In December 2006 Chadron State College math professor Steven Haataja (HAWdeeya) disappeared. His charred body was discovered bound to a tree 95 days later just over the hill from my house, in the rugged hills south of the college.
This USA Today article gives an overview of the case: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-07-neb-prof_N.htm
The case was bungled by local LE from the beginning, and although the case remains open, the consensus among local LE is that Haatajas death was a suicide. I am one of many Chadron residents who disagrees and believes the death was a homicide.
Chadron author Poe Ballantine wrote a book focusing on the case: Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. A documentary film based on the case has been completed. An introduction can be seen at this link: http://www.loveandterrorthemovie.com/
It is strange that although the body was estimated to have been 95% charred, the tree to which the body was bound, as well as the surrounding area, were barely burned.
Excerpt from Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere:
You read about things like this, of course, Sheriff Conaghan said. Youre trained for it. But I had no experience. The upper body burned to bone and the tree that he was tied to not burned? The area all around him barely burned? How does that happen? It was Twilight Zone *****. And I didnt have the staff or time to deal with it. I got prisoners, paperwork. I was up to my *advertiser censored* in alligators. So I turned the case over on the spot to State Patrol.
This USA Today article gives an overview of the case: http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-05-07-neb-prof_N.htm
The case was bungled by local LE from the beginning, and although the case remains open, the consensus among local LE is that Haatajas death was a suicide. I am one of many Chadron residents who disagrees and believes the death was a homicide.
Chadron author Poe Ballantine wrote a book focusing on the case: Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere. A documentary film based on the case has been completed. An introduction can be seen at this link: http://www.loveandterrorthemovie.com/
It is strange that although the body was estimated to have been 95% charred, the tree to which the body was bound, as well as the surrounding area, were barely burned.
Excerpt from Love and Terror on the Howling Plains of Nowhere:
You read about things like this, of course, Sheriff Conaghan said. Youre trained for it. But I had no experience. The upper body burned to bone and the tree that he was tied to not burned? The area all around him barely burned? How does that happen? It was Twilight Zone *****. And I didnt have the staff or time to deal with it. I got prisoners, paperwork. I was up to my *advertiser censored* in alligators. So I turned the case over on the spot to State Patrol.