Crime at 800 BLOCK OF MAIN ST W on 03/04/2025 11:07 PM

Name

Mary Long

Missing Age

17

Est. Current Age

60

Last Seen

Austin, MN on 02/22/1982

Physical Description

Race: White Ethnicity: Gender: Female Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Height: 5'5" Weight: 115 lbs

Case Number

88108903

Name

Sarah Marie Nitcher

Age

2

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

First, it was 2-1/2-month-old tammy in january 1972. Two months later in march, 2-year-old sarah. Fast forward four years — and to another state — to 3-month-old crystal. And finally, almost a year to the day after crystal’s death, the youngest of them all — misti, just 5 weeks old.One by one, helen nitcher’s daughters all died under mysterious circumstances.Patterns got missed. Medical examiners struggled with inconclusive autopsy reports. But helen c. (née tenery) nitcher, later known as crystal price, had two dead daughters within 2-1/2 months — in iowa, that is — until nitcher relocated and the pattern repeated in abilene, texas.Two more dead infant daughters followed.News reports on the four girls’ successive deaths also had a strikingly familiar ring; officials reported all three infants, as well as the 2-year-old, dead on arrival.The mother’s explanations for the short-lived lives were conflicting at best; the stories varied depending on the city and state where the obituaries appeared, leaving astute readers as mystified as iowa and texas medical examiners, who never could quite pinpoint exact causes or manners of death.Iowa coroners had no way of knowing nitcher left iowa after her first two daughters’ deaths, only to have two more infants die in texas. And texas officials apparently were unaware of the two previous iowa deaths.

Agency

Iowa