Monday, February 17, 2025, 4:02PM |  24°
MENU
SECTIONS
OTHER
CLASSIFIEDS
CONTACT US / FAQ
Advertisement
Deacon Paul Cerio places a cross on the casket of Rev. Stephen Gutgsell during his funeral Monday at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Neb. Gutgsell was killed in the rectory of St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun on Dec. 10.
9
MORE

2 grisly murders months apart shake a small Nebraska town

Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP

2 grisly murders months apart shake a small Nebraska town

FORT CALHOUN, Neb. — The grisly killings of a retiree and then a priest has shocked everyone in tiny Fort Calhoun, Neb., including Sheriff Mike Robinson.

He has lived in the community just north of Omaha for 62 years and can’t recall a single homicide before these two.

“It really is out of character,” Sheriff Robinson said. “It’s a good town, good place to live, good place to raise your family.”

Advertisement

Sheriff Robinson says people have been troubled not only by the killings, but by the awful details of how their neighbors died in what appear to be random attacks.

Linda Childers, 71, was killed Aug. 13, when she was shot with a crossbow three times and her throat was slit at her isolated home near a creek about a mile north of Fort Calhoun. Less than four months later, on Dec. 10, the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell, 65, was fatally stabbed during a break-in at the rectory next door to St. John the Baptist Church, where he had been set to lead Mass later that day.

The brutal killings have shaken residents who have grown accustomed to a certain peacefulness in Fort Calhoun, a single-stoplight town of 1,100 nestled in rolling hills along the Missouri River. The town is only 8 miles from Omaha but seemingly a world away from the state’s biggest city and its nearly half-million residents.

The killings undercut Adam Schutte's “warm and cozy” image of a small town.

Advertisement

“It’s scary,” said Mr. Schutte, while having a drink recently at the Longhorn Bar and Grill. ”It makes you wonder for sure.”

Usually, the talk in Fort Calhoun revolves around topics like the high school boys basketball team and its improbable run to the state tournament last spring for the first time in 99 years. But such milestones have taken a back seat lately.

Denise O’Neel has been spending one week a month at her fiance’s home in Fort Calhoun for years, so she knows it well. She’s not as confident in its safety anymore.

“As soon as he goes off to work my door is locked now,” Ms. O’Neel said. “I just know little Fort Calhoun doesn’t feel as safe as it used to.”

Fort Calhoun traces its roots to a meeting between explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark and the Oto and Missouri tribes in August 1804 — 63 years before Nebraska became a state.

The community has long offered a window into the past through living history programs at a reconstructed fort that dates to 1820. Volunteers dress up in clothing from the Old West and act out scenes from the period when the area was first settled. The high school sports teams are called the Pioneers.

At the time of her death, Linda Childers had lived in Fort Calhoun for nearly 50 years. Police arrested William Collins, 30, about two weeks after she was killed. He was found in Texas with Childers’ car and some of her property.

Kierre Williams, 43, was arrested in Gutgsell’s home. When a deputy arrived, Mr. Williams was sprawled across the priest, who was bleeding profusely.

Both men face murder, burglary and weapons charges, and are due back in court early next month. Authorities say Mr. Williams had a job at a meatpacking plant in Sioux City, Iowa, while Collins was a self-described “minimalist” who was camping out near the river for about a week.

It’s not clear what brought either of them to Fort Calhoun and investigators haven’t found any connection between them and the victims.

Sheriff Collins’ attorney has said he plans to plead not guilty but declined to discuss the case. Sheriff Williams’ attorney with the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy didn’t respond to a message.

For some, the deaths have shaken their belief that Fort Calhoun is inoculated from the violence they hear of in Omaha and other big cities.

Childers’ stepdaughter, Wendy Sue Childers, spent much of her childhood in Fort Calhoun with her dad and stepmother, who she considered her best friend. Now a Missouri resident, she said the news of Gutgsell’s killing so soon after her stepmother’s death has her questioning whether any place is truly safe.

“I don’t know what’s happening,” she said. “It’s just spreading. It is spilling over into the rural communities that are quiet and peaceful and minding their own business.”

The priest’s killing resonated so deeply that people who don’t regularly attend St. John the Baptist mixed with his parishioners to fill the small church at a vigil the day he died. On Monday, mourners nearly filled an 1,000-seat cathedral in Omaha for Gutgsell’s funeral, where he was remembered as a movie buff who was deeply concerned about making sure people were ready to meet God, particularly when they died violently like he did.

Longtime resident Mike Cimino said the killings have been jarring, but they haven’t changed how he feels about Fort Calhoun. He’s always liked that he could get his kids to their Catholic school in central Omaha in only 20 minutes or so, and anytime he needs to make a Costco run, the big city is just minutes away.

