THE DARK SIDE OF NEBRASKA
John Oldson
#78153
photo courtesy NDCS
Full Name: John R. Oldson
DOB: June 17, 1966
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Howard
City: Ord
Current Status: Tecumseh State Correctional Center
Date of Crime: May 31, 1989
Victim: Catherine "Cathy" Beard
DOB: June 17, 1966
Charge: 2nd degree murder
County: Howard
City: Ord
Current Status: Tecumseh State Correctional Center
Date of Crime: May 31, 1989
Victim: Catherine "Cathy" Beard
Cathy Beard, courtesy KETV News
John Oldson, 47, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1989 death of Cathy Beard. Cathy Beard was last seen leaving the Some Place Else tavern in Ord with John on May 31, 1989. The skeletal remains of the 31-year old waitress were found in a rural Valley County pasture three years later. A forensic pathologist explained that a team of experts were on hand during the examination of Cathy's remains in 1992. After the examination, he ruled the death a homicide and determined the cause of death to be blunt force trauma to the head and trunk. He said stab wounds to the rib and vertebrae would have contributed to her death. John had been long suspected of killing Cathy and dumping her body. Witnesses saw the two talking at the bar the night she vanished.
Cathy's body has been exhumed three times in the past 20 years to try and solve the case. It was hard on Cathy's mother, who lived with Cathy in 1989, and claims John would often drive down the alley past their house after Cathy went missing. Judge Noakes called Cathy's death "vicious and violent," and told John the maximum sentence was, in part, to protect the public. She referenced his prior sexual assault and child abuse convictions before sentencing him.
In 2012, John's mother came forward with diary pages mailed to her son's home after his arrest. Not everyone's convinced, but Ann Rasmussen says the pages point the finger away from her son and points it at two brothers and one of their wives and a ranch near Chambers. The small diary pages, copied six to a sheet, give a twisted, out-of-order account of girls being shackled, held in a cave, bred by the brothers with complicity by the wife, interspersed with talk of sick cattle and visits to town.
Ann turned the pages over to the Nebraska Public Advocacy Commission, which represents her son, after they were mailed to his Randolph, Missouri, home in March. Sharon Bald Eagle, 12, and Karen Weeks, 28, went missing in 1984 and 1987, both from Native reservations in South Dakota. Jill Cutshall, 9, was last seen in 1987 on her way to her babysitter's in Norfolk. Cathy, 31, went missing from the bar in Ord, her body found on April 26, 1992. "It's not easy reading," Ann said of the diary's contents. "It's pretty disgusting."
In the pages, the female writer jotted down after her husband's death in 1989, and says her brother-in-law helped "get rid of all evdence [sic] here. Caved in hole on hill so no one finds 3 other girls." That's followed by a list. Sharon Bald Eagle, 12 yrs; Jill Dee ? 9 or 10 yrs, Karen Weeks ? Kathy 20+ yrs. In one entry, the writer talks of a girl they found on a drive to Fremont. She says the girl was walking, wearing no clothes. Her name was Jill. And of the woman the writer refers to as Kathy, she writes: Sheriff lookin'. Askin' questions. Did any one see us pick her up. The writer says "Kathy" eventually was run down with a pickup after she tried to escape and that two of the girls died giving birth.
Ann said she believes the entries were written by a woman who's now 87 and owned a ranch near Chambers. Her husband and his brother are dead. Ann believes the three did awful things to the girls, and she says law enforcement hasn't looked hard enough for their remains, choosing instead to focus on her son. Police interviewed John, then 23, days after Cathy went missing. He was seen leaving the bar with her that night, and he told investigators she rebuffed the pass he made at her, then broke free when he tried to pull her into his pickup in an alley. He said she left in a truck with two men and he went home. But during a preliminary hearing, an investigator said another woman remembered seeing a woman matching Cathy's description get in a man's pickup that matched John's that night.
One of Cathy's friends and co-workers said John confronted her about reporting Cathy missing, saying "Who will they blame when she floats down the river?" Other people said John made comments about where they should look for Cathy's remains and she eventually was found there. Another said John threatened her after Cathy disappeared, saying if she wasn't careful, "she'll get what Cathy got."
In the courtroom and later outside, Valley County Attorney Clark made his doubts about the pages clear. "This matter has been investigated by various agencies extensively already," he said. "It's the consensus of all of us that it is nothing but a hoax." He said the case is still open, though, and he's looking into it. That includes interviewing Doug Olson. He used to work at the Chambers ranch, and, Clark believes he is the man who sent the photocopied pages to John's home in an envelope postmarked Omaha.
