Rose Burkert
Roger Atkison
Case # 80-06274
Amana Holiday Inn
Williamsburg, Iowa
Iowa County
September 12, 1980
On Friday, September 12, 1980, Rose Burkert left for a romantic weekend getaway with her married boyfriend, Roger Atkison. The 22-year-old Burkert was a nurse trainee at St. Joseph Hospital in Missouri; Atkison, 32, was employed as a telephone installer-repairman for General Telephone Co. in Savannah, Mo.
The two checked in for the night at the Amana Holiday Inn along Interstate 80 near Williamsburg, Iowa, getting the last room available due to a morticians’ convention.
The following day the couple missed the noon check-out time. At about 1 p.m., a maid went to Room 260 to check on them, and after getting no response to her knock, let herself in. She would never forget the horrific scene before her.
Iowa County in Iowa
Blood was splattered everywhere — all across the bed’s headboard, the walls, the carpet. Both Burkert and Atkison lay face down on the bed, their heads chopped open from multiple blows by either an ax or hatchet. Atkison also had several severed fingers, most likely the result of trying to protect his head.
Burkert was fully clothed, whereas Atkison wore only his shorts.
The room showed no signs of forced entry. Two chairs sat next to the bed, indicating the killer or killers may have carried on a conversation with the couple prior to the slaying. Evidence also indicated the killer had at one point put his feet up on the desk. He’d carved a piece of soap and written one word on the bathroom mirror: ‘This.’
The television had never even been turned off.
Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department Captain Howard Judd, who worked the case for the St. Joseph Police Department, described the scene as “pretty gruesome” and “overkill.”
Rumors swirled in both Missouri and Iowa. Some suspected Burkert’s ex-boyfriend, whom she’d kicked out of her house due to his drug use. He’d been stalking her in the weeks before the murder, and Burkert had filed a complaint with the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department and told them if she ended up dead it would be because of her ex.
A single mother of two children, she’d gotten a dog for protection, only to later find it hanging — butchered — in front of her home. The ex-boyfriend, however, had a solid alibi and also passed a polygraph.
Gerald Shanahan took over as DCI director in August 1977 after retiring from the FBI.Rumors also circulated that the killer may have been Roger’s own uncle, serial killer Charles Hatcher. Hatcher had escaped from a Nebraska mental health center, though it couldn’t be confirmed whether he’d escaped before or after the Burkert and Atkison slayings.
State investigators said neither guns nor drugs were involved in the deaths.
“We are not going to give up,” Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Director Gerald Shanahan told the St. Joe News-Press in a September 24, 1980 interview about the case.
Shanahan left the DCI three years later, and cited the Amana hatchet slaying and the disappearance of Des Moines Register paperboy Johnny Gosch as the two unsolved cases he would think about most after his departure.
“Those kinds of things will always remain with you,” Shanahan said. “Hopefully as time goes on they will be solved.”
Three decades later, both crimes remain unsolved.
If you have any information regarding the unsolved double slaying of Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010, e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us, or send your information to Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
Robert Bresson
Robert Bresson
Age at Report: 57
DOB: March 9, 1939
Weight: 250 lbs.
Height: 6′ 03″
Hair: Grey
Incident Type: Endangered / physical
Missing From: Why, AZ, and Independence, IA (Buchanan County)
Investigating Agency: Independence Police Department
NCIC Number: M-102851909
Missing Since: January 14, 1997
Robert Bresson was reported missing from Why, Arizona (Pima County) to the Independence, Iowa, Police Department on January 14, 1997.
Bresson resided in Crete, Nebraska in the 1990s. He owned several small businesses in the area, along with his own property. Bresson and his former girlfriend began riding motorcycles across the United States in the mid-1990s. He occasionally phoned his son, Chris, who resided in Independence, Iowa, and used his son’s mailing address as his own while traveling.
During their motorcycle travels, Bresson and his girlfriend purchased a used mobile home in a campground near Why, Arizona, a tiny crossroads hamlet on the rugged Sonoran desert 30 miles north of the Mexican border. Bresson also bought a small solar panel business in the area and often purchased used vehicles.
Bresson’s son visited him in Arizona in mid-1996, while Bresson planned an extended vacation to Iowa during the summer of 1997. Bresson wrote to his son later in 1996 and stated he was looking forward to their upcoming visit. Bresson has never been heard from again.
Robert Bresson
Bresson’s associates began calling his son to inquire about his father’s whereabouts in late 1996. A motorcycle and one pickup truck were missing from Bresson’s Arizona residence, but there was no evidence of foul play at the scene.
Bresson’s former girlfriend returned to their home in Nebraska sometime after his disappearance, but was unable to help with the investigation. Bresson’s property in Nebraska and Arizona have since been foreclosed. His son filed a missing person’s report for his father in his hometown of Independence, Iowa on January 14, 1997. Authorities accepted the case due to his son’s residency, though Bresson never lived in Iowa himself.
Bresson’s son believes his father may have traveled to Mexico, as his Arizona trailer was approximately 30 miles from the border. His son said it was possible his father became involved in some type of trouble in Mexico, which may have led to his disappearance. There are few clues available in his case, and it remains unsolved.
If you have any information concerning Robert Bresson’s disappearance, please contact the Independence Police Department at 319-334-2520.
Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxsie
34 YOA
Panel: 48-W: 2
Independence, IA
Buchanan County
End of Watch: October 26, 1897
On Tuesday, October 26, 1897, Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxie, 34, was shot and killed in Independence, Iowa during a gunfight with two thieves. Patrolman Doxsie had been patrolling the city’s downtown area on horseback when he stumbled on a burglary in progress.
His body was discovered in an alley, and neither of the two thieves were ever apprehended. His murder remains unsolved.
If you have any information regarding Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxsie’s unsolved murder, please contact the Independence Police Department at 319-334-2520, the Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office at 319-334-2568, or Iowa Cold Cases via the Contact form.
Independence in Buchanan County
Buchanan County in Iowa
Homicide
Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxsie
34 YOA
Independence, IA
Buchanan County
October 26, 1897
On Tuesday, October 26, 1897, Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxie, 34, was shot and killed in Independence, Iowa during a gunfight with two thieves.
Robert Bresson
Missing Person
Robert Bresson
Age at Report: 57
Missing From: Why, AZ, and Independence, IA (Buchanan County)
Investigating Agency: Independence Police Department
Missing Since: January 14, 1997
Robert Bresson was reported missing from Why, Arizona (Pima County) to the Independence, Iowa, Police Department on January 14, 1997.
Buchanan County in Iowa
*Please Note: The cases listed below are within Buchanan County but may fall under a city police department’s jurisdiction. They are included here for cross-reference purposes. More specific information may be found on each victim’s individual page.
Homicide
Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxsie
34 YOA
Independence, IA
Buchanan County
October 26, 1897
On Tuesday, October 26, 1897, Patrolman Pitt McClellan Doxie, 34, was shot and killed in Independence, Iowa during a gunfight with two thieves.
Robert Bresson
Missing Person
Robert Bresson
Age at Report: 57
Missing From: Why, AZ, and Independence, IA (Buchanan County)
Investigating Agency: Independence Police Department
Missing Since: January 14, 1997
Robert Bresson was reported missing from Why, Arizona (Pima County) to the Independence, Iowa, Police Department on January 14, 1997.
Recent Comments