In the quiet community of Sarpy County, Nebraska, a sense of unease lingered in the fall of 1983. A few months earlier, in September, 13-year-old Danny Joe Eberle had been abducted and murdered, leaving families on edge and parents hesitant to let their children out of their sight. It was in this atmosphere of fear that 12-year-old Christopher Walden, a White male, asked his mother if he could walk to school on his own. On the morning of December 2, 1983, for the first time since Eberle's death, she agreed. It would be the last time she saw her son alive.
Christopher never made it to school that day. His disappearance triggered a massive search, and for three agonizing days, his family and the community waited for any news. The search came to a tragic end on December 5, 1983, when hunters discovered his body in a wooded area near Giles and Portal Roads. He had been brutally murdered, and an autopsy would later reveal he had been stabbed multiple times and strangled. The discovery of another murdered boy plunged the area into a state of panic.
The investigation into the murders of Christopher Walden and Danny Joe Eberle intensified, with law enforcement desperate to find the person responsible for these horrific crimes. The break in the case came in January 1984, when a local preschool teacher reported a suspicious man. This lead pointed investigators to John Joubert, an airman stationed at Offutt Air Force Base. Upon his arrest on January 11, 1984, Joubert confessed to the abductions and murders of both boys. He admitted to cruising the neighborhoods, looking for lone children. He recounted how he had abducted Christopher while he was on his way to school, taken him to a remote area, and killed him. Joubert pleaded guilty to the murders and was executed in 1996. Before his execution, he also confessed to the 1982 murder of an 11-year-old boy in Maine.
