Nebraska cold-case murder finally moves forward with no-contest plea

After more than five decades, the 1969 murder of 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese in Wahoo, Nebraska was revisited with new evidence and forensic review, linking suspect Joseph Ambroz to the crime via witness accounts, a compatible shoeprint, and a blood-stained car, followed by exhumation and a renewed autopsy. Ambroz was indicted in 2024 and, in 2025, pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit first-degree murder as Wayne Greaser—the other alleged conspirator who has since died—was named in the case. The deal, shaped by era-specific sentencing limits (a two-year maximum) and Good Time reductions, left the family seeking fuller justice and prosecutors acknowledging the case still lacks clear closure.