“I would feel probably less safe in a bigger city than here,” he said. “I think it’s just a coincidence that this had happened.”

Robinson, the sheriff, notes Fort Calhoun is safe by nearly any measure, with almost no thefts, burglaries or vandalism.

“I’m sure that they’re concerned and they’re scared,” Sheriff Robinson said of residents. “We just try to reassure them that they’re just as safe now as they were for the last 10, 15, 20 years.”

As she picked up a few gift bags at the Dollar Tree, Debbie Shultz said she still feels safe but acknowledged the deaths weigh heavily.

“Of course it makes you apprehensive, but it’s still my sweet little town and I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” she said.

First Published: December 21, 2023, 7:19 p.m.

RELATED
SHOW COMMENTS (0)  
Join the Conversation
Commenting policy | How to Report Abuse
If you would like your comment to be considered for a published letter to the editor, please send it to letters@post-gazette.com. Letters must be under 250 words and may be edited for length and clarity.
Partners
Advertisement
The Pirates' Spencer Horwitz will miss extended time this spring due to a right wrist injury.
1
sports
A closer look at how the Pirates handled Spencer Horwitz’s wrist injury
On Tuesday, state lawmakers begin hearings on Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro's proposed fiscal year 2026 budget. Shown is Mr. Shapiro giving his budget address inside the state House on Feb. 4.
2
news
As Pa. budget hearings kick off, talk of a $6 billion deficit, Ozempic, and Trump
Actor Noah Wyle of the Pittsburgh-based medical show “The Pitt” listens to Dr. Bobby Kapur, System Chair for AHN Emergency Medicine Institute, talk about the show and how it compares to real-life emergency care units during an interview with the Post-Gazette at Allegheny General Hospital on the North Side Monday, Feb. 10, 2025.
3
a&e
‘To see what they can’t say’: ‘The Pitt’ star Noah Wyle talks learning from Pittsburgh medical professionals
Novo Asian Food Hall on Thursday May 23, 2024, Strip District.  (John Colombo/For the Post-Gazette)
4
news
Legal battle stirs the pot at Novo Asian Food Hall
5
news
Medicaid on the chopping block: Proposed cuts threaten coverage of vulnerable Pennsylvanians
Deacon Paul Cerio places a cross on the casket of Rev. Stephen Gutgsell during his funeral Monday at St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Neb. Gutgsell was killed in the rectory of St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun on Dec. 10.  (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)
The front door of the rectory where the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell's was fatally stabbed on Dec. 10 in tiny Fort Calhoun, Neb., remained wrapped in crime scene tape on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. A cornerstone next to the door the suspect broke into identifies the home as being the one St. John the Baptist Catholic Church's priest lived at. Gutgsell's killing was the second one in the small town in the last four months. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The isolated home where Linda Childers was killed during a break-in on Aug. 13 is shown on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023 about a mile outside Fort Calhoun, Neb. The Childers homicide was the first of two killings in the town in the last four months. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This booking photo provided by the Washington County, Neb., Sheriff's Office shows William Collins. Collins is charged with murder and burglary in connection with the Aug. 13, 2023, death of Linda Childers. Prosecutors revealed Wednesday, Dec. 13, that Collins shot Childers with a crossbow several times before he killed her inside her home. (Washington County Sheriff's Office via AP)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
The St. John the Baptist Church sign in downtown Fort Calhoun, Neb., announces the details of the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell's funeral on Thursday, Dec. 14, 2023. Gutgsell's killing in the rectory next door to the church on Dec. 10 was the second killing in the small town in four months. (AP Photo/Josh Funk)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Omaha Archbishop George Lucas swings a censer over the casket of Rev. Stephen Gutgsell during his funeral St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Neb., on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Gutgsell was killed in the rectory of St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun on Dec. 10. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Omaha Archbishop George Lucas looks out of St. Cecilia Cathedral in Omaha, Neb., after the funeral of Rev. Stephen Gutgsell on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. Gutgsell was killed in the rectory of St. John the Baptist Church in Fort Calhoun on Dec. 10. (Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This image provided by the Archdiocese of Omaha shows the Rev. Stephen Gutgsell. (Archdiocese of Omaha via AP)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
This booking photo released by the Washington County (Nebraska) Sheriff's Office shows Kierre L. Williams on Sunday, Dec. 10, 2023. Williams was arrested in the stabbing death of a Catholic priest in a small Nebraska community who was attacked in a church rectory, authorities said. (Washington County Sheriff's Office via AP)  (ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Chris Machian/Omaha World-Herald via AP
Advertisement
LATEST news
Advertisement
TOP
Email a Story