State of Murder

Iowa - Gitchie Manitou Murders and Kedarie Johnson


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On November 17, 1973 Sandra Cheskey and her boyfriend Roger Essem, went with a group of friends to go camp out at Iowa's Gitchie Manitou nature preserve.  They wanted to sing around the campfire and smoke a little pot.  They had just arrived when three brothers who had been out poaching, noticed their campsite.  Deciding that they would pretend to be narcotics officers they walked up on the group and opened fire.  Only one of the teens would survive.  

Celina shares the heartbreaking story of Kedarie Johnson. As a gender fluid teen in a conservative town, he was a shining example of someone brave enough to live their life to the fullest. After some strange Facebook messages and a red car following him on the evening of March 2nd 2016, Kedarie would be found murdered in an alley way. Thanks to some google searches and missing phone calls police would be hot on the trail of his two murderers. 

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State of MurderBy Amber Ratzlaff & Celina Cooper

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