Search Captions & Ask AI

Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527

November 03, 2022 / 45:01

This episode covers the murder of Kathy Namath, a respected EMT, who was attacked in a remote cabin in Wisconsin. Key discussions include her distress call to her husband, the investigation into her death, and potential motives involving a local political scandal.

Kathy Namath was murdered on October 12, 2002, while visiting her parents' cabin at Loon Lake. She made a distress call to her husband, David Namath, reporting a scruffy man in a raincoat before the call abruptly ended. David, who was the fire chief, rushed to the scene but found Kathy barely alive with multiple stab wounds.

The investigation revealed that Kathy was targeted, as she was not expected at the cabin that evening. Authorities speculated that someone may have known she was going there, raising questions about whether the attack was random or premeditated.

As the investigation progressed, it was discovered that Kathy and her husband were involved in a fire department embezzlement scandal, which may have provided a motive for her murder. The episode discusses the implications of this scandal and how it could relate to her death.

Listeners are encouraged to share their thoughts on the case and join the conversation on the True Crime Garage blog.

TLDR

Kathy Namath was murdered in a Wisconsin cabin after making a distress call about a scruffy man, raising questions of targeted attack and embezzlement motives.

Episode

45:01
00:00:00
thank you [Music] [Music] welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you're doing thanks for
00:00:44
listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a typical sneaker head just
00:00:48
working here for the store discount here is the captain yeah get you some it's good to be seen and good to see you
00:00:55
thanks for listening thanks for telling a friend foreign this week we are very excited to be
00:01:06
featuring Muni lot that's right Cleveland you heard me correctly Browns got a big game this weekend in the muni
00:01:13
lot will be bumping city of Cleveland this is a fan inspired lager from a new and Brilliant brewing company called
00:01:20
unplugged Brewing out of Elyria Ohio I've sampled a lot of their beers and I'm telling you all expect big things
00:01:28
from this new brewer unplugged Brewing Company garage grade for Muni lot logger four out of five bottle caps and here's
00:01:36
some peeps I'd love to party with in the muni lot first up a big cheers to Michael in Cleveland United Kingdom and
00:01:42
a big cheers to Amanda in Knoxville Tennessee next up we have a big cheers to Laney in Wyandotte Michigan a big
00:01:49
shout out to mule in Birmingham England here's a big huge cheers with a Ron Swanson please and thank you to new
00:01:57
friend of the show Sally p and Chillicothe Ohio everyone we just mentioned Captain well they went to
00:02:03
Troop crime garage.com and clicked on the Donate button and helped us out with this week's beer funding for that we
00:02:10
thank you yeah BW double r u n beer run if you're a brewing company and you would like for us to taste your fancy
00:02:19
schmancy beers send them to us and that is enough of the business all right everybody gather around grab a
00:02:27
chair grab a beer let's talk some true crime [Music] I got you foreign [Applause]
00:02:48
[Music] this week's True Crime Story involves one of the more terrifying murder scenes that we have covered
00:03:15
the female victim makes a distress call from a remote isolated wooded area where she is alone
00:03:23
her husband is on the other end when the call is abruptly cut off the husband knows something terrible has
00:03:31
happened he rushes to find her but it is too late by the time he gets to her she is in her
00:03:40
death throws and the scene was bloody and chaotic someone had it in for this woman
00:03:48
this was not a random crime but who knew where she would be that day in the Wisconsin Woods
00:03:56
and who would Target this middle-aged wife and mother she was an upstanding public servant
00:04:02
with no known enemies this is true crime garage and this is the case of Kathy Namath
00:04:12
[Music] it was October 12 2002 in rural Lang laid County Wisconsin we have 43 year
00:04:32
old Kathy Namath who lived in elcho a tiny idyllic town of about 1200 or so residents in the northern part of
00:04:41
Wisconsin this is a Saturday now on this Saturday evening around 7 P.M Kathy got
00:04:48
into her car and drove to Loon Lake which is located about 25 miles north of Antigo the county seat and it's about a
00:04:58
13-minute drive from downtown elcho Loon Lake is in a very remote and unsettled area that is mostly used by hunters
00:05:06
campers and summer cabin dwellers that's where Kathy was headed she is going there because her parents have a cabin
00:05:13
on the lake but she's not going there to meet her parents because Kathy's parents
00:05:18
had left the area for Florida earlier that day they intended to stay in Florida for several months of course to
00:05:26
avoid the upcoming Wisconsin winter they had closed up their cabin for the season so around 7 PM Kathy decided to
00:05:34
head out to the lake house to clear out her parents freezer which had a big supply of frozen meat inside
00:05:40
now unfortunately something terrible happened when she went up to her parents cabin she was murdered up there and
00:05:47
because she went there alone we are not left with a whole lot of definitive information about how it all went down
