Murder on the Menu

Summary

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Cold Case Files – "Murder on the Menu"

Air Date: August 4, 2026
Host/Narrator: Marisa Pinson

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Episode Overview

"Murder on the Menu" investigates a chilling string of Minnesota murders that went unsolved for decades, spanning from the late 1970s to the late 1990s. The episode meticulously retraces the slayings of Alice Huling and her three children, the murder of Marlis Wollenhaus, and the abduction and killing of Diane Edwards—all crimes eventually linked to Joseph Turi. Through survivor accounts, investigators' insights, breakthroughs in forensic science, and the slow unraveling of false alibis, the episode highlights the painstaking journey from devastating crimes to long-awaited justice.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Huling Family Massacre (December 15, 1978)

• Discovery of the Crime Scene (00:32–03:36):

  • Officer Jim Kostriba recalls entering the home, smelling gunpowder, and finding the bodies of Alice Huling (mother) and three of her children, each shot with a shotgun. The only survivor, 11-year-old Billy Huling, escaped by playing dead in his sleeping bag.
  • Quote: “She had plans…to get dressed and go to school, and it didn’t happen. She didn’t have a chance.” – Officer Kostriba (03:04)

• First Suspect: Joe Turi (03:36–06:47):

  • Deputy Gary Miller arrests Turi days later for auto theft and finds notebooks listing women and waitresses—one being Susie Huling. Police are suspicious but find no direct evidence linking him to the murders at this stage.

2. Billy Huling's Hypnosis & Lingering Trauma

• Billy’s Testimony Under Hypnosis (06:47–08:23):
  • 11-year-old Billy describes in haunting detail how the killer shot at him but missed, and how he survived the massacre that claimed his whole family.

3. The Murder of Marlis Wollenhaus (May 1979)

• Crime Details (08:56–10:37):

  • Marlis, an 18-year-old waitress, is found by her mother gravely injured after being bludgeoned. She dies two days later. There are no immediate suspects or evidence.

  • Quote: “Mother’s Day from then on for many years were extremely painful, and I wanted to know…who did it and why. I wanted answers.” – Fran Wollenhaus (10:37)

4. Abduction and Murder of Diane Edwards (September 1980)

• Edwards Case Unfolds (10:57–13:35):

  • Diane, 19, is abducted after her shift at a local restaurant. Her body is found weeks later. Investigators find Turi’s notebooks again, now containing Diane’s name and workplace, making him a prime suspect.

• Frustrated Investigators (13:35–14:29):

  • Despite circumstantial evidence, investigators lack what they need to charge Turi. He is, however, convicted on unrelated rape charges.

5. Turi’s Confessions & Recantations

• Jailhouse Dealings and Details (15:07–25:54):

  • Turi tries to exchange information about Edwards' murder for a transfer to a mental institution, ultimately leading investigators to the crime scene (20:08–22:25).

  • He then confesses (in letters) to the Huling and Wollenhaus murders to cellmate Toby Krominga—supposedly to bolster an insanity defense. The confessions are initially dismissed after Turi provides what appears to be a solid work alibi for the Wollenhaus murder.

  • Quote: “Even if he didn’t do it, if he writes a letter like this, they’ll still think he was nuts.” – Toby Krominga (25:15)

• Alibi and Cold Case Stalemate (27:13–31:17):

  • Turi’s alibi for one murder (work at Ford Motor Plant) is confirmed, leading to the dismissal of his own confession. The cases go cold again.

6. The Breakthrough: Revisiting the Evidence (1996–2000)

• Alibi Falls Apart (28:46–29:41):

  • Cold case detectives re-examine Turi's alibi. Upon seeking official Ford documentation, they find the original confirmation mistakenly referenced Turi’s father, not Turi himself. Turi had ample time to commit the murder and still make it to his shift—his alibi collapses.

  • Quote: “It blew away his alibi.” – Detective/Investigator (29:25)

• Corroborating Confession: The Little Girl in the Driveway (30:08–31:31):

  • Turi’s letter describes a seemingly trivial event—spinning his car’s tires and throwing gravel on a little girl at the crime scene. Police verify this with an independent witness statement from a young girl, which had never been publicized, proving Turi’s knowledge was firsthand.

  • Quote: “There’s information in there that nobody would ever know or couldn’t know but the person who committed the murder.” – Special Agent Everett Doolittle (31:26)

• The Missing Batmobile (32:34–34:40):

  • A toy Batmobile found in Turi’s possession days after the Huling murders is shown to survivor Billy Huling years later—he identifies it as his, cementing Turi’s presence at the scene.

