On June 25, 1982, Lee Gunsalus Rotatori, a 32-year old American woman, was sexually assaulted and murdered in her hotel room by Thomas Oscar Freeman in

Council Bluffs, Iowa Council Bluffs is a city in and the county seat of Pottawattamie County, Iowa, Pottawattamie County, Iowa, United States. The city is the most populous in Southwest Iowa, and is the third largest and a primary city of the Omaha–Council Bluffs ...

. The murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years, until it was announced by authorities in 2022 that the perpetrator had been identified as Freeman using

investigative genetic genealogy Investigative genetic genealogy, or forensic genetic genealogy, is the emerging practice of utilizing genetic information from direct-to-consumer companies for identifying suspects or victims in criminal cases. As of September 2021, the use of this ...

. Around July 1982, Freeman himself was murdered by an unidentified perpetrator in

Cobden, Illinois Cobden is a village in Union County, Illinois, United States, within the Southern Illinois region informally known as "Little Egypt.” The population as of the 2020 census is 1,034, a decline of 10.63% since the 2010 census. Cobden is regional ...

. His

decomposing Decomposition or rot is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is e ...

body was found in a shallow grave around three months after his murder. As of 2022, the murder remains unsolved and the case remains open, and investigators believe the two murders were connected.

Murder of Lee Rotatori

Lee Rotatori was a 32-year-old American woman from Nunica, Michigan who had recently relocated to Council Bluffs to work at the nearby Jennie Edmundson Hospital in June 1982. She was new to the area and did not have permanent housing, so she stayed at the Best Western Frontier Motor Lodge hotel for several nights. On the morning of June 25, 1982, Rotatori's boss called the hotel because she had not appeared for her first formal day of work. When employees went to check on her room, they found her murdered and turned over the scene to investigators. They found that she had been murdered by a single

stab wound A stab wound is a specific form of penetrating trauma to the skin that results from a knife or a similar pointed object. While stab wounds are typically known to be caused by knives, they can also occur from a variety of implements, including brok ...

to the heart, and that she had been

sexually assaulted Sexual assault is an act in which one intentionally sexually touches another person without that person's consent, or coerces or physically forces a person to engage in a sexual act against their will. It is a form of sexual violence, which ...

. There were no formal suspects for decades.

Investigation

An ''

Omaha World-Herald The ''Omaha World-Herald'' is a daily newspaper in the midwestern United States, the primary newspaper of the Omaha-Council Bluffs metropolitan area. It was locally owned from its founding in 1885 until 2020, when it was sold to the newspaper ch ...

'' article dated July 4, 1982, published 10 days after Rotatori's body was discovered, reported then-Sergeant Larry Williams as saying, "the killer could have been five feet away or a thousand miles away." In an attempt to find answers, her employer and other local organizations put up rewards for thousands of dollars, but with no success. As a result, a

cold case A cold case is a crime, or a suspected crime, that has not yet been fully resolved and is not the subject of a current criminal investigation, but for which new information could emerge from new witness testimony, re-examined archives, new or re ...

with no suspects or answers began and no suspects were revealed for decades. In 2019, authorities submitted DNA evidence to

Parabon NanoLabs Parabon NanoLabs, Inc. is a company based in Reston, Virginia, that develops nanopharmaceuticals and provides DNA phenotyping services for law enforcement organizations. History Parabon NanoLabs, a subsidiary of Parabon Computation, a computin ...

in an attempt to identify a suspect. They additionally were assisted by volunteer genealogist and

Elizabethtown College Elizabethtown College (informally E-town) is a private college in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania. History Founding and early years Founded in 1899, Elizabethtown College is one of many higher learning institutions founded in the 19th century by c ...

student, Eric Schubert. In February 2021, Thomas Oscar Freeman was found to be the apparent owner of DNA found at the crime scene. Freeman's daughter agreed to give a DNA sample, which confirmed him as the perpetrator of the murder. In 2022, it was announced by authorities that the perpetrator had been identified as Freeman. It was also revealed that Freeman himself was the victim of a murder around July 1982. His decomposing body was discovered on October 30, 1982. It was determined that his body has sustained multiple

gunshot wound A gunshot wound (GSW) is a penetrating injury caused by a projectile (e.g. a bullet) from a gun (typically firearm or air gun). Damages may include bleeding, bone fractures, organ damage, wound infection, loss of the ability to move part of th ...

s before being thrown into a shallow grave. Investigators believe the two murders were connected.

Rotatori's husband

Lee Rotatori's husband, Gerald "Jerry" Stanley Nemke, was initially looked at as a

person of interest "Person of interest" is a term used by law enforcement in the United States, Canada, and other countries when identifying someone possibly involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. It has no leg ...

in Rotatori's murder, but was quickly ruled out as authorities determined he had a solid

alibi An alibi (from the Latin, '' alibī'', meaning "somewhere else") is a statement by a person, who is a possible perpetrator of a crime, of where they were at the time a particular offence was committed, which is somewhere other than where the crim ...

. Jerry Nemke had a past criminal record. On April 29, 1960 in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

, at the age of 17, he

bludgeoned A club (also known as a cudgel, baton, bludgeon, truncheon, cosh, nightstick, or impact weapon) is a short staff or stick, usually made of wood, wielded as a weapon since prehistoric times. There are several examples of blunt-force trauma caused ...

a 16-year old waitress, Marilyn Duncan, to death with a

brick A brick is a type of block used to build walls, pavements and other elements in masonry construction. Properly, the term ''brick'' denotes a block composed of dried clay, but is now also used informally to denote other chemically cured cons ...

. He was tried and convicted of

murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person wit ...

and was

sentenced to death Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that t ...

. His conviction was later overturned on appeal, with the

Supreme Court of Illinois The Supreme Court of Illinois is the state supreme court, the highest court of the State of Illinois. The court's authority is granted in Article VI of the current Illinois Constitution, which provides for seven justices elected from the five ap ...

ruling that Nemke's

preliminary hearing Within some criminal justice, criminal justice systems, a preliminary hearing, preliminary examination, preliminary inquiry, evidentiary hearing or probable cause hearing is a proceeding, after a criminal complaint has been filed by the prosecuto ...

was not conducted fairly. He was convicted once again on

retrial A new trial or retrial is a recurrence of a court case. A new trial may potentially be ordered for some or all of the matters at issue in the original trial. Depending upon the rules of the jurisdiction and the decision of the court that ordered ...

, and was instead sentenced to 75 years in prison. He was released early on

parole Parole (also known as provisional release or supervised release) is a form of early release of a prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by certain behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated parole officers, or ...

at some point during his sentence. After the identification of Thomas Freeman as Rotatori's murderer, Nemke was named as a person of interest in Freeman's murder. Authorities said Nemke's college was around 15 miles from where Freeman's body was discovered, and that Nemke and Freeman were previous acquaintances. Nemke died in March 2019.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rotatori, Lee and Thomas Freeman 1982 deaths 1982 in Iowa 1982 in Illinois Deaths by firearm in Illinois June 1982 events in the United States July 1982 events in the United States 1982 murders in the United States Murder in Iowa Murder in Illinois Female murder victims Male murder victims Council Bluffs, Iowa Incidents of violence against men Incidents of violence against women People murdered in Illinois People murdered in Iowa

Murder of Lee Rotatori

Investigation

Rotatori's husband

See also

References