This Is The Number One Unsolved Mystery In Nebraska And It Will Leave You Baffled

Some Chadron residents were critical of the police department, saying that they weren’t taking the case seriously or putting enough effort into searching for Haataja. However, as the acting police chief at the time said, there’s a lot of wilderness in and around Chadron. It would have been difficult to know where to look. Some answers came three months later when Haataja’s body was found…but many, many more were raised.

Two ranchers happened upon Haataja’s body in March. It was so badly burned that at first glance, it didn’t even look like a human body. In the ensuing days and weeks, more details were uncovered. Haataja had been bound to a tree with electrical cords. The remains of a campfire were found nearby, on the other side of the tree, so that Haataja’s back would have been toward it. He had purchased a bag of charcoal and a bottle of peppermint Schnapps on the night he disappeared. There were no signs that anyone else had been there with him. He was found in a remote area, but it would have been nearly impossible for him to walk over the rough terrain on his own given that he’d suffered a broken hip recently. Nothing else around him had ignited in the fire that consumed his body. His body was bound to the tree, but his hands were left free. For every bit of information that pointed toward murder, something else pointed away.

Numerous theories were raised, including that Haataja had been the victim of a hate crime or simply targeted at random. Suicide seemed like the least likely option, but in the end it was all police had to go on. The case had been handed over to the Nebraska State Patrol early on, and a year after his disappearance, their prevailing theory was that Steven Haataja had taken his own life. There is still doubt, however, as the case remains open to this day.