Shortly before I moved to DC, a 16 year-old girl that lived on my county road in Wakarusa went missing. Her name was Kari Nunemaker and she lived less than two miles from my parent's home. Kari and her friend Beth were leaving the YMCA in Elkhart on January 28, 1991, after watching a couple of soccer games. Beth drove separately while Kari dropped off a boy she was with at a McDonald's. Kari was planning on meeting Beth at another McDonald's but was stopped by a train on her way and never made it to the restaurant.Two days later, Kari's maroon 1982 Chevy Celebrity was found in an alley. Eight days later, her frozen body was found nude, strangled and sexually assaulted along a county road. One of the original suspects was the boy she was with that night. According to Elkhart County police, his version of events had some inconsistencies, and he showed deceptiveness on a polygraph.
The other suspect was Fred Mott, who is currently serving time in a California prison for rape, but was out on parole and living in Elkhart at the time of Kari's murder. Kari had blonde hair and blue eyes like Mott's other victims. DNA tests at the time were unable to produce a match, but with advances in DNA technology, police retested the samples in 2005 and arrested Mott.
The trial has been big news at home, because there is really nothing else going on there. According to trial testimony, Mott approached Kari's car as she waited for the train to pass, overpowered her, jumped into the car, and drove her back to his apartment where he brutally raped her. A married couple living in the apartment building heard a girl screaming and knocked on Mott's door to ask if someone needed help and were told by Mott that everything was fine.
Given Mott's previous convictions, his fondness for young, blonde, blue-eyed girls, the DNA evidence, and the emotional testimony, Mott was convicted of her murder on February 2. I am certain that her parents are relieved and so is David Swartzentruber, Kari's friend that who was with her that night and was a suspect until the DNA pointed to Mott. Kari's parent's have long thought that David raped and killed their daughter, and I could not imagine David having to live with that for 17 years. I just hope they can all move on.
