MO MO - Jo Ellen Weigel, 18, pregnant, Lee’s Summit, 2 July 1970

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Hurricane said:
Jasper...The water from one of the glass jugs was going to be tested. I don't know if testing could determine that it came from a specific household or just the community water source. And we don't know if the glass jugs or the concrete blocks were matched to a source or not.

(snip)

And we need to know for sure if the overnight bag/beach bag was ever found.
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A gallon of water weighs almost 10 pounds. I would think that the person disposing of the body would have brought empty bottles and filled them with the water from the lake.

and... the bag WAS found. Jasper confirmed that a number of posts back, but can not reveal the contents.
 
LisaB said:
I wonder if the confusion about her being Jewish was her initials? J.E.W.

Someone may have seen them written out and misunderstood. I first saw Hurricane's timeline (10-03-2012, 02:31 PM) and the abbreviation of her name, and "JEW" stood out..
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FYI...Hurricane was wrong about the religious affiliation. JoEllen Weigel was from a Catholic family. She was related to priests and nuns. And an abortion would never have entered this scenario.
 
coffeeandacig said:
FYI...Hurricane was wrong about the religious affiliation. JoEllen Weigel was from a Catholic family. She was related to priests and nuns. And an abortion would never have entered this scenario.
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Maybe that was the whole reason for the murder to begin with..... She wanted to keep the baby, MC didn’t and he snapped. I think his family helped him cover it all up. MOO
 
Jsizzle said:
Maybe that was the whole reason for the murder to begin with..... She wanted to keep the baby, MC didn’t and he snapped. I think his family helped him cover it all up. MOO
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I have my own opinion on what led up to that horrible event.

Jo Ellen probably found out about her pregnancy in May or June of 1970. Thus, giving one or two months of decision making conversations between the couple. Abortion would've been out of the question for her, leaving only adoption or marriage.

The adoption arrangement plan would've been to go to the trusted relative in Colombia, Missouri. While there, Jo Ellen would explain her situation, and request the family members help during the pregnancy and the baby's subsequent adoption. Thus hiding her pregnancy completely from her immediate family and avoiding small town gossip.

The marriage plan was for the couple to elope in the days before he left for Europe and Israel. If she were legally married, then nothing could be said and she would give birth to their child without shaming and gossip. In addition, she would be seen as a proper wife in an affluent family.

I think in the 20 minute argument that happened on the lawn of the Weigel family home, the killer decided to tell her that he was not going to marry her before he left on his trip. I believe she was convinced that he was going to not leave her without a wedding ring on her finger. The thought of being left behind to face either the birth and adoption alone, or have to face being a single mother in a small town was terrifying for her.

Do I believe this was a sudden outburst of anger and frustration by the killer? No.

I believe he decided a long time before to string her along with the idea of marriage. In his 18 year old mind, he was not going to be tied down with a wife and baby. He had college plans, overseas trips and fun with friends ahead. All that would be gone, and it was too much of a sacrifice.

I believe he knew if she didn't comply with his wishes to leave town, and have the baby in Colombia, he decided he would take her one last time to the lake. He had all the supplies needed and had made up his mind. I believe he calculated her murder.

Once her body was found, his family and members of the small community hid him. Why? Because in their minds, perhaps, she was just a working class girl who was trying to climb the social ladder by getting pregnant.

As always...JMHO
 
coffeeandacig said:
I have my own opinion on what led up to that horrible event.

Jo Ellen probably found out about her pregnancy in May or June of 1970. Thus, giving one or two months of decision making conversations between the couple. Abortion would've been out of the question for her, leaving only adoption or marriage.

The adoption arrangement plan would've been to go to the trusted relative in Colombia, Missouri. While there, Jo Ellen would explain her situation, and request the family members help during the pregnancy and the baby's subsequent adoption. Thus hiding her pregnancy completely from her immediate family and avoiding small town gossip.

The marriage plan was for the couple to elope in the days before he left for Europe and Israel. If she were legally married, then nothing could be said and she would give birth to their child without shaming and gossip. In addition, she would be seen as a proper wife in an affluent family.

I think in the 20 minute argument that happened on the lawn of the Weigel family home, the killer decided to tell her that he was not going to marry her before he left on his trip. I believe she was convinced that he was going to not leave her without a wedding ring on her finger. The thought of being left behind to face either the birth and adoption alone, or have to face being a single mother in a small town was terrifying for her.

Do I believe this was a sudden outburst of anger and frustration by the killer? No.

I believe he decided a long time before to string her along with the idea of marriage. In his 18 year old mind, he was not going to be tied down with a wife and baby. He had college plans, overseas trips and fun with friends ahead. All that would be gone, and it was too much of a sacrifice.

I believe he knew if she didn't comply with his wishes to leave town, and have the baby in Colombia, he decided he would take her one last time to the lake. He had all the supplies needed and had made up his mind. I believe he calculated her murder.

Once her body was found, his family and members of the small community hid him. Why? Because in their minds, perhaps, she was just a working class girl who was trying to climb the social ladder by getting pregnant.

As always...JMHO
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I think this sounds like the most plausible scenario. I feel so bad for Jo Ellen and her family.
I wish one of MC siblings would do the right thing and turn him in.
 
coffeeandacig said:
FYI...Hurricane was wrong about the religious affiliation. JoEllen Weigel was from a Catholic family. She was related to priests and nuns. And an abortion would never have entered this scenario.
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I beg to differ.

IMG_8221.JPG IMG_8222.jpg

If you look up her father's obituary who was buried next to her in 1991 you will find the same church affiliations.
 
I don’t know if Jo Ellen was cremated or buried but if she was buried would it be possible to dig up her body and see if there is Cline DNA on her possibly under her fingernails or something like that? Reason i ask is because if they could find DNA from him on her then they might be able to use genetic genealogy to track Cline down in case he did start a family later on with another woman.
 
My intro to web sleuths and crazy to find this case so represented after so many years! This is part of my childhood journey, I was 12 (give or take) swimming at a dock a few down from the Lake Winnebago Yacht Club (much more a sub par restaurant) when my friend and I saw quite the commotion. As curious kids do, we ran down to see what all the fuss was about just to be told of the discovery of the body.
What I know from being there
- Lake Winnebago was a small lake and the dam was broken or leaking so for years it was low and therefore much smaller than it is at full capacity
- the body was found in direct line from the Cline dock (again it was a small lake because it was so low)
- there were jugs and cement blocks
- the Clines (Don & Chris) were at my folks house at our 4th of July party and displayed no evidence of anything amiss
- investigators interviewed my mother and others that attended the party about any unusual behavior (so his involvement must have been suspected)

The community was NOT gated at the time. There was an area in the lake that was not yet developed and would have been way less likely to have the body discovered so quickly. Don Cline HAD to have known that the body would surface so close to their dock since he had knowledge of biology so why would he be involved in leaving the body in the area literally right next to their own dock.
My mother told me the grandparents arrived in town in their RV to provide support and the night Mike disappeared so did the RV. I have a vague memory of my older brother (now deceased) saying Mike reached out to him and friends and wanted to meet up at the Super Bowl the following year but those that went said he never appeared. Of course I can't confirm since my brother has been deceased for many years.
My parents moved to a retirement community in Arizona many years later and encountered Chris (and I believe a new husband?) and may have even played bridge with them and my mother said Mike was never, ever mentioned. None of this helps solve this case but I was there and I can attest to the things I witnessed first hand. There has been a lot of speculation about this case but I'm all for using genealogy to solve it.
 
PietjeOne said:
My intro to web sleuths and crazy to find this case so represented after so many years! This is part of my childhood journey, I was 12 (give or take) swimming at a dock a few down from the Lake Winnebago Yacht Club (much more a sub par restaurant) when my friend and I saw quite the commotion. As curious kids do, we ran down to see what all the fuss was about just to be told of the discovery of the body.
What I know from being there
- Lake Winnebago was a small lake and the dam was broken or leaking so for years it was low and therefore much smaller than it is at full capacity
- the body was found in direct line from the Cline dock (again it was a small lake because it was so low)
- there were jugs and cement blocks
- the Clines (Don & Chris) were at my folks house at our 4th of July party and displayed no evidence of anything amiss
- investigators interviewed my mother and others that attended the party about any unusual behavior (so his involvement must have been suspected)

The community was NOT gated at the time. There was an area in the lake that was not yet developed and would have been way less likely to have the body discovered so quickly. Don Cline HAD to have known that the body would surface so close to their dock since he had knowledge of biology so why would he be involved in leaving the body in the area literally right next to their own dock.
My mother told me the grandparents arrived in town in their RV to provide support and the night Mike disappeared so did the RV. I have a vague memory of my older brother (now deceased) saying Mike reached out to him and friends and wanted to meet up at the Super Bowl the following year but those that went said he never appeared. Of course I can't confirm since my brother has been deceased for many years.
My parents moved to a retirement community in Arizona many years later and encountered Chris (and I believe a new husband?) and may have even played bridge with them and my mother said Mike was never, ever mentioned. None of this helps solve this case but I was there and I can attest to the things I witnessed first hand. There has been a lot of speculation about this case but I'm all for using genealogy to solve it.
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Welcome to Websleuths! Thank you for relating your personal memories. I was thinking about this case a while back, wondering if anything is new. If your friends heard from Mike the year after JoEllen was killed, did any of them contact the police?

It would have been harder to trace phone calls, etc. back then, but it seems it would be easier to find Mike today. Are any of his family members still living? I wonder if anyone in local or federal LE follows up with them? I'm guessing if he were still around, he would be living in the US by now.
 
Let's keep this going as we approach another anniversary of this tragedy. My grandparents lived cat-e-corner from the Clines back then and my grandpa told my mom that they were a "very strange" family. Looks like Mike's brother still lives in the family home and he IS on Facebook (though he hasn't posted anything in a while). I won't post his name here but you can look it up pretty easily
 
I’m just finding out about this case. So tragic! I read the parents if Jo Ellen spoke to the media once, around the time of the incident, but never spoke to them again. Why??? I did see the surviving Kline brother on social media. His cover photo is the house on the lake. So creepy.
 
marytoodles said:
I’m just finding out about this case. So tragic! I read the parents if Jo Ellen spoke to the media once, around the time of the incident, but never spoke to them again. Why??? I did see the surviving Kline brother on social media. His cover photo is the house on the lake. So creepy.
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VERY creepy...I'm not sure why they only spoke once but I'd also not want to speak about it publicly multiple times either. To relive that with some interviewer you don't know would be gutwrenching.
 
Pianoman1977 said:
VERY creepy...I'm not sure why they only spoke once but I'd also not want to speak about it publicly multiple times either. To relive that with some interviewer you don't know would be gutwrenching.
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And I googled Jo Ellen's family home and it turns out I know right where it is. Definitely a different socioeconomic class from the Klines
 
Pianoman1977 said:
VERY creepy...I'm not sure why they only spoke once but I'd also not want to speak about it publicly multiple times either. To relive that with some interviewer you don't know would be gutwrenching.
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I meant giving interviews soon after it happened, to try and bring attention to the case. I understand what your saying though.
 
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