Cold Cases Solved: True Stories of Murders That Took Years or Decades to Solve (Murder, Scandals and Mayhem Book 8) by Mike Riley Page B
Authors: Mike Riley
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Weidner had already been involved with one of her brother’s friends, could she have been in a secret relationship with another? For Officer Carter, the case became personal. He was determined to solve it.
He re-contacted Weidner’s family and friends to see if they had since remembered anything else, and also started collecting DNA from anyone who police had originally investigated. During the original investigation, police had canvassed the neighborhood and recorded the names of everyone who lived there. Carter found that for the most part, people had moved on. So, he started the long process of tracking them down.
One person who Carter found was Joy Haney, who had been a friend of Weidner’s and lived across the street. He asked her if anyone now stuck out in her mind from that date. Most of the names she gave him, he already knew. But one had never been mentioned before. The name was Rodney Denk.
Also a friend of her older brother’s, the family recalled him as being a regular kid. He hung out with Weidner’s brother often, going fishing and riding their bikes around. The family described Denk as being a quiet young man, mostly keeping to himself.
Carter investigated and found him living with his mother. He worked at an auto shop, and was divorced with a son. Carter left his card, and when Denk called him, Carter told him that he wanted to speak to him regarding Weidner. Denk agreed to meet at his house, but when Carter arrived he was nowhere to be seen.
Suspicions raised, Carter ran Denk’s background and found that he had been arrested previously two times, for battery in 1991 and larceny in 1997. Now with interests piqued, he ran the prints from Denk’s arrest against a bloody handprint from Weidner’s wall. Still, he was stunned when it came back as a match. Finally after more than twenty years, they had a suspect.
Likely deciding that the past had finally caught up with him, Denk had disappeared. Using a fugitive task force unit, Carter tracked him with his credit card. Denk had used his card to hire a car that happened to have a tracking device installed.
Using that, police found him visiting a friend in Indianapolis. When police approached him, Denk pulled out a knife. Yelling that he didn’t do it, Denk attempted to cut his wrist, but was apprehended by police before he could do any serious damage to himself or others.
Denk was taken to the hospital, and Weidner’s family and friends were stunned when they learned who the police had arrested. Denk had been a good friend to them, and had even attended Weidner’s funeral, signing the guestbook.
Looking through the old notes, Carter made a discovery. Denk had been named as a person of interest to the police before, back when Weidner was originally killed. Despite that, he was never interviewed or investigated, and was not mentioned anywhere else in the case notes. The person who had mentioned him? Tony Abercombie, Emily’s father.
A DNA sample was taken from Denk, and it matched semen taking from Weidner’s sheets back in 1989. He pleaded guilty to Weidner’s murder, and was sentenced to sixty-five years in prison.
Current Status:
Rodney Denk was just seventeen when he murdered Amy Weidner. It turned out that it had been a robbery gone wrong, as police had suspected from the very beginning. However, no one had suspected that the murderer would be a close family friend. After being interviewed by police, Denk admitted to raping and then killing Weidner when she discovered him trying to steal radios from her brother’s room.
Perhaps chillingly, it was discovered during the investigation into Weidner’s murder that Denk’s own son, Dillon Denk, had been charged with murdering his own mother by beating her to death. Dillon was sixteen years old at the time of the crime just one year younger than his father was when he killed Weidner.
Weidner’s family was profoundly affected by her death.
He re-contacted Weidner’s family and friends to see if they had since remembered anything else, and also started collecting DNA from anyone who police had originally investigated. During the original investigation, police had canvassed the neighborhood and recorded the names of everyone who lived there. Carter found that for the most part, people had moved on. So, he started the long process of tracking them down.
One person who Carter found was Joy Haney, who had been a friend of Weidner’s and lived across the street. He asked her if anyone now stuck out in her mind from that date. Most of the names she gave him, he already knew. But one had never been mentioned before. The name was Rodney Denk.
Also a friend of her older brother’s, the family recalled him as being a regular kid. He hung out with Weidner’s brother often, going fishing and riding their bikes around. The family described Denk as being a quiet young man, mostly keeping to himself.
Carter investigated and found him living with his mother. He worked at an auto shop, and was divorced with a son. Carter left his card, and when Denk called him, Carter told him that he wanted to speak to him regarding Weidner. Denk agreed to meet at his house, but when Carter arrived he was nowhere to be seen.
Suspicions raised, Carter ran Denk’s background and found that he had been arrested previously two times, for battery in 1991 and larceny in 1997. Now with interests piqued, he ran the prints from Denk’s arrest against a bloody handprint from Weidner’s wall. Still, he was stunned when it came back as a match. Finally after more than twenty years, they had a suspect.
Likely deciding that the past had finally caught up with him, Denk had disappeared. Using a fugitive task force unit, Carter tracked him with his credit card. Denk had used his card to hire a car that happened to have a tracking device installed.
Using that, police found him visiting a friend in Indianapolis. When police approached him, Denk pulled out a knife. Yelling that he didn’t do it, Denk attempted to cut his wrist, but was apprehended by police before he could do any serious damage to himself or others.
Denk was taken to the hospital, and Weidner’s family and friends were stunned when they learned who the police had arrested. Denk had been a good friend to them, and had even attended Weidner’s funeral, signing the guestbook.
Looking through the old notes, Carter made a discovery. Denk had been named as a person of interest to the police before, back when Weidner was originally killed. Despite that, he was never interviewed or investigated, and was not mentioned anywhere else in the case notes. The person who had mentioned him? Tony Abercombie, Emily’s father.
A DNA sample was taken from Denk, and it matched semen taking from Weidner’s sheets back in 1989. He pleaded guilty to Weidner’s murder, and was sentenced to sixty-five years in prison.
Current Status:
Rodney Denk was just seventeen when he murdered Amy Weidner. It turned out that it had been a robbery gone wrong, as police had suspected from the very beginning. However, no one had suspected that the murderer would be a close family friend. After being interviewed by police, Denk admitted to raping and then killing Weidner when she discovered him trying to steal radios from her brother’s room.
Perhaps chillingly, it was discovered during the investigation into Weidner’s murder that Denk’s own son, Dillon Denk, had been charged with murdering his own mother by beating her to death. Dillon was sixteen years old at the time of the crime just one year younger than his father was when he killed Weidner.
Weidner’s family was profoundly affected by her death.
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