On Friday, September 12, 1980, left for a romantic weekend getaway with her married boyfriend, Roger Atkison. The 22-year-old Burkert was a nurse trainee at St. Joseph Hospital in Missouri.They checked in for the night at the Amana Holiday Inn along Interstate 80 near Williamsburg, Iowa, getting the last room available due to a morticians' convention.

The following day they missed the noon check-out time. At about 1 p.m., a maid went to Room 260 to check on them, and after getting no response to her knock, let herself in. She would never forget the horrific scene before her.

Splattered blood was everywhere — all across the bed's headboard, the walls, the carpet. Both were face down on the bed, dead from multiple blows by either an ax or hatchet.The room showed no signs of forced entry. Two chairs sat next to the bed, indicating the killer or killers may have carried on a conversation with the couple prior to the slaying.
Rumors swirled in both Missouri and Iowa. Some suspected Burkert's ex-boyfriend, whom she'd kicked out of her house due to his drug use. He'd been stalking her in the weeks before the murder, and Burkert had filed a complaint with the Andrew County Sheriff's Department and told them if she ended up dead it would be because of her ex.

A single mother of two children, she'd gotten a dog for protection, only to later find it hanging — butchered — in front of her home. The ex-boyfriend, however, had a solid alibi and also passed a polygraph.

On Friday, September 12, 1980, left for a romantic weekend getaway with her married boyfriend, Roger Atkison. The 22-year-old Burkert was a nurse trainee at St. Joseph Hospital in Missouri.They checked in for the night at the Amana Holiday Inn along Interstate 80 near Williamsburg, Iowa, getting the last room available due to a morticians' convention.

The following day they missed the noon check-out time. At about 1 p.m., a maid went to Room 260 to check on them, and after getting no response to her knock, let herself in. She would never forget the horrific scene before her.

Splattered blood was everywhere — all across the bed's headboard, the walls, the carpet. Both were face down on the bed, dead from multiple blows by either an ax or hatchet.The room showed no signs of forced entry. Two chairs sat next to the bed, indicating the killer or killers may have carried on a conversation with the couple prior to the slaying.
Rumors swirled in both Missouri and Iowa. Some suspected Burkert's ex-boyfriend, whom she'd kicked out of her house due to his drug use. He'd been stalking her in the weeks before the murder, and Burkert had filed a complaint with the Andrew County Sheriff's Department and told them if she ended up dead it would be because of her ex.

A single mother of two children, she'd gotten a dog for protection, only to later find it hanging — butchered — in front of her home. The ex-boyfriend, however, had a solid alibi and also passed a polygraph.