00:05:54
but we can take an old look and see approach here Captain so this whole scene seems to me to be like right out
00:06:03
of Friday the 13th or some other horror movie featuring an isolated wooded cabin
00:06:09
in the forest The Rustic cabin was located on Loon Lake Lane which winds its way through the dense woods around
00:06:18
the lake turning into a dirt road house is there from my understanding appear to
00:06:24
be very far or somewhat far apart and separated by large thickly wooded areas so no neighbors are right next door to
00:06:33
one another it was a rainy evening and Kathy drove up to the lake house by herself and parked her car outside of
00:06:41
the cabin it was after 7 PM so in October you know anybody can check their phone that lives in the midwest it would
00:06:50
be dark or nearly dark at this time looking at my phone right now Captain it's October 12th 19 years later and
00:06:58
we're set for a sunset at 6 58 p.m right so it would be dark or nearly dark by the time she arrives according to later
00:07:07
reports Kathy did not make it inside the cabin the next thing that we know that happened was a radio transmission from
00:07:17
her handheld EMT radio Okay so she goes and makes this trip by herself we know she arrives at the cabin she Parks
00:07:27
outside for whatever reason we have investigators later telling us that we do not believe that she ever made it
00:07:34
into the cabin and before she can get into the cabin she's going to use her EMT radio to make a call now Kathy was a
00:07:43
well-respected senior EMT in elcho and was also employed on the ambulance Squad in town as well as the fire department
00:07:51
she's quite busy with these two different jobs now because of her position she had a radio at her disposal
00:07:59
and it sounds to me like she's carrying this thing most places if not everywhere
00:08:03
that she goes on this day she's going to use it to call for help for herself or we can surmise that right
00:08:11
here is the very brief transmission that went out from Kathy's radio and it says this is 96. so that's her
00:08:22
radio ID number there's a man with a raincoat and he's scruffy looking and dot dot dot the transmission abruptly
00:08:32
cut off so one more time captain that is this is 96 there's a man with a raincoat
00:08:39
and he's scruffy looking and the transmission cuts off all right a couple of things just to get one out of
00:08:46
the way hello Wisconsin if you look up Loon Lake in Wisconsin it seems like there's multiple loon Lakes we're
00:08:53
talking about the one that is 44 acres and has a maximum depth of 13 feet according to articles about the case
00:09:02
Kathy's abbreviated radio transmission went out to multiple authorities this is one of those instances that someone
00:09:10
radios to a specific channel that is monitored by others in the same department or division so her
00:09:17
transmission was apparently heard by several people now one of these people Captain will be Kathy's husband David
00:09:24
Namath David Namath was the fire chief in elcho so of course he had his radio on him as well and he heard his wife's
00:09:35
message of seeing a scruffy man and then it cuts off and then several articles we
00:09:40
found said that the trans Mission ended when the signal was lost so it's totally unclear to me whether
00:09:48
this means that Kathy was attacked at that moment or something caused her to drop her radio right or
00:09:58
whether for some reason the signal failed halfway through whatever she was trying to communicate to everyone else
00:10:04
and the transmission dropped either way this spells disaster for Kathy remember she's alone out in this area now there
00:10:16
may be other people at some of these cabins but if any of them are following her parents lead they're packing up and
00:10:24
leaving for the winter at some point may have already done so regardless of who else is up there
00:10:30
who owns these cabins there's a good deal of distance from Cabin to cabin right and so again she might as well be
00:10:39
all by herself according to sheriff stagger Kathy's tone of voice showed she was in danger David tried to radio back
00:10:49
to his wife asking what was going on and there's no response on Kathy's end David accompanied by his son and Kathy's
00:11:01
son Nick they jumped in the vehicle and drove to this cabin one of the things I think law enforcement is going to have
00:11:09
to deal with in this case is that some of these cabins probably are rental cabins or there's probably campgrounds
00:11:16
close by where so make it just camp out for the night when they arrive on the scene they see
00:11:24
Kathy lying on the ground and there's blood all over her she had been stabbed multiple times but she was still alive
00:11:31
when they get there now David radioed for assistance telling the dispatcher that Kathy had at least five stab wounds
00:11:40
that he could see including one to her neck saying that she is breathing semi-conscious he told the dispatcher he
00:11:50
said that he needed an ambulance right away now it's hard to imagine David and his son's anxiety and panic as they
00:11:59
awaited the ambulance which had to come from at minimum 13 minutes away if it was stationed in the closest town of
00:12:07
elcho w-s-a-w News 7 reported some important information on the case the station
00:12:16
reported that David along with their son Nick found Kathy barely alive just moments after the attack David said he
00:12:25
