Andrew Six was executed by the State of Missouri for the murder of Kathy Allen
According to court documents Andrew Six would abduct Kathy Allen who would later be murdered
Andrew Six would be arrested, convicted and sentenced to death
Andrew Six would be executed by lethal injection on August 20 1997
Years after he was executed Andrew was tied to a triple murder that took place three years before the Kathy Allen murder. Six would murder Sara Link, Justin Hook and Tina Lade. He was a suspect but police never had enough evidence to charge him. Thanks to DNA this cold case was solved in 2014
Andrew Six Photos
Andrew Six Case
A killer who was executed in Missouri for the 1987 murder of a 12-year-old girl was also responsible for a long-unsolved triple homicide in southeast Iowa three years earlier, investigators announced Friday.
New DNA evidence implicates Andrew W. Six in the 1984 bludgeoning deaths of Justin Hook Jr., 20; Hook’s fiancee, Tina Lade, 19; and Hook’s mother, Sara Link, 41, the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and Wapello County Sheriff Mark Miller said.
“What we know for sure is that Andy Six is responsible,” Miller said at a news conference at his office in Ottumwa.
Missouri authorities executed Six, then 32, by injection in 1997 for the kidnapping and murder of Kathy Allen, 12. Six and his uncle kidnapped the girl from her family’s mobile home in Ottumwa, then slit her throat and dumped her in northern Missouri
Retired DCI supervisor Sam Swaim said that Six was always a suspect in the 1984 triple homicide, but that investigators could not come up with enough evidence to charge him. He said he was happy that scientific evidence had linked Six to the crime but wished Six had been caught earlier.
“I regret that we didn’t get that case solved. That would have saved Kathy Allen’s life,” he said.
Hook’s body was found near his burned-out mobile home in rural Drakesville, a town of 200 people near the Missouri border, in April 1984. When authorities tried to notify Hook’s mother, they learned that she was missing.
Days later, a farmer found her body on a hilly, wooded section of his property near Eldon, about 15 miles northeast of Drakesville. Two days later, police dogs found the body of Lade in a ravine a half-mile from where Link’s body was recovered. Investigators said all three had been killed by blows to the head.
The discovery of the bodies shook the rural area. Hook had given Lade, of Ottumwa, an engagement ring days before their deaths on the birthday they shared, when she turned 19 and he turned 20.
Several relatives of the victims attended the Friday news conference where investigators announced their conclusion. Among them was Hook’s son, Justin David Hook, 32. He was 2 years old at the time his father was slain. Now a mechanic in St. Louis, he said he doesn’t remember his father and thought he would go his whole life not knowing the story behind the killing.
“I’ve been waiting my whole life to come up here and do this,” he said. “At least it’s something.”
Investigators said they thought that Six killed the three after a dispute over payment for a used car that he’d sold to Hook and that he burned the mobile home to conceal evidence.
No murder weapon was ever found, and no arrests were made.
A DCI cold-case unit re-examined the killings in 2011, sending DNA material believed to be semen that was recovered from Lade’s jeans to a lab for testing. The DNA profile that was developed matched that of Six, who had given his DNA to Missouri authorities while he was incarcerated. Six had denied during an interview in 1984 that he ever met Lade.
DCI supervisor Mike Motsinger said solid evidence, including the DNA and matching footwear impressions discovered near the bodies of Link and Lade, tied Six to the women’s deaths. The footwear evidence had led authorities to focus on Six in 1984. Similar footwear impressions were taken from a car that Six sold after the homicides, but that wasn’t enough to make an arrest, Motsinger said.
Investigators concluded that Six was also responsible for Hook’s death at the trailer, but they acknowledged there was no physical evidence putting him there. They believe that he acted alone, Motsinger said.
Three years after Six apparently got away with those killings, he terrorized the Allen family.
Six and his uncle, Donald Petary, went to the family’s home under the pretense of buying a used pickup truck from the Allens. In reality, they had planned to rob the family and rape their oldest daughter, who was a pregnant teenager at the time. Six raped the teen, then slit her mother’s throat with a butcher knife. The men then grabbed Kathy Allen and headed south.
They were arrested in Texas the next day. Petary led police to Kathy’s body — in a muddy ditch along a gravel road about 20 miles south of the Iowa border. She had bled to death after her throat was slashed. Petary died in prison in 1998 while awaiting execution
Investigators tried to re-interview Six about the triple homicide before his execution, but he “was uncooperative,” Motsinger said.
Cynthia Moyes, Link’s daughter and Hook’s sister, said the deaths have been hard to live with. She said Friday’s news brought some closure but also makes her miss her once tight-knit family.
“My mom was my best friend, and I lost her at age 21,” she said.
