Five law enforcement officers were injured and another was traumatized by the horrors of the 1983 Medina shootout. Surviving officers and family members share their pain.
In this first installment of a three-part series, police officers who were at the scene of the shootout with Gordon Kahl, Yorie Kahl and Scott Faul offer a glimpse of the harrowing experience.
"The part that is not resolved is not going to be resolved ever," the victim's daughter said after the sentencing. "He's obviously not going to admit to this at all, whatsoever."
In the latest update from the Dakota Spotlight podcast's Season 5: A Better Search for Barbara Cotton, host James Wolner interviews a someone who may have seen the 15-year-old girl, gone missing from Williston, North Dakota, in 1981.
A seemingly happy family ended in tragedy after the father bludgeoned his wife to death, suffocated his 9-year- and 22-month-old children, lit his house on fire and then hanged himself 38 years ago.
On May 17, 1981, Karla Jo Nieland was found dead inside a vehicle belonging to her boyfriend, John Keep. Authorities arrested Keep and charged him with second- and third-degree murder — one year later, a jury found him not guilty. The case remains open.
The Mathis case, the trial and the questions that remain to this day are the subject of a new book, "South Dakota's Mathis Murders: Horror in the Heartland" by long-time South Dakota journalist Noel Hamiel. The book is available to purchase on Monday.
With Russia's invasion of Ukraine into its second month, and as reports emerge that Russia's nuclear forces have been placed on high alert, the culture of the late Cold War has made a swinging comeback.