asked Kathy who the attacker was and she said she did not know him shortly after
00:12:31
this she died the article went on to say while calling for help Kathy described her attacker as being average height
00:12:41
with a bushy beard wearing a raincoat we know this isn't entirely accurate as Kathy's radio transmission did not
00:12:50
contain all of that information but perhaps the part about the average height in the beard were descriptors
00:12:58
that she was able to give to her husband it's a little unclear where this information and how this information
00:13:03
came from Kathy to whomever right right after she's attacked but several years later we have wsaw that reported that
00:13:13
Kathy was never asked about who had harmed her as she was near death when she was found so we really don't know
00:13:21
what's true here from this statement we have the same news agency reporting two different
00:13:28
things at different times in regards to the same situation right it seems like the only info we can really rely on is
00:13:36
factual is what was in her original transmission or at least that's what I'm choosing to
00:13:43
look at is what is factual in this case right with the transmission the radio transmission we have multiple ear
00:13:50
Witnesses correct and again that the guy whoever this guy was was scruffy and wearing a raincoat so
00:13:59
the average height thing again was that something she told to her husband and he later relays it to others
00:14:06
what it sounds like from this additional report the later report from wsaw is that doesn't it kind of imply that she
00:14:15
does not tell that to the ambulance Personnel or to EMT well like you said when the husband comes upon her if that
00:14:23
part of the story is true hey who did this I don't know but then the description happens and then everybody
00:14:32
else gets there and and then at some point she wouldn't be talking at that point yeah right able to communicate
00:14:38
anything about the attack or her attacker at that time and I think that that's what we have to go with here
00:14:43
Captain because what we do know is that once the ambulance arrived the EMT that was the first responder on the scene
00:14:52
tells the dispatcher at that time that the victim was still conscious but barely
00:14:58
so again I think you're spot on there with if she told anybody anything it would have been her husband who we know
00:15:05
arrived at least 13 minutes before an ambulance could be on the scene Kathy made it to Marshfield hospital after
00:15:14
being airlifted to the hospital but died soon thereafter the Lang laid Sheriff's
00:15:22
Office led by Sheriff Dave Steger along with the Antigo police began a joint homicide investigation so obviously with
00:15:31
the stab wounds and the radio transmission we know from Jump Street this is absolutely a homicide and we
00:15:41
have two agencies looking into this case and investigating what went down there near the cabin at Loon Lake could just
00:15:49
take a second again to go over that description I know the description is in question whether he she told that to her
00:15:56
husband or not but can you just go over that real quick one more time okay so the radio transmission was this is 96.
00:16:04
there's a man with a raincoat and he's scruffy looking and and then it cuts off and then what that first news article
00:16:14
States is that David says he asked Kathy who the attacker was and she said she did
00:16:23
not know him right shortly after she died the article went on to say while calling for help Kathy described her
00:16:31
attacker as being average height with a bushy beard wearing a raincoat again I hate to keep kind of spinning our tires
00:16:40
on this thing here but the way that the wording is in the the report just does not seem to be anything of accuracy at
00:16:49
all because it states while calling for help this is what she said when we when we know in fact the radio transmission
00:16:55
heard by multiple ear Witnesses none of them say that she said he's of average height right and it seems like something
00:17:03
bizarre to say in that situation right if you're radioing to begin with that you're you're afraid or something wrong
00:17:12
is happening does anybody go out of their way to say he's of average height yeah I think it's vernacular that she
00:17:18
would use in her job so that's why it's it's believable to me that she said it to somebody but also with eyewitnesses
00:17:26
or ear Witnesses people get things wrong so maybe three people heard it different
00:17:32
and one of the three people or whoever heard her initial uh communication maybe one person heard
00:17:41
that she actually said average height I could see that too I mean we have training that goes into these jobs these
00:17:47
very important jobs and these are people that are thrown into situations that can
00:17:52
be stressful chaotic maybe she just the training kicked in as you said and just goes right into
00:18:00
terminology and things that she would describe the best that she can given the situation right now a little bit about
00:18:08
Kathy nameth before we move too far into this investigation Kathy was really a normal hard-working woman she was 43
00:18:18
years old at the time of her Murder She was a wife and a mother she lived with her husband and son Nick in elcho and
00:18:26
was very involved with her job as a medical worker and EMT after her death her co-worker Jerry Dobbs told wsaw 7
00:18:35
News quote she loved her family she loved her children and her husband she was one of the most caring people I knew