• Forensic Match: Bruising and the Metal Bar (38:23–40:57):

  • Forensic pathologist Dr. Michael McGee matches bruising on Alice Huling’s body to a unique metal bar found in Turi’s car in 1978, which had distinctive marks matching the wounds.

  • Quote: “When the bar impacted… it imprinted this pattern of the bar strap and the holes on the body, causing a reverse image.” – Dr. Michael McGee (40:24)

7. Justice and Aftermath

• Convictions and Closure (40:57–43:51):

  • Turi is prosecuted and convicted for the Huling murders in 2000 (four life sentences) and the Wollenhaus murder in 1998.

  • For families like the Hulings and Wollenhauses, these convictions bring long-sought healing, if not closure.

  • Quote: “I say it was like a freeing of my soul when I finally had answers.” – Fran Wollenhaus (42:02)

• Turi’s Denials & Remorse (or Lack Thereof):

  • Turi continues to claim innocence, blaming his imprisonment on circumstantial evidence and lack of support.

  • Detectives and agents describe Turi as deeply angry, manipulative, and dangerous, showing no remorse for his crimes.

  • Quote: “[Joe Turrey said] It’s not my fault. All women are nothing but whores and bitches. Everyone has ruined my life… He was very angry.” – Special Agent Everett Doolittle (43:20)

  • Quote: “He just does not belong in society. He belongs exactly where he is.” – Detective/Investigator (43:51)

8. Final Notes

• Open Question: The Beersbach Murder (43:51–44:28):
  • Authorities suspect Turi is responsible for at least one more unsolved murder and hope future evidence will link him definitively.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Survivor Guilt:
  “I just wanted to continue on with my life and forget that it ever happened. But it’s something that you never really forget… my family’s not here.”
  – Billy Huling, sole survivor (33:31)

• On Justice:
  “Justice is a very important part of the healing process.”
  – Fran Wollenhaus (41:45)

• On Persistence:
  “This case… kept crying, saying, please pick me up again.”
  – Special Agent Everett Doolittle, on the importance of reopening cold cases (28:02)

• On the Relief of Answers:
  “It was like a freeing of my soul when I finally had answers.”
  – Fran Wollenhaus (42:02)

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Important Timestamps

• 00:32 – Start of the Huling Massacre Case
• 03:36 – Discovery of Joe Turi’s notebooks
• 06:47 – Billy Huling describes the night of the murders
• 08:56 – Marlis Wollenhaus found gravely injured
• 10:57 – Diane Edwards’ abduction
• 13:35 – Turi in custody, investigators sense evil
• 15:07 – Turi offers confession for mental hospital transfer
• 20:08 – Turi’s step-by-step confession to Edwards’ murder
• 23:24 – Turi’s letters confessing to more murders surface
• 27:13 – Turi’s alibi is (erroneously) confirmed
• 28:46 – Alibi falls apart, case reopens
• 31:17 – Confidential detail about the girl and gravel ties Turi to scene
• 32:34 – Batmobile toy links Turi to Huling house
• 38:37 – Forensic breakthrough with bruising and the metal bar
• 40:57 – Convictions and victims’ families speak
• 43:20 – Investigators reflect on Turi’s mindset

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Conclusion

"Murder on the Menu" is a comprehensive, painstakingly detailed account of how scattered evidence, survivor memories, ignored confessions, and forensic breakthroughs eventually coalesced to bring closure to several families and hold a serial murderer accountable. It underlines the relentless work required to solve cold cases—and the deep, lasting impacts on survivors and investigators alike.

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Transcript

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

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This episode contains stories involving violence against children.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Listener discretion is advised. There are over 100,000 cold cases in America. Only 1% are ever solved. This is one of those rare stories. It's late at night on December 15, 1978 in Stearns County, Minnesota. The ground is covered in snow, the air is bitterly cold and 11 year old Billy Huling runs through the woods to find help. Billy's family has just been shot. Officer Jim Kostriba responds to the call.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

As soon as I opened the door into the porch and stepped in I could immediately smell the smell of gunpowder and with my flashlight I was able to see a 12 gauge shotgun casing laying on the floor.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Kostriba continues into a darkened living room and the only bedroom on the first floor where a mother appears to be sleeping.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

I saw her laying on the bed and she was laying with her head towards the foot of the bed with her legs drawn up and just by observing her I realized that she was dead.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Dressed in a Nightgown and Robe, 36 year old Alice Ewling lies dead. Kostriba moves upstairs to look for her children.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

When I got to the top of the steps I could see that there was a lot of blood and tissue and hair splattered against the wall, the far wall.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

He follows a trail of shell casings to the second floor. There he finds three of the Huling children, 16 year old Susie, 13 year old Wayne and 12 year old Patty. Each had been shotgunned to death. The officer moves onto the bedroom of the one child who survived, Billy Huling.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

The sleeping bag was laying on that bed and you could see two gunshot holes actually in the mattress and the pillow. And Billy had said that the guy had shot twice at him and had missed both times because he had kind of slid down inside a sleeping bag.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

As morning comes, a team of investigators arrive to scour the scene for clues. They search the house and find nothing but shell casings. They follow tracks in the snow, but none lead to a killer. In Stearns County. The Huling massacre is a crime unlike any before or since. It's a horror indelibly etched in the mind of young Deputy Kostreba.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

By Patty's bed, there was a dresser. On that dresser there was a stack of clothing. And obviously what she had done is she had gotten her clothes out the night before before she went to bed. And I placed them there to get put on in the morning. And I knew that that's what she was going to do. She had plans to get up in the morning and go to school, get dressed and go to school, and it didn't happen. She didn't have a chance. The only chance she had was to cover up her head before she got shot. And I guess that's something that'll be with me the rest of my life.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

A few days after the murders, Deputy Gary Miller is on patrol in neighboring Wright County. On the morning of December 19, he enters a routine call at the Clearwater Plaza truck stop. A customer is harassing the waitresses. Before approaching the individual, Miller runs a quick check on his car.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

And I ran the tag, the license number to try to get a little background on who I was going to be dealing with. When that license check came back, it indicated the vehicle was stolen.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Miller confronts the problem patron, 2027 year old Joe Turrey, and arrests him for auto theft.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

The vehicle that he was driving was towed into our impound area there and as was our procedure, I asked another officer to accompany me and we did an inventory of the car.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Among the items found inside Turrey's car are handwritten lists scribbled on odd scraps of paper with the names of dozens of women, many of them waitresses.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

There was a number of notebooks and coasters and napkins that had names of females and license numbers of cars. And some of them had descriptions of where they lived. A couple of them had been circled, said get this one.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Like every other officer in the area, Gary Miller is on the lookout for connections to the Huling massacre. Joe Turrey's fascination with waitresses appears to provide a link. One of The Huling children, 16 year old Susie, worked part time as a waitress at a local diner. Miller passes the information on to the man working the Huling case who questioned Turi about the list of names.

[Detective / Investigator]

Let's see, one other item we laid

[Deputy Gary Miller]

out out there, a little brown diary, names and addresses and stuff in it. Is that yours?

[Detective / Investigator]

What does that got to do with anything?

[Deputy Gary Miller]

Well, that's what I'm asking you. Maybe most solemn Timbos wanted guy. No, no. Then Roddy's Trying to find out if this little diary that was yours or

[Detective / Investigator]

was in the car when you took

[Deputy Gary Miller]

the car, or what does it have to do with anything?

[Detective / Investigator]

Well, maybe nothing.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

It doesn't. In other words, it's yours, isn't it?

[Billy Huling]

Yeah, it's mine.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

He was kind of a drifter. He wasn't able to hold a job very long. And since he really didn't have a place to live, he spent a lot of time in restaurants and truck stops and those sorts of places. And. And he said that he was trying to find a girlfriend and so he would write down descriptions of potential girlfriends.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

While the catalog of women may be unusual, even suspicious, it is not by itself illegal. Detectives turned their attention to a second unusual item found in Turi's car. A 27 inch metal bar wrapped in black vinyl.

[Officer Jim Kostriba]

Well, we knew that Alice had sustained some beating and we always thought that bar was a possibility. But when they weren't able to find any blood or tissue on it, then it was kind of put aside.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Investigators are uneasy, but develop no specific links between Turrey and the Huling murders. A few weeks later, the auto theft charge is cleared. Joe Turrey is released and fades into the background of a Minnesota winter.

[Podcast Host / Advertiser]

What do you understand we're going to

[Toby Krominga]

try to do today, if you wouldn't mind telling me.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Eleven days after the murder of his family, 11 year old Billy Huling undergoes hypnosis in hopes of recalling some clue to the killer's identity.

[Billy Huling]

I thought I heard a shot and then I heard somebody come upstairs. It came through the hallway and Wayne looked up and. Some started yelling, no, no, don't. Oh. And then the guy shot him with a shotgun. And then I heard him. At that time I had went under my blankets.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

From inside his sleeping bag, Billy hears the sound of his two sisters, Susie and Patty, being shot to death in their beds. Then he hears the killer's footsteps approaching.

[Billy Huling]

I heard the guy come back into our room. I came over and stood in the middle of the room. Shot at me once, came by my head and rang my ear. He poked me with the barrel, gun, barrel of the gun. And I. And I think I moved a little bit. I tried standing still and when he poked me, he must have saw some way something made me move. Shot at me again in the same place. Missed me again. Felt me again with the barrel.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

With his life on the line, Billy Huling plays dead. The killer is satisfied and leaves. Billy's story offers police a window into the massacre, but presents few clues to catch the killer. With no New leads, the case goes cold. Five months later and 95 miles away in the town of Afton, Minnesota, a spring day unfolds like most others for Fran Wollenhaus. By mid afternoon she finishes her errands and heads for home.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

So I drove in the driveway, which was a long driveway, and I saw Marlis car.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Marlis is Fran's 18 year old daughter. She's a month away from graduating high school and works part time as a waitress.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

I opened the door to the lower level on the side of the house and I called Marcy and she didn't answer.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

She takes a few more steps and walks into the study where she finds her daughter.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

She was sitting upright against the little school desk that I had when I was in third grade and she was totally covered in blood.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Marla Swollenhouse is barely alive.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

Fran calls the police and all I did was hold her to me until the police came. I mean there was no. I saw the injury and knew, I mean her brain skull was totally crushed and was on the floor.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Marlis is rushed to the hospital and dies two days later. Mike Johnson is among those assigned to investigate.

[Detective / Investigator]

There were a number of investigators that were assigned initially. Probably two thirds of what then was our investigative division worked the case in the early weeks. But it was quickly evident that there was not gonna be a quick resolution to this case.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Without a murder weapon, fingerprints or any other clues, the case quickly goes cold. On Saturday, May 12, the day before Mother's Day, Fran Wollenhaus buries her daughter.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

Of course I was totally in shock, numb, had no feelings. Mother's Day from then on for many years were extremely painful and I wanted to know in my lifetime who did it and why. I wanted answers.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

On September 26, 1980, more than a year after the murder of Marlis Wolenhaus, a young waitress in West St. Paul, Minnesota clears the last of her tables and clocks out. It's about 9 o' clock when 19 year old Diane Edwards walks north along Roberts Road. She's just three blocks from home when a brown station wagon dries up over the sidewalk and an unidentified man forces her into the car. Five people witness the abduction and call police. A search ensues, but there will be no trace of Diane Edwards found for weeks. Two weeks later, off a country road near Elk River, Minnesota, a hunter stumbles upon a pair of glasses and a purse. Inside the purse is an ID with the name Diane Edwards. By late afternoon, Chief Deputy Dave Hofstad and dozens of officers are searching the brush.

[Deputy Dave Hofstad]

Shortly thereafter, here comes a helicopter and I would say, within five minutes, one of the deputies in the helicopter radioed me and said to get in my car and drive up the road to this little hill and get out of your car and walk down into the ditch. And as I walked into the ditch, I observed a female laying on her stomach with her hands like this and her head like this.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

With one glance, Deputy Hofstad realizes he's found Diane Edwards dead from a single stab wound to the chest. Within a couple of weeks, Hofstad gets wind of a possible suspect. In Minneapolis, police have a man in custody on charges of kidnap and rape in a case unrelated to the Edwards homicide. The suspect's name is Joseph Turi, the same Joseph Turi once suspected but never charged in the 1978 murder of Alice Huling and three of her children. Police get a warrant and search Turi's garage, looking for clues that might link him to the Edwards killing.

[Deputy Dave Hofstad]

They found spiral notebooks with pages of names of girls.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Two years earlier, a similar collection of women's names and numbers was found in Joe Turrey's possession, but could not be linked to the Huling murders. This time, however, Huling's notes offer much more. Diane Edwards name and the number to the restaurant where she worked are found in a notebook inside Joe Turrey's garage. Hofstede believes he might have found Diane Edwards killer and travels to Minneapolis to question Turrey.

[Deputy Dave Hofstad]

He played with you. I mean, I think he was good at trying to think he could manipulate you and lead you all over and not go anywhere. He never, ever said anything when we talked to him up there that you could come down on. But when you walked out of there, you really had a feeling. This is the right trail.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

For the second time in two years, Joe Touri's name tops a list of murder suspects. And for a second time, investigators are frustrated by a lack of evidence against him. As winter approaches, the Diane Edwards homicide case joins the Huling murders and the Marlis Wollenhaus murder in the cold files. But Joseph Turi is not off the hook yet. In April of 1981, he is convicted on three counts of rape in cases unrelated to the unsolved murders. With his convictions, he's looking at at least 30 years. And life in prison is not going well for Joseph Turi.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

He was being picked on by fellow inmates. The guards were giving him a bunch of crap. Nobody liked him. He had no friends, and everybody was picking on him.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Deputy Archie Sonnenstall transfers Turrey to a new cell block, which Turrey is grateful for.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

I really appreciate that, he says. You're the first one that's ever did anything for me. I says, well, here's my card. If you have any further problems, give me a call.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Two weeks later, Joseph Turi uses that card. Looking for a transfer out of jail altogether.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

We got into a conversation about his cooperating with authorities and did I feel that they would cooperate directly back with him if he needed some psychiatric help, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Convicted rapist Joseph Turi would rather do his time in the state mental hospital, and to get there, he's willing to give up the details of a murder.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

Basically, in so many words, Joe would clean up the Diane Edwards homicide.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Sonnenstahl relays this information to prosecutors investigating

[Deputy Gary Miller]

the Edwards case and they said, go back and talk to him and tell him that we're receptive to the idea of cooperation. We can't make any promises because we don't know what the problem is, but we'd be receptive to his cooperation. You have the right to remain. Sam.

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[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

In Minnesota, Hennepin County Jail is not the easiest place for a convicted rapist to do time. Joe Turi has been locked up for Almost three, seven months. When he decides to make a deal, Turrey offers to trade a murder confession for transfer to the state mental Hospital. In May 1981, Deputy Archie Sonnenstahl turns on a recorder, and Joe Turrey begins to talk about how he killed Diane Edwards.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

You said you saw a gal walking up the street. Did you stop by this galaxy? Yeah. Who was she? Diane. Diane who? Edwards. He pulled up alongside of her, and he recognized her, and she recognized him, and he asked her to get in the car, and she wouldn't. So he grabbed her, forced her in the car. After you got her in the car, how did you manage to keep her in the car? Tighter.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

Rope.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

Rock her arms, back of her. Tied a rope around her arms, behind her.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

With Diane Edwards restrained, Turrey drove 60 miles north to a rural area near Elk River.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

Then he raped her on the front seat, and she screamed some insult at him, and he just blew it and he stabbed her. Did she say something to you or do something after you finished having intercourse the first time on the front seat? Yeah, she screamed at me, said something that I can't remember exactly. And how did you respond to that? You blew up. And when you blew up, what happened to her? Guy stabbed her. He said he then drug her down an inclinement down towards the woods, where he raped her again. And he thought she might have been dead by that time because she wasn't moving or saying anything to be certain

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Turrey is telling the truth. Investigators arrange a drive. Turrey directs them to an empty stretch of Road about 60 miles north of St. Paul.

[Deputy Dave Hofstad]

And he had me turn up this little trail that I knew led to the site. And we're coming up that little hill, and as we get to the spot, he says, stop right here.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Terry gets out of the car, walks down an embankment, and points to a ditch alongside the road.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

And Dave looked at me and he said, you know, he's within four feet of where we found the body.

[Deputy Dave Hofstad]

And this is a very rural setting so far as landmarks. I mean, they just aren't there. He knew.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Detectives are now convinced Turrey is their killer and his confession is genuine. On May 13, 1981, Joe Turrey is charged with the murder of Diane Edwards, a crime for which he will eventually be convicted. As he awaits trial, however, Turrey discovers that despite his confession, a transfer to the state mental hospital is not coming. Instead, he finds himself in yet another jail cell, still doing his best to make the state believe he's crazy. Six months later, in December 1981. Toby Kreominga finds himself incarcerated in a county lockup in Elk River, Minnesota. It's here that he meets his new cellmate, Joseph Donald Turi.

[Toby Krominga]

Well, right off the bat, after the jailer locked the door, he told me what the rules were going to be and I was in a foul mood anyway and I told him kiss off. So he stood up and then I. We started swinging on each other.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

After the initial hostile meeting, the two men settled into a friendly relationship. And Toby Krominga begins to to learn about his cellmate.

[Toby Krominga]

Well, we played cards, we played checkers. He was waiting trial on Diane Edwards and he talked a little bit about that.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

With a guilty verdict all but certain in the case of Diane Edwards, Joe Turi is once again looking for a way around doing hard time.

[Toby Krominga]

Well, that's when he came up with the idea of being nuts. He wanted to write a letter to the judge, you know, and so I said, sure, we'll write a letter to judge, you know, whatever you want to write.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Joe Turrey dictates and Toby Krominga writes two letters detailing two more killings. The first relates to the murder of waitress Susie Hewling. I asked her to go out and she said that her mother wouldn't let her date. So I followed her mother around for a while.

[Toby Krominga]

We actually went over to the mother's house and told the mother he wanted to date her daughter. And she told him call him a pervert, told him to get the hell out.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

The letter goes on to describe Turi's revenge. I got to thinking about Mrs. Huling calling me a pervert. I got real pissed, so I drove back to the Huling house. I grabbed her by the hair and I told her that before she died she would go through more physical and mental pain than she has ever gone through in her life. I then went upstairs. By this time I was really going crazy. I shot two girls and a boy in the head. Details of the killings filled four handwritten pages.

[Toby Krominga]

I didn't believe it. I thought, well, even if he didn't do it, he write a letter like this, they still think he was nuts.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

In a second three page letter, Turrey describes the murder of Marlis Wollenhaus. The letter reads, I freaked and hit her three or four times in the head with a hatchet. I heard the dog going crazy upstairs, so I left in a hurry. Joe Turrie signs and dates both statements. Krominga signs as a witness and hands the letters to a jail guard to be delivered to a judge. But his Letters never make it to the judge. Instead, Turrey finds his confession leading the local evening news.

[Detective / Investigator]

In the Huling murder confession, Turi says he knew one of the Huling daughters, but her mother refused to let him see her.

[Toby Krominga]

I was standing next to Joe and they had a news flash.

[Detective / Investigator]

He planned to tie up the family and rape one of the daughters. But when he went into the house and entered Mrs. Huling's bedroom on the main floor, she recognized him and said, and we quote, leave my house, you pervert.

[Toby Krominga]

I said, oh, damn. I mean, I was just as stunned as Joe was. I had no idea it was going to be on the news.

[Detective / Investigator]

Turi then says he shot her above the knees and hit her a couple of times.

[Toby Krominga]

Oh, he just freaked. He kept on saying to me, you double crossed me. You lied to me. The judge is supposed to get it all out, you know.

[Detective / Investigator]

This evening, Joseph Turi said he has never raped or killed anyone.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Once the statements were made public, Joe Turi denies ever making them. As for his signature on the bottom of the page, Turrey claims he signed a blank piece of paper that he thought was a petition for better food in the jail. Turi then offers an alibi for one of the killings he supposedly confessed to. On the day Marlis Wallenhaus was killed. According to Turrey, he was working on a production line at the Ford Motor Plant. Investigators called Ford and confirmed the alibi. Suddenly, the letters don't look so solid.

[Detective / Investigator]

Basically what it amounted to was a jailhouse confession from one person to another. And early on in that part of the investigation, our office alibi'd. The suspect believed he was at work and for that reason there was no credibility put on it.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

He had his name written out and

[Detective / Investigator]

he wanted me to sign it to him.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Police accept Joe Turrey's alibi and the jailhouse confessions are discredited. This is how things will remain for 15 years. In 1996, Special Agent Everett Doolittle from Minnesota's Bureau of Criminal Apprehension opens a file that has haunted cold case detectives. The murder of 18 year old Marla Swollenhouse.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

It troubles. It's not a good case for cold case. We didn't have any evidence. The only really strong, strong thing was the victim and by that means is the entire small community. Everybody in the world out there wants this. They all knew her. I mean, it was one of those cases that just kept crying saying, please pick me up again.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Special agents Everett Doolittle and Randy Stricker begin by re evaluating all the players in the case. Including one time suspect, Joe Turrey, now serving a life sentence for the murder of Diane Edwards.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

And I met with the investigators and they said, no, we cleared him. Turi was at work at the time of the murder and couldn't have done it. And that's been said all along.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Fifteen years earlier, detectives had placed a call to officials from the Ford Motor Company who told them Joe Turi was working at one of their plants at the time Marlis Wollenhaus was killed. Cold case detectives are not satisfied with the verbal confirmation. They ask Ford to locate the actual time card for the day in question. Later, one of Doolittle's detectives calls him with results from the search.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

And he said, yeah, Joe Turrey was at work on May 8 at the time of the murder. Joe Turrey, date of birth, 1911, was. And I said, he said, yes, his dad was at work at the time. There's no record showing Joe Turrey was at work.

[Detective / Investigator]

Going back and rechecking, identified that they were both employed there and that Joe was working the later shift, which afforded him the opportunity to commit the crime and still make it to work on time. So that was the big break. It blew away his alibi.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

The collapse of Turi's alibi puts the convicted killer once again in the center of the Wolenhaus investigation and brings his jailhouse confession back under scrutiny. Detectives give it a fresh look, hoping to determine if it is legitimate.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

We took it apart piece by piece by piece. What he said he did, where he went. And then there were little things in there. And one of little things. They didn't seem to matter that much, but they mean everything.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

On the third page of his confession to the Wolenhaus killing, Cold case detectives discover one of those little things, a story about a little girl.

[Detective / Investigator]

He talked about coming out the end of the driveway and spinning his tires and blowing gravel all over this girl.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

His quote, I see this little ditch and I put it to the floor, I spin gravel and I take off.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Detectives find a chilling echo of Turrey's letter in a statement taken at the Wolenhaus crime scene.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

And there's a statement from a girl who was eight years old at the time, who got out of school, who's walking to her girlfriend's house. And she's walking right by the end entrance to the long driveway. And she's interviewed back then and said, I saw this. She called it a cream colored little car come out and this guy threw gravel and dust all over her and took off. That's never Been in the media that's never been out because they're really worried about. She's 8 years old. The family was scared for her safety.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

How did this confidential detail find its way into Joe Turi's confession? For cold case detectives, the answer is simple. Turrey's confession is genuine.

[Detective / Investigator]

In this business, you'll have people confess to crimes that they didn't commit, but they don't know the particulars. Joe knew the particulars.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

There's information in there that nobody would ever know or couldn't know. But the person who committed the murder.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

It's the third time Joe Turrey has been looked at for the Wolenhaus murder. This time, the suspicion sticks. Seventeen years after Marlis Wollenhaus was found blood bludgeoned to death, Turi is arrested for her murder. John Fristic is given the task of prosecuting Turrey for the Wolen House murder. To prepare for trial, Fristic decides to educate himself about Turrey's criminal past. Part of that history is the lingering suspicion among members of law enforcement that Turrey might be responsible for yet another set of crimes, the murder of Alice Huling and three of her children. Fueling those suspicions is a curious police stop made just days after the Huling massacre. From a stolen car driven by Turi, police pulled a metal bar, a list of women's names and a toy Batmobile. At the time, no link could be made between these items and the Huling murders. 19 years later, John Fristick believes he now sees a connection.

[John Fristick]

And I thought to myself, what is

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Joe Tree doing with a Batmobile in his car?

[John Fristick]

Everything else in the car I can understand somewhat.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

What is he doing with a child's toy, a little tiny Batmobile? And then it occurred to me, Alice Huling had two small sons, Billy and

[John Fristick]

Wayne, the same age as boys who

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

would play with toy Batmobiles.

[John Fristick]

And so I thought to myself, where

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

did he get this car? Did this come from the Hewing house? To answer that question, John Fristick must first track down the one person who might know.

[Billy Huling]

Shot at me again in the same place. Miss me again.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

The sole survivor and only witness to the killings, Petty Officer William Huling, has spent more than two decades trying to forget about a cold night in December 1978, the night his family was murdered.

[M]

Being as young as I was, I didn't want to talk about it. I didn't want to do anything. And I just wanted to continue on with my life and forget that it ever happened. But it's something that you never really forget. And as you grow older, you start thinking about it more. You know, it hits you and you're like, man, you know, my family's not here.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

After 20 years of trying to forget, Billy Huling is now asked to remember.

[M]

The witness coordinator in Washington county called up and said that they had some evidence that they wanted me to look at and just. I don't know why I said it or how or where it ever came from. It's just like, oh, did you find my Batmobile car?

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

The following day, Billy Huling identifies the Batmobile, a toy believed to have been lost the night his family was murdered. A toy found in Joe Turrey's possession just four days after the crime. Joe Turrey took from their house after he killed Alice Ewling and her children, he took from their house Billy Huling's Batmobile. He took a souvenir.

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[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

the team returns to the Huling case file, wondering if any other clues might turn up. Special Agent Randy Stricker reviews Alice Huling's autopsy photos and notices an unusual pattern of bruising.

[Detective / Investigator]

In reading the reports that have been generated by the officers that were conducting the investigation, they had indicated that the bruise on the body could have been caused by A shotgun butt or a shotgun barrel. And I couldn't see the correlation there.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Stricker decides to take his questions to medical examiner and forensic pathologist Dr. Michael McGee, a specialist in the field of pattern injury recognition. Agent Stricker asks McGee to look at Alice Hewling's autopsy photos and suggestions what kind of weapon might have caused her injuries.

[John Fristick]

She had a bruise that was elongated. It looked like it almost had a cylindrical or tubular appearance. The bruise has a distinct upper border and lower border. And in the midst of it are small punctate areas of hemorrhage, suggesting to me that whatever object had struck her was long, probably metal, had a rounded edge and had a series of circular to oval shaped depressions cut into it. At least that's what I told the BCA they should be looking for.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

It's a long shot, but. Randy Stricker reviews physical evidence pulled from Joe Turrey's stolen car in 1978, hoping to find just such an item.

[Detective / Investigator]

The one piece that really stood out in my mind was the pipe. Because of looking at the photographs of Alice healing and looking at what appeared to be a pattern injury on her right breast area. I wanted to look at the pipe.

[John Fristick]

They left it for me to look at. I measured it, compared it to the autopsy photos, compared it to the autopsy measurements, and based on that, I told them I think this is it.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

When Dr. McGee has enlarged photos of the bruise and bar, the connection becomes clear.

[John Fristick]

So you can see the edge of the bar matches the edge here. The edge of the bar matches the edge here. The small holes present in the surface of the wrapping match the small focal areas of bruising and abrasion on the surface of the body. The strap in the middle of the bar that holds the wrapping in place can be seen as this blanch mark running down the course. So when the bar impacted the the body, it imprinted this pattern of the bar strap and the holes on the body, causing a reverse image.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Dr. McGee's testimony is the final piece of physical and circumstantial evidence connecting the Huling murders to Joe Turrey in February 2000. Stearns county has waited 22 years for the trial of Joe Turrey. The jury returns its verdict in 12 hours. In the case of the Huling family massacre, Turrey is found guilty on four counts of murder and sentenced to four consecutive life terms in a Minnesota prison. For sole survivor Billy Huling, the sentence seems appropriate.

[M]

It doesn't matter. It's not going to change anything. He's doing his Time in jail, he's never going to get out. I'm happy with that. I can live with that. Twenty years ago, no, that probably wouldn't be enough.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

I think justice is a very important part of the healing process.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Fran Wollenhaus finds her own measure of justice on October 14, 1998, the day that Joseph Turi is convicted of yet another murder. The beating death of Fran's daughter.

[Fran Wollenhaus]

For us, we went for so many years without knowing who killed Marlis. And I say it was like a freeing of my soul when I finally had answers.

[Detective / Investigator]

The real killer should be sitting in this chair, not me.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Justice, it seems, brings comfort to everyone except Joe Turi, who says he is wrongly convicted.

[Detective / Investigator]

They ain't got no evidence on me. They ain't got none. There's all circumstantial stuff that they manipulate to make me look. Look bad. Like I said, they can indict a ham sandwich in this state.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Turrey is serving six consecutive life sentences at the penitentiary in Stillwater, Minnesota. And while there is no death penalty in Minnesota, the penitentiary showed its own sense of justice when another inmate attacked Turrey, nearly driving a laundry hook into his brain. Turi survived and now seeks the compassion of society.

[Detective / Investigator]

But I can't get no justice because I'm a poor man. I ain't got no lawyer, ain't got no family to stick up for me. That's why I'm locked up. I ain't got nobody.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

The investigators who put Joe Turrey in prison don't think he deserves any concessions.

[Special Agent Everett Doolittle]

He explained to me one day, Joe Turrey, quote, it's not my fault all women are nothing but whores and bitches. Everyone has ruined my life. They broke my heart. I mean, he was looking for a relationship that never happened. He thought he would, you know, somehow he's gonna date one of these girls, what he called it, and they'd fall in love and it never happened. He was very angry.

[Detective / Investigator]

Joe's a very, very sick individual. He has no remorse for his deeds. He just does not belong in society. He belongs exactly where he is.

[Narrator / Main Storyteller]

Joe Turrey sits in a jail cell in Minnesota, convicted of murdering six people and suspected of at least one more. According to authorities, Turrey has made yet another jailhouse confession, providing details on how he killed 20 year old John Beers Bach in 1979. Turi later recanted the confession. Detectives, however, suspect he is Beers Bach's killer and hope someday to develop enough evidence to convict him of the seventh murder.

[Deputy Gary Miller]

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[Toby Krominga]

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