Rhino
05-08-2007, 10:41 AM
Professor's Gruesome Death Puzzles Nebraska Town
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
CHADRON, Neb. — When Steven Haataja came to this remote corner of Nebraska, where cowboy hats are still worn for work and rodeo trophies greet visitors to the local college, it was supposed to be a new beginning for the mathematician who had just earned his doctorate.
But just seven months later, in March, the man colleagues say had astounding intelligence was found burned to death in fire-scarred hills just south of the small school where he taught.
According to a source close to the investigation, Haataja was burned and bound, though it's not clear how. He died of smoke and soot inhalation, along with "thermal injuries," authorities said last month.
"When you see something like that, somebody in that kind of condition, you just hope they catch whoever did it," Mike Bloom, one of two ranchers who found the body, said in March.
Haataja, with his large frame and fedora hat, was more visible than most on Chadron's wide, Western streets for a simple reason: he didn't own a running car and walked everywhere from his downtown apartment, including to the college that's a mile away.
He disappeared from this city of 5,600 in December. Police saw no signs he planned on leaving and have acknowledged they did little to search for the professor.
"We could've searched these remote areas for days and days and days, but where do you start?" said acting Chadron Police Chief Margaret Keiper......http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270582,00.html
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
CHADRON, Neb. — When Steven Haataja came to this remote corner of Nebraska, where cowboy hats are still worn for work and rodeo trophies greet visitors to the local college, it was supposed to be a new beginning for the mathematician who had just earned his doctorate.
But just seven months later, in March, the man colleagues say had astounding intelligence was found burned to death in fire-scarred hills just south of the small school where he taught.
According to a source close to the investigation, Haataja was burned and bound, though it's not clear how. He died of smoke and soot inhalation, along with "thermal injuries," authorities said last month.
"When you see something like that, somebody in that kind of condition, you just hope they catch whoever did it," Mike Bloom, one of two ranchers who found the body, said in March.
Haataja, with his large frame and fedora hat, was more visible than most on Chadron's wide, Western streets for a simple reason: he didn't own a running car and walked everywhere from his downtown apartment, including to the college that's a mile away.
He disappeared from this city of 5,600 in December. Police saw no signs he planned on leaving and have acknowledged they did little to search for the professor.
"We could've searched these remote areas for days and days and days, but where do you start?" said acting Chadron Police Chief Margaret Keiper......http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,270582,00.html