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Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528

November 03, 2022 / 47:25

This episode discusses the murder of Kathy Namath in October 2002, the embezzlement scandal at the Elcho fire department, and connections to local drug dealers.

Kathy Namath was murdered shortly before she was to speak with police regarding an embezzlement investigation involving her husband, David Namath, and others in the fire department. David was charged with theft and misconduct related to the embezzlement scandal.

Authorities investigated potential links between Kathy's murder and the embezzlement case, but no direct connections were found. Local officials speculated that Kathy's murder was a random act of violence.

The episode also covers the involvement of drug dealers in the area, particularly Matthew Becker, who was connected to both the embezzlement scandal and the local drug trade. Investigators held secret hearings to uncover more information.

Despite DNA evidence found at the murder scene, the case remains unsolved, with ongoing speculation about the connections between the various parties involved.

TLDR

Kathy Namath was murdered before testifying in an embezzlement case involving her husband, raising questions about connections to local drug dealers.

Episode

47:25
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thank you [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
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business I gather round grab a chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music]
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at the time of Kathy name is murder October of 2002 local authorities and officials were already aware of the
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embezzlement scandal going down at the fire department one of the fire department's employees as of that same
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month had already been charged in the embezzlement Scandal this was Matthew Becker who was the former fire
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department executive board Treasurer he was fired from the fire department after
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he admitted to police in an August 2002 interview they had embezzled at least 3 500 from the fire department's account
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the criminal complaint stated Becker stated that he did this because he needed the money and felt that the town
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of elcho owed him the money because of the [ __ ] he put up with Becker faced charges of felony theft misconduct in
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public office and possession of drug paraphernalia eventually he pled no contest to felony
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misconduct in public office and was sentenced to four months in jail the Wausau Herald reported on October 17th
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quote rumors have spread throughout this small town that the problems at the fire
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department and namith's death I wish they would put name as murder may have been connected in some way but
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police say they have so far found no link Sheriff Dave stagger admitted that anything was possible and said that
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investigators were weighing the embezzlement lead equally with other unrelated leads but others downplayed
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the likelihood dismissing any connection as local gossip elcho Town chairman Richard Elson said to the newspaper
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quote my answer to that is that's extremely unlikely why would somebody get killed over a lousy few thousand
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dollars my personal feeling has been all along that she was just in the wrong place at the wrong time a random act of
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violence in no way connected to the political situation in elcho everything about this whole thing is strange none
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of it makes any any sense which is even more unsettling to the locals we are like any other small town things like
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this don't happen end quote Yeah but why would anybody risk their job for a measly a few thousand dollars I mean
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people have been killed for Less now David namith Kathy's husband was charged in the embezzlement case and later David
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was fired for this situation just three months after Kathy's murder ultimately David was facing seven criminal charges
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some of them felonies basically David was illicitly paying himself out of the fire department's account writing
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himself checks during the time period of 1999 to 2001 and then he lied about it to the
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embezzlement investigator David pled no contest to theft disorderly conduct and obstruction in May of
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2004. so David was on the take stealing money from the fire department fund over
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at least a three-year time period now it's not clear how much he took but the complaint states that in 2000 and 2001
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he paid himself amounts in excess of that authorized by law in other words he paid himself more than his salary
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allowed when the whole thing came out in late 2002 early 2003 he was fired as fire chief as well as criminally
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prosecuted despite David being charged it does not seem that investigators were able to connect the embezzlement and
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Kathy's murder they reached out to the FBI for assistance in the case and took suggestions on how to proceed with the
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investigation but nothing was resolved and authorities were frustrated that they couldn't figure out or solve this
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murder but there was something else here captain in this case now we have Lieutenant Baker who told the Wausau
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Herald one very important thing Catherine Namath was a subject of the investigation as well but Lieutenant
