GUILTY OK - Kathy Engle, 41, abducted & murdered, Oklahoma City, 23 April 1986

cynsational

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Oklahoma County prosecutors have filed murder charges in the 1986 death of Kathy Engle. The mother of two was kidnapped from Shepherd Mall on April 23, 1986. Her body was found a week later in a Beckham County oilfield. Her car was found at a truck stop in Tucumcari, N.M. On Tuesday, Oklahoma County District Attorney David Prater announced charges against Kyle Eckardt. Investigators said his DNA and fingerprints were found in Engle’s car.
http://www.koco.com/news/20277386/detail.html

This guy was arrested for rape in 2007 and they found his DNA matched in this case.
I love DNA technology. I wish the databanks were such that they could run DNA and immediately solve crimes, and the jerks that commit these crimes would realize they WILL be caught eventially and think before they act. I doubt it will ever happen. I guess you just can't completely stop evil.
 
here's a great source for the background on this case (has a video, also)

http://www.coldcaseokc.com/article/engle



Death Penalty Sought in 1986 Murder
http://crime.about.com/b/2010/06/30/death-penalty-sought-in-1986-murder.htm
June 29, 2010

After receiving new information, prosecutors now plan to seek the death penalty for Kyle Richard Eckardt in the rape and murder of Kathy Sue Engle in 1986.
The other suspect in the case, Steven A. Boerner, died in a trucking accident in 1992.



Mrs. Engle's daughter is a wonderful, wonderful teacher. My daughter has her in summerschool. She talked to them about this sad story yesterday in class. IIRC, my DD said the trial is scheduled for September.
 
A former drifter was sentenced Friday to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the killing of a Yukon woman 25 years ago.

Kyle Richard Eckardt, 46, did not admit to the killing. Instead, he agreed to accept the outcome to avoid the risk of getting a death sentence at trial.
---
A second suspect, Steven A. Boerner, was later identified from a fingerprint on the car's steering wheel. Boerner, an ex-convict from Michigan, died in 1992 in a trucking accident.
a bit more, plus video interviews with the victim's children, at Daily Oklahoman link below:

In a 1986 Oklahoma City cold case, former drifter sentenced to life in prison without possibility of parole
 
Just...WOW..Tears...This family overcame the heartache...pulled together and did good. Outstanding!!

Excerpt from her daughter Kristine's memoirs:

1981 yellow Dodge Colt. After the police gutted her car, my father asked me and my brother if we wanted it back, because he didn’t want us to lose anything of my mother’s if it was important to us to keep. I didn’t yet know what had happened inside. If we said yes, my father knew what could happen — if he sat in the driver’s seat, he would be in the murderer’s position, hands on the wheel, review mirror tilted down; if he turned to the backseat, he might see her body, bruised and shaking, curled in sweat and rapid breaths; every time he walked to or from the car, his muscles might tense, fists close, ready to punch whatever was behind him, more out of anger than fear, more because he could when she couldn’t. And when I looked up at him and answered no, I didn’t realize the burden my father had offered to take, I didn’t know that his love meant the willingness to suffer.

My decision was a practical one: He had said that the police wouldn’t put the car back together, and how can you drive without seats. I’m thankful for my answer, though now I would say no for different reasons. Her car is a sacred place, a shrine fixed in time. Reason tells me it went to a scrap yard, had other people’s hands on its engine and frame, and if it still exists at all, only a skeleton remains.

But memory and the imagination keep it whole, intact, the steering wheel and blood, the radio on soft rock, the sun heating the vinyl to make it too painful to touch, the semen and seats. Her sweater is on the floorboard, the beer bottle and paper bag on one of the seats, the can of Pepsi nearby, and the cigarette butts of her Salems, the filters ripped off, settled in the ashtray. The frame still holds the vibrations of her cries. And what happened inside is encased, entombed, the secrets sealed, unknowable and outside of time. To open the car door is to violate its mystery.

Excerpt from “The Distance to You,” by Kristine Ervin

Thank you for the link kantoo.
http://www.coldcaseokc.com/article/engle
 
Woman remembers teacher’s kindness in shadow of tragedy
Posted: 12:01 a.m. Sunday, June 7
http://www.mystatesman.com/news/new...ers-teachers-kindness-in-shadow-of-tra/nmXHj/
There’s nothing in a teacher’s handbook on dealing with a young child whose mother was murdered, especially when she is one of a classroom full of students. It was just Sara’s fourth year as a teacher.

“Your instincts tell you how much to do,” she said. “All of us wanted to help this little girl. Your heart hurts for her so badly. We just wanted to show some compassion and comfort in some way.”

After 29 years, Kathy's daughter tracked down her 4th grade teacher living in Texas last month. This article is a result of that search and surprise reunion. I needed a kleenex, you might, too. It's heartwarming to read that a teacher made such an impact on Kathy's child at such a horrific time in her life.

Much more at link.
 
Wow! I just arrived to this thread through a link that I saw below another thread that I read. such a heartbreaking case.

I am so glad for the wonderful children of Kathy who got a closure and justice for their mother. one monster will never be free again and the other one got what he deserves in 1992. cases like that give hope for other cold cases, there is always hope for Justice no matter how many years passed.
 

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