already knew the utmost sentence that may very well be imposed was two years.
Mark Miller: Everyone knows this is not justice.
Kathy Tull: His factor was he did not need to die in jail. He did not need to die in jail. Mary Kay did not need to die that day both.
At sentencing, Kathy and Mark addressed the court docket.
MARK MILLER (in court docket): I bear in mind Mary Kay Heese as an individual who would by no means damage anybody.
Joseph Ambroz selected to say nothing.
JUDGE MARROQUIN (in court docket): Mr. Ambroz, is there something you want to say earlier than a sentence is imposed?
JOSEPH AMBROZ: No.
JUDGE MARROQUIN: The utmost penalty, underneath the legislation, because it existed in 1969, and which is relevant as we speak within the matter, is 2 years of imprisonment.
As a result of Nebraska’s Good Time sentencing discount legislation, Joseph Ambroz’s sentence was minimize in half. With time served, he was launched on Nov. 15, 2025.
Mark Miller: He received all these years to dwell, and Mary Kay by no means had the prospect to dwell.
For Mary Kay Heese’s household, the hunt for justice, after greater than 50 years, stays elusive.
Kathy Tull: She did not deserve this in any respect. She was a 17-year-old lady energetic.
Produced by Ruth Chenetz. Michael Loftus is the sector producer. Richard Barber and Michael Vele are the editors. Anthony Batson is the senior broadcast producer. Nancy Kramer is the chief story editor. Judy Tygard is the chief producer.
