On March 25, 1969, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese by no means returned house from college in Wahoo, Nebraska. Hours later, her physique was discovered overwhelmed and stabbed to loss of life on the facet of the highway outdoors of city.
Investigators tried to retrace Mary Kay’s final recognized whereabouts. One witness noticed Mary Kay get right into a automobile with two males on a avenue nook close to her house. However investigators on the time had been unable to determine who was in that automobile. Weeks become months with no arrests. Mary Kay’s homicide would stay unsolved for many years.
“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales studies on how the homicide was lastly introduced again into focus in “The Lady 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 prison investigator with the Saunders County Lawyer’s Workplace, was assigned to the case.
“Each prison 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 cheerful one who all the time appeared out for them. However they mentioned that happiness was typically challenged by the struggles of adolescence.
Inexperienced realized Mary Kay got here from a strict house below the eyes of watchful mother and father. It was a distinct scenario at highschool. “There was a bunch of ladies that might 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 preferred 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 per week earlier than her homicide, asking her cousin Jerry to attend the dance together 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 is not 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 realized extra about Mary Kay, he got here to at least one conclusion. “She would not get right into a automobile with someone that she did not know,” he mentioned.
The items of the puzzle had been coming collectively for Inexperienced, who targeted on two names that saved 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 residing 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 pals 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 pals. Inexperienced and Register additionally consider Mary Kay thought Ambroz was not a menace, however a possibility to slot in with the gang.
Inexperienced believes Ambroz and Greaser took Mary Kay to a widely known social gathering spot close to city and sooner or later Mary Kay tried to flee the automobile. Inexperienced says he believes Ambroz went after her and ultimately stabbed her to loss of life.
“She simply needed to get a boy to go to the dance together with her. And sadly, the dance she went to was her loss of life,” Register mentioned.
Greater than 5 a long time after Mary Kay Heese was discovered useless, 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 individual 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 obtained all these years to stay, and Mary Kay by no means had the possibility to stay,” Miller informed “48 Hours.”
