Family podcast about father’s murder leads to arrest in cold case after 35 years

ST. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) – Twin sisters from Missouri say they are closer to learning the truth about who killed their father in 1989, after their family began recording a podcast about his death.

Andrea Lynn’s impromptu family gathering in her backyard isn’t a celebration of a job done, but a reminder of the work left to do in the unsolved Jimmy Wade Martin case. She and her twin sister, Angela Williams, are on a mission to find out who killed their father, KMOV reports.

“I want the truth,” Williams said. “We can’t even go anywhere without someone saying, ‘Do you know who killed your dad?’”

Martin died after being hit in the head during a bar fight on October 14, 1989 in Bonne Terre. Justice in the case has been uncertain ever since.

But 35 years later, the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Drug and Crime Control Division says 69-year-old Wesley P. Marler has been arrested in connection with Martin’s death. He was indicted Aug. 22 by a St. Francois County grand jury on one count of first-degree assault.

“We’ve been waiting a long time for this,” Williams said.

The arrest comes after MSHP began investigating Martin’s death in December 2020, with input from family members, including Lynn and Williams.

The sisters say they took up their father’s case in 2017 after decades of inaction by investigators. They interviewed residents and returned to the crime scene, a garage and asphalt parking lot on top of the former Coal Bin Tavern, where Martin was the night he was killed.

The sisters say there has been one prior arrest in this case. David B. White was originally arrested and charged in 1989, but three years later, just days before trial, the case was dismissed.

During the 2017 investigation, Lynn and Williams met with White, who agreed to turn over evidence police had shared with him in the case. Williams says those hundreds of documents were crucial, but the challenge was convincing law enforcement to reexamine the evidence.

“We felt so alone. We couldn’t go anywhere. We had all this information, but we didn’t know where to turn,” Williams said.

The investigation became a family passion project, with cousins ​​Shawn Martin and Chris Hulsey proposing to launch a pandemic-era crime podcast in 2022.

Under the title “The Forgotten Town,” Hulsey hosted interviews in which the family presented all of the evidence.

“I’ve known about this story my whole life. I remember my mother telling me what happened,” he said.

The family’s work was so well-timed that they were able to meet with MSHP. Lt. Donnie Crump says the podcast convinced investigators to revisit the decades-old cold case.

“Would we be here without the podcast? No way,” Williams said.

Three years later, Hulsey said getting arrested was an incredible feeling.

“I didn’t know much about Jimmie before,” he said. “I was 4 when he died. Now I feel like I know a lot about him.”

It didn’t completely clear up Martin’s unsolved case, but it’s a significant lead that Lynn and Williams say is consistent with the results of their investigation and what was being said around town.

When asked what the twins will hold on to most during the trial, they said it was interviews in which people confirmed that Martin loved his family most.

“Every single one of them said family,” Williams said. “How ironic is it that it was his family that worked so hard to get justice for him?”

Marler made his first court appearance Wednesday, where he pleaded not guilty. He is serving a $500,000 fine.

Marler’s attorneys are seeking a lower bond, arguing their client should be released because he has said he will not run for re-election. A bond hearing is scheduled for next Friday.

The question remains why prosecutors are filing charges of first-degree assault rather than murder.

Former prosecutor and criminal defense attorney Kristi Flint says the choice of prosecution depends on strategy.

“In a first-degree assault case, all they have to prove is that Mr. Marler committed the act of striking Mr. Martin,” Flint said. “They can get the same result, as far as punishment, as they would in a second-degree murder case. So they really don’t lose anything as far as the outcome.”

Copyright 2024 KMOV via Gray Local Media, Inc. All rights reserved.