On a spring afternoon in Afton, Minnesota, the life of 18-year-old Marlys Wohlenhaus, a White female, was brutally cut short. On May 8, 1979, her mother returned to their family home around 3:30 p.m. to a horrific scene. Marlys was discovered in a downstairs room, covered in blood with severe head trauma. She had sustained multiple star-shaped cuts to her scalp, a fractured skull, broken fingers, and bruises on both hands. The injuries resulted in massive bleeding and irreversible brain damage.
Rushed to the hospital for emergency surgery, she was placed on a respirator but succumbed to her injuries the following day without ever regaining consciousness.
The initial investigation by the Washington County Sheriff's Department uncovered a few leads but no immediate answers. A neighbor reported seeing a car speeding away from the Wohlenhaus driveway around 3:15 p.m. on the day of the attack. A friend of Marlys recounted a disturbing incident from the night before the murder; Marlys had become visibly upset after seeing a man at a local restaurant. This man, described as having light blond hair and wearing a leather coat, sunglasses, and a baseball cap, had apparently followed the two young women on a motorcycle after they left. Despite these leads and a list of nearly a dozen potential suspects, the case grew cold, and for years, no one was charged with Marlys's murder.
Years later, the relentless efforts of Marlys's family, the media, and determined investigators breathed new life into the cold case. Attention eventually turned to Joseph Donald Ture, Jr., a drifter already incarcerated for other violent crimes, including the 1980 murder of another young woman, Diane Edwards. Ture had previously done part-time work for Marlys's father and was familiar with the area. While in prison in 1981, Ture had allegedly confessed to a cellmate that he had killed Marlys and even provided a written confession, which he later recanted. Initially, Ture provided an alibi, claiming he was at his job at a Ford Motors plant at the time of the murder, which investigators initially confirmed. However, upon reopening the case, a cold case unit discovered that the alibi was fabricated; it was Ture's father, Joseph Ture, Sr., who had been at work that day.
The renewed investigation, highlighted by a "48 Hours" broadcast in 1996, prompted more witnesses to come forward. These new testimonies, combined with the disproven alibi and his prior confessions, built a strong case against Ture. In 1998, nearly two decades after he had taken a young woman's life, Joseph Donald Ture, Jr. was convicted of the first-degree murder of Marlys Wohlenhaus and sentenced to another life sentence, adding to the ones he was already serving. Ture, a serial killer responsible for at least six murders, has maintained his innocence, claiming he was used to solve cold cases.
