作者：迈克尔·洛夫特斯
2026年2月13日 / 美国东部时间下午5:43 / 哥伦比亚广播公司新闻
1969年3月25日，17岁的玛丽·凯·希斯（Mary Kay Heese）从未从内布拉斯加州沃胡（Wahoo）的学校返家。数小时后，她的尸体在镇外的路边被发现，身中殴打和刺伤。
调查人员试图追溯玛丽·凯最后的已知行踪。一名目击者看到她与两名男子一起上了一辆车，地点在她家附近的街角。但当时的调查人员无法确定车内人员身份。数周过去，数月过去，案件毫无进展。玛丽·凯的谋杀案数十年未破。
《48小时》记者娜塔莉·莫拉莱斯（Natalie Morales）在《沃胡女孩》（The Girl from Wahoo）中报道了这起谋杀案如何最终重新进入公众视野。这是一档全新的《48小时》节目，将于2月14日（周六）晚上10点/9点中部时间在哥伦比亚广播公司（CBS）播出，并在派拉蒙+（Paramount+）流媒体平台上线。
玛丽·凯·希斯 凯西·塔尔
2015年，新的调查工作启动。索恩斯县检察官办公室的刑事调查员特德·格林（Ted Green）被指派负责此案。
“每一起刑事调查都是一个谜题，”格林告诉《48小时》。对格林而言，解开谜题的部分工作是更多地了解玛丽·凯·希斯。
玛丽·凯的年轻表亲马克·米勒（Mark Miller）和凯西·塔尔（Kathy Tull）记得，玛丽·凯是个快乐的人，总是照顾着他们。但她们表示，青春期的挣扎有时会挑战她的幸福感。
格林了解到，玛丽·凯来自一个在父母严密关注下的严格家庭。但在高中，情况不同。”一开始，总有一群女孩围着她，给她化妆、换衣服，”格林说。
“她想要融入群体，”米勒告诉《48小时》。
这种融入愿望的一部分是玛丽·凯参加当地萨迪·霍金斯舞会（Sadie Hawkins dance）的愿望——当时这是一项受欢迎的活动，女孩邀请男孩参加。
塔尔告诉《48小时》，害羞的玛丽·凯难以找到约会对象。她至今仍保留着玛丽·凯在遇害前一周写给她的一封信，信中邀请表亲杰瑞参加舞会。
“如果我们周五28日或周六29日过来接你，你愿意和我一起去参加萨迪·霍金斯舞会吗？” 玛丽·凯在信中写道。“你可以穿运动装（不是燕尾服或其他正式服装），因为这不是一场正式舞会……不要带钱去入场，因为女孩们会支付所有费用，包括门票和食物。”
随着格林对玛丽·凯了解的深入，他得出一个结论：”她不会上陌生人的车，”他说。
对格林而言，谜题的碎片正在拼凑。他将注意力集中在旧案档案中反复出现的两个名字上：约瑟夫·安布罗兹（Joseph Ambroz）和韦恩·格雷泽（Wayne Greaser），两人都在玛丽·凯遇害后的几天内接受了采访。
22岁的约瑟夫·安布罗兹当时住在沃胡，在一家屠宰场工作。他因伪造和脱逃监禁罪服刑后，正处于假释期。
1968年的约瑟夫·安布罗兹
格雷泽是安布罗兹的朋友。”他只是个模仿者，一直跟着安布罗兹，”索恩斯县副检察官理查德·里吉斯特（Richard Register）说，他参与了此案调查。
格林和里吉斯特告诉《48小时》，安布罗兹认识玛丽·凯。他们经常光顾同一家咖啡馆，并有共同的朋友。格林和里吉斯特还认为，玛丽·凯认为安布罗兹不是威胁，而是融入群体的机会。
格林认为，安布罗兹和格雷泽将玛丽·凯带到了镇附近一个著名的派对地点，途中玛丽·凯试图逃离汽车。格林说，他认为安布罗兹追上去，最终将她刺死。
“她只是想找个男孩一起去舞会。不幸的是，她去的舞会成了她的死亡之地，”里吉斯特说。
玛丽·凯·希斯被发现死亡五十多年后，77岁的约瑟夫·安布罗兹因谋杀罪被捕。
2025年7月，安布罗兹达成认罪协议，对一级谋杀共谋罪不认罪。他被判处两年监禁。1977年自杀身亡的格雷泽被认定为与玛丽·凯合谋杀人的另一个人。
对玛丽·凯的表亲们来说，认罪协议和判决是一种不公。他们说，安布罗兹偷走了玛丽·凯的未来。
“他活了这么多年，而玛丽·凯从未有机会活下去，”米勒告诉《48小时》。
A Nebraska girl went looking for a date to a high school dance. One week later, she was murdered.