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Baker declined to speculate on whether she too would have been charged and he pointed out that while the
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embezzlement's connection to Kathy's murder has always been rumored no connection had ever been identified
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publicly according to the herald okay so Kathy our murder victim not just her husband David was being investigated as
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possibly involved in the embezzlement Scandal as well which is more than fair because as we're going to see as an I'm
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about to tell you here she was in fact involved that's right she alongside of her husband was taking money from the
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outro fire department we foiled the complaint against David Namath and as we just laid it out for you it
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alleges that he overpaid himself for three years and then lied about it Liar Liar fired man's pants on fire who else
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received excessive funds from the fire department that's right it was Kathy nameth as well so Kathy and David
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co-signed a check written on the elcho fire department's account on November 15th of 1999 in the amount of 1 500
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payable to Kathy Namath but that's not all the complaint alleges that in 2000 and in 2001 David not only overpaid
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himself from the fun but he was overpaying his wife as well I guess there's a chance that maybe she was
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unaware of any of this but to me it doesn't seem very likely it seems much more likely that she was simply involved
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in this whole situation bro and he could have started doing this and maybe she's
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in charge of the family's checkbook or maybe she went into the bank account was like well we have a little bit more
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money than we should or wow David made a little bit more money than he normally does and started questioning him and
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then he goes well yeah I'm taking a little bit on the side but hey I'll give you some as well yeah I'm not going to
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speculate on how she became involved or what went down and look it wasn't just the two of them it's it's clear that
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there were several people that were not only aware of what was going on but were
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involved in in on the take as well well at least they're equipped to put out their pants on fire so Kathy herself was
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being investigated in connection with the embezzlement scandal and literally two days before she was
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supposed to talk to police she gets murdered I'm not a big conspiracy theorist but you just play one on TV I
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don't usually like conspiracies in these types of situations because most of the
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time the the simplest explanation is usually correct but this is just too big of a coincidence to to dance around it
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right it's too big of a coincidence to not take a look at it and throw it under the microscope and say okay are these
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things related and then one thing that's very difficult to believe is that Kathy
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just happened to be killed less than 48 hours before the meeting where she was supposed to go and tell police what was
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going on when she was being investigated Captain she told police look I I will cooperate and I will tell
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you everything that I know right now that could have just been saving face or that could have just been making herself
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look good in the course of that investigation we don't know because she never got the chance to speak with them
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to tell them whatever she was intending to tell them she was killed instead well
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and they haven't been transparent and her involvement like you said and the embezzlement we don't know because she
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was not charged so there is a possibility your husband is the chief if he says hey come into my office I I have
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this check and I need you to sign it oh what's it for and he gives her some Hook
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Line and Sinker and she buys it and then he cashes the check she might not have been
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like you said we don't know what her level of involvement was or how much she knew and maybe she had a bunch of
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questions herself and once she's now going to trial or going to this meeting to say hey this is what I know and this
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is what I've seen going on this could be the nail in her husband's coffin and other people's coffin and there would be
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reason for somebody to not want her to talk and again when people say well it's just a few thousand dollars no you you
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possibly could go to prison and on top of that you're losing your job which is your livelihood right and the thing that
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I think that is difficult here though when we when we analyze the murder or how ever this went down whoever is
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responsible or why it happened to begin with you you weigh that against the other things that are going on right
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especially when you have this embezzlement thing that's so close to the murder investigation but it's one of
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those things that I kind of lean a little bit more toward what the local chairman was saying as well that it's
