WI WI - Amos Mortier, 27, Fitchburg, 8 Nov 2004

http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...cle_731a7b48-de53-11df-88fe-001cc4c002e0.html

SANDY CULLEN | scullen@madison.com | 608-252-6137 madison.com | Posted: Friday, October 22, 2010 10:03 pm

One of two men who sold marijuana for a missing Fitchburg man was sentenced Friday to three years in federal prison.

Brent Delzer, 36, who pleaded guilty in August, had been facing a minimum five-year prison sentence, but U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb reduced that amount, citing his "substantial assistance" concerning the November 2004 disappearance of Amos Mortier, as well as his lack of criminal activity in the last six years.
 
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...cle_de93588e-e792-11df-a104-001cc4c03286.html

Federal prosecutors might try to prove that Jacob Stadfeld was responsible for the murder of Amos Mortier, who disappeared six years ago, when Stadfeld is sentenced, according to a court document filed Wednesday.
...

Proof that he violated the federal homicide statute would not equal a murder conviction but it could set Stadfeld's minimum sentence at 20 years or as much as life, under the advisory federal sentencing guidelines.

More info at the link.

Most of me is thrilled, and is thinking "It's about time!" The analytical part of me worries that if the prosecution tries to 'back door' a murder conviction, they may be setting Stadfeld up with good grounds for an appeal of the sentence. But then I wonder if prosecutors are seeing the sentencing as an opportunity as a test-run of a murder case...
 
http://host.madison.com/wsj/news/lo...e3f-001cc4c002e0.html?sourcetrack=moreArticle

From the above link:

A man convicted of being part of a marijuana distribution scheme that involved a Fitchburg man who vanished in 2004 was sentenced Thursday to 12 years in federal prison.

...
Mortier, 27, was last seen at his Fitchburg home in November 2004. Police consider Stadfeld a suspect in Mortier's disappearance. Federal prosecutors pondered arguing at Stadfeld's sentencing hearing that he was responsible for Mortier's presumed death, which could have added up to 20 additional years to Stadfeld's sentence.

U.S. Attorney John Vaudreuil said he decided, however, that while prosecutors believe Stadfeld lied about his whereabouts at the time Mortier was last known to be alive, they did not have enough evidence to prove the murder enhancement.
 
convAmosNoGlasses19961.jpg


Amos has been missing for 9 years.
 
This thread has been inactive for some time, but I just wanted to let anyone interested in Amos Mortier's case that their is a documentary film being made about his case. Here is a link to the kickstarter for it, it is currently about 40% shot: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/817430160/what-happened-to-amos
Here is an article from The Isthmus about the film:
http://isthmus.com/news/news/kickstarter-launched-for-new-documentary-on-amos-mortier/

and the story has recently been featured on the podcast The Vanished:
http://www.thevanishedpodcast.com/
 
Hi everyone, I just wanted to post here again because it is the anniversary of Amos Mortier's disappearance. We have about a week left on our kickstarter for the film, please visit our page to support! I have posted new video clips and info as well. http://kck.st/2epFynZ
[video=vimeo;185350336]https://vimeo.com/185350336[/video]
 
Kristina Motwani was a guest last Thursday on Websleuths Radio, "What Happened to Amos?"

I'm bringing this post over from the other thread.

Thank you so much Tricia for having me on your show! Everyone who hasn't listened, please do! And for those who have, don't forget to visit our kickstarter.

Today is the anniversary of Amos Mortier's disappearance.

Please support our film to help us
#findamos http://kck.st/2epFynZ

Twelve years is a long time to wait for Justice. :(

:justice: for Amos Mortier.
 
Just listened to the podcast today, good work.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
Just listened to the Vanished Podcast and had to bump


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Just listened to the Vanished Podcast and had to bump


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Ditto. I expected to find multiple threads based on how much info was shared in the podcast. Very surprised to see that there hasn't been much discussion at all.
 
Hello fellow Sleuthers,
Doing a review of people in this case and I did listen to all the podcasts I could possibly find.
This is what I have pieced together and just want to know if everyone else has more insight or if I misunderstood anything.

Friends that showed up and found him missing/helped to search nearby: actual friends, people he would hang out with having minimal business associations with.
Reed Rogala: Business product supplier
Destin Layne: Business product supplier assistant: Met with Amos and Reed at lunch Halloween weekend to discuss retrieving money from stolen product from Jake, Calls reported as received/overheard from friends of her yelling at Amos/putting pressure on Amos to produce money for missing product. Destin was at the house after Amos was found missing with friends, but non of the friends recognized her because she was NOT a friend she was a higher up supplier present to gather intel for Reed on Amos location (ie: skipped town) or help mislead the investigation toward Jake as suspect after her and Reed killed Amos.
Jake Stadfeld: long time friend of Amos, but also product seller for Amos, Amos stood up in his wedding just months prior to Amos disappearing. Reports state that Amos told Jake that the high up suppliers would be approaching him when the came to town that week to collect their money if he didn't come up with 10,000. Jake was investigated as possible suspect for foul play against Amos with evidence of tarps, ropes and snow shovel (you can't dig a grave with a snow shovel in Wisconsin in November)
Thought r/t Jake: If you knew higher up suppliers were coming that you would have to answer to about missing product, what good would killing Amos do for you??? Unless Jake thought that the higher ups did not yet know who he was and that Amos would be giving the higher ups information about Jake to pursue when they arrived, but if they are already after you, then killing Amos would be futile.
Keith: Product seller for Amos, approached by Amos to supply 10,000 prior to higher ups coming to town as well. Friend of Keith reported to authorities that Keith had admitted to him that he stabbed Amos to death and disposed of him by feeding him to hogs/pigs.
Federal court documents report Amos as murdered, reports of a suspect and confession, however due to lack of evidence there was no pursuit of murder charges
Keith's truck and property were never searched.
 
