The Amana Ax Murders: Who Killed Roger Atkison & Rose Burkert?
The two were brutally murdered in a hotel room in 1980 & their killer has never been caught.
When Roger Atkison and Rose Burkert arrived at an Amana, Iowa, Holiday Inn on Friday, September 12, 1980, they were likely hoping to spend a quiet night together. They checked into the hotel around 7:00 pm and were given the keys to room 260, the last room at the end of a long hallway. They only planned to stay for one night but missed their checkout time the following morning.
No one answered the phone when the front desk clerk called their room, so a member of the housekeeping staff was sent to check on the couple. The housekeeper could hear the faint sound of a television or radio coming from the room, but no one answered her repeated knocks. Concerned, she summoned the front office manager, Dean Morse.
Dean knocked at the door and waited for a few moments, but heard no sign of any movement inside the room. Hoping the couple had simply overslept, he used his master key to unlock the door and cautiously peered inside. He immediately realized that something was terribly wrong, but it took him a few seconds to process what he was seeing. Roger and Rose were both lying face down on the bed covered in blood; it was clear that they were no…