00:18:43
end quote her husband David told the station that her parents cabin was her favorite place on Earth it was
00:18:51
Unthinkable that that that was where she had been attacked and brutally slain says that we just couldn't believe it
00:18:58
disbelief there were several people that were on the scene that day that had to go through a stress debriefing afterward
00:19:06
because of the trauma and seeing what they experienced now on to the investigation and we have a quick
00:19:14
statement from the langlade County district attorney who said this is early on in the investigation
00:19:22
Captain says we're not ruling anything out at this point I don't know that there's anything that suggests that the
00:19:29
public has to be terrified of a random attack but at the same time it's certainly a good idea to be on the alert
00:19:38
this ambiguous statement wasn't particularly helpful as members of the public were frightened and of course
00:19:45
they should be right Kathy Namath was attacked and murdered in an isolated but commonly visited and very safe
00:19:53
recreational spot and no one seemed to have any idea by whom or even why she was killed
00:20:01
concerns about a deranged murderer lurking in the woods this is on people's minds and they're terrified right if you
00:20:10
haven't already packed up your cabin and left for the winter now's a great time to get out of Dodge well a lot of these
00:20:16
Lake communities there's not even much crime at all let alone a murder taking place correct and the weird radio
00:20:24
transmission there's a man here he's scruffy looking wearing a raincoat now Kathy was tough and she did not go down
00:20:33
without a fight we couldn't get a copy of the autopsy report but Sheriff stagger himself is on
00:20:41
record commenting in regards to defensive wounds on her body saying it looked like the victim put up a fight
00:20:49
there could be some scratches and bruises on the perpetrator this is what he told the media according to reports
00:20:56
the autopsy concluded that no surprise Kathy had died from multiple stab wounds but it got even stranger and this next
00:21:04
portion of the story was not reported until well after the homicide which is Bizarro to me but according to wsaw 7
00:21:14
News evidence at the scene shows Kathy was chased through the property and she used whatever she could to fight off her
00:21:23
killer but in the end multiple stab wounds were fatal foreign [Music] [Music] cheers everybody cheers to you Captain
00:22:01
cheers to all the people in the back and the people in the back will be they will
00:22:05
want to hear about this so I guess there is a Amy mihalovic walk that is coming up Wednesday October 27th and that will
00:22:15
be on the unfortunate anniversary of the day that she was abducted from my understanding Captain this starts at 5
00:22:22
pm at the Bay Village Middle School now we know that she went from the Middle School down to the shopping plaza and
00:22:29
left with her eventual killer from that shopping plaza the walk will be a short one it will be from the middle school
00:22:37
and then to the plaza and then back where they will be placing a newly engraved stone at a memorial site so if
00:22:47
anyone in the Bay Village area or surrounding areas please go out show your support for the mohalovic family
00:22:55
for Amy and for the community in general and join the walk for Amy if you want to
00:23:03
double check on any of the details that I just tried to pass along here or want more information you can find that at
00:23:12
walkforamie.org so what actually happened at the cabin it looks like police really are not quite sure what
00:23:21
happened at the cabin that day they stated that all motives were on the table but they seem to have at least partially
00:23:28
ruled out a burglary as investigators did not believe that the cabin was burglar rised it appears that Kathy
00:23:37
never even made it as far as getting into the cabin itself so to me Captain when I see that
00:23:44
information it makes me wonder if you're saying hey we don't think that burglary
00:23:48
was the motive here and we don't think that Kathy made it into the cabin there must be something indicating that
00:23:56
neither the killer or Kathy made it into the cabin and this could be was it was the cabin
00:24:03
still locked was it found locked or was nothing Disturbed or broken or out of place it could be any of these factors
00:24:12
but what is also unclear is why authorities drew the conclusion that they overtly stated they did not
00:24:19
believe that the attack was random that Kathy was a Target again bits of information coming out statements from
00:24:28
the police but no real evidence or nothing to tell us how they came to these conclusions and nothing backing up
00:24:37
those conclusions themselves now one article we were able to dig up contains some facts that might explain why
00:24:45
investigators believe that Kathy was specifically singled out for this violent murderous attack keep in mind
00:24:53
we're talking about multiple stab wounds here people this is an up close and personal attack on Kathy and ameth
00:25:00
here's a piece from wsa W News 7 that ran October 15 2002 so just three days after the
00:25:10
homicide it says investigators say a killer waited in the cold and the dark outside an
00:25:17
empty cabin to murder Kathy Namath Namath was attacked and stabbed outside her parents empty cabin around 7 pm on
00:25:25
