NE NE - Martina 'Tina' McMenamin, 18, Lincoln, 25 July 1995

[mysteriew]

Lincoln police continue to get tips and follow leads in the Tina McMenamin homicide nearly 10 years after she was killed.

McMenamin


One of those tips, reported to police earlier this year by an inmate, indicated that items were taken from the scene of the crime by the killer and hidden among rocks along the bike trail at 48th Street and Normal Boulevard, said Sgt. Larry Barksdale, who has managed the case since the crime was committed in July 1995.

The male inmate told police a man — who Barksdale said has been a suspect in the killing — talked to him about the crime several years ago. The inmate told police the man gave him specific information about the crime scene and invited him to look at personal items he took from McMenamin's apartment the night of the murder and hid along the bike path.

"If anybody found a photograph or a piece of jewelry (along the bike path) that was unusual or has any information, we would like to know," Barksdale said.

The inmate also said the man had identified two other people he wanted to kidnap and kill, one at an apartment complex at 27th Street and Nebraska 2 and another in Scottsbluff, Barksdale said

http://www.journalstar.com/articles/2005/07/16/local/doc42d84e6350380511431545.txt

 

[Sarahsue]

Tina was a close friend of mine in high school. She is actually the reason I came to websleuths in 2003. I wish and pray her murder is solved someday. It still keeps me awake at night, and I still wish it never happened.
Our 15 year class reunion is next month, and I wish I was able to give her a big hug, and see that big smile of hers

 

[Sarahsue]

Here is some other information about the case:

http://www.ketv.com/news/4729419/detail.html

http://www.unl.edu/dn/stories/082098/n-mcmen.txt

 

[rachelcanteatcheese]

This case interests me a lot. I'm from Lincoln, and the original suspect was a regular customer at the grocery store where I worked when I was in high school. I remember one specific occasion when the suspect was talking to me and other customers shooed him away and told me, "that guy murdered somebody." I'm not sure if he actually had anything to do with Tina's murder, but interacting with him really sparked my interest in the case. Does anybody know where more information can be found online?

 

[bflocket]

TDoes anybody know where more information can be found online?

Some of the earlier links are dead (and not saved at archive.org). I found a few stories, but they basically detail who did not kill her.


Newspaper: Strohl Clocked In
McCook Daily Gazette (McCook, NE)
1/11/1996

That alibi has not eliminated Daniel Strohl as a suspect in the death of 18-year-old Martina McMenamin, the newspaper said, but Strohl is not a primary suspect.

Strohl, 21, is not charged in Miss McMenamin's death but police have been investigating whether he was involved because he lived in one of the 14 buildings in her apartment complex. McMenamin originally was from Omaha but was a student at University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

Charges dropped against Tina McMenamin's alleged killer
The Daily Nebraskan (Lincoln, NE)
6/15/2006

Mistakes are not something most people wish for.

But for Bernadette McMenamin, a mistake could change everything.

Martina McMenamin, Berndette's only daughter, was stabbed to death July 25, 1995 in hersouth Lincoln apartment.

Two weeks ago charges against Gregory Gabel, McMenamin's alleged killer, were dismissedbecause of new DNA evidence.

Once she heard the DNA sample didn't match Gabel's, McMenamin said there was one question on her mind.

"I wanted to know what was going to happen to him," she said. "And I also felt there was absolutely nothing I could do."

Sarah Bognich, Tina's roommate at the time of the murder, said she felt much of the same.

"It was starting all over again," Bognich said. "I was hoping it would be over soon so I could really move on, but now we're back at the beginning. I don't know what to do any more."

Police say man frightens tanning parlor employee
Lincoln Journal Star (Lincoln, NE)
11/9/2009

Then, the woman told police, he started to stare at her chest. She told police he said he would remember her name because it is the same as one of the characters in the 2007 Quentin Tarantino movie, "Death Proof."

In the movie, she said he told her, the leading man runs down college-age girls with his car and kills them. One of the girls has the same name as the tanning salon clerk, she said Gabel told her.

Gabel was arrested in 1996 in the July 25, 1995, death of 18-year-old Tina McMenamin, a pizza restaurant employee found dead in her south Lincoln apartment. He was jailed for two years, maintaining his innocence throughout that time. Ultimately, he was exonerated after DNA evidence failed to link him to the crime scene.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Lincoln Insider: DNA advances haven't helped solve cold murder case of Tina McMenamin

 

[Botchka]

I lived in Lincoln, NE at the time of the murder and I distinctly remember Greg Gabel as well. He was a well known blonde guy who frequently rode a bicycle all around Lincoln and made many, many women in the area, extremely uncomfortable.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Getting away with murder: Nebraska cold cases

 

[waunakeegan]

Bumping for Tina!

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Tina McMenamin, an 18-year-old UNL freshman, was stabbed and sexually assaulted in her apartment on July 25, 1995.

Gregory Gabel, a mentally ill Lincoln man, was arrested in the homicide and has always been the prime suspect, an investigator said, even after pivotal DNA evidence failed to link him to the crime scene. Gabel has a computerlike memory for numbers and facts and a history of following women at businesses and public events, retired investigator Rich Doetker said in 2005.

McMenamin was killed in the minutes before she was due at work at Godfather's Pizza at 5:30 p.m. that night in 1995. Roommate Sarah Bognich found her friend in a pool of blood that night.

"The apartment was ransacked. I walked past the bedroom a couple of times before noticing her on the floor. My life changed after that. I tried to go back (to college), and I couldn't ever finish."

A single hair clutched in McMenamin's hand led police to Gabel. It matched his DNA, a one-in-1,049 chance. Circumstantial evidence also linked Gabel to the apartment building. And a man matching Gabel's description was seen fleeing the crime scene, Amberwood Apartments, 4600 Briarpark Drive.

That night, Gabel was a block away at a Sonic Drive-In. He was there every Tuesday night, cleaning up in exchange for food. And Gabel had earlier convictions for third-degree sexual assault and public indecency. Police arrested him a year after the crime.

But two years later, when a different DNA test proved the hair was not Gabel's, he was released. That hair, however, didn't necessarily belong to the killer, Doetker said. The investigator also has suspicions about the validity of the second DNA test, conducted in a Pennsylvania lab.

"There were questions that came up: Was it the right hair? The same hair?" he said.

Murder charges were dropped against Gabel with the hope that additional evidence would be found to re-arrest him, Doetker said. If the case went to trial and Gabel was found innocent, Doetker added, he could not be retried if new evidence came to light.

Mary Hepburn-O'Shea, who has worked in the mental health field in Lincoln for decades and has known Gabel for many of those years, said in 2005 that the man lost two years in jail for something he didn't do.

Hepburn-O'Shea runs downtown O.U.R. Homes, the city's largest provider for developmentally disabled people that also houses people with mental illnesses. Gabel lives and works there. "He's a weird kid," she said. "He's not ever a violent kid."

Then-Assistant Police Chief Jim Peschong, speaking in 2005, added that you can't try a case on personal beliefs and supposition. Peschong said he personally believes there is a suspect in the crime, but he declined naming anyone.

Getting away with murder: Nebraska cold cases

See unsolved or suspected cold case homicides that have occurred in Nebraska. The purpose is to raise awareness in hopes that someone may have information regarding any of the cases

www.mdjonline.com