A warm spring evening in Ottumwa, Iowa, took a dark and tragic turn on April 10, 1987, forever altering the lives of the Allen family. Twelve-year-old Kathy Allen, a young white female with a bright spirit, was at home with her family when two men, Andrew Wessel Six and his uncle Donald Eugene Petary, arrived under the guise of purchasing the family's truck. The family was selling the vehicle to help pay for medical expenses for Kathy's father.
This seemingly ordinary transaction soon devolved into a horrific nightmare that would end in the young girl's death.
Later that night, Six and Petary returned to the Allen residence and forced their way inside. The events that followed were brutal and swift. Kathy's mother had her throat slashed, and her father was bound and gagged. In the ensuing chaos, the two men abducted Kathy and fled, leaving behind a scene of terror and a family irrevocably broken. A massive search was launched for the young girl, but it was a desperate race against time. The following day, the search came to a heartbreaking conclusion when Kathy's body was discovered in a ditch in a rural area of Schuyler County, Missouri. An autopsy would later reveal that she had died from a stab wound to her neck.
The perpetrators, Andrew Wessel Six and Donald Eugene Petary, were apprehended in Texas the day after the kidnapping. Their capture brought a swift start to the legal proceedings that would follow. Both men faced a litany of charges, including federal kidnapping and murder. The evidence against them was overwhelming, and they were both found guilty of the heinous crimes they had committed against the Allen family. The justice system delivered a severe penalty for their actions; both Six and Petary were sentenced to death for the murder of Kathy Allen and received 200-year prison sentences for the federal kidnapping charges.
The final chapter of this tragic story saw the two men meet their ends as a consequence of their violent acts. Andrew Wessel Six was executed by lethal injection on August 20, 1997. His uncle and accomplice, Donald Eugene Petary, died on death row in 1998 before his own execution could be carried out. Years later, in 2014, DNA evidence would posthumously link Six to a 1984 triple homicide in Iowa, revealing the true extent of his violent history and bringing a form of closure to another grieving family.