that Saturday the cabin was closed for the season and namith wasn't expected that line has always confused me I've
00:25:32
returned to that line from this news article many times and cannot figure out exactly what that is supposed to mean
00:25:41
I'll repeat that line and continue on it says the cabin was closed for the season
00:25:46
and nameth Kathy wasn't expected yeah hold on a second so we have isn't that confusing we have law
00:25:54
enforcement saying that we think she was targeted but if she wasn't expected to be at the cabin how would that person
00:25:59
Target her exactly unless they were following her there but at the same time says
00:26:05
a killer waited in the cold in the dark outside the empty cabin right meaning that they didn't follow her there that
00:26:12
they were there all along do you feel like this is kind of taking like some kind of it could just be bad reporting
00:26:19
though right it could be bad reporting and it could be like throwing in some creativity like rather than just giving
00:26:25
us the facts that there's some kind of Storytelling angle to the story which I know that's
00:26:34
what we do here in the garage but frankly I hate it when other people do it let us tell the stories I appreciate
00:26:40
it when people stick to the facts man that's right okay so the article goes on to say that leads
00:26:46
investigators to believe the killer wasn't someone who followed Namath in from town but rather someone who knew
00:26:52
she was going out to the cabin that night it's such a contradictory statement right
00:26:58
someone that knew she was going out to the cabin that night but Namath wasn't expected
00:27:03
again it could just be bad reporting or bad wording as far as that goes this all
00:27:08
begs the question whether someone had in fact drove to the cabin and waited for Kathy's arrival if so
00:27:16
did the killer Park his vehicle somewhere hidden had he left tire tracks that police were
00:27:25
able to find why were they so sure someone was waiting there for her and who knew that
00:27:33
she was heading up to the cabin that evening right it doesn't seem to me like you're
00:27:38
going to have a whole long list of people that would have known that she was going
00:27:42
to the cabin now maybe when they say Kathy Namath wasn't expected means this isn't something that she
00:27:51
planned out the day before or a week in advance or anything like that anything prior maybe it was more of oh Mom and
00:28:00
Dad called me said they've left the cabin or were leaving the cabin I don't have anything to do this evening
00:28:07
or I have some free time this evening tonight would be a convenient time for me to go but again it goes back to if
00:28:14
you are thinking that she's targeted and you said that statement to the public I can't believe that that list of people
00:28:21
that would have known that she would be going to the cabin would be very long at
00:28:25
all so it could only have been someone she told of her plans again based off of the police Theory because it does not
00:28:34
sound from this report as though someone followed her rather someone anticipated
00:28:38
her arrival and as we said it was someone she did not know that's her words she did not know her attacker or
00:28:47
did not recognize them based off of the excerpt from her radio transmission if she knew that it was John or Charlie or
00:28:56
Bill or Bob wouldn't she say on the radio hey Bill's up here Charlie's up here no she says there's a
00:29:05
man up here wearing a raincoat and he's scruffy looking but maybe what they mean
00:29:10
by all this is that a killer was in the area 44 acre Lake that's not that big of a
00:29:18
lake right and if you look at Loon Lake Lane the road that the cabin was off of right
00:29:27
it's pretty much one way in and one way out unless you're gonna go off-roading it's one way in and one way out so even
00:29:34
though there's people that are staying there or are packing up for the winter so again she's not expected to be there
00:29:43
but this killer is there maybe looking for a victim yeah and that makes you wonder if could there have
00:29:51
been somebody else that has reason to be there like another cabin owner or somebody that has reason to be there
00:29:58
that says you know at 5 or 5 30 I saw a vehicle that I've never seen in this area before it was a man driving and he
00:30:06
was kind of scruffy looking but that's the best the best of the of my recollection of what I have and we do
00:30:14
know right one fact we do know is when Kathy approximately arrives at the cabin so if we have somebody telling police
00:30:23
behind closed doors some kind of statement like this that has not reached our ear balls yet
00:30:29
then we can assume that that's what they're building this Theory off of that we have
00:30:36
someone who reported a similar looking individual as vague as that description is but arriving in the area well before
00:30:44
we know Kathy to have been there I mean they're not stating it's a yellow raincoat but I wonder if it's something
00:30:52
that's so blatantly obvious like you said a neighbor sees somebody walking around
00:30:58
their property and says why I saw a man in a raincoat the other thing too you also have to wonder about if he is
00:31:06
waiting there to Ambush Kathy when she arrives how does one individual know which cabin
00:31:14
belongs to Kathy's parents yeah good point there's other cabins to choose from there I'm imagining that they don't
00:31:22
look too drastically different or at least the plots of land would look too crazy