Bumping for Amos...
I grew up in Madison and while I didn’t know him personally, I have friends that were friends with him. I went to school with Nathan Comp who wrote one of the Isthmus articles about Amos. I hate that all these years later his mom still has no real answers - my heart breaks for her.
 
Just listening to the multiple Vanished Podcast episodes.....I seriously am shocked that Amos has not been found!
 
Hello fellow Sleuthers,
Doing a review of people in this case and I did listen to all the podcasts I could possibly find.
This is what I have pieced together and just want to know if everyone else has more insight or if I misunderstood anything.

Friends that showed up and found him missing/helped to search nearby: actual friends, people he would hang out with having minimal business associations with.
Reed Rogala: Business product supplier
Destin Layne: Business product supplier assistant: Met with Amos and Reed at lunch Halloween weekend to discuss retrieving money from stolen product from Jake, Calls reported as received/overheard from friends of her yelling at Amos/putting pressure on Amos to produce money for missing product. Destin was at the house after Amos was found missing with friends, but non of the friends recognized her because she was NOT a friend she was a higher up supplier present to gather intel for Reed on Amos location (ie: skipped town) or help mislead the investigation toward Jake as suspect after her and Reed killed Amos.
Jake Stadfeld: long time friend of Amos, but also product seller for Amos, Amos stood up in his wedding just months prior to Amos disappearing. Reports state that Amos told Jake that the high up suppliers would be approaching him when the came to town that week to collect their money if he didn't come up with 10,000. Jake was investigated as possible suspect for foul play against Amos with evidence of tarps, ropes and snow shovel (you can't dig a grave with a snow shovel in Wisconsin in November)
Thought r/t Jake: If you knew higher up suppliers were coming that you would have to answer to about missing product, what good would killing Amos do for you??? Unless Jake thought that the higher ups did not yet know who he was and that Amos would be giving the higher ups information about Jake to pursue when they arrived, but if they are already after you, then killing Amos would be futile.
Keith: Product seller for Amos, approached by Amos to supply 10,000 prior to higher ups coming to town as well. Friend of Keith reported to authorities that Keith had admitted to him that he stabbed Amos to death and disposed of him by feeding him to hogs/pigs.
Federal court documents report Amos as murdered, reports of a suspect and confession, however due to lack of evidence there was no pursuit of murder charges
Keith's truck and property were never searched.

I just finished the Vanished podcast series on this case, and this is a really good synopsis of the key people, but there is one thing I noticed that should be corrected.

Stadfeld was not the one who had the tarps, ropes and shovel. That was another friend of Amos whose name was also Jake and was also an on-and-off business associate (easy to get mixed up). I'm not posting his last name but it is mentioned numerous times in the podcast. This other Jake was also, at minimum, a person of interest early on, but LE doesn't seem to have been interested in him for long, and at least to me it seems clear he had nothing to do with Amos' disappearance.

Also this case is bonkers and I really can't determine strongly how I think this actually went down. After listening to the podcast, I'm left with the following:

I think the most likely scenario is not specifically addressed in the podcast, but dovetails with the one presented in the quoted post. It seems most likely that Rogala had Amos killed, but I think whoever actually did it was from out of town and is not someone on the radar at all. I didn't get the sense that anyone mentioned in the podcast outside of Amos and Destin (and possibly Stadfeld) knew Rogala, or even his name/identity beyond being the supplier, so none of them would have done it at his behest. I suppose Rogala/Destin could have done it themselves, but I don't think Rogala would have placed himself in town a week beforehand if that was the case.

I don't think Stadfeld did it, although there is an outside chance he did or was indirectly involved (more so if he did in fact know Rogala, but I didn't get the sense that he did), and I am almost certain he knows what happened.

I feel like the business around Keith's "confession" is BS, or at least mostly BS, but I do think there's a decent chance that Keith killed him. In a lot of ways he seems like the best potential suspect, but I can't get past Stadfeld's behavior that suggested that he knew something was imminently going to happen to either Amos, himself, or both; and Amos' behavior that suggested the same thing. If Keith did it, as far as I can tell he did not know Rogala and would have done it independently of that situation, so I see no reason for either Stadfeld or Amos to have had such a suspicion.

The problem I have with all of these scenarios is that none of these people seem to have had had a strong motive to kill Amos. Like, I guess all of them sort of did, depending how you look at it, but in most cases it takes a pretty serious motive to kill a friend. Hell, this case is so strange that I also think there's a non-zero chance that this was an accident or a voluntary disappearance, although both of those seem extremely unlikely.

ETA: Just for reference, for those who have not listened to the podcast, the main investigator from early on is almost certain that Stadfeld did it, and the journalist interviewed throughout is seemingly unsure but leans toward Keith being responsible.
 
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