PONCA CITY, Okla. – A 77-year-old Oklahoma man, Joseph A. Ambroz, has been arrested in connection with the 1969 murder of a teenager in Saunders County, Nebraska.
Ambroz was taken into custody in Ponca City, Oklahoma, after a warrant was issued last week. He is expected to appear in an Oklahoma court soon to begin the extradition process to Nebraska.
The victim, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese, was reported missing by her family in 1969. Investigators determined she exited a car and attempted to flee, but footprints indicated someone had caught her. Her body was discovered on March 25, 1969, along a country road near Wahoo. The high school junior had been stabbed more than a dozen times, and evidence showed she fought back against her attacker.
At the time, detectives believed Heese wouldn’t have willingly entered a car with a stranger, leading them to suspect a local perpetrator. Despite this, the case went unsolved for 55 years.
Recent developments appear to have linked Ambroz to the crime. Investigators exhumed Heese’s body from the family plot at Blair Cemetery in recent months, uncovering evidence that prompted a Saunders County grand jury to indict Ambroz last week. Authorities have not disclosed the specific findings that renewed the case.
Heese’s cousin, Kathy Tull, expressed relief over the arrest. “We kept calling state patrol, over and over, asking where the case was with the new evidence,” Tull said. “When we set up our own tip line, that’s when things really took off.”
Adding to the mystery, Heese wrote a letter just four months before her death, revealing surprising information that may have played a role in the investigation.
Currently held in an Oklahoma county jail, Ambroz has waived extradition. He could be back in Nebraska as early as Wednesday to face murder charges.
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