Michelle Busha was a formerly unidentified homicide victim committed by a former Minnesota State Trooper in 1980. Her murder was solved in 1989, but she was not identified until 2015. She was formerly known as Blue Earth Jane Doe.
Michelle Yvette Busha was born on November 2, 1961. Before her death, Michelle was 18 living in Bay City, Texas, with her mother, stepfather, and sister. Michelle’s mother and stepfather were Jehovah’s Witnesses and homeschooled both Michelle and her sister. Because the sisters were so isolated, Michelle grew a rebellious soul.
Michelle first ran away when she was 17. The police found her over 1,000 miles away in the town of Burlington, Colorado. They then contacted her father and brought her back to her home in Bay City.
Michelle then left home again at 18 after an argument with her father. Her father, Don Busha, admitted to slapping Michelle during the altercation, which prompted her to leave. She was last seen traveling to Louisiana in December 1979. She contacted relatives while in Mississippi and Indiana between January and May of 1980, until the calls suddenly stopped. Her family then reported her missing on May 9, 1980. Michelle’s father never changed his phone number or address in hopes that she would get in contact or return to them someday.
WARNING ⚠️ graphic detail below
Michelle was found hitchhiking by Minnesota State Trooper Robert Leroy Nelson on May 26, 1980. While on duty, Nelson offered Michelle a ride. After getting in the car with the state trooper, Michelle was raped, beaten, tortured, and strangled with a ligature. Nelson removed Michelle’s fingernails while she was still alive and shaved almost all of her hair except for a small spot in the back. After murdering Michelle, Nelson removed her clothing and personal items. He then dumped her body in a ditch along Interstate 90.
Michelle’s nude decomposed body was found in Blue Earth, Minnesota about three days to a week after her death. Her body had been washed into visible view among broken corn plants by heavy rains, which led to her discovery by a farmer.
At the time of her discovery, Michelle was estimated to have been between the ages of 20 and 35. She was 5’3” and weighed about 128 pounds. Detectives determined she moved around a lot while she was alive due to her feet being, “heavily calloused.” They also noted that she had one piercing on her left ear and an overbite.
Near the murder scene, detectives found bloody clothing and a Texas license, but it was determined that the license was counterfeit and the blood belonged to an animal. Michelle’s then unidentified body was buried in Blue Earth, Minnesota in an unmarked grave in Riverside Cemetery.
After being reported missing, extensive efforts were made to find Michelle. There was a potential match in February 1984 after a set of remains were found in New York. In May, Michelle’s dental record were compared to that of another set of remains’, known as The Cheerleader in the Trunk, discovered in 1982 in Maryland. However, Michelle was ruled out as the identity of both victims.
Michelle’s unidentified body’s fingerprints and dental records were compared to hundreds of missing persons in Colorado and Minnesota, but there were no matches. Fliers describing the unsolved murder case were distributed nationally, but there weren’t many leads. American convicted serial killer Henry Lee Lucas did confess to the murder of a young woman along Interstate 90, but when he was questioned while in prison in 1983, he did not give consistent details of the murder and was excluded as a suspect.
Finally, in June 1988, former Minnesota State Trooper Robert Leroy Nelson confessed to murdering a young woman while on duty while he was in police custody in Smith County. He claimed to not know the girl’s name, but he knew she was traveling to Idaho or Oregon and she had spent time in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He also admitted to handcuffing her to stop her from escaping. Police believed this confession was credible, especially because he stated to have removed her fingernails, which was not of public detail at the time. Nelson plead guilty to first-degree manslaughter; at the time he was already serving two life sentences. Nelson was given an additional 86 months on August 25, 1989.
In 2002, Blue Earth resident Deborah Anderson became interested in the case and made efforts to bring more attention to the murder. Deborah met with officials to make plans to raise funds to exhume the victim’s remains, which was scheduled for late July of 2014. Finally on August 12, 2014, the remains were exhumed for DNA information. The exhumation was performed without cost by a local funeral home and construction companies, which saved about $10,000, leaving $1,000 as the cost for the DNA testing.
In 2004, hairs from the remains were examined and a mitochondrial DNA profile was developed. The authorities had previously taken her dental information and obtained a single fingerprint from the remains to compare against potential matches. A new facial reconstruction was also created by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children from an MRI scan. The Smithsonian Institution also did isotope testing on a tooth to identify the regions which the victim may have lived before her death. The results from this testing also indicated she was between 17 to 23 years old, not 20 to 35 as previously reported. She was also determined to be white with a possible African admixture.
On March 5, 2015, DNA samples obtained from Michelle’s family in 2007 were positively matched to her remains. Her dental records were also compared to that of the remains, which was also a match. Michelle’s body was officially identified on March 13, 2015. They were then cremated and returned to her family on April 9, 2015.
It terrifies me to imagine what Michelle must’ve went through those last moments of her life. Her life was taken by a state trooper, someone who is supposed to serve and protect citizens, so she did not expect what was to come. It makes you think about what type of people are really in power. It is fortunate that we now have advanced DNA technology because although the case was solved, Michelle probably never would have been identified had it not been for the technology available now. She had so much more to live for and it is unfortunate that her life was taken so cruelly, but it is great to know that her killer is serving time for what he did and she is now identified and her family has closure.
Resources-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Michelle_Busha
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