00:31:28
different I mean we're talking about Woods here now this is where we're going to take a
00:31:34
sharp left here all right are you buckled in there captain a few days after the murder police said
00:31:40
they were looking for a man who was believed to have been the last person to see Kathy
00:31:46
this was a guy who had seen Kathy at the elcho laundry mat two friends of Kathy's said that they
00:31:54
saw her at the laundromat that Saturday afternoon and they also saw some guy there doing his laundry they described
00:32:03
this guy and his truck to police who were able to track him down it turned out that he was just a guy who was doing
00:32:12
his laundry at the laundromat that Saturday apparently he says he does his laundry every Saturday at that same
00:32:18
laundromat and he happened to be there at the same time as Kathy so it looks like police get this lead from her
00:32:25
friends they are able to track down this guy even though we don't have his name and must have determined that he didn't
00:32:32
have anything to do with her homicide probably didn't have anything to do with really Kathy at all that they just
00:32:39
happened to be at the same laundromat on the day that she is later murdered well
00:32:43
is it possible that she was doing laundry and was like yeah this guy's a little strange mentioned that to her
00:32:49
friends and then that's how they tracked him down down or why they decided to track him down or he may have come
00:32:56
forward they say that they're looking for an individual we don't know who he is but we do have the description of his
00:33:02
vehicle so we're not talking about an area where there's a ton of people right so they may have been able to just check
00:33:08
some driver's licenses some vehicle registrations and get a short list of individuals that owned a truck with that
00:33:16
type of description the investigation continued following the typical protocols police canvassed the area near
00:33:23
the cabin and spoke to Residents to see if they had seen anything strange or had
00:33:29
anything to report at all on October 17th so this is five days after the homicide Sheriff stagger told the Wausau
00:33:39
Herald that we've talked to probably everybody that lives in elcho by now so we have eliminated some possible
00:33:47
suspects and we're continuing to do that they traced Kathy's la movements which is what led them to the laundromat guy
00:33:56
and they dug into Kathy's life which revealed something intriguing that we will get to in a minute now police
00:34:04
hinted around a couple times about having a few suspects and you can see that based off
00:34:10
of just that last statement that we relayed to you but it's not really clear whether
00:34:16
this is actually true or not right that we have a few suspects we're not naming anybody we're not saying why these
00:34:24
people would be suspects so it's not clear if that's actually true or just how viable these suspects or likely the
00:34:32
suspects would be but it sounds like they feel confident that they've spoke to everybody and may even have cleared
00:34:39
some people at this point in the early stages of their investigation well I know that her husband went up there with
00:34:47
their son but where was his whereabouts before that when he actually heard her transmission well and that's very
00:34:55
interesting right because if you are look we there's no getting around it you got to look at the husband you got to
00:35:03
look at the boyfriend in all of these cases could it be something as simple as he set her up that this could be some
00:35:11
kind of hit that he purposely was putting himself in a different location when this went down and how many times
00:35:20
have we reviewed cases and the other person you look at is who finds the body so kind of a double whammy here but
00:35:27
whammy again how we go back to how many people would have known that she would have been here if if in fact this is not
00:35:36
a random murder if in fact that there wasn't some Maniac lurking in the woods with a knife and a raincoat
00:35:46
then how many people would have known that she was going there around 7 P.M on that Saturday in early October and and
00:35:55
known that this was a good opportunity to do whatever it was they intended to do right you would also have to know
00:36:01
that that you're not going to have to be to to come across her parents or other people and again
00:36:08
how do you discern their cabin from everybody else's one you said too it didn't take long for her husband to get
00:36:14
there so I'm assuming the cabin's not that far from her actual house my issue with that
00:36:21
becomes if there is any infidelity in that relationship well when the grandparents aren't there you have a
00:36:29
pretty easy getaway you know I have to rent a room at a hotel or go to that person's house we can just sneak off to
00:36:37
the cabin it makes me wonder is that a possibility as well well I was going to save this for later but because of of
00:36:47
your your questions and comments I think it would be it would be right to introduce and kind of examine this now
00:36:54
before we move too far along another thing that's kind of unclear here Captain is really the timing of the
00:37:03
whole day once we involve not just Kathy of course but David her husband and her son Nick so it's unclear
00:37:12
to me the timing on the distress call and the husband's arrival because it's been reported multiple
00:37:20