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not a ton of money it's just a couple of thousand dollars she seems to have been
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involved herself the charges themselves don't carry with them lengthy prison sentences we're talking about months in
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jail and fines that would be paid of course any of these things are uncomfortable and things that nobody
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wants and consequences that probably nobody wants to face but it seems awfully risky to me to jump
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from what would be felony charges that are ultimately reduced to misdemeanor charges and misdemeanor type
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consequences to something as premeditated murder and so I I tend to share some of the same feelings that the
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the chairman was stating there now that doesn't mean that they're not connected in some form or fashion they absolutely
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could be there's also some rumor that possibly Drug Money may have been involved now this could be this could
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push this to a heightened level here so this might get a little complicated here
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so I am going to ask that you bear with me there was okay fine we will there's a
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local drug dealer in the langled county named Daniel J Zahn all right in March of 1999 the
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county authorities received an anonymous tip that a large drug transaction was about to go down at the kempster Inn
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Tavern police staked out the area and pulled over a drunk driver her name was Denise
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entertson who proved to have marijuana on her person she had gotten it she said from a David Zahn whom she met earlier
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at that kempster and Tavern according to Denise Zahn told her that he had at least a pound of marijuana in his
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possession and he had been dealing in the area for over a year she had seen large amounts of pot at his house and
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purchased from him in the past this was enough for the county deputies to get a search warrant for Zan's house where
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they found a bunch of pot they arrested zon now zon would not give up his sources meaning the persons who sold him
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the bulk amounts of marijuana that he turned around and then sold to private individuals in smaller transactions he
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pled guilty to possession with intent to distribute before too long it became apparent who zon's sources were zon
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had been getting his Supply from two milwaukee-based dealers these are Partners named Donald costelski and
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Brian schnarsky bald snarsky he admitted this in a court well in this area Captain there's going to be a lot of
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skis skeet ski he admitted this in a court proceeding on July 31st 2003. kastelski and schnarsky operated out of
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Milwaukee but also had a local apartment that was the Hub of their Lang lead County distribution Network
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police put together a case against kastowski for being the supplier for the 1999 deal that had resulted in zahn's
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arrest in March of 2005 a criminal complaint was filed against kostelski charging him
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with possession with intent to deliver eventually he pled out to recklessly endangering Public Safety in January of
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2008 all he got for this was two years probation okay so what would this have to do with Kathy Namath and her murder
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as said it's a little complicated but kuskelski would end up facing more charges and they were related to Kathy's
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case so let's back up and explain a little bit to try to get to the bottom of whether Kathy's case and the
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embezzlement case were related investigators held a series of closed secret hearings we've discussed this in
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some other cases that we've covered it's a pretty rare thing here but it does go
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down and these are called John Doe hearings the wsaw News 7 says that these hearings quote they're typically used
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when an investigation is being thwarted or impeded and can be used to force witnesses to testify in a secret hearing
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it helps us get testimony or information from people who may not be willing to come forward
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closed door hearings on Kathy's homicide case were held by the district attorney
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starting on January 24th 2008 but the purpose scope and outcome of these hearings has never been made public
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there was clearly some connection being explored between Kathy's case and the drug dealing going on in the area the
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FBI and the Wisconsin Department of Justice and division of criminal investigation were all cited in these
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matters so some bigger agencies being involved and somewhat Loosely tied to Kathy namus case we were able to find
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out about these closed-door hearings only by foia request and this was based off of criminal perjury charges that
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stemmed from one of the drug dealers Donald costelski lying under oath at these hearings a
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drug dealer and a liar imagine that wow I only trust a truthful honest drug dealer I only get my drugs from honest
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drug dealers and with the with the current state of marijuana and pot and all that it it almost like these things
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almost silly seem a little silly to go back and kind of circle around them like vultures but but it's important to this
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case so kastelski the dishonest drug dealer was called to testify as an unwilling witness and he is fresh off of
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his 2008 conviction that reckless endangerment conviction that we spoke of and he lied his ass off on the stand
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we don't have transcripts as they are all under seal and we certainly don't know most of what was testified to but
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we do know that on the stand kastelski was asked about whether he had ever hunted in Langley County okay so the
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Department of Natural Resources records showed that he had yeah you can't handle
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the truth they also wanted to know if he owned a gun and whether he had ever sold drugs to
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Dan's on and on the stand kastelski was asked if he had ever sold drugs to Matthew Becker remember that name he was
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the guy that was already being charged in the embezzlement scandal at the same time that Kathy Namath was murdered yes
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Kietzke so Matthew Becker was the first employee of the elcho fire department to
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be charged in the embezzlement scandal in 2002. he was a co-worker of Kathy and David namis kastowski denied selling
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drugs to Becker but authorities had plenty of witnesses including Becker's wife who said that this in fact did
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happen so Becker was getting his drugs from the same person Daniel Zahn was getting his Supply from Donald kostelski
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why were this prolific local drug dealer was Donald costelski and his partner Brian schnarsky called to testify at
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hearings trying to get to the bottom of Kathy namus murder well we know that Kathy was on the verge
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of talking to investigators about the whole embezzlement ring and Matthew Becker her co-worker was involved in
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that along with her and was also connected to the drug dealers but there's more kastelski and schnarsky
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were also connected to David Namath her husband this is from the same news outlet that we've cited all day and all
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day yesterday and their report says Deputy John Shunk says investigators have looked at the case every which way
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possible they even took advantage of a court proceeding known as John Doe hearings during the secret of
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proceedings prosecutors found that two men who they asked to testify and who knew David Namath were not being
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truthful investigators believe they know more than they are letting on Kathy may
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have known these people obviously we can't completely confirm that Shunk said the pair were buddies of Matthew Beckers
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and police say had knowledge of the elcho area having spent time there hunting police say they have a theory as
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to why Kathy was murdered but without enough evidence to charge anyone with her murder they won't say what their
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theory is yeah that's pretty good that news release to me Captain is incredibly interesting because what were they
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saying before all of these Court proceedings was that we're not sure who murdered her or why yeah but then after
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these Court proceedings and after they become aware of these two drug dealers that were known to hunt in this area and
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then later lied about any knowledge of the area being in the area hunting in the area owning guns got them guns son
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now police are saying we have a theory but without any evidence without enough evidence to charge someone we're not
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comfortable with presenting what our theory is as to why and how Kathy Namath was murdered
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[Music] [Music] cheers to you Wisconsin cheers to everybody in the back in the front
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and everybody around the campfire cheers so this newer information tells us that authorities seem to believe that
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there was in fact some connection between David Kathy Matthew Becker and the drug
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dealers these guys the drug dealers had guns and frequented the area and are in fact
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sketchy criminals but we have no idea what if anything was uncovered because the information has
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never been made public we don't know the relationship between these men and David
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and we don't know whether they knew Kathy or she knew them well it seems to me like this in embezzlement was a
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little more in-depth than just oh I took some money here and there slap on the wrist there there could have been more
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involved there's been whole police departments that are stealing drugs stealing evidence when they arrest
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somebody if there's money on that person they just take the money because then use that money to have drug houses so
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where it seems like it's just a simple oh I'm overpaying myself here and there it could be way more complex than that
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possibly but what I see when I look at this thing is a situation where it very likely could simply be that David and
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Kathy were embezzling money so the tie between the the two drug dealers and Becker is this middle man zon who is a
00:24:23
much lower level drug dealer so you have the situation where multiple people are
00:24:29
embezzling money and are aware of what everybody's doing but you may have some people in that
00:24:37
Circle I believe it was a total of five people that they were investigating for the embezzlement
00:24:43
Kathy included but you may have two of them David and Kathy who were just simply paying themselves a little extra
00:24:50
taking a little off the top where this Becker character may have been involved in some other
00:24:57
situations outside of that his tie to the namith is that he's involved in this embezzlement Scandal as well right now
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what we do know is that castelski and schnarsky were both prosecuted for perjury after those John Doe hearings
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they both lied on the stand and the D.A knew that they were lying and ended up proving it well snarsky is a known liar
00:25:23
so kostalski was prosecuted for perjury a felony and convicted in September of 2010 after agreeing to a plea agreement
00:25:31
for two years probation pursuant to the plea agreement per w s a w news a judge ordered him to tell the truth to
00:25:41
investigators or risk going to prison there was a new sheriff that took over in that county and this is Sheriff
00:25:49
Greening who says that he doesn't know exactly how kastelski may have been involved in Kathy name is murder but he
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does think that he has information so the new sheriff not necessarily saying that this kastelski character right
00:26:04
committed the murder but the sheriff is on record as stating he's pretty confident that kostelski knows something
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has some kind of information that the sheriff's department does not have now your buddy Captain Brian schnarsky
00:26:20
they was prosecuted as well and you were right he he is a liar and the court of law says so right he
00:26:29
was found guilty of perjury after a jury trial and as a condition of his probation was required to give a DNA
00:26:36
sample again this all ties back to the Kathy Namath murder right now I couldn't find
00:26:42
this is what I wanted to figure out was kostalski the other liar pants on fire was he was
00:26:51
a part of his conditions of the plea agreement to give a DNA sample as well I'm guessing so I would think so and
00:27:00
that makes sense in this case because what we learn in Kathy namus murder investigation relatively quickly after
00:27:09
this or about the same time is that they do confirm we suspected it at the beginning of the investigation but it
00:27:16
was later confirmed that in fact they did have suspect DNA in her murder this comes from a February 2007 news report
00:27:26
that stated that Wisconsin State Crime Lab was able to isolate a male DNA profile from evidence found at the Kathy
00:27:35
Namath murder scene now whether this was DNA on the knife remember they recovered
00:27:40
the knife uh the knife handle yeah or this or on her person because she put up a fight
00:27:47
that's right or blood you know maybe they found some blood that they could confirm was not Kathy's at the scene as
00:27:54
you said put up a fight maybe there's maybe perhaps DNA under her fingernails well in this case if I'm law enforcement
00:28:01
right I'm looking at this case I go look how many people are going to know where
00:28:06
her parents cabin is located right that's that's the first now we we have people saying look nobody knew she was
00:28:14
going to go out there that night and then we have this embezzlement thing that's connected with her husband look
00:28:21
if this guy's willing to still a little bit of money from his work and because he he thinks he aren't he
00:28:29
earned it or whatever reason if he's willing to steal and lie maybe he's willing to
00:28:36
cheat on his wife who knows but if I'm law enforcement and I'm coming into this case I have all
00:28:42
those questions right away okay now we have a victim that struggled with her attacker with her murderer and we have
00:28:51
physical evidence first person I'm testing is her husband and what we have here Captain is the new
00:28:58
sheriff Bill Greening told the media in late February of 2007 that the sheriff's
00:29:04
department had already conducted 12 samples or I'm sorry had already collected 12 samples from quote Persons
00:29:11
of Interest for comparison to the suspect DNA sample that they had Now by March of 2008
00:29:19
so about one year later they go on record the sheriff's department goes on record saying that 24 persons had been
00:29:28
compared to the suspect sample with no luck so we've we've tested 24 people collected their DNA and tested it
00:29:36
against what we have the suspect DNA and we've not been able to make a match yet
00:29:41
now the sheriff did say that that 24 the 24 samples that they had included some Persons of Interest but did also include
00:29:52
some emergency Personnel who were responding to the scene right you got to do your due diligence and make sure you
00:29:59
clear them so that you're actually testing and comparing for suspect DNA that makes sense and as you said Captain
00:30:08
look we have David Namath and I don't have every bit of information on where he was what he was up to but it seems to
00:30:18
me he must have an Ironclad Alibi because we know that Kathy radioed about a scruffy looking man who she didn't
00:30:26
know who it was and then later David is responding to the scene with their son they must know where he was and feel
00:30:36
confident about where he was prior to him arriving at the murder scene yeah but just to do your due diligence I
00:30:43
think he would test him as well he's there before emergency workers are there so if you're going to test them
00:30:52
why not test him as well correct I'm not suggesting you don't I'm I'm just saying
00:30:57
that they I think we could con presume that yes they have that they have tested I agree I agree then let's Circle back
00:31:05
to the drug dealers because this is going to kind of come full circle well we wish that it would go full circle
00:31:12
maybe we'd have some answers but in 2008 there was a tip in February of 2008 Dan's on the drug
00:31:21
dealer from the 1999 deal contacted the sheriff's office with a tip Dan Zahn told officials that he had
00:31:28
information about the Kathy Namath murder and who was involved so they set up a meeting to talk in person on February
00:31:37
22nd unfortunately Zahn died before this meeting according to all the reports that we
00:31:44
could find Zahn passed away from quote unquote natural causes at the age of 42 on February 20th perhaps he was
00:31:53
ill someone posted on a message board that he had cancer and might have wanted to clear his
00:32:01
conscience before passing but then pass before he could do so the timing is really interesting to me I
00:32:08
mean you think he could have wrote it down or something well not only that like why not
00:32:15
meet with him as soon as possible right I mean right I'm not I don't want to question anybody or what they were doing
00:32:21
and maybe they didn't take him serious who knows maybe he didn't have good information we don't know because he was
00:32:27
unable to deliver the information but it's just weird to me that that these things seem to be that something like
00:32:35
this happened and this thing whatever information he was going to give to them could have broke this case wide open now
00:32:43
the Sheriff's Office did do their due diligence by going out and getting a search warrant and seizing his computer
00:32:51
his camera and other items from his home the day after he died if they found anything
00:33:00
on of interest it's not been released to the public so just to sum that up Dan's
00:33:06
on the drug dealer connected to the other drug dealers connected to the namus through an
00:33:13
unknown relationship but through this Becker guy that they worked with basically through the embezzlement he
00:33:20
said he had information about Kathy's death but dot but died before he could relay it
00:33:25
so anyone's guess is a good guess as to what information he was going to give to
00:33:31
authorities but doesn't this kind of prove it in your mind that her death is connected
00:33:37
to this embezzlement I feel like I I don't know that the embezzlement is the Catalyst for her murder I think it's
00:33:45
probably just one more thing that's involved in in something else that we may not be entirely aware of
00:33:53
that somebody in this circle is involved in now not to throw a big fat wrench into the whole thing but I
00:34:03
found this to be an interesting angle here Captain we'll try to throw a medium-sized wrench someone posted on a
00:34:11
Wisconsin website and this is this is uh what they posted it says Kathy Namath's murder investigation
00:34:19
wasn't conducted properly and is being Revisited the hardest part of the investigation includes tracking down the
00:34:27
people who were partying up at one of the cabins on Loon Lake that weekend they were never questioned to begin with
00:34:36
so tracking down who they were has been incredibly difficult so this makes it sound like one of the cabins up at Loon
00:34:44
Lake that weekend if this Anonymous tipster or poster is correct and being truthful and has good information that
00:34:54
there was some kind of party going on at one of those cabins and this person seems to have reason to
00:35:00
believe that these people were not investigated not questioned right away after the murder and so now that the
00:35:10
case is being Revisited remember we do have a new sheriff in town that tracking down anybody that could
00:35:16
have been there that night or in that general area is incredibly difficult because this is
00:35:22
years after the fact and not to go like too far off base but this kind of reminds me of of something maybe like a
00:35:32
Bundy would do and the sense of like oh if I'm going to go up and hang out with my buddies and we're going to party here
00:35:38
I'm now around this small Lake that has all these other occupants I mean it's pretty far-fetched I'm just
00:35:46
saying that's basically what it seems like this internet poster is or this internet
00:35:53
sleuth there is [Music] um presenting is that somebody at the party is responsible for her murder yes
00:36:02
somebody at one of these parties or and then you gotta Wonder like okay if you can tie these drug dealers to that area
00:36:09
which it sounds like the prosecutor did that's how they got the perjury convictions is it crazy to think that
00:36:16
they weren't there for a multitude of reasons right that they're there because of Kathy or they're there because of
00:36:23
this party and and didn't really know Kathy at all I mean it gets it's a very confusing murky situation and it's it's
00:36:32
a situation where they've not released a lot of information so it makes it very difficult to to really kind of grab a
00:36:39
hold of a theory and run with it like I think there's a lot of good theories out
00:36:44
there the husband could have been involved you always got to consider that and then you you put the icing on the
00:36:50
cake with the husband that he's involved in illegal activity anyway with the embezzlement Scandal but then again I
00:36:57
keep going back to it's not a ton of money Kathy's involved another guy the investigation was already like very
00:37:05
active so much so that another dude was already charged right so it almost seems
00:37:10
to me like if you were looking to cover up the embezzlement thing to begin with OR to silence Kathy Namath that you
00:37:17
would have done it well before this day that it seems a little late in that ball
00:37:22
game to be taking her out to shut her up well what's interesting in this case to me is
00:37:28
that they tested all these individuals for the DNA and I think it's very responsible to go hey we're going to
00:37:35
test the emergency responders so we know that okay we know whose DNA is on her so
00:37:42
I think law enforcement has to be sitting pretty again going hey we have DNA that we believe is a hundred percent
00:37:48
the killer of Miss ameth so if they have that why not start testing that DNA and
00:37:56
put it through the systems and and maybe you find you know a relative of somebody
00:38:01
well that wouldn't be putting it through the system but I hear you yeah I would guess that by this point they've already
00:38:07
put it through CODIS and that would be the system so that would be connecting it to any known
00:38:13
offender DNA that you already have on file so put it through that system which we don't have any statement you're right
00:38:19
Captain we don't have any statement that says in fact that they did that I'm guessing that they would have once
00:38:25
they've already started testing EMT workers and people that responded to the scene and then Persons of Interest but
00:38:31
you're right this if you do think that she was targeted I keep circling back to the idea that there wouldn't have been a
00:38:38
ton of people that would have known that she would have been there at that time on that day so your suspect list cannot
00:38:45
be that long if you're really locked in on that theory and now you have at least
00:38:52
24 people that you've cleared as far as not being a match to the DNA well but if
00:38:59
I'm in law enforcement this this case is frustrating because there's not a ton of
00:39:04
information I mean you know maybe there's way more behind closed doors that we don't know about this has gone
00:39:11
on for so long and it's pretty popular case at least in that area known around Loon Lake
00:39:19
test the DNA well and we are sitting here recording this episode in the garage exactly 19 years to the day that she was
00:39:31
murdered so 19 years have gone by and I don't know that we're any closer to this
00:39:37
than we were at the initial stages of the investigation the thing that I think is a real big kick in the in the pants
00:39:45
here is it this stands on passed away right and apparently he had some kind of information that he felt was necessary
00:39:53
to pass along to police literally literally 19 years and Perkins the thing with this case
00:40:03
Captain was I was excited to look into this one because I was suspicious of the husband because I was aware of the
00:40:10
embezzlement scandal on the surface I was aware that he was involved and then quickly learning that
00:40:17
she was involved as well made that angle of it not so of such great importance to me I really thought
00:40:25
that what we would be able to see here is take a look at him and his son responding to the scene what her words
00:40:32
were on that radio transmission and basing that off of look if you're responding to the scene and you you
00:40:40
killed her or you had someone kill her it's not ideal that she's still alive once First Responders are showing up and
00:40:49
may be able to give up the goose right and so I wanted to be able to look at that situation in that portion of this
00:40:55
case and be able to rule him in or out but it looks like even with the information that we've
00:41:03
talked about for the past hour or so I'm nowhere closer to knowing whether he was
00:41:09
involved or not like you said back in the last episode I think his Alibi is probably pretty solid
00:41:17
and then also by him taking his son to me that leans more towards innocent because
00:41:24
you have the possibility if you were involved somehow or she recognized the person and that
00:41:33
person was connected back to him that she if she was still alive she would be she would have the capability
00:41:40
of giving that information to her son and it's really unclear about the information that she was able to tell
00:41:49
her husband or not tell her husband you know what I mean we have to sit here and
00:41:52
go well were the authorities just kind of taking his word for it that he arrives on the scene and she says yeah I
00:41:58
don't know who the guy was I didn't you know I didn't recognize him I don't know
00:42:02
who my attacker was or did she say hey I recognize who the person was and her husband knows that he's connected
00:42:11
Loosely to this embezzlement that and that ties him together with this person and so he doesn't say anything to
00:42:19
protect himself the other thing too is we have the statement of police saying that it appears to them that that or
00:42:25
they have evidence it's not that it appears to us we have evidence that she was running from her attacker
00:42:32
and that put up a big fight and tried to get away from him doing everything she could you know it sounds to me like
00:42:40
things were Disturbed in the area that would give them evidence that she was fleeing this guy and I know that when
00:42:48
you look at Footprints and compare Footprints you can tell when somebody's running rather than walking and the
00:42:54
other thing you would have is you would have his Footprints running after her to kind
00:43:01
of confirm that what we don't have is we have very bad reporting on and this is no one's fault because it's not the
00:43:09
police's job to distribute this information to everyone but we don't have great reporting about the crime
00:43:15
scene itself right the reporter's fault we're told yeah but they what information are they
00:43:22
going to get if the police won't tell them anything what what we have here is we have the statement of well we don't
00:43:27
think she made it into the cabin we don't think that the cabin was burglarized we think that she fled the
00:43:33
attacker that there was some kind of Chase involved but we have really no information when it comes down to the
00:43:40
crime scene itself that's what I really wanted to get my hands on in this situation I wanted to know about her
00:43:46
vehicle when she sees this weird dude we know that there was something off-putting about him or his actions or
00:43:53
his look or whatever that was alarming enough to her that she felt the need to radio out to everyone
00:44:00
but why not jump in your vehicle and flee the scene why not try to barricade yourself inside the cabin or hide behind
00:44:08
the chainsaw why did those things not happen maybe she attempted to do one or both of those in the course of being
00:44:14
attacked it's again we just don't have enough information about the murder scene to really come to any type of
00:44:22
strong conclusions in this case it's it's really a sad case and I what I'm hoping
00:44:30
is that the sheriff the current sheriff is correct and right that DNA will solve
00:44:36
this case and thank God that they do seem to have suspect DNA in this case because it might be the only thing that
00:44:42
they do have you know I'm hoping that this case does not go cold there's not been a ton of movement on it
00:44:48
in the recent years and regardless of the embezzlement or whatever look none of us are perfect angels
00:44:55
but whatever happened to Kathy was horrible and Despicable and whether it was random or targeted it's very sad
00:45:03
there likely is a very bad man on the loose that's capable of stabbing someone to death
00:45:12
foreign [Music] make sure you subscribe to the podcast and make sure you check out our website
00:45:38
True Crime garage for everything true crime Colonel do we have any recommended reading how about a little recommended
00:45:45
listening Captain look we were off a couple of weeks ago and I got several emails from some of our beautiful weekly
00:45:51
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00:45:57
anything to listen to and my reply was the same each time sent them the following questions are you subscribed
00:46:04
to our other show the show that is sweeping the nation off the Record next week we are releasing off the Record
00:46:11
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that by going to truecrimegarage.com click on the off the Record link and start listening today thanks to everyone
00:46:36
for joining us this week here in the garage cheers to you Captain cheers to all the wonderful listeners out there
00:46:41
make sure you join us back here next week for a new case until then be good be kind and don't listen
00:46:52
foreign [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 70
    Most heartbreaking
  • 60
    Most shocking

Episode Highlights

  • Embezzlement Scandal Unfolds
    Local fire department employees, including Kathy's husband, were involved in a major embezzlement scandal.
    “Why would somebody get killed over a lousy few thousand dollars?”
    @ 04m 49s
    November 03, 2022
  • Kathy Namath's Murder Investigation
    Kathy Namath was murdered just days before she was to testify in an embezzlement case.
    “It's too big of a coincidence to not take a look at it.”
    @ 10m 14s
    November 03, 2022
  • The Embezzlement Connection
    Investigators suspect multiple people, including David and Kathy, were embezzling money.
    “It was a total of five people that they were investigating for the embezzlement.”
    @ 24m 40s
    November 03, 2022
  • DNA Evidence in Kathy's Case
    Suspect DNA was confirmed at the murder scene, raising hopes for a breakthrough.
    “They did have suspect DNA in her murder.”
    @ 27m 02s
    November 03, 2022
  • The Mysterious Tipster
    A drug dealer had information about Kathy's murder but died before sharing it.
    “Zahn died before this meeting.”
    @ 31m 41s
    November 03, 2022
  • New Episodes and Back Catalog
    Enjoy a new episode every other week and explore over 100 episodes in the back catalog.
    @ 46m 18s
    November 03, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • Why would somebody get killed over a lousy few thousand dollars?
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528
  • It's too big of a coincidence to not take a look at it.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528
  • I will cooperate and I will tell you everything that I know right now.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528
  • 19 years have gone by and I don't know that we're any closer.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528
  • Whatever happened to Kathy was horrible and despicable.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528
  • Cheers to you, Captain!
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 2 /// 528

Key Moments

  • Sipping on Lager01:09
  • Murder Investigation Begins02:56
  • Embezzlement Scandal02:59
  • Kathy's Last Words10:40
  • Embezzlement Scheme24:13
  • Mysterious Death31:49
  • 19 Years Later39:31
  • Listen Today46:33

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown