First posted September 8, 2009

Eric Stukel was not alone when he was spotted at the vacuum station of the Magic Touch Car Wash in Yankton, on Friday, Sept. 18th, 1992. With him was his best friend Jason Adamson.

(Perhaps they were just detailing Stukel’s car for the evening’s homecoming festivities?)

Interestingly, every door to Eric’s car was open at the car wash, including his trunk door.²

After Stukel’s car was impounded, Luminol (the blue light that detects bodily fluids) detected trace bodily fluids in the crevices of Stukel’s steering wheel and dash, as well as on the rear bumper and taillight area of his car.¹

The following is recorded testimony from Jason Foss, who spoke to Stukel just after Tammy’s body was discovered in the ravine on Nebraska Highway 121: “I said I heard your (Stukel’s) car was impounded by the police and asked him if there was anything in there he worried about. He said no, he had known they were going to take it and he cleaned it out. It gave me the chills.”²

The question that had to be on Foss’s mind was how did Eric Stukel know they were going to impound his car?

Stukel had told law enforcement earlier that week, while Tammy was still missing, that he believed Tammy just snuck off for a few days in an attempt to get attention, and he told Foss and others, “for all I know, she’s dead in a ditch or