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- [00:00]
A
You know, for Gibby and I, starting the podcast was a big deal. Well, starting your own business is a big deal. And there's a lot you need to know from day one. One company that makes everything easier is Shopify. We use it for all of our podcast merch. Shopify powers millions of businesses worldwide, from household names like Mattel and Gymshark to small businesses just getting started. Shopify has the templates and AI tools you need to get a stunning site up and running fast and no coding needed. Shopify checkout means more customers actually buy and returning ones can do it in a single click. And if you have any questions, Shopify's built in AI assistant sidekick is ready to help you build, troubleshoot and keep moving. And Shopify has award winning 24. 7 customer service on top of that. All you need is the idea. Shopify handles the rest. Start your free trial at shopify.com tcat start your free trial at shopify.com tcatt
- [01:06]
B
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- [01:36]
A
Hello, everyone, and welcome to episode 515 of the True Crime all the Time podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson and with me, as always, is my partner in true crime, Mike Gibson. Gibby, how are you?
- [01:46]
C
I'm good, man. And you?
- [01:47]
A
I'm doing good, yeah. Although I just noticed this mark on the desk. I don't know what it is.
- [01:52]
C
It's on your side. It wasn't.
- [01:53]
A
It is on my side.
- [01:54]
C
You look like you want to blame me for that. I don't even sit over there.
- [01:57]
A
You might have been over here doing something. I don't know. All right, buddy, are you ready to jump right into this episode?
- [02:03]
C
Yeah, I'm ready.
- [02:04]
A
We're talking about Sharon Erickson. When retired county worker Sharon Erickson was murdered in a small Nebraska town, people in the tight knit community soon started pointing fingers at each other. Sharon's murder remained unsolved for months until a tip brought a suspect who had previously been cleared back onto police radar.
- [02:25]
C
Oh, the old blame game.
- [02:26]
A
Yeah, can you imagine? You know, you live in A pretty small town. I do village. Can you imagine a murder there and people just pointing the finger down at the feedlot store or whatever it is the hell you guys have there.
- [02:41]
C
But yeah, half of them would be pointed at me automatically.
- [02:45]
A
Yeah.
- [02:46]
C
For whatever reason.
- [02:47]
A
For probably very good reason, but.
- [02:49]
C
But you know, outside of that. Yeah. I mean, there'd be some interesting conversations going on in the local diner and the barbershop post office. You know, people like to gather. Weird. Like the other day I saw people gathered at the family dollar store around the counter.
- [03:08]
A
When you live in a very small town, there are not a lot of places to gather. I imagine.
- [03:13]
C
Weird place to get like, I just want to pay for my stuff. You guys take that conversation outside or something.
- [03:19]
A
You know, there's like five dudes in overalls with hay out hanging out of their mouth. Just talking about the weather, I guess, or whatever people about what's.
- [03:29]
C
What's going on right now in the world. Yeah. So.
- [03:32]
A
Sharon K. Barons Erickson was born on August 15, 1936. She grew up on a farm near Colin, Nebraska, A small village in Saunders County. Colon has a population of just over a hundred people.
- [03:47]
C
I find it weird that the town is named after body part that's used to get rid of waste.
- [03:53]
A
And I'm sure I'm pronouncing it incorrectly, even though it looks exactly like colon. It's probably colon. Or somebody's gonna email me.
- [04:02]
C
I'm just saying. I mean.
- [04:03]
A
But I'm more struck by a hundred people.
- [04:06]
C
That's a. That's really small, man.
- [04:08]
A
I mean, you could go into the local grocery store down the street here. There's two or three hundred people in there. I swear.
- [04:16]
C
Pretty easy. Yeah, but.
- [04:17]
A
Yeah, I grew up in a small village. You live in a village now. But even 100 people small, that's tiny, man. So Sharon moved into Town in 1956. She was previously married, but was divorced at the time of her death. She had no children. For 37 years, Sharon worked as a clerk at the Saunders county treasurer's office in nearby Wahoo. Oh, cool place. Fun to say.
- [04:44]
C
Probably drank yahoos at wahoo.
- [04:46]
A
Maybe. Maybe they got a wawa in wahoo
- [04:49]
C
where they bought the yahoo the drink.
- [04:51]
A
I doubt with that small of a population.
- [04:54]
C
Yeah.
- [04:54]
A
But it was said that Sharon was known for her bubbly personality and always having positive things to say about people.
- [05:01]
C
Well, there's only 100 people.
- [05:04]
A
You know what? You better not be mad mouthing people when you only have 100 people in the town. Word's gonna get around pretty quickly.
- [05:11]
C
Pretty quickly.
- [05:12]
A
Sharon's friend Don Clark said about her. Sharon Erickson had probably the highest standards of anybody that worked at the courthouse. She always dressed properly, very cordial to people.
- [05:24]
C
I mean, I think that should always be cordial to people. Unless they give you a reason not to be.
- [05:29]
A
Yeah, I kind of go by the old roadhouse, you know, rule. Be nice until it's time to not be nice.
- [05:37]
C
And then, you know what happens then?
- [05:40]
A
It's just kind of, I think, good words to live by. Now, the try to be nice to everybody.
- [05:44]
C
The dressing thing, that's already. That's really changed over the years. I think people really used to dress a lot better back in the day. And I think over time, people have gotten more relaxed. And I seen it coming because my dad was one of those guys that always dressed to the nines to the nine suit and. Yeah. And, you know, and he would polish his shoes almost every night.
- [06:07]
A
You think about a show like Mad Men.
- [06:09]
C
Yeah.
- [06:10]
A
I mean, those people, the men and the women, I mean, they were really dressed up. Right. All the time. I'm not opposed to the more casual dress code. I'm really not. Because I always thought wearing a suit and tie was dumb. Well, I'm not gonna lie to you.
- [06:28]
C
They call it the old IBM.
- [06:30]
A
Yeah.
- [06:31]
C
Dress code.
- [06:31]
A
But I just. I never thought it made sense. First of all, suits are expensive as they are, and then you got to get shirts and ties and dry cleaning. Dry clean them and all that. I'm. I'm much more comfortable in jeans and a nice shirt. I think you can still look nice and presentable.
- [06:49]
C
You can. I am surprised. Like. So I've been to a couple, like, funeral viewings in the last few months, and I'm really surprised how relaxed people are.
- [07:02]
A
Even there.
- [07:03]
C
Even there now.
- [07:04]
A
Now that is the one place that I do wear a suit.
- [07:06]
C
Yeah.
- [07:08]
A
You know, just. I feel like it's out of respect. I'm not saying anything bad about people who don't wear no, you know, nice clothes, but my wife and I always dress up for funerals. But I have noticed, just like you, a lot of more people wearing jeans and just something you probably wouldn't have seen 20, 30 years ago.
- [07:28]
C
Shorts and flip flops. You know, I'm thinking.
- [07:30]
A
I don't think I've seen that, but
- [07:32]
C
didn't really make much of an effort, did you?
- [07:34]
A
I also don't live where they filmed Hee Haw, so I. I'm probably less likely to see that than you are. When Sharon retired in 1998, many of her co workers gathered to celebrate her long career. Sadly, Sharon only got to enjoy retirement for five years.
- [07:52]
C
Yeah, it's terrible, man, you know, because you work so hard to get to that. The golden years, as they call it.
- [07:59]
A
Right, yeah, that's what they call it. But I feel like nowadays people are working longer and longer.
- [08:05]
C
They are.
- [08:06]
A
You know, a lot of people. Like my dad, I think he retired at like 50. Yeah, 51 or something. Man, who in the world is retiring in there at 50 nowadays? Very few people.
- [08:18]
C
Be nice to do that. Old. 30 years and out.
- [08:20]
A
Yeah. Just they don't seem to have that as much as they used to. And, you know, people have less options as far as pensions nowadays. There's less companies that offer those types of things.
- [08:34]
C
So sometimes you have a pension for a pension.
- [08:37]
A
Well, who. Who wouldn't want a. A pension, thereby meaning you would have a pension for one.
- [08:45]
C
Exactly.
- [08:46]
A
The fact that, you know, that word is shocking to me, and I can barely go on with this episode. I am so flabbergasted.
- [08:56]
C
We used it one time back, like, I don't know, 400 episodes ago.
- [09:01]
A
Yeah, it was a long time ago. And we.
- [09:04]
C
I overused it so much.
- [09:06]
A
Which one? Pension.
- [09:07]
C
Yes.
- [09:08]
A
You used to get fixated on, like, a word, and I think you would learn a word. Remember we used to joke about you having. Or me getting you, like, a word of the day. You would hear a word, like on a movie or something, and then I feel like you'd come into the studio and just want to use it four or five times in the same episode. Like, first of all, you've never said that word in your life. You surely don't call me Shirley. Wouldn't have used it four or five times in the same episode. But, you know, getting back to the retirement thing, you know, I feel like back in the day, okay, if you retired at 50, man, you were still really young.
- [09:45]
C
Yeah.
- [09:46]
A
So those were the golden years. You had a lot of time and could still do a lot of things. But today, if you're retiring in your late 60s, early 70s, which a lot of people. More and more people are probably doing.
- [09:59]
C
Yeah.
- [09:59]
A
You're not quite as active as you would be if you were 50 years old.
- [10:03]
C
No, not at all.
- [10:05]
A
So it's almost like, you know, it's that old adage, you know, are we working? Are we living to work? Are we working to live? Or whatever the.
- [10:14]
C
You're right.
- [10:14]
A
I forget what the saying is, but you should.
- [10:16]
C
You should work to fund your life, not the other.
- [10:22]
A
This is not Going to go the way you think it is, I can already tell. But we, I think we all understand.
- [10:27]
C
Yeah.
- [10:28]
A
After retiring, Sharon was enjoying a slower pace of life at her home on Main Street. Main street in Colon spans just one block. Right. Which is going to happen when you live in a town with only 100 people.
- [10:42]
C
Only have so many homes if you only have 100 people.
- [10:44]
A
Yeah. So it was said there was a bank, a post office, one restaurant, a bar and a few houses.
- [10:51]
C
Okay.
- [10:52]
A
And probably one stoplight. Probably. Right. That's the kind of town that probably has a single stoplight or maybe no stoplights, I don't know.
- [11:00]
C
Just got our third stop light last year.
- [11:03]
A
Did you?
- [11:03]
C
Yeah.
- [11:03]
A
Woohoo.
- [11:04]
C
And it really wasn't needed, but I think they just wanted to put it
- [11:07]
A
in just so they, so they couldn't stop people stop saying you only got two stop lights.
- [11:12]
B
Yeah.
- [11:13]
A
It was said that Sharon lived in a converted grocery store and had a small garage across the street. Never liked the separate garage.
- [11:21]
C
Really? I have a separate garage.
- [11:23]
A
I had one one time and it was when I lived in Michigan where it used to snow like crazy. And once you got into the garage that was great. But then you still had to make it into your house.
- [11:35]
C
That's very true.
- [11:35]
A
As opposed to just walking from the garage right into your house. Sharon developed a routine. Most mornings at 8am she picked up her mail from the post office. She would talk to her friend, Postmaster Rick hartman, for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then she walked down to the bank to chat with the ladies who worked there and, and then she went about the rest of her day. Sharon also talked daily with a cousin who lived in Lincoln, usually around 5:00pm so, you know, pretty good routine. Yeah, for a person who's retired. Does sound like she was enjoying her retirement.
- [12:13]
C
Sounds like my dad's days when he retired. You know, he'd be like, well, Mary Jane, I got to go up to the bank first. I'm going to stop at the post office, you know. And he'd go up there, talk to the like she did, and then roll to the bank and then talk to
- [12:27]
A
everybody that he probably met along the way. So even though she was enjoying retirement, she seemed worried about her safety. She was aware that everyone in town knew she lived alone. Postmaster Rick Hartman told the Fremont Tribune in July 2003 that Sharon was paranoid about her safety, which is why she had a 6 foot tall padlocked security fence installed around the backyard of her residence shortly before she died. She also purchased and installed motion detector alarms near her Back door for a
- [13:04]
C
small town, that's extreme.
- [13:07]
A
It is. Because again, I understand if you live in a big city, you're paranoid. There's a lot of crime. You, how much crime could there really be in a town of 100?
- [13:17]
C
People wouldn't think there'd be that much.
- [13:19]
A
No. Usually when we're talking about a place that small, you know, that's where people don't even lock their doors and they just don't worry because crime is relatively non existent. Sharon was last seen alive at 5:30pm on June 29, 2003. Which is my birthday. It is, by the way. I just had it. She met family for an early dinner and was dropped off at home by her cousin from Lincoln. The cousin later told authorities that nothing seemed off with Sharon that night.
- [13:53]
C
So all seemed normal.
- [13:54]
A
It did. I do want to go back to this, this idea that she was paranoid about her safety. You know, a number of people said that, you know, six fall six foot tall, padlocked security fence. Okay, I could understand maybe that denotes some paranoia, but where's it coming from?
- [14:14]
C
Yeah, it's got to be driven from something.
- [14:16]
A
Yeah. To me, that's the big question. On June 30, 2003, Sharon missed her daily 5pm phone call with her cousin. The cousin called the local bank and asked the workers if they had seen Sharon. When the cousin heard that she hadn't stopped by the bank, they asked the bank workers to do a welfare check. So again, pretty small town, right? I mean, just another kind of thing pointing you to that fact. Most local banks wouldn't go do a welfare check on. On someone, but they would not. This is a person who in Sharon who stopped in every day. It sounds like she knew everyone at the bank and again, probably knew everyone in town. You're just not going to find that in too many places. The bank workers contacted postmaster Rick Hartman. He hadn't seen Sharon in the morning. In the morning either, which was unusual. Again.
- [15:15]
C
Right.
- [15:15]
A
Talking about routine.
- [15:17]
C
Yes.
- [15:18]
A
When you stop by the post office every day that it's open and you stop by the bank every day that it's open, that is a routine. And so if somebody thinks you're missing and none of the people at those places have seen you, that is going to raise some alarm bells for sure.
- [15:38]
C
Especially if you didn't say, oh, by the way, next week I'm going to be out of town. Yeah, go to go, you know, travel for a little bit. You know, then they would be okay. They'd be like, oh, the reason you haven't seen her is because she's traveling over Europe or whatever.
- [15:53]
A
Which I'm sure if Sharon was going to go on a trip, she probably would tell those.
- [15:57]
C
Yes.
- [15:58]
A
Hartman had a key to Sharon's home. He and the bank workers walked over and began searching for her. They noticed that Sharon's house was unlocked, which was unlike her. And an alarm on the handle of her back door was going off. So we kind of talk about alarm bells or things that stand out. Right. You can see. Right. She locks her door. We know that she's already paranoid.
- [16:22]
C
Exactly.
- [16:23]
A
People said that now you've got an alarm going off. Okay, I'd be a little worried. Even more worried at that point.
- [16:31]
C
Definitely some concerns.
- [16:32]
A
But it did strike me that not only the bank workers going over, but the postmaster is going over.
- [16:38]
C
Probably related.
- [16:40]
A
Maybe there's just not much going on in the town. People are just able to walk out and go searching for her battery.
- [16:47]
C
He's like, has two hats. Like part of the bank is part of the post office. And depending on what you're coming in for, he puts it turns the hat around. You know, maybe when you're a maintenance
- [17:00]
B
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- [17:29]
A
When they didn't find Sharon inside, they walked over to her garage across the street. Rick Hartman found the garage door opener to access the garage. When the door lifted, they saw Sharon's body inside the garage. She was lying in a pool of blood and was unrecognizable, according to People magazine.
- [17:49]
C
Oh man. I mean, so rough anywhere. Yeah, but now this is a small town. I mean, I'm sure it had to be like the shock of it. The shock and awe and knowing that, you know, she's, you know, older.
- [18:03]
A
What's going to hit differently in a town the size of 100 people?
- [18:06]
C
Yeah, I think it does.
- [18:08]
A
So and to me, when you hear the term someone is unrecognizable, I mean that is as bad as it gets.
- [18:18]
C
Yeah.
- [18:19]
A
That just means that this attack was, you know, utterly brutal, vicious, whatever word you want to use. Investigators quickly arrived at the scene. Detectives noted that Sharon was still wearing her pajamas, her shorts Were pulled down slightly on one side. And her shirt was pulled up, exposing her stomach. Sharon's beretta handgun was found next to her head, Leading to the initial speculation that she died from a self inflicted wound. And I understand that when you find a handgun near someone, Especially in a position where it looks like it might have naturally fallen out of their hand, that might be your first kind of speculation or your first thoughts.
- [19:10]
C
Yeah. Before you get a chance to dive into it.
- [19:12]
A
But, you know, let's talk about. Okay, she's wearing pajamas. Her shorts are pulled down a little bit on one side. Her shirt is pulled up, exposing her stomach. Well, that could just be the. From her falling.
- [19:28]
C
Could be, yeah.
- [19:29]
A
And the natural way that. That clothes move. But it could also be maybe an indication of a sexual assault.
- [19:36]
C
Yeah. Some type of struggle.
- [19:39]
A
And then they find the gun. Her purse was also near her body. Investigators began to question the suicide theory when they noted there was no magazine in the gun. There were also no shell casings at the scene.
- [19:53]
C
Kind of puts a damper on that.
- [19:56]
A
Well, it's kind of hard to imagine that someone shot themselves when there's not a single shell casing to be found.
- [20:04]
C
It's kind of hard to do that to yourself and then take the.
- [20:07]
A
The evidence.
- [20:08]
C
Yeah, yeah.
- [20:09]
A
And get rid of it. They also noticed a blood smear on the back bumper of Sharon's car and blood on the doorframe. Sharon could not have left these marks if she was lying on the floor of the garage With a fatal gunshot wound.
- [20:24]
C
Yeah, impossible.
- [20:25]
A
So I think pretty quickly, Right. The investigation shifted from suicide to murder. The search of Sharon's house provided further evidence of homicide. Someone had climbed her fence and cut her phone line. The back door had a primark on it. A chisel was found on the floor that may have been used to pry the door open. So, you know, she was paranoid. We talked about it. She put up this tall security fence.
- [20:54]
C
Right.
- [20:55]
A
But yet we know someone climbed it and cut her phone line. So I'm telling you, the first thing that pops into my mind was why was she paranoid? And did she have a good reason to be? Because now it's looking like maybe she did.
- [21:11]
C
I mean, it sounds like it did. She did have a good reason. You know, based on what we know at this moment, we don't know why
- [21:17]
A
she would have been or, you know, who she would have been afraid of. There were no signs of struggle in the bedroom, but there was an empty holster on Sharon's bedside table. It appeared that Sharon was in bed and heard something so she retrieved her gun. Investigators believe the attack started in Sharon's home, and at some point, she fled to the garage to try to escape, but was confronted and killed. Killed.
- [21:44]
C
And maybe that's why her purse was by her. Maybe she grabbed her purse. The. Because the keys, you know, might have
- [21:51]
A
been in there to the car. Yeah. Who knows? But it's a different situation.
- [21:55]
C
Right.
- [21:56]
A
It does sound like Sharon was prepared. She had an alarm. Some type. Some type of alarm.
- [22:03]
C
Yeah.
- [22:03]
A
She had put up this large fence. She had a gun by. On her bedside table. It looks like she retrieved the gun, but she was ultimately killed.
- [22:14]
C
Yeah.
- [22:15]
A
And we don't know the specifics yet. We don't know exactly what happened.
- [22:18]
C
Well, because, you know, at this point, we don't. Right. We don't know. But if we know, they found the gun with no ammo in it. Right.
- [22:27]
A
So not just no ammo, but no magazine at all.
- [22:30]
C
Yeah.
- [22:31]
A
Which is really strange because if you're going to keep a gun on your bedside table.
- [22:38]
C
Yeah.
- [22:38]
A
First of all, you're going to have a magazine, and nobody keeps a gun without the magazine. But also, it doesn't make sense to keep it unloaded because it's not going to do any good.
- [22:46]
C
Exactly. If you're. If that's your concern, then you would keep it loaded, ready to go, and in case of, you know, this exact scenario.
- [22:55]
A
So to me, this is kind of a mystery. That part is a mystery already. Now, Sharon didn't keep a large amount of cash in her home, and she didn't own anything, you know, particularly valuable. Cash was found in her purse, indicating robbery wasn't a motive.
- [23:13]
C
Well, yeah. I mean, if they were looking for cash, they would definitely grab the purse. I mean, it's right there.
- [23:17]
A
Yeah. I mean, if you're going to rob a place and you see a purse, would you not rifle through it, thinking there's going to be cash in there? Maybe I'm going to take some credit cards or whatever it might be. So I do think. And you kind of have to rule out robbery just based on that.
- [23:35]
C
Yeah.
- [23:36]
A
On July 8th, Sharon's autopsy results came in. Up to that point, police suspected she was shot, but her autopsy revealed she was beaten and strangled to death. She didn't have any gunshot wounds.
- [23:49]
C
Wow.
- [23:50]
A
And that's amazing. And I think it goes to that aspect of her being called unrecognizable. You know how badly you have to beat someone for the police to initially assume they were shot.
- [24:07]
C
Yeah. That's pretty, pretty bad.
- [24:10]
A
Yeah. It really is a sexual assault. Swab was collected and sent in for testing. Investigators were still waiting on the results at the time of that this announcement was made. Yeah, but because Sharon was strangled, authorities suspected there was a personal motive to the crime. And I get that. Right. Most people, when they talk about strangulation, investigators, profilers, people like that, they talk about it in terms of it being more of a personal crime.
- [24:45]
C
Yeah, right.
- [24:45]
A
You're up close and personal. So a lot of times that does lead the authorities to believe that this is someone who knew the victim, maybe had some very strong feelings about the victim.
- [24:59]
C
And the fact that nothing was taken. Right. No robbery that they know of.
- [25:03]
A
Yeah. I mean, why, why kill this person?
- [25:06]
C
Yeah.
- [25:07]
A
Other than you knew them and you didn't like them.
- [25:10]
C
Exactly.
- [25:11]
A
One of the people they looked closely at was Postmaster Rick Hartman. Hartman seemed to be inserting himself into the investigation on the day Sharon's body was found in. He had to be asked to step back from the crime scene. And like you said, Gibbs, you know, maybe he's wearing a couple different hats. You know, he's, he's the, the postmaster, but he's also part time deputy. I don't know what all he's got going on, but what do people always say, right, about individuals who try very hard to insert themselves into the investigation at the crime scene? Usually it's a bad sign.
- [25:52]
C
Yeah, typically. Now, this is a small town village and, you know, this is somebody that she would talk to every morning.
- [26:01]
A
Yeah, I think they were good friends.
- [26:02]
C
Yeah, so. And he's also one of the people that showed up at the house to look for her. So maybe it's not as strange in this case, but
- [26:15]
A
I think there's more of a personal connection in a town of 100.
- [26:19]
C
Sure there is.
- [26:20]
A
You're going to know people a lot better than you would in a town of 100,000 or a million or. Yeah, whatever. Hartman became angry at one point and told a deputy, if you're going to arrest me, arrest me, but I'm leaving. Okay. Maybe a strange thing to say that
- [26:38]
C
seems a little bizarre. Right? I mean, you're not helping yourself with that, with, with a statement like, no,
- [26:45]
A
you're making, you're not making yourself look better. Right. By saying it. Hartman and Sharon seem to be good friends. He house sad for her when she went out of town and, you know, I mentioned it. Right. He had a key to her house. Most people and you don't give a key to your house to someone unless they're a pretty good friend or you know them pretty well.
- [27:07]
C
That's true.
- [27:07]
A
And at the very least, you like them to some degree.
- [27:10]
C
Which brings me back to a question I had for you weeks ago. Like, are you ever going to give me a key to here?
- [27:18]
A
No.
- [27:18]
C
I mean, it's been 10 years.
- [27:21]
A
Never gonna happen. My wife has forbidden it. You talk about paranoia. She wouldn't sleep at night if she thought you had a key to the place.
- [27:32]
C
I really wanted it. When you guys were in Jamaica, you know, I was like, can I get that key now?
- [27:37]
A
No, you cannot. So after the murder, rumors circulated that perhaps he and Sharon were more than friends, despite Hartman being married. Now, Hartman denied having any involvement in Sharon's murder. He said he was home that night and his wife confirmed his alibi. And that's always good, right, to have someone to confirm your alibi. The problem that I always have in, in these stories or in any movie or anything, right, where you're talking about an alibi is when it really is just a loved one's word. I'm always still a little dubious because let's face it, there's a vested interest that person has in wanting to help you.
- [28:25]
C
Oh, absolutely. Unless some reason you really tick them off, they're going to want to keep you out of prison. Right.
- [28:35]
A
Well, if he was having an affair, maybe she didn't know about it at the time she gave the alibi.
- [28:39]
C
Right.
- [28:40]
A
Or maybe she's being truthful.
- [28:42]
C
Yeah.
- [28:43]
A
In the days immediately following the murder, investigators canvassed Main street to ask residents if they saw or heard anything out of the ordinary. They spoke to the Mars family who lived behind Sharon. The Mars son, 25 year old James, was a farmhand. He had been in trouble with local police before. All right. Are you going to want to talk to James? If you're investigators, Yeah, I think so.
- [29:09]
C
Oh, for sure.
- [29:10]
A
He lives right behind her. He has a rap sheet of some sort. When investigators spoke to the family, James was cooperative and answered their questions. And it was said his mother was cooperative as well.
- [29:24]
C
I was trying to think, you know, a town of a hundred. I mean, your, your pool of suspects has got to be kind of small. Unless it's just a lot of bad people hanging out in that town.
- [29:35]
A
Well, it can't be larger than 99. Well, if there's a hundred people and one person is dead, yeah, there's 99 people to look at. I mean, obviously that's just the people in town.
- [29:47]
C
Right.
- [29:48]
A
But that's where, you know, most murderers come from. Right. They're normally known to the victim. Not always. You could have a Stranger murder.
- [29:56]
B
But.
- [29:57]
C
But it's where you're going to start.
- [29:59]
A
Yeah. Now, James said that on the night of June 29, he went out to a bar in wahoo and afterwards went to a friend's house. Then he went home. James's mother told police she was up waiting for him. And James friend also confirmed his alibi.
- [30:15]
C
Well, Jamie's mother. Come on. What mother is not going to kind of agree with their son?
- [30:23]
A
I don't know. There are some moms who have turned on their sons that I've seen. But here you have more than one person. Right?
- [30:29]
C
Right.
- [30:29]
A
Confirming. So I think you've got a little bit better chance of this being correct. Investigators then learned about Sharon's conflict with her neighbor, who was a trucker. They had a contentious relationship, and Sharon strongly disliked him. It bothered her that her neighbor worked on his truck outside, and she asked him not to make so much noise. The trucker also reportedly had a strong personality and wasn't afraid to tell Sharon what he thought.
- [31:00]
C
What, you don't want me to work on my truck outside? Where else can I work on my truck besides outside? Yeah.
- [31:07]
A
I mean, again, I don't want to say anything disparaging about Sharon because she's the victim in this story, but, you know, we probably all had neighbors like that. Again, I don't know how much noise this guy was making. Maybe he was revving the engine like crazy or whatever it was, but they're. You know, I've had some neighbors who have complained about things that, to me, didn't seem like there was any reason they should be complaining.
- [31:35]
C
Yeah.
- [31:35]
A
And to be honest with you, I am the type of person that will not shy away from telling them how I feel. I actually quite enjoy it sometimes, in a strange way.
- [31:47]
C
You absolutely do. You kind of. Yeah. It makes you really happy.
- [31:52]
A
Well, especially when I think somebody is way out of line right now. If I'm out of line, I'll be the first one to say, oh, yeah, sorry about that. I'll tone it down or do whatever, but if I think you're just being petty, I'm going to give it back
- [32:05]
C
to you, as you should.
- [32:06]
A
No doubt about it.
- [32:07]
C
Yeah.
- [32:08]
A
The trucker admitted that he sometimes did things to antagonize Sharon, but on the night of the murder, he was working in another state. He brought in receipts from a truck stop that cleared him as a suspect. And you would think that a trucker, especially in the more modern era.
- [32:29]
C
Yeah.
- [32:30]
A
Would have pretty good documentation.
- [32:33]
C
I would think so, too, with all the records they have. To be able to produce if they get pulled over.
- [32:37]
A
Yeah, especially nowadays when I think they're tracked by GPS and all that type of stuff. But even in the. You know, in 2003, they. I'm sure they had records, and this guy's got a receipt from another state, so. Yeah, probably not hard to figure out that it wasn't him.
- [32:54]
C
Some of these truckers, man, they. They got some nice rigs and setups,
- [32:58]
A
and some of those rigs are darn expensive, though.
- [33:02]
C
They are, man. They like. They're like a little apartment on the inside.
- [33:05]
A
Sleeper cab. And. Yeah, maybe you got a little microwave, espresso machine. I don't know. What all they got in there.
- [33:12]
C
Maybe we should take. Take this. Take this on the road.
- [33:15]
A
That does not sound appealing at all. You think I want to spend the night with you in a sleeper cab?
- [33:21]
C
It's big.
- [33:22]
A
In. What's big? I. I don't think you're helping yourself there.
- [33:29]
C
It's a sleeper cab.
- [33:30]
A
I mean, what, are we going to record the podcast in the lot of a truck stop?
- [33:36]
C
Hey, that'd be kind of cool, you
- [33:38]
A
know, I guess it would.
- [33:39]
C
Got some good trucker friends. They all come over and support us.
- [33:42]
A
That would be kind of cool, actually, except for the part about you and I having to sleep in the same sleeper cabin. Now, if we had our own big
- [33:50]
C
rigs, well, that'd be different.
- [33:52]
A
That'd be different.
- [33:53]
C
Like, they one Smokey, the other one bandit. Or you just drive the big rig. Well, I'll have to drive the big rig. You drive the. You drive the little trans Am, you know, keeping the cops away.
- [34:04]
A
Why does it have to be Smokey in the Bandit? So the investigation was at a standstill until DNA results revealed Sharon was sexually assaulted before she died. The semen sample was sent into the lab in hopes of finding a match in the database, but it would take several weeks to get the results, if there were any. And that's the thing about DNA, right? It's great. If you can find a match, that's it.
- [34:33]
C
You know, you got to hope that what you're looking for, someone has got themselves in some data database.
- [34:39]
A
Yeah. Somewhere. Because if not, I mean, it's still good, but you're. You're in kind of a holding pattern.
- [34:46]
C
Yeah.
- [34:47]
A
Until you can find the match, police focused on interviewing Sharon's male friends and getting cheek swabs for additional comparison. And you would think because we're talking about such a small town, that would be pretty easy to do.
- [35:04]
C
You would think so.
- [35:05]
A
A hundred people? What we got maybe 40 males, 30 males. I don't know how many, but need
- [35:11]
C
a swab from each and every one of you.
- [35:13]
A
I would do that. And whoever doesn't want to do it, I'm going to look at you even closer.
- [35:18]
C
For sure.
- [35:20]
A
Rumors continued to circulate about postmaster Rick Hartman. He was not publicly declared an official suspect, but he did remain on police radar due to unusual behavior.
- [35:32]
C
Oh, the unusual behavior stuff, it, a
- [35:35]
A
lot of times really trips people up. Yeah, it's like they trip themselves up.
- [35:41]
C
Right.
- [35:42]
A
By how they act. So In September of 2003, Hartman showed up at Sharon's estate sale. This already raised police suspicion because of some killers tendency to revisit a crime scene. True, but I think what really got their attention was the fact that he was interested in buying Sharon's mattress, and police found that very suspicious.
- [36:06]
C
I would think that would be off the charts far as suspicious activity.
- [36:10]
A
Yeah, because they started to wonder if maybe his DNA was on that mattress. And that's why, you know, he wanted to buy it. So he was brought in for more questioning. At first he denied purchasing the mattress, but eventually he admitted to it. He said he bought it for one of his kids who was going to college. I get it. You want to save a buck. Yeah, but I mean, this is a woman who was murdered. Yeah, I know. My daughter would not be happy if I sent her off to college with a mattress that belonged to a murdered individual.
- [36:49]
C
No, she didn't even want the one that I tried to sell you to let her have mine.
- [36:53]
A
Yeah, that thing looked like a Jackson Pollock painting. I don't know what it had been through. Some of the stains didn't even look human.
- [37:05]
C
No comment.
- [37:07]
A
So this is weird though, right?
- [37:08]
C
Yeah.
- [37:09]
A
He shows up at the estate sale and wants to buy her mattress.
- [37:13]
C
It's bizarre.
- [37:14]
A
Oh, my gosh.
- [37:16]
C
Like, that's one thing I know people are. They're good with buying used this and that. Yeah. For me, I'll never buy a used mattress.
- [37:26]
A
No, me neither. Some. Some things I'm okay with. Yeah, but used mattress is not one of them. I mean, it's. It's something that is very personal, I believe. Yeah, it's something you're going to be sleeping on for long periods of time. Plus, who knows what people do on or did on that mattress.
- [37:47]
C
Exactly. You just don't know.
- [37:49]
A
Most of it is something I wouldn't want to know. Yeah, probably.
- [37:52]
C
Even if you did know, you still probably wouldn't want it, so.
- [37:55]
A
So on October 10, 2003, the lab results came In. Unfortunately, there were no matches in the database. And, you know, that's something that just comes up a lot.
- [38:04]
C
It does.
- [38:05]
A
With DNA. Investigators had not yet compared the DNA sample from Sharon's body to the DNA of her male acquaintances. As the months passed, there were no matches. Police focused on following up on all potential leads, but, you know, the case went unsolved, and that had to be extremely frustrating. My other thought is here, Gibbs. In a town this small, I'm thinking most of those people were not in a DNA database. Probably hadn't gotten in that type of trouble. Right. To be required.
- [38:40]
C
Yeah. No reason to.
- [38:41]
A
To have their DNA in the database. In the spring of 2004, Rick Hartman agreed to take a polygraph which was inconclusive. He also submitted a DNA sample which was not a match.
- [38:54]
C
Well, I mean, that's the bigger piece right there, right?
- [38:57]
A
Yeah.
- [38:57]
C
The DNA.
- [38:58]
A
Yeah. The polygraph being inconclusive. And you can make that of what you want, but to me, it doesn't mean that much. Eight months after the murder, the Fremont Tribune reported that talk of the case had quieted down, but residents were still affected. And I can imagine this is a. An event that would affect a town that size for many, many years.
- [39:22]
C
Oh, yeah. I would think the conversations would continue for a while, like, you know, who did it. I'm sure everybody in the town had their own person they thought did it, like most towns do.
- [39:34]
A
Yeah. You know, I'm sure a lot of people were suspicious of this Rick Hartman guy.
- [39:39]
C
Yeah.
- [39:40]
A
Sid Morker, owner of the Stardust Tavern near Sharon's house, said every once in a while, someone will say something, but the more time that goes by, the less they're apt to solve it. And I think, as a general rule, that is true.
- [39:54]
C
Yeah.
- [39:55]
A
Right. The more time that goes by, the harder case is to solve.
- [40:01]
C
Yeah, for sure. I mean, we know, like, of course, the first 40 hour, 40, 48 hours is the most critical, and then it steps out from that and further and further, and. But we also know that we can have cases 40 years old that eventually will be solved because we've seen it.
- [40:19]
A
Yeah.
- [40:20]
C
You know, so.
- [40:21]
A
Absolutely.
- [40:21]
C
It's just tougher because. Yeah.
- [40:24]
A
Because at that point, you're relying on DNA. Yeah, for sure.
- [40:27]
C
Yeah.
- [40:27]
A
And if you don't have DNA. Really tough.
- [40:31]
C
Yeah. You kind of really. You're hoping at that point, just for a prayer, that somebody on their deathbed is saying, hey, yeah, that such and such. That was me.
- [40:39]
A
Yeah. When you get decades on. Yeah, definitely. So when he said they, he was referring to The Saunders County Sheriff's Department and the Nebraska State Patrol. The Tribune reported that someone else owned Sharon's garage and cologne. Volunteer firefighters purchased Sharon's home. Although the town appeared the same, it wasn't, according to Sid Morker. We're all on edge here. Everybody locks their doors. The kids don't play outside. And that goes back to what I said. Right. How is this going to affect a town this small? And again, if this was a town where most people didn't lock their doors. Well, now they are.
- [41:21]
C
Yeah. It didn't take much, did it? I mean, well, it was a big event.
- [41:24]
A
It was a big event, but, I
- [41:26]
C
mean, that's all it was. You know, at that point, everybody started locking their doors. Now, the parents are like, kids, stay inside. We don't want you walking the streets, alleys, whatever, because we don't know who's out there.
- [41:38]
A
There's a killer. Yeah, there's a killer somewhere. And maybe they live in this town. She noted that her business had suffered, and there was a noticeable decline in customers from out of town. Saunders county chief deputy Jeff Morris told the Tribune that there were 500 pages in Sharon's case file, and they were trying to make the best case they could for the county attorney. He encouraged people to come forward with any information that could help. It was said that they had also done more than 200 interviews by that point. But because there were no eyewitnesses or report connected with Sharon's death, the case was harder to solve.
- [42:18]
C
Absolutely.
- [42:19]
A
And obviously, that means they're going outside of the little village there. Right. If you're interviewing 200 people. A new tip surfaced in April 2004 that broke the case wide open. People in the area suggested that the police should further investigate Sharon's neighbor, James Marx, because the person who gave his alibi was not telling the truth. So we're talking about the trucker, the person that. No, this is the person who lived behind her. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was the farmhand. The farmhand, Yeah, I believe the son.
- [42:54]
C
Yes. Yeah.
- [42:55]
A
That lived behind her.
- [42:57]
C
That had somewhat of a record.
- [42:59]
A
I thought it was the trucker who had the record, but I could be wrong. Yeah, maybe you're right. I forget. We've talked about a number of people. Right. So far. Investigators discovered that James reportedly asked his friend to confirm he was at his house if the police ever asked questions. Police talked to James's friend, but he never admitted to lying about the alibi. And I always think it's strange, Gibbs, that, you know, almost every week when you're here. You ask me to say you were some place if someone asked.
- [43:32]
C
Yeah.
- [43:33]
A
And there's no way to confirm that I know the truth. So I don't know what I would be giving you an alibi for. I've never had to do it. Don't think I would do it even if they asked me.
- [43:44]
C
But see, what will happen is when they come and ask you, hey, do you remember on this day did he say that he was with. And you were like. Well, he did tell me that. I don't recall the details around it, but he did say, I'm just. I'm just like.
- [44:02]
A
Well, I wouldn't be lying, right. I wouldn't be lying if I just said, he said that. Yeah, but that. What does that mean? It just means you said that. It doesn't. That's not me alibi in you. At the time, James Mars was living in Lincoln with a friend and was working as a farm laborer in the Wahoo area. He consented to saliva testing on April 16, 2004. Testing confirmed that James DNA matched the sample from the crime scene. Now we're, now we're on to something, man. I tell you, there was a lot of people already in this case that kind of looked good for it.
- [44:41]
C
They did.
- [44:41]
A
And I'm sure going back to the. The whole finger pointing idea in a very small town, you know, the postmaster probably got a lot of those fingers pointed at him. The trucker you mentioned probably did as well, the neighbor. But turns out that the DNA belonged to James. Mar. James arrived at the state patrol office on May 4, 2014 for questioning and was subsequently arrested. According to one investigator, James didn't volunteer any information. His confession came in bits and pieces. And those are always interesting confessions. Right. So there's the confession where the person just says, ah, you got me. You know, I did it. Here's exactly what I did.
- [45:29]
C
Yeah.
- [45:30]
A
But I don't know if those are the norm. I think what's more apt to happen is somebody denies, but then they give a little away and then things just start to crumble. Right. And the confession kind of slowly comes out over time. But it's normally because they can't hold their stories together.
- [45:52]
C
Yeah. Because they don't know what the truth is compared to some of the lies are telling.
- [45:56]
A
Yeah. James said that on the night of June 29, 2003, he drank at a bar in Wahoo and did a line of cocaine with a friend. When he got home, he was hoping to get some gas and beer money. So he decided to steal from Sharon's home. He jumped her fence, cut her phone line, and was trying to kick in her back door. When the alarm went off. Sharon came out and confronted him with her gun, which was not loaded. She recognized who he was, called him an asshole, and told him to leave.
- [46:31]
C
I mean, I can see that. Right? You know, somebody breaks in, kicks in your door here, you know, and you know them like this. Is that kicked in your door? You're going to be like, you. Why did you do that?
- [46:45]
A
I've already fired six shots by that point.
- [46:47]
C
But, yeah, yeah, I'm falling down on
- [46:48]
A
the ground, I might call you that. But, yeah, but to be honest with you, you know, I. I said it earlier. What good is the gun by the bedside if it's not loaded?
- [47:00]
C
It's no good at all.
- [47:01]
A
It's not. Now, maybe she thought just by having it, that would be enough to scare someone away. And. And maybe that is true in. In some circumstances. And I get it, some people don't like guns. They don't want a loaded gun anywhere near them. But when you're confronted with a very serious situation, if you point a gun at somebody and they know it's not loaded, and I'm telling you right now, in certain guns, if the magazine's not in there, it's not that hard to tell. Yeah, the magazine a lot of times either is flush or it sticks out a little bit. And just by looking at the gun, you can tell there's. There's no magazine in there. I don't know. I don't know. But she must have thought just the sight of the gun alone. Right. Would be enough to. To scare some. Someone off. But at that point, things shifted. James told Sharon, go ahead and shoot me. And when she didn't fire, he attacked her.
- [48:02]
C
Yeah, because he knew he had nothing to lose at that point because the gun wasn't loaded.
- [48:09]
A
Maybe he knew that, maybe he didn't.
- [48:11]
C
And he also, at that point, knew that his ID was made.
- [48:15]
A
Yeah. So maybe he didn't even know the gun was. Wasn't loaded. But maybe he didn't care.
- [48:20]
C
Yeah.
- [48:21]
A
Let's not forget he's hopped up on cocaine. He's been drinking.
- [48:25]
C
That will do it to you.
- [48:26]
A
He's probably not making very good decisions.
- [48:29]
C
No.
- [48:30]
A
In that state, Sharon ran into the house. James jumped the fence again and saw the garage door open. He knew Sharon was going to get in her car and flee, so he ran across the street and confronted her. He told her to shoot him again. And when she didn't Didn't.
- [48:48]
C
Didn't.
- [48:49]
A
When she didn't sound like you're from
- [48:51]
C
that town right there.
- [48:51]
A
I know. He beat her again and strangled her. He refused to admit to sexually assaulting Sharon and began shutting down when the questions turned in this direction. And, you know, it surprises me, but maybe it shouldn't that so many people will admit to murder but won't admit to sexual assault.
- [49:17]
C
Well, I think on the shameful ladder, you know, sexual assault is much higher than murder for some reason.
- [49:26]
A
Yeah, I think you're right. Especially, you know, if you're in prison and people find out that you sexually assaulted an elderly woman.
- [49:35]
C
Yeah.
- [49:36]
A
They're not going to look good. That's why people also, they might admit to killing 15 people but won't admit to murdering a child.
- [49:44]
C
No way.
- [49:45]
A
Because that would not be good for them in prison.
- [49:48]
C
No. That's a pretty much a guaranteed death sentence.
- [49:52]
A
Not that they care about it. They probably don't care about it.
- [49:54]
C
No, they care about them.
- [49:55]
A
They just don't want anybody else to know what they. What they've done. Investigators suspect the assault was opportunistic rather than fully planned out. And I get why they would say that. Right. I'm not sure he went there with that thought in mind. He went there to get some money to rob her. On May 5, 2004, James Mara was charged with first degree murder in perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate robbery, perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate burglary, and perpetration of or attempt to perpetrate sexual assault.
- [50:32]
C
Perpetration going on here? Yeah.
- [50:34]
A
And those are hard to say. Perpetrate, perpetrate, perpetration. But he deserves all of it.
- [50:40]
C
He does.
- [50:41]
A
Right? In June, James's mother, Donna Maris, told the Fremont Tribune the family wasn't worried about the trial because they believed he was innocent. I. I get it. Families, they stick by their family members. I understand that. And especially moms. Moms pretty much always stick by their. Their kids. I think it'd be a little tough when you have the DNA evidence, you have the confession at some point. When do you stop saying that this
- [51:16]
C
person is innocent, but nobody wants to believe their child could one, sexually assault anybody, let alone an elderly person. And then two.
- [51:26]
A
And a neighbor, let's not forget that.
- [51:28]
C
Yeah. And then to murder that person.
- [51:30]
A
Yeah. Well, because that means there's some reflection on you as a parents.
- [51:36]
C
Oh, for sure.
- [51:36]
A
Right. What are people going to think about you? James's brother, Mike Mars, said he and James had just returned from Kansas the Night of the murder, they got to Cologne about 10:30pm and James went to Wahoo. See, I'm changing the name I noticed of the city because I think it's cologne now. And it just sounds better than colon.
- [51:59]
C
Well, it does sound better than colon.
- [52:01]
A
I'm going with that now. According to Donna, James returned home between 1 and 1:30am James didn't act suspiciously though, during the 10th month, 10 month investigation and Donna said he was his normal self. Prosecutors hit a stumbling block when James's confession was suppressed because he never established that he was waiving his right to an attorney. However, the prosecution still felt confident in their case because they had DNA evidence proving James assaulted Sharon. They determined the tool used to pry the door open belonged to his father, and they knew he asked his friend to lie about his alibi. James had also bragged about the murder to six of his prison cellmates.
- [52:52]
C
I just don't, I, I'll never understand that. No, you know, you're in prison and you're just boasting about what you've done
- [53:01]
A
and you haven't been convicted yet. Yeah, I get it. Once you're convicted, maybe you're, you're saying that because, you know, you want the, the cred. Right, or whatever it is in prison, but you're still on trial for your life and you're like, yeah, just telling everybody you did it and you don't think that's going to get back to
- [53:21]
C
prosecutors and you got to know how criminals are.
- [53:25]
A
Yeah, they're going to use that any way they can. Prosecutors thought it would be challenging to prove the intent needed for a first degree murder conviction. They discussed the possibility of a plea deal for second degree murder with Sharon's family, and they understood. On August 15, 2005, James pleaded guilty to second degree murder. He made his plea on what would have been Sharon's 69th birthday. James was sentenced to life without parole and he is still serving his sentence in Nebraska. And you know, we talk about pleas a lot sometimes I think there's a plea deal made when there doesn't need to be. This one, though, I do understand, you know, first degree murder comes with a very specific set of circumstances. And I don't think that James went there that night to kill Sharon.
- [54:26]
C
No, I don't think so either. It was definitely robbery.
- [54:30]
A
Now, you could argue that murder in the commission of a robbery should be first degree murder and, and would be in, in many places, but I get it there, there might not have been the intent there to murder. So as we wrap this one up, Gibbs. The small town of Cologne was forever changed by the murder of Sharon Erickson. Residents questioned if they really knew their neighbors and wondered what they were capable of. The murder left some residents with a lingering sense that something bad could happen to them, too. But it also brought the community closer together as they supported each other in the midst of the tragedy. And, you know, that's the thing about a small town, and we've seen it in so many cases. You have the whole, we don't lock our doors. It's a safe place. Nothing bad is ever going to happen until it does.
- [55:29]
C
Yeah.
- [55:30]
A
And then it completely changes that town forever. And I think, you know, the. The case of Sharon Erickson did that here for this place.
- [55:40]
C
I mean, it changed everything on a dime.
- [55:42]
A
Yeah. People like, what do we say? Kids stopped playing outside. Their parents probably wouldn't let them. Everybody started locking their doors. I'm sure if everybody didn't have a gun, they went out and bought one. I mean, that's just the normal stuff. You see, when a town is rocked by something they're not used to, sure
- [56:02]
C
changes, you know, the way life used to be.
- [56:05]
A
Yeah, yeah, absolutely. But that's it for our episode on Sharon Erickson. Anything else?
- [56:12]
C
No.
- [56:13]
B
All right.
- [56:13]
C
Interesting case.
- [56:14]
A
It is. Very interesting. And, you know, I wonder about the people who were looked at or cast had suspicion.
- [56:24]
C
Yeah.
- [56:24]
A
Cast on them. Right. This postmaster really seemed like people were thinking. They were thinking he was involved.
- [56:31]
C
He's just like, I just wanted the mattress man.
- [56:33]
A
Yeah. That's still strange for me, but for
- [56:35]
C
me, it is, too. But, you know, maybe because he knew her, he felt okay with it and
- [56:41]
A
that she had taken care of it or something like that, but. Yeah, I don't know. But that's it for another episode of True Crime all the time. So for Mike and Gibby, stay safe and keep your own time ticking.