1/31/2024 0 Comments Mountain home cemetery mary louI worked on the fourth and final Kater trial and will discuss the case, conviction, appeals, and retrials. Her infectious laugh, dry sense of humor and devotion to family and friends. She was a beloved wife, mother, daughter, sister, niece, cousin, aunt, grandmother, great-grandmother, and friend. Mary Lou (Strand) Hillesland passed away peacefully on February 9, 2023, at age 79. Joseph’s Cemetery came after she heard of the third retrial having been ordered. The heavens rejoice, as the earth mourns. Her bitter comment about her daughter buried in St. ![]() ![]() Kater’s sentence for kidnapping and murder sent him to prison for the rest of his life, but he continued to fight the verdict. His lime green car had been seen in Mary Lou’s neighborhood, physical evidence was found, and his alibi soon fell apart. In that case, the 13-year-old girl had survived the strangulation, and after Kater left her was able to untie herself. He had been released from prison in January 1976 for a shockingly similar crime. James Kater, a 31-year-old who worked in a Brockton MA doughnut shop, soon emerged as a suspect. Her possessions had been arranged in a semi-circle in front of her, and most gruesomely: her head was near them. On November 11th, kids riding dirt-bikes came across her standing body tied to a tree 18 miles away from the Arruda home, in Freetown State Forest. The orange ten-speed bike turned up on a dirt road near her home, but Mary Lou would not be found for two months. Mary Lou Gourley Thomas, age 81, of Tellico Plains, went home to be with the Lord Sunday, October 24, 2021. Sunday, at Ebenezer Ballplay Church Cemetery with Rev. She had been out riding her bike in her Raynham, MA neighborhood, about 32 miles south of Boston. A graveside service will be held at 3:00 p.m. It was late afternoon on Friday, September 8th, 1978: two days after her daughter’s 15th birthday. Joanne Arruda knew something was terribly wrong. ![]() Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Google Podcasts | Spotify | Amazon Music | Android | iHeartRadio | Stitcher | Blubrry | Podcast Index | TuneIn | Deezer | RSS | More Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 44:56 - 41.1MB) | Embed
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