Murder of Professor Haataja, your views

http://www.crimeandjustice.us/forums/index.php?showtopic=9993

This item is making pretty big news around here in the paper and in cafes. Today at the truckstop where I sometimes go for early coffee the locals were talking about it. The Steven Haataja Murder...

There are Many, Many unexplained crimes and deaths in this part of the country. Several years ago 1992 there was a German Biker (motorcycle) who was found nailed to a tree not far (4 miles) from where I live!!! His pockets were full of money ($8000) and his body had been smeared with syrup or honey??? From what they can deduce his body had been there for several months.

There are even stranger mysteries going back thru the years. Like in 1890 or so when some cowboys from Wasta, SD found (a lot. 30-50) of indians wrapped in buffalo hides and hung in the cottonwood trees along the Cheyenne river. They (the bodies) were virtually mummies. I think some of them are still in the Smithsonian Institution.

Anyway what are your thoughts on the Steven Haataja case?

Ben

 

Burn hiim at the stake.

 

It looks that way. In the Rapid City Journal (online) I tried to post a comment yesterday "Sounds like the movie The Wicker Man" and for some reason it wasn't added to the thread which developed???
http://www.rapidcityjournal.com/articles/2007/08/02/news/local/doc46b12373a5e71318774045.txt

Now why is that? It was only speculation...

 

If all the reports are true, he was found way back in March of this year, but a rancher living south of Chadron in Dawes Co. The rancher, Mike Bloom found him and there are reports that indicate that Haataja was both bound and set afire, which I would think indicate it wasn't suicide.
It's a case of murder and not really a mystery any longer. Now the law inforcement have the job of finding the person or persons responsible. That may be a big job.

 

Bloom ain't talking either it seems. All he keeps saying is "nobody deserves to die that way..." Some say Haataja was queer (hate crime) which he wasn't. He was a little effeminate and unstable but definitely hetero, heck he had an ex-wife. His sister lives in Rapid and is active in the geo-caching community. She even made a cache called "Steven's Cache" up on Skyline Drive.

He may have gotten mixed up in the wrong crowd, and I mean WRONG. He was drunk when he died (peppermint schnapps) but wasn't a drinker. They are keeping mum on other facts for obvious reasons...

Another fellow pointed out something odd today. Not sure how he knows this buy coincidentaly, there was a Satanic Worship shop in HotSprings, SD which closed right after he went missing. Lock-stock-and barrel, shuttered and GONE...