times but it's really all over the shop it's all over the place one article says
00:37:25
that David and Nick arrived minutes after the attack which you know we've talked about this
00:37:31
on this show before you you use the words minutes or moments or soon after it doesn't really give an exact
00:37:39
definitive time of the distance you know the the lapse of time between one act in the other and so it gets a
00:37:49
little hazy just using those words in general but we have that one article that says David and Nick arrived minutes
00:37:57
after the attack which makes no sense given how remote this area was and then several articles say that she radioed at
00:38:04
7 38 pm one article says that David arrived at 7 44 PM one article says that David
00:38:12
arrived 32 minutes after Kathy radioed so it seems to me that there had to be there has to be a lag of time between
00:38:21
her radio distress call right and the time that David arrived 738 seems to be the most reported time
00:38:30
of that distress call she arrives sometime after 7 pm at the cabin she's attacked or is aware that
00:38:39
she's in danger enough to make that distress call and then David and Nick arrived to offer help or to find their
00:38:48
mother and wife maybe they arrived at 7 38 pm and that's where we're getting we're getting these times from but it is
00:38:57
unclear I want to make sure that we are clear about how unclear it is on the exact timing of a the distress call and
00:39:06
B husband David's arrival to find his wife unfortunately lying there covered in blood in the woods yeah clear that
00:39:16
they're unclear now three months after the murder the Wausau Daily Herald reported that the case had stalled
00:39:26
so we're roughly 90 days in and they're kind of hinting at that this thing is starting to get chilly it's starting to
00:39:33
get a little cold this was kind of surprising because as it turns out there were some there was some physical
00:39:40
evidence from the crime scene as you recall Kathy had defensive wounds that led investigators to believe that she
00:39:47
had scratched her assailant put up some kind of fight perhaps she even drew blood from the killer presumably lab
00:39:55
techs would have been able to obtain the perpetrator's DNA from Kathy and then we
00:40:02
find out that they did have the knife they had the knife that is responsible for her murder apparently
00:40:08
a knife was found at the scene investigators sent that knife and some unspecified items of clothing
00:40:16
and blood samples to a state crime lab for analysis and at this time even though we're hearing these rumors that
00:40:25
the case is going cold seems like there's a lot going on under the surface here they were waiting for results
00:40:33
in this case and this is now January of 2003 that they have this information they've sent it off to the lab and we're
00:40:41
waiting for the results but there was other big news to hit the headlines in regards to Kathy's murder
00:40:48
one of the Articles was titled elcho a buzz over killing and of course they're talking about Kathy's murder this was
00:40:56
because there were reports that investigators were looking into whether Kathy's murder was related to a local
00:41:02
political scandal what happened was Kathy and her husband David had been just two of several fire
00:41:11
department employees so I want to be clear about that there were multiple people involved in this situation not
00:41:17
just Kathy and David but these were fire department employees who served on the elcho fire department
00:41:24
executive board and along with three other employees the namith's shared control of a bank account containing
00:41:32
funds belonging to the eljo fire department so just five days just five days before
00:41:40
Kathy was killed Town leaders dissolved the fire department's executive board and you only do that when they're up to
00:41:48
no good right the board was responsible for Appropriations among other things so
00:41:55
they're in charge of these funds in this bank account Kathy David assistant fire
00:42:01
chief Bob Jensen and two others were essentially removed from a position of authority at the fire department and
00:42:11
from having access to the Department's bank account this was as a result of assistant fire chief Bob Jensen bringing
00:42:20
to the attention to the town board some months earlier that money was disappearing from the account so someone
00:42:29
was embezzling the fire department's funds and had been for some time and in connection with all of this David
00:42:38
Namath was suspended as fire chief suspended with pay on October 7th assistant chief Jensen The Whistleblower
00:42:48
was appointed interim Chief and all the fire department records were seized as the investigation into the embezzlement
00:42:56
got underway well if she has connections to the account is it possible that an individual realized that she might
00:43:07
hold the answers somehow and that would jeopardize this person's career and and maybe even freedom and that that would
00:43:17
be a reason to get rid of Kathy yes this is going to call all kinds of things into question here in regards to her
00:43:26
homicide and this whole embezzlement scandal foreign [Music] and like always we want to hear your
00:44:04
thoughts on the case so if you have some thoughts and opinions please share those
00:44:08
with us on our blog at truecrime garage.com and join us back here tomorrow in the garage until then be
00:44:16
good be kind and don't litter [Music]

