In the quiet early morning hours of March 17, 1987, a 20-year-old White male named Nolan Haddon was working the night shift at Buck's Gas and Grocery, a convenience store in Idaho Falls, Idaho. A student at the Eastern Idaho Vo-Tech studying to be a radiation-con technician, Nolan was also employed as a clerk to support himself. The tranquility of the night was shattered when a man entered the store, not as a customer, but as a harbinger of violence.
Nolan was shot five times, with one bullet severing his spinal cord, during a robbery that netted the assailant a meager $116, some lighters, and cigarettes. He was discovered later, found lying in the store's walk-in cooler.
Though gravely wounded, Nolan was still alive when he was found. He was rushed to the Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center, where medical staff fought to save his life. Despite their efforts, Nolan Jay Haddon succumbed to his injuries and died in the emergency room several hours after the shooting. A young man from the nearby town of Blackfoot, he was remembered by his family for his love of the outdoors, including skiing, hunting, and fishing. His promising life, full of potential and ambition, was tragically cut short by a senseless act of violence.
The investigation into Nolan's murder soon connected with two other recent and brutal slayings in the area, those of Stacy Baldwin and Susan Michelbacher. The perpetrator of this violent spree was identified as Paul Ezra Rhoades. The key break in the case came when Rhoades crashed his mother's car near Wells, Nevada. An investigation of the vehicle uncovered the very weapon and bullets that had been used in the three murders. Following this crucial discovery, law enforcement located Rhoades in a nearby casino, engrossed in a game of blackjack, and he was taken into custody.
Paul Ezra Rhoades would ultimately be held accountable for his crimes. While he received the death penalty for the murders of Stacy Baldwin and Susan Michelbacher, he entered a guilty plea for the murder of Nolan Haddon and was sentenced to an indeterminate life term. Rhoades' violent chapter in Idaho's history came to a definitive end on November 18, 2011, when he was executed by lethal injection for his horrific series of crimes.
