Shock twist in murder cold case after twin sisters launched podcast to track down their father’s killer

Missouri twin sisters make a major breakthrough in their father’s cold case murder, with police announcing an arrest after 35 years.

Andrea Lynn and Angela Williams are on a mission to find out who killed their father, Jimmie Wade Martin, who died on October 14, 1989.

Martin was fatally shot in the head during a bar brawl at the Coal Bin Tavern in the eastern Missouri town of Bon Terre. The killer fled without a trace for decades.

“I want the truth,” Williams said KMOV“We can’t go anywhere without someone asking, ‘Do you know who killed your father?’”

But last month, the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control arrested a suspect — 69-year-old Wesley P. Marler. He denied the charges.

His arrest came after Martin’s daughters revived the case in 2017 after investigators reached a dead end.

They became citizen detectives and returned to the crime scene to comb the bar for clues and interviewed local residents.

One of the key interviewees was David B. White, a man who was initially arrested and charged with the murder in 1989.

The case against White was dropped after three years, just days before he was to go to trial. Police apparently realized they had the wrong man.

In 2017, Lynn and Williams met with White, who gave them some of the evidence about their father’s case that police had shared with him.

Williams said the files were an eye-opener. Their first challenge was convincing law enforcement that it was worth revisiting the case.

“We felt so alone. We couldn’t go anywhere. We had all this information, but we didn’t know where to go,” Williams told KMOV.

Ultimately, police reopened the case in December 2020, in response to the family’s efforts.

At this point, the twins’ cousins, Shawn Martin and Chris Hulsey, joined the mission to track down the killer, proposing to start a crime podcast in 2022.

Hulsey gave the nickname ‘Small Town Forgotten’ and arranged interviews with other family members, who shared the evidence they had collected.

“I’ve known this story my whole life. I remember my mother telling me what happened,” he told KMOV.

“I didn’t know much about Jimmie before this,” he added. “I was four years old when he died. Now I feel like I know a lot about him.”

Missouri State Highway Patrol Lt. Donnie Crump said the podcast convinced investigators to revive their investigation.

“Would we be here without the podcast? No way,” Williams told KMOV.

Last month, police made a breakthrough with Marler’s arrest, which the family hopes is the first step toward solving a 35-year-old cold case.

Lynn and Williams said the arrest fit in with their own investigations and rumors around town.

They said their emotionally turbulent research also had an unexpected silver lining, after hearing the same thing from city residents when they asked them what Martin cherished most in life.

“Every single one of them said family,” Williams said. “How ironic is it that his family is the one who worked so hard to get justice for him?”

Marler was indicted by a St. Francois County grand jury on August 22 on one count of first-degree assault.

He made his first court appearance and pleaded not guilty, after which he was held on $500,000 bail.

Marler will next appear at a bail reduction hearing, where his attorneys will argue that his bail should be revoked because he has no plans to flee.

However, questions are being raised about why prosecutors are pursuing a charge of first-degree assault instead of murder. It could be because it’s easier to prove.

But for Martin’s family, the biggest emotion is relief that they finally got the long-awaited breakthrough in the decades-old murder case.

“It’s been a long time coming,” Williams told KMOV.