Badges

This episode stands out for the following:

  • 80
    Most shocking
  • 75
    Most heartbreaking
  • 70
    Most dramatic
  • 70
    Most surprising

Episode Highlights

  • The Case of Kathy Namath
    Kathy Namath was brutally murdered in a remote area, leaving her family and community in shock.
    “This was not a random crime, but who knew where she would be that day?”
    @ 04m 00s
    November 03, 2022
  • A Distress Call
    Kathy made a chilling radio transmission before her murder, describing a scruffy man in a raincoat.
    “There's a man with a raincoat and he's scruffy looking...”
    @ 08m 15s
    November 03, 2022
  • A Community in Fear
    Kathy's murder left the public terrified, fearing a deranged murderer in their midst.
    “This ambiguous statement wasn't particularly helpful as members of the public were frightened.”
    @ 19m 41s
    November 03, 2022
  • The Mysterious Cabin
    A killer waited outside an empty cabin to murder Kathy Namath, raising questions about how the attacker knew she was there.
    “A killer waited in the cold in the dark.”
    @ 26m 05s
    November 03, 2022
  • Confusing Statements
    Law enforcement claimed Kathy was targeted, yet she wasn't expected at the cabin, creating contradictions.
    “It's such a contradictory statement.”
    @ 26m 56s
    November 03, 2022
  • Investigation Stalls
    Three months after Kathy's murder, the investigation is reported to be stalling despite physical evidence.
    “This is going to call all kinds of things into question regarding her homicide.”
    @ 43m 21s
    November 03, 2022

Episode Quotes

  • This is absolutely a homicide and we have two agencies looking into this case.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527
  • It was unthinkable that she had been attacked and brutally slain.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527
  • Kathy was tough and she did not go down without a fight.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527
  • A killer waited in the cold in the dark.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527
  • How many people would have known that she was going there?
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527
  • This is going to call all kinds of things into question regarding her homicide.
    Cathy Nameth /// Part 1 /// 527

Key Moments

  • Murder Scene03:10
  • Community Shock04:00
  • Distress Call08:15
  • Investigation Begins15:44
  • Killer Waited25:12
  • Contradictory Statements26:56
  • Investigation Stalls39:23
  • Embezzlement Scandal42:29

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown