Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison were brutally murdered in Williamsburg in 1980. Investigators are still seeking information in the unsolved double homicide.
This article contains descriptions of murder.
On September 12, 1980, a couple checked into the Amana Holiday Inn in Williamsburg, Iowa. Located on I-80, the hotel was fully booked that evening as there was a conference being held nearby for local morticians. The front desk attendant initially told the pair there wasn’t any availability, but after taking another look at the register, they saw that there had been a cancellation. The couple was booked into Room 260 around 7:40 p.m.; they registered under the name “Mr. and Mrs. Roger Burkert.”
The rest of the night passed seemingly without incident. At around 12 p.m. the following day, a housekeeper knocked repeatedly on the door of Room 260 and tried to gain entry. When she was unable to do so, she spoke with the hotel manager and received a key. After returning to the room, the housekeeper “opened the door and first saw feet. Thinking they were asleep, she peered in further.”
It was only upon stepping inside that the housekeeper realized almost everything was splattered with blood. She immediately shut the door and ran to find her manager again. He then entered Room 260 himself and saw the gruesome scene laid out there. The manager contacted the Iowa County Sheriff’s Department, and law enforcement officials responding to the scene noted that the pair were victims in what looked like an execution-style murder.
What unfolded from there was a series of twists and confusions laid one on top of the other until the picture of what really happened that night and why became impossible to see clearly. Not only was the crime scene difficult to decipher, but the couple turned out to be operating on a certain level of secrecy due to the nature of their relationship—they were having an affair, and only a select few people knew about it prior to their deaths. They were not Mr. and Mrs. Roger Burkert, but Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison, and once they were positively identified, the list of potential suspects in their case expanded into a web of possibilities that has never been narrowed down to one conclusive offender.
Nearly 46 years later, their murders remain unsolved.
Rose and Roger met in Missouri
Born on May 21, 1958, Rose Burkert was just 22 years old when she was murdered in an Iowa hotel room alongside her partner, 32-year-old Roger Atkison. Rose was training to be a nurse and had a two-year-old daughter. Roger was born on May 30, 1948, and served in the US Navy during the Vietnam War with the HM3. After his military service ended, he repaired and installed telephones for Savannah, Missouri’s General Telephone Co. It’s believed the two met after Roger installed a phone in Rose’s home.
At the time, Roger was married to Marcella Shat. Whenever he was spending time with Rose, he would tell his wife he was working. She reportedly didn’t learn about the affair until she was contacted by the Iowa County Sheriff’s Department after Roger and Rose’s bodies were discovered at the Amana Holiday Inn. To make an already heartbreaking revelation even more difficult, Marcella eventually became a potential suspect in the case given that she had a clear motive for the killings.
According to Iowa Cold Cases, the couple’s marriage had been on the rocks for some time. She allegedly asked him outright if he was seeing anyone else, and he replied, “Oh, no one in particular, but there are two or three women who live in the Savannah area that I could easily step into the father role of their children.” They spoke briefly about the idea of divorcing, but it doesn’t appear as though the conversation went further than that, nor was the topic brought up again. A few months later, he and Rose were dead.
Despite her potential motive, Marcella had a strong alibi the night of the murders—she was babysitting in Missouri and was thus incapable of traveling to Iowa and back to commit the crimes.
A puzzling scene in Williamsburg
When police officers arrived at the hotel, they noted there were no apparent signs of forced entry into Room 260. Both Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison were found lying face down on the bed—she was fully clothed, but Roger was only wearing a pair of shorts. They had both died, according to Iowa County’s Medical Examiner Dr. Stacey Howell, of brain injuries and acute blood loss believed to be caused by either an ax or a hatchet. Dr. Howell said, though, “That’s been the common rumor, but I don’t know the particular reason why it should be, rather than some kind of instrument.”
Next to the bed were two chairs, one of which was covered by a towel. On the floor in front of them were soap shavings, along with scattered items from Roger’s wallet. It looked as if someone had been sitting beside the couple, quietly observing them as they slept before carrying out their murders. Rumors abounded for years after that the killer may have even been speaking with them, or taunting and torturing them, before eventually dealing out the fatal blows.
The strangeness of what took place there carried into the bathroom, where a piece of soap was used to write the word “this” onto the mirror. Bloodstains were found in the sink, and there was also a white towel with blood splattered on it. A male DNA sample was retrieved from the towel, but it still has yet to be identified. To make matters even more puzzling, toothpaste from a tube of Crest had been sprayed inside the bathtub before being placed back onto the counter.
The Iowa County Sheriff’s Department questioned nearly 400 people at the Holiday Inn, including all employees and guests who were there on the night of September 12. After the couple was properly identified, the department contacted agents in Missouri to help shed light on potential motives and suspects. On September 24, 1980, Gerald Shanahan, the DCI Director, spoke with St. Joe News-Press about the killings, saying, “We are not going to give up,” despite the fact that they had little to no evidence to go off of.
Potential suspects and continued investigation
Danny Burton, Rose Burkert’s ex-boyfriend, initially seemed like a prime suspect even though the crime took place outside of Missouri. Rose accused him of stalking her for several weeks prior to the murders and had filed a direct complaint with the Andrew County Sheriff’s Department about his behavior. She reportedly said that if she was found dead, it was likely “because of her ex.” Danny had previously killed a dog she got for protection, and it was this history of violence and stalking that led investigators to question him and administer a polygraph, AKA a “lie detector” test.
However, Danny passed the test and had an alibi for the night of September 20. Another promising lead came in the form of Marcella Shat’s uncle, Charles Hatcher, who was a convicted serial killer. Charles escaped from a mental health center in Nebraska in the days prior to the Williamsburg murders, but extensive police work eventually ruled him out as well. A bartender who worked at the Amana Holiday Inn reportedly left the day after the killings took place, seemingly out of the blue. He didn’t even collect his paycheck.
It took several years for Iowa police to track him down—he had traveled to North Carolina and enlisted in the military, which assigned him to an Army base in Germany. Upon his return to the states, investigators were able to interview him and administer a polygraph test after making nine separate requests to do so. He passed as well, though these are often seen as unreliable, since they only measure your body stress levels when answering a question.
DCI Director Gerald Shanahan left the position in 1983, and his team wasn’t any closer to solving the murders then than they were three years prior. Speaking with a reporter for the Spencer Daily Reporter, Shanahan said, “Those kinds of things will always remain with you. Hopefully as time goes on they will be solved.” Taking up the mantle decades later was Iowa County Sheriff Rob Rotter, who was 12 years old when the news broke of Rose and Roger’s tragic deaths.
Rotter said, “There was probably no bigger news story in the Amana area at the time when that happened. It was very shocking, I remember it very well. Everyone was really upset because nobody knew, was this going to happen again.” In 2015, he decided it was time to make another sustained effort to piece the confusing clues together to seek justice for the Burkert and Atkison families. He was hopeful that, after having been included in the 2009 establishment of the Iowa DCI Cold Case Unit, their case would benefit from technological advancements, particularly when it came to DNA.
“We literally took out every piece of evidence that we hold, which has been fairly well preserved here at the sheriff’s office over these years,” Rotter said. One of those pieces of evidence was the male DNA sample retrieved from the hotel towel. As of writing, it hasn’t generated any potential leads. Federal grant funding for the Cold Case Unit dried up in 2011, but agents are still assigned to Rose and Roger’s case and will pursue any new leads or evidence as it becomes available.
Information is still being sought, four decades later
The idea that someone could gain entry to Rose Burkert and Roger Atkison’s hotel room on the night of September 20 and brutally murder them in their bed is a tragedy unto itself. This individual tore two families apart and has, so far, walked free. A young girl was forced to grow up without her loving mother, and a widow was left to ask herself a string of unanswerable questions about who her husband really was.
Even though the case may never be solved, the Iowa County Sheriff’s Office is still appealing to the public for more information about the double murders. If you or anyone you know has anything to share, you’re encouraged to contact the office directly at 319-642-7307. You may also reach out to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation via email at dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us or phone at 515-725-6010.