A warrant in an unrelated case has been issued for his arrest and Clark's office will interview Doug when it can. And, he said, he's considering charging Ann for disturbing evidence. "If we thought it was anything but a hoax, yes, we would work on it day and night," Clark said. "But it's nothing but a hoax." Ord Police, Garfield County sheriff's, Nebraska State Patrol, and Nebraska Attorney Generals' Office searched the ranch noted in the graphic diary as the place where the missing girls and women were hed captive in a cave and used for sexin the late 80's. "We searched the property from end to end, inch to inch," they said. "We had six ATV's. Every inch of that property was searched, and there's nothing."
Cathy's body has been exhumed three times in the past 20 years to try and solve the case. It was hard on Cathy's mother, who lived with Cathy in 1989, and claims John would often drive down the alley past their house after Cathy went missing. Judge Noakes called Cathy's death "vicious and violent," and told John the maximum sentence was, in part, to protect the public. She referenced his prior sexual assault and child abuse convictions before sentencing him.
In 2012, John's mother came forward with diary pages mailed to her son's home after his arrest. Not everyone's convinced, but Ann Rasmussen says the pages point the finger away from her son and points it at two brothers and one of their wives and a ranch near Chambers. The small diary pages, copied six to a sheet, give a twisted, out-of-order account of girls being shackled, held in a cave, bred by the brothers with complicity by the wife, interspersed with talk of sick cattle and visits to town.
Ann turned the pages over to the Nebraska Public Advocacy Commission, which represents her son, after they were mailed to his Randolph, Missouri, home in March. Sharon Bald Eagle, 12, and Karen Weeks, 28, went missing in 1984 and 1987, both from Native reservations in South Dakota. Jill Cutshall, 9, was last seen in 1987 on her way to her babysitter's in Norfolk. Cathy, 31, went missing from the bar in Ord, her body found on April 26, 1992. "It's not easy reading," Ann said of the diary's contents. "It's pretty disgusting."
In the pages, the female writer jotted down after her husband's death in 1989, and says her brother-in-law helped "get rid of all evdence [sic] here. Caved in hole on hill so no one finds 3 other girls." That's followed by a list. Sharon Bald Eagle, 12 yrs; Jill Dee ? 9 or 10 yrs, Karen Weeks ? Kathy 20+ yrs. In one entry, the writer talks of a girl they found on a drive to Fremont. She says the girl was walking, wearing no clothes. Her name was Jill. And of the woman the writer refers to as Kathy, she writes: Sheriff lookin'. Askin' questions. Did any one see us pick her up. The writer says "Kathy" eventually was run down with a pickup after she tried to escape and that two of the girls died giving birth.
Ann said she believes the entries were written by a woman who's now 87 and owned a ranch near Chambers. Her husband and his brother are dead. Ann believes the three did awful things to the girls, and she says law enforcement hasn't looked hard enough for their remains, choosing instead to focus on her son. Police interviewed John, then 23, days after Cathy went missing. He was seen leaving the bar with her that night, and he told investigators she rebuffed the pass he made at her, then broke free when he tried to pull her into his pickup in an alley. He said she left in a truck with two men and he went home. But during a preliminary hearing, an investigator said another woman remembered seeing a woman matching Cathy's description get in a man's pickup that matched John's that night.
One of Cathy's friends and co-workers said John confronted her about reporting Cathy missing, saying "Who will they blame when she floats down the river?" Other people said John made comments about where they should look for Cathy's remains and she eventually was found there. Another said John threatened her after Cathy disappeared, saying if she wasn't careful, "she'll get what Cathy got."
In the courtroom and later outside, Valley County Attorney Clark made his doubts about the pages clear. "This matter has been investigated by various agencies extensively already," he said. "It's the consensus of all of us that it is nothing but a hoax." He said the case is still open, though, and he's looking into it. That includes interviewing Doug Olson. He used to work at the Chambers ranch, and, Clark believes he is the man who sent the photocopied pages to John's home in an envelope postmarked Omaha.
A warrant in an unrelated case has been issued for his arrest and Clark's office will interview Doug when it can. And, he said, he's considering charging Ann for disturbing evidence. "If we thought it was anything but a hoax, yes, we would work on it day and night," Clark said. "But it's nothing but a hoax." Ord Police, Garfield County sheriff's, Nebraska State Patrol, and Nebraska Attorney Generals' Office searched the ranch noted in the graphic diary as the place where the missing girls and women were hed captive in a cave and used for sexin the late 80's. "We searched the property from end to end, inch to inch," they said. "We had six ATV's. Every inch of that property was searched, and there's nothing."
