At about 3:30 p.m. on May 8, 1979, 18-year-old Marlys Wohlenhaus was discovered by her mother in a downstairs room of their Afton home covered in blood with her head “bashed in.”   Wohlenhaus had several star-shaped cuts on her scalp and her skull was fractured.   The injuries caused uncontrollable bleeding and severe brain injury. Wohlenhaus was hospitalized and underwent emergency surgery, but the next day she was taken off a respirator and pronounced dead.   An autopsy also revealed broken fingers and bruises on both hands.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Department investigated the murder and had several leads.   The leads included a neighbor who saw a car fishtail out of Wohlenhaus’s driveway at about 3:15 p.m. on May 8, the day Wohlenhaus was assaulted.   Also, a friend of Wohlenhaus testified that on the night before Wohlenhaus’s death, she and Wohlenhaus had been at a restaurant in Afton and Wohlenhaus had appeared upset upon seeing a man sitting in the back of the restaurant.   The man had light blond hair and was wearing a leather coat, sunglasses, and a baseball cap.   The man apparently followed the two women on a motorcycle after they left the restaurant.   Despite the investigation of several suspects, no one was charged in connection with Wohlenhaus’s death.

In 1998, Joseph Donald Ture, Jr. was convicted of first-degree murder for the May 1979 death of Marlys Wohlenhaus.

You can read Ture’s appeal here: Supreme Court of Minnesota. Joseph Donald TURE, Jr., petitioner, Appellant, v. STATE of Minnesota, Respondent.

48 Hours The Murder Of Marlys Wohlenhaus Forensic Files

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