It’s been more than 40 years since Ida Stutzman died, but crime writer and amateur detective Gregg Olsen is still seeking justice for her.
“I couldn’t get it out of my mind,” the author of the new book, “The Amish Wife: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free” (Thomas & Mercer, out now), told the Post. “I believe – I am know — Ida was killed.”
In July 1977, Ida, a 26-year-old pregnant Amish woman, was found dead on her family’s farm in Dalton, Ohio. Her husband, Eli Stutzman, claimed she collapsed while trying to save milking equipment from the fire. Ida’s death was officially attributed to natural causes, specifically a weak heart.
Within two years of Ida’s death, Eli fled their Amish community, taking his son, Danny, with him. More deaths followed.
Despite the suspicious circumstances, Ida Stutzman’s death was officially attributed to natural causes,
Their journey takes them from Ohio to Colorado, where Eli has affairs with many gay men, and is the prime suspect in several unsolved (as of this writing) deaths, including her former lovers David Tyler and Dennis Sleater.
In May 1985, Eli’s roommate, Glen Pritchett, was found dead from a gunshot wound to his eye. Later that year, young Danny is found frozen to death in a field.
Eli was convicted of Pritchett’s murder and left behind his son, whose cause of death was deemed “undetermined.” (Stutzman claimed her son had gotten sick with a respiratory infection and died in his sleep.) He was sentenced to 40 years in prison and released on parole in 2005. Two years later, he committed suicide.
The new book delves back into the case and uncovers new evidence that Eli killed Ida.
“He was not questioned as a suspect, even under suspicious circumstances,” Olsen wrote.
“I believe – I know – Ida was murdered,” Gregg Olsen writes in his new book.
He noted that Eli wondered what exactly Ida had gone into the shed to save – and why a pregnant woman had experienced an active fire alone. Then there was the fact that Ida’s own doctor had never heard of her heart problem.
Even though Eli was dead, Olsen, who also covered the case with his 2002 book “Abandoned Prayers: The Extraordinary True Story of Amish Murder, Bigotry, and Secrets” was nervous to investigate.
“Some people in their community want to keep secrets like this buried forever,” he said. Even Ida’s brother, Daniel Gingerich, was reluctant to talk to her.
“I always say, all I want to know is the truth,” he told Olsen. “But I do not need to find out. Most of my family would say, ‘Oh, Dan, don’t. Just let it go.'”
The Gingerich and Stutzman families belong to the Swartzentruber Order, an ultraconservative Amish sect. They’re not eager to talk to outsiders, certainly not writers like Olsen who are digging up dirt.
Within two years of Ida’s death, Eli fled their Amish community, taking his son, Danny, with him. More deaths followed. Courtesy of Gregg Olsen
“They don’t want to be involved in our world, the ‘English World’ as they call it,” Olsen said. “They prefer to handle things themselves.”
It also doesn’t help that many of the people he first interviewed thirty years ago are dead, from Ida’s parents to the coroner who performed Ida’s autopsy to Wayne County Sheriff Jim Frost, who, he claims, may have played a role in covering up Ida’s murder to protect relationships his own private sexual relationship with Stutzman. Frost, like Stutzman, took his own life, in 1998.
But Olsen found several people willing to talk, including a potentially important witness: Eli Stutzman’s cousin, also named Eli Stutzman. The younger Eli, now 57, was a hired man on his uncle’s farm, and was among the first to find Ida’s body.
During a tense interview with Olsen, she revealed new details about the night of Ida’s death. The kerosene lamps on the main floor of the house were — suspiciously — all lit at some point after the barn fire was discovered.
“The fire was raging outside and there was livestock and equipment to save and it took either Ida or Eli to turn on the lights,” Olsen wrote. “I can’t understand it.”
“I hope this book encourages others to come forward with information,” Olsen said. “When or if that happens, the dominoes will start to fall.”
Then came the issue of Ida’s clothes. Although he had supposedly jumped out of bed and rushed to the burning barn, his body was found in his daytime togs, not nightgowns.
“Traditional Amish clothing is very complicated,” Olsen told the Post. “It can take anywhere from twenty to forty pins. It’s not something you can just walk into, especially if you’re scared and in a hurry.”
He also discovered that Ida’s autopsy report – which the coroner had refused to share with him in 1989 – was covered in the corrections. “There was a huge gap where someone had whitewashed an entire block of text,” Olsen told the Post. “And there are different handwritings on certain parts, like some people have made changes. It’s all very strange.”
There was also a rumor, long whispered among locals but never shared publicly until now, that Ida had plans to talk to a bishop about Stutzman, confessing about “something she saw or encountered,” Olsen wrote. “Maybe because he caught her having sex with another man.”
Ida’s death was blamed on a heart condition that developed when the family barn caught fire. Courtesy of Gregg Olsen
That would explain why Sheriff Frost, who had a relationship with Stutzman, would be so quick to accept her grieving husband’s version. Frost “knew that Eli was a fraud, knew he was a fabricator,” Olsen said. “However, he looked the other way. He basically said, ‘Oh sure, this looks like an accident. Let’s call it natural causes and move on.’”
Olsen left Ohio last April without getting any conclusive answers. But, he wrote, “I’m not convinced Ida was murdered. It’s a strong case, although because of the passage of time, it’s mostly circumstantial. There’s no forensics to speak of.”
What he wants now is accountability, for the county to admit that mistakes were made, and that a possible homicide was never given a proper investigation.
“This is about a conspiracy to cover up a crime and free a serial killer. That was clear as day to me. I hope this book inspires others to come forward and provide information,” he said. “When or if that happens, the dominoes will start to fall.”
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
