GUILTY MN - Ada Senenfelder, 40, stabbed to death, Winona, 6 June 1985

imamaze

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Originally posted by: Kat, moved here for discussion...


Cold Case Card for Ada Senenfelder

Murder Trial for Man
Charged in 1985
Stabbing Death
Jury Selection Process Begins

Monday, 18 May 2009, 11:39 AM CDT

Quote:
...Jack Willis Nissalke is charged with the 1985 stabbing death of Ada Senenfelder in Winona. Senenfelder is featured in the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension's deck of cold case playing cards.

Court documents show Nissalke is accused of killing Senenfelder in her home to silence her after she made incriminating statements against an associate of Nissalkes...



$50K Reward Offered For Unsolved Slaying




Murder Charges filed in 1985 Senenfelder slaying

Winona Daily News

A 23-year-old murder investigation ended Monday when first- and second-degree murder charges were filed against John Willis Nissalke for the murder of Ada Senenfelder in June 1985.

Senenfelder, 40, was found June 6, 1985 dead in her bed. Police also found a knife, "male DNA" and other biological samples at the scene of the murder. Although Nissalke insists he's never been in Senenfelder's bedroom, modern DNA testing has found he is a possible contributor of the found DNA material, the complaint states.
Nissalke, 42, faces four counts of aiding and abetting premeditated murder.

Two first-degree counts carry life sentences in prison. He is currently in the Winona County Jail on unrelated charges he assaulted an officer during an investigation of his home in the 950 block of East King Street on May 22.
 
Thank you Imamaze. I was impressed that this victim was placed on the MN cold case playing cards and now they have an arrest. These cards seem to be helping the LE solve cold cases.
 
Nissalke sentenced to life, maintains innocence


By John Weiss
Post-Bulletin, Rochester MN

7/8/2009


WINONA -- Jack Nissalke, 43, was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for the 1985 murder of Ada Senenfelder, but not before he vehemently denied his guilt.

His attorney and family later backed him up, quoting the Bible and the nation's Founding Fathers in attacking his trial and the legal system.

Nissalke, of Winona, was found guilty of first-degree murder Monday by a Fillmore County jury after less than four hours of deliberation. The trial was moved to that county because of pretrial publicity in Winona County. The trial revolved around witnesses' testimony and new DNA evidence.

By the law in place in 1985, Nissalke will have to serve at least 17 years in prison before being eligible for parole. But Fillmore District Court Judge Robert R. Benson gave him credit for 1,038 days already spent in jail on various charges, so Nissalke will serve at least 14 years. Because it's a first-degree murder case, there is an automatic appeal to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

After hearing both from Senenfelder's daughter and Nissalke, Benson said the Winona man did get a fair trial. By law, he had to impose the life sentence. The sentence means that Nissalke moves on to a new phase of his life, he said. "I truly do wish you luck in it," Benson said.

Mary Flak, however, wished Nissalke a life of pain. She is Senenfelder's daughter, and spoke for the family. She said her mother never had a chance to see her children and grandchildren; she "will never know how great a mother and grandmother she could have been," she said before Nissalke's sentencing.


More at link.

http://www.postbulletin.com/newsmanager/templates/localnews_story.asp?z=2&a=407104
 
Five years later, the saga continues, as an appeal filed by Nissalke from prison rests in the hands of the Minnesota Supreme Court Justices who began considering his claims last week. Among the assertions contained in the lengthy appeal, Nissalke claims his blood type did not match blood evidence used at his trial, that new evidence shows witnesses lied when they testified against him, and that his attorneys both at trial and in appellate court did not have access to all of the discovery evidence used by prosecutors.
http://www.winonapost.com/stock/functions/VDG_Pub/detail.php?choice=60117&home_page=1&archives=
 
From 2010:

http://www.winonapost.com/News/ArticleID/28887/Bolstad-sentenced-released

James Raymond Bolstad, 63, was sentenced to 58 months in prison for his role in covering up the stabbing death after he pleaded guilty to aiding an offender by obstructing the first degree murder investigation...

When Senenfelder was murdered, Bolstad was in the La Crosse County Jail on charges he’d sexually assaulted her daughter. It was then that his friends, according to prosecutors, began pressuring Senenfelder to recant her accusations, which she did the morning before she was murdered...

Linda Parrish pleaded guilty herself last year to conspiracy to commit first degree manslaughter. She admitted she’d received the call from Bolstad in jail the night of the murder, and then told friends at the party that Bolstad wanted them to push Senenfelder further. Relaying that message to her violent friends, testified Parrish, made it reasonable to assume that Senenfelder might be killed as a result. After pleading guilty, Parrish was also released for time served.
 

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