Mysticalmom
04-15-2008, 12:52 PM
http://www.channel3000.com/News/1450606/detail.html
Police have never mentioned a suspect in the case, but in the last part of his special series, Joel DeSpain does.
This was a slaying that absolutely stunned not only the UW campus, but the entire city of Madison. It's one of those cases veteran detectives carry with them long after retirement.
While walking home from State Street where she earned tuition money as a waitress, Mraz crossed behind Camp Randall Stadium and was stabbed repeatedly.
"She never regained consciousness," Moore said in 1982. "For all intents and purposes, the young lady was dead when she hit the ground."
It still troubles Moore to remember the case.
"It breaks your heart to have someone come in to an emergency room and have to tell them their daughter's gone. It's heart breaking," he said.
From the get-go the case was baffling.From the get-go the case was baffling.
"She was a decent person, honorable person, not a person with a problem, just enjoying going to school -- doing a good job," Detective Harlan Hetrick of UW Police said, who responded to the murder scene.
The killer didn't take her money, her paycheck, her keys, there's no sexual assault, there's seemingly no motive at all.
City police, sheriff's deputies, FBI agents and others quickly joined the case.
The dragnet snared many, but one stood out as a suspect.
"We had an individual who was a block or so of the scene at the time," said Moore who is now a deputy coroner. Reports, never made public before, show Madison women had reported the disheveled man as suspicious -- a stalker.
Days after the homicide, he was picked up in Sauk Prairie where he'd been acting strangely and waiving a knife. His right forearm was bandaged, and hiding a deep circular bite wound.
"And we knew from her wounds that she had tried to defend herself, and there was good likelihood, she may have bit him," Moore said. Investigators would learn the suspect was from Minnesota, and had been in and out of mental institutions since 1968.
In Minneapolis in 1972, he attacked a woman on a bridge with a crescent wrench. Moore said passersby saved her life.
"He maintained his innocence through the whole thing, even though there were 40 witnesses who watched it happen," Moore said. On the streets again in 1974, the man battered two more women on the University of Minnesota campus.
The staff physician at St. Cloud's Veteran's Hospital wrote, "This patient is considered to be dangerous to himself, to others, especially females. It is recommended he be transferred to a maximum security hospital for long term treatment."
It wouldn't happen. He went back on his meds, and was released. Other doctors determined he was no longer dangerous. His last release from institutional care before the Mraz murder was in May of 1982.
"Next thing we know of him, he's here in Madison," Moore said.
In the end, forensic dentists couldn't agree if the bite mark came from Mraz.
The suspect, as had been his pattern, denied being in the area or any involvement. In fact, he said he'd never been arrested for anything ever.
If you have any information about the case, you can call Crime Stoppers at
(608) 262-TIPS or UW Police at (608) 262-8477.(more at link)
Police have never mentioned a suspect in the case, but in the last part of his special series, Joel DeSpain does.
This was a slaying that absolutely stunned not only the UW campus, but the entire city of Madison. It's one of those cases veteran detectives carry with them long after retirement.
While walking home from State Street where she earned tuition money as a waitress, Mraz crossed behind Camp Randall Stadium and was stabbed repeatedly.
"She never regained consciousness," Moore said in 1982. "For all intents and purposes, the young lady was dead when she hit the ground."
It still troubles Moore to remember the case.
"It breaks your heart to have someone come in to an emergency room and have to tell them their daughter's gone. It's heart breaking," he said.
From the get-go the case was baffling.From the get-go the case was baffling.
"She was a decent person, honorable person, not a person with a problem, just enjoying going to school -- doing a good job," Detective Harlan Hetrick of UW Police said, who responded to the murder scene.
The killer didn't take her money, her paycheck, her keys, there's no sexual assault, there's seemingly no motive at all.
City police, sheriff's deputies, FBI agents and others quickly joined the case.
The dragnet snared many, but one stood out as a suspect.
"We had an individual who was a block or so of the scene at the time," said Moore who is now a deputy coroner. Reports, never made public before, show Madison women had reported the disheveled man as suspicious -- a stalker.
Days after the homicide, he was picked up in Sauk Prairie where he'd been acting strangely and waiving a knife. His right forearm was bandaged, and hiding a deep circular bite wound.
"And we knew from her wounds that she had tried to defend herself, and there was good likelihood, she may have bit him," Moore said. Investigators would learn the suspect was from Minnesota, and had been in and out of mental institutions since 1968.
In Minneapolis in 1972, he attacked a woman on a bridge with a crescent wrench. Moore said passersby saved her life.
"He maintained his innocence through the whole thing, even though there were 40 witnesses who watched it happen," Moore said. On the streets again in 1974, the man battered two more women on the University of Minnesota campus.
The staff physician at St. Cloud's Veteran's Hospital wrote, "This patient is considered to be dangerous to himself, to others, especially females. It is recommended he be transferred to a maximum security hospital for long term treatment."
It wouldn't happen. He went back on his meds, and was released. Other doctors determined he was no longer dangerous. His last release from institutional care before the Mraz murder was in May of 1982.
"Next thing we know of him, he's here in Madison," Moore said.
In the end, forensic dentists couldn't agree if the bite mark came from Mraz.
The suspect, as had been his pattern, denied being in the area or any involvement. In fact, he said he'd never been arrested for anything ever.
If you have any information about the case, you can call Crime Stoppers at
(608) 262-TIPS or UW Police at (608) 262-8477.(more at link)