Naomi Huyard was a 50 year old unmarried Amish woman. She lived with her sister and popular within the Amish community in New Holland, Pennsylvania.
When she went to store boxes of cauliflowers on her Mennonite neighbours deep freezer. She never returned. Her worried sister phoned the police, an unusual act as the police noted. It is the last resort among the Amish.
The police arrive and teenager Jimmy Lee Herr, the neighbours son immediately becomes a suspect. He joined the search for Naomi, kept close to the police and he had blood on his shoe.
They found her dead body underneath his bed and it was clear that Herr had an accomplice. He was Ernest Hoopengarner. Like Jimmy Lee he had been involved in petty crime.
However it took several months to get a confession. The police noted that the man conducting the lie detector test managed to get a confession out of Hoopengarner.
This true life crime shocked both the Amish and Mennonite communities back in 1983.
This true life documentary is rather plain. Meats and potatoes and felt stretched. It does not examine the growing teen rebellion among these religious communities in the 1980s. I also could not understand why the police could not get a warrant urgently to search the Herr's house. Instead they waited for the father to return and give consent.
When she went to store boxes of cauliflowers on her Mennonite neighbours deep freezer. She never returned. Her worried sister phoned the police, an unusual act as the police noted. It is the last resort among the Amish.
The police arrive and teenager Jimmy Lee Herr, the neighbours son immediately becomes a suspect. He joined the search for Naomi, kept close to the police and he had blood on his shoe.
They found her dead body underneath his bed and it was clear that Herr had an accomplice. He was Ernest Hoopengarner. Like Jimmy Lee he had been involved in petty crime.
However it took several months to get a confession. The police noted that the man conducting the lie detector test managed to get a confession out of Hoopengarner.
This true life crime shocked both the Amish and Mennonite communities back in 1983.
This true life documentary is rather plain. Meats and potatoes and felt stretched. It does not examine the growing teen rebellion among these religious communities in the 1980s. I also could not understand why the police could not get a warrant urgently to search the Herr's house. Instead they waited for the father to return and give consent.