The Tragic Truth About The Beatrice Six

Publish date: 2024-03-31

In March 1989, Beatrice investigators began their hunt for the people they suspected of committing the murder of Helen Wilson, and they set out for the group. Through interviews with multiple witnesses, hours-long and controversially-threatening interrogations, and varying statements from the suspects themselves, the town's county seat of Gage County began prosecuting the case.

The first person to be arrested was Ada JoAnn Taylor, then Joseph White, and then Thomas Winslow. In April of 1989, authorities continued arrests for the case, and arrested Debra Shelden and James Dean. And the following month, they arrested the last of the six, Kathleen Gonzalez.

Taylor went on to confess to her involvement in the crime, also naming James White. Winslow was also interviewed and named himself and three others. The controversial interrogations would prove to create false confessions which were recanted in later years. The lead investigator in the case was a deputy by the name of Burt Searcey. He apparently used rumors and informant statements to go after the group, and the sole DNA evidence found at the scene was a blood sample that was never connected to anyone, per Omaha World-Herald.

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