The murder of Michelle Busha
Faribault County, Minnesota · 1980
Overview
Michelle Yvette Busha, an 18-year-old from Bay City, Texas, was hitchhiking along Interstate 90 in southern Minnesota on May 26, 1980, when she was picked up, sexually assaulted, and strangled; her body was found four days later in a drainage ditch near Blue Earth in Faribault County. For years she was an unidentified Jane Doe and the killing went unsolved. The case broke not through forensics but through a confession: in 1988, Robert Leroy Nelson, an on-duty Minnesota State Patrol trooper at the time of the murder who was by then imprisoned in Texas, admitted to the killing. He pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter in 1989. The victim herself was not positively identified until 2015, when DNA from her exhumed remains matched a family sample, prompting the local sheriff to call it not a question of who done it, but who she was.
How it was solved
The murder was solved by the perpetrator's own confession rather than by physical evidence. In June 1988, while in custody in Smith County, Texas, Robert Leroy Nelson confessed to Faribault County investigators that he had killed the young hitchhiker found near Blue Earth in 1980. Investigators found the confession credible because Nelson supplied details that had never been publicly released, including that the victim's fingernails had been removed. He described having been on patrol as a Minnesota state trooper, watching traffic, when he saw a van drop off a young woman; he followed her, put her in his squad car, sexually assaulted and handcuffed her, and strangled her with a cord before leaving her body in a ditch off I-90. Because Nelson never learned or provided the victim's name, the case was solved as to the killer years before the victim herself could be identified; that final piece came in 2015 through DNA testing of her exhumed remains compared with a family reference sample.
Sources
- Murder of Michelle Busha
“In June 1988, while in police custody in Smith County, Texas, Nelson confessed to the murder. He stated he had removed her fingernails, a detail that had not been publicly released. He pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter on August 25, 1989.”
- Minnesota trooper's murder victim identified as Michelle Yvette Busha, 35 years later
“This was not a case of who done it, but who was she. Nelson, a Minnesota state trooper, confessed while in Texas; he pleaded guilty and remains incarcerated in Texas.”
- Jane Doe no more
“An on-duty Minnesota State Highway patrolman, Robert Leroy Nelson, confessed to killing the girl who had been hitchhiking on Interstate I-90 and then dumping her body in a drainage ditch just off the freeway, between the Blue Earth and Frost exits. Sheriff Mike Gormley stated that this was not a case of who done it, but rather who is it.”
- Minnesota state trooper raped, murdered teen while on duty in 1980, investigators say
“Nelson told investigators he was watching traffic when a dark van let a young woman out. He followed her, put her in his car, and sexually assaulted, handcuffed and tortured her. He then strangled the woman with a cord, and left her body in a ravine near Interstate 90, east of Blue Earth.”
- 35 years later, woman slain by state trooper in southern Minnesota is ID'd
“Thirty-five years after a Minnesota state trooper killed a young hitchhiker, the long-unidentified victim was identified as 18-year-old Michelle Busha of Bay City, Texas.”
- Missing murder victim identified after 35 years
“Busha had been assaulted and strangled with a cord from her jacket hood before her body was dumped off I-90 east of Blue Earth. Nelson confessed in 1989 after picking her up on I-90 near the Bricelyn exit; he did not provide a name for the victim and investigators were unable to identify her then.”
- Michelle Busha Murder: Where is Robert Nelson Today?
“On May 26, 1980, Nelson, a former Minnesota State Trooper, offered a ride to 18-year-old Michelle Busha near the Bricelyn overpass along Interstate 90. Her body was found on May 30, 1980. Nelson confessed in June 1988 while incarcerated for sexual abuse of a child and pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.”
- A Minnesota woman's tireless campaign to crack a decades-old cold case
“The case of the Blue Earth Jane Doe, killed by state trooper Robert Leroy Nelson in 1980, was finally resolved through the persistent effort to identify the long-unknown victim using DNA.”