In the quiet early morning hours of March 1, 1987, the body of 21-year-old Stacy Dawn Baldwin, a White female, was discovered at an archery range northwest of Blackfoot, Idaho. A newlywed and a clerk at the Red Mini Barn convenience store, she had been working the night shift. An investigation revealed that Baldwin had been abducted from the store, taken to a secluded location, and shot multiple times.
The motive appeared to be a robbery that had gone awry, with about $200 missing from the store's register. Investigators believe she fought her attacker during an attempted sexual assault and was shot in the back as she tried to escape. The medical examiner determined that the gunshot wounds were not immediately fatal and that she had died sometime after being left in the cold.
The murder of Stacy Baldwin was the beginning of a three-week crime spree that terrorized eastern Idaho. The perpetrator, Paul Ezra Rhoades, would go on to murder two more people: 20-year-old Nolan Haddon and 34-year-old Susan Michelbacher. A crucial piece of evidence linking the crimes was the discovery of. 38-caliber bullet casings at the scenes. Investigators also found a strand of Baldwin's hair at the site where Michelbacher's body was found.
On March 27, 1987, an arrest warrant for grand larceny was issued for Rhoades, and he was apprehended in Wells, Nevada. Inside his crashed car, police discovered the. 38-caliber revolver used in the murders. Rhoades was subsequently charged with the murders of Stacy Dawn Baldwin, Nolan Haddon, and Susan Michelbacher.
Paul Ezra Rhoades faced separate trials for the murders. In his trial for the murder of Stacy Baldwin, which began in March 1988, the prosecution presented evidence including a matching shoe print and the bullets from the crime scene. The jury found him guilty, and he was sentenced to death for her murder, in addition to a life term plus 45 years for related charges. After numerous failed appeals, Rhoades was executed by lethal injection on November 18, 2011. While he confessed to the murder of Susan Michelbacher in his final statement, he denied his involvement in the deaths of Stacy Baldwin and Nolan Haddon.