By Michael Loftus
February 13, 2026 / 5:43 PM EST / CBS News
On March 25, 1969, 17-year-old Mary Kay Heese never returned home from school in Wahoo, Nebraska. Hours later, her body was found beaten and stabbed to death on the side of the road outside of town.
Investigators tried to retrace Mary Kay’s last known whereabouts. One witness saw Mary Kay get into a car with two men on a street corner near her home. But investigators at the time were unable to figure out who was in that car. Weeks turned into months with no arrests. Mary Kay’s murder would remain unsolved for decades.
“48 Hours” correspondent Natalie Morales reports on how the murder was finally brought back into focus in “The Girl from Wahoo,” an all-new “48 Hours” airing Saturday, Feb. 14 at 10/9c on CBS and streaming on Paramount+.
Mary Kay Heese Kathy Tull
In 2015, a new investigation was launched. Ted Green, a criminal investigator with the Saunders County Attorney’s Office, was assigned to the case.
“Every criminal investigation is a puzzle,” Green told “48 Hours.” For Green, part of figuring out that puzzle was learning more about Mary Kay Heese.
Mary Kay’s younger cousins, Mark Miller and Kathy Tull, remember Mary Kay as a happy person who always looked out for them. But they said that happiness was sometimes challenged by the struggles of adolescence.
Green learned Mary Kay came from a strict home under the eyes of watchful parents. It was a different situation at high school. “There was a group of girls that would get her together and put makeup on her at the beginning of the day and change her clothes out,” Green said.
“She wanted to fit in,” Miller told “48 Hours.”
Part of that desire to fit in was Mary Kay’s wish to attend the local Sadie Hawkins dance — a popular event at that time where the girls ask the boys to attend.
Tull told “48 Hours” that the shy Mary Kay struggled to find a date. Tull still has a letter from Mary Kay, written a week before her murder, asking her cousin Jerry to attend the dance with her.
“If we come over to get you on Friday the 28th or Saturday the 29th, will you go to the Sadie Hawkins dance with me?” Mary Kay wrote in the letter. “You can wear sportswear (not a tuxedo or anything) because it’s not a formal dance […] Don’t bring any money to get in because the girls are to pay for it all including the tickets and food.”
As Green learned more about Mary Kay, he came to one conclusion. “She wouldn’t get into a car with somebody that she didn’t know,” he said.
The pieces of the puzzle were coming together for Green, who focused on two names that kept coming up in the old case files: Joseph Ambroz and Wayne Greaser, both interviewed in the days following Mary Kay’s murder.
Joseph Ambroz, 22, was living in Wahoo and worked at a slaughterhouse at that time. He was also on parole after serving time for forgery and escaping custody.
Joseph Ambroz in 1968.
Greaser was friends with Ambroz. “He was just that wannabe kid who wa just following around Ambroz,” said Deputy Saunders County Attorney Richard Register, who worked on the case.
Green and Register told “48 Hours” Ambroz knew Mary Kay. They both frequented the same café and had mutual friends. Green and Register also believe Mary Kay thought Ambroz was not a threat, but an opportunity to fit in with the crowd.
Green believes Ambroz and Greaser took Mary Kay to a well-known party spot near town and at some point Mary Kay tried to flee the car. Green says he believes Ambroz went after her and eventually stabbed her to death.
“She just wanted to get a boy to go to the dance with her. And unfortunately, the dance she went to was her death,” Register said.
More than five decades after Mary Kay Heese was found dead, 77-year-old Joseph Ambroz was arrested for her murder.
In July 2025, Ambroz took a plea deal and pleaded no contest to conspiracy to commit first- degree murder. He was sentenced to two years in prison. Greaser, who had died by suicide in 1977, was named as the other person conspiring to kill Mary Kay.
For Mary Kay’s cousins, the plea deal and sentence were an injustice. They say Ambroz stole Mary Kay’s future.
“He got all these years to live, and Mary Kay never had the chance to live,” Miller told “48 Hours.”
