we did consider that her husband made known that she was having an affair. where was? she there were no. answers nearly 30 years, 60 investigators, and it all kept coming back to one elusive suspect. he just very commonly said, i know how to get rid of a body, so it would never ever be found. him? murder something that could be done over it was basically an hour never situation. hello, welcome to dateline. when kathy had cole disappeared, police didn t know if they are dealing with a missing person case or cold-blooded murder. with little evidence to go on, the investigation grew cold. decades later, a young detective who was just a kid when kathy vanished, dusted off the old files. investigators couldn t solve her case then, could he help solve it now? here is josh mankiewicz, with she didn t come home. time can be like a river, a long stream of events rushing by. most barely make a ripple, but a few, like the sudden loss of a close friend, a child or a p
we got there early, around 5:00, and we sat up as he was walking to his car, we rolled right out and jumped out, when i put the handcuffs on him i said you re under arrest for the murder of kathy heckel. he told his son that he needs to get a different ride to work. lo and behold he s arrested, what is i d like to hear? in our thankfulness that we were getting somewhere. still a long way to go? still a long way to go. in many ways, the arrest of 65 year old loyd groves, was the easy part. legal maneuvering delayed his trial another three and a half years. for the defense, that delay gave their investigators time to poke holes in the prosecution s case. this case had holes you can drive trucks through. tom bruno and his wife amy where the defense team s investigators. we were in the case for
evidence he paid anyone to hurt his wife, by now, kathy had been missing for two full days. and john heckel here are the worse. katherine heckel would never on this earth, abandon those two children. trooper caldwell still did not know if he was working a missing persons case, an abduction, or a homicide. then, on the evening of the third day, investigators caught a big break. they found katherine heckel s car, parked behind a local hospital the, keys were missing. i think they recovered one print of fido no fuss ever identified from the exterior of the car. investigators were pretty sure that someone, possibly her killer, had moved her car to the hospital parking lot. and then, the case had a dead end. days turned to weeks, those weeks stretched into months. kathy heckel was somewhere in the wind. we have dogs come down often,
childhood memories, things like going to the prom, and boyfriends, and kisses, and just everything. she missed our weddings, she missed our graduation, he doesn t know her only grandchild. and you, probably, thought about her each one of those. yes. clinton county never forgot on kathy heckel either, she d become a part of history that just wouldn t go away. and as one generation of lawmen retired, another rose to take up the unfinished business, and discovered enticing details buried in a very old file. coming up. when i obtain this case, it was 22 years old. and it passed through a lot of other hands? 60 other investigators.
we have troopers go out, we search the area for remains or whatever. well some investigators focused on finding kathy heckel, others concentrated on finding evidence of a crime. as far as investigators could tell, the qatar man, dennis taylor, had been honest, confessing his affair with kathy heckel. loyd groves had seemed dodgy. troopers had searched loyd groves the s office, and van. well some items of interest were found, local prosecutors didn t think police out enough to make an arrest. there is a big hole from the investigative standpoint. ted mcknight was clinton county district and currently at the time. if you can imagine in your state, probable cause is the two inch mark and, beyond a reasonable doubt is about 34 inch mark. and everything else in between is the difference between are gonna get a conviction or aren t you? which is the reason you don t go forward unless you have the independence for conviction. he says the fact that her