On March 25, 1969, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese by no means returned residence from faculty in Wahoo, Nebraska. Hours later, her physique was discovered crushed and stabbed to dying on the facet of the street outdoors of city.
Investigators tried to retrace Mary Kay’s final recognized whereabouts. One witness noticed Mary Kay get right into a automotive with two males on a avenue nook close to her residence. However investigators on the time had been unable to determine who was in that automotive. Weeks was months with no arrests. Mary Kay’s homicide would stay unsolved for many years.
“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales stories on how the homicide was lastly introduced again into focus in “The Girl from Wahoo,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Kathy Tull
In 2015, a brand new investigation was launched. Ted Inexperienced, a felony investigator with the Saunders County Lawyer’s Workplace, was assigned to the case.
“Each felony investigation is a puzzle,” Inexperienced informed “48 Hours.” For Inexperienced, a part of determining that puzzle was studying extra about Mary Kay Heese.
Mary Kay’s youthful cousins, Mark Miller and Kathy Tull, bear in mind Mary Kay as a contented one that all the time regarded out for them. However they mentioned that happiness was generally challenged by the struggles of adolescence.
Inexperienced discovered Mary Kay got here from a strict residence beneath the eyes of watchful dad and mom. It was a special scenario at highschool. “There was a bunch of women that will get her collectively and put make-up on her at the start of the day and alter her garments out,” Inexperienced mentioned.
“She needed to slot in,” Miller informed “48 Hours.”
A part of that want to slot in was Mary Kay’s want to attend the native Sadie Hawkins dance — a well-liked occasion at the moment the place the women ask the boys to attend.
Tull informed “48 Hours” that the shy Mary Kay struggled to discover a date. Tull nonetheless has a letter from Mary Kay, written every week earlier than her homicide, asking her cousin Jerry to attend the dance along with her.
“If we come over to get you on Friday the twenty eighth or Saturday the twenty ninth, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?” Mary Kay wrote within the letter. “You may put on sportswear (not a tuxedo or something) as a result of it isn’t a proper dance […] Do not carry any cash to get in as a result of the women are to pay for all of it together with the tickets and meals.”
As Inexperienced discovered extra about Mary Kay, he got here to 1 conclusion. “She would not get right into a automotive with someone that she did not know,” he mentioned.
The items of the puzzle had been coming collectively for Inexperienced, who centered on two names that stored arising within the previous case information: Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser, each interviewed within the days following Mary Kay’s homicide.
Joseph Ambroz, 22, was dwelling in Wahoo and labored at a slaughterhouse at the moment. He was additionally on parole after serving time for forgery and escaping custody.
Greaser was associates with Ambroz. “He was simply that wannabe child who was simply following round Ambroz,” mentioned Deputy Saunders County Lawyer Richard Register, who labored on the case.
Inexperienced and Register informed “48 Hours” Ambroz knew Mary Kay. They each frequented the identical café and had mutual associates. Inexperienced and Register additionally imagine Mary Kay thought Ambroz was not a menace, however a possibility to slot in with the group.
Inexperienced believes Ambroz and Greaser took Mary Kay to a well known celebration spot close to city and sooner or later Mary Kay tried to flee the automotive. Inexperienced says he believes Ambroz went after her and ultimately stabbed her to dying.
“She simply needed to get a boy to go to the dance along with her. And sadly, the dance she went to was her dying,” Register mentioned.
Greater than 5 a long time after Mary Kay Heese was discovered lifeless, 77-year-old Joseph Ambroz was arrested for her homicide.
In July 2025, Ambroz took a plea deal and pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit first- diploma homicide. He was sentenced to 2 years in jail. Greaser, who had died by suicide in 1977, was named as the opposite particular person conspiring to kill Mary Kay.
For Mary Kay’s cousins, the plea deal and sentence had been an injustice. They are saying Ambroz stole Mary Kay’s future.
“He bought all these years to reside, and Mary Kay by no means had the possibility to reside,” Miller informed “48 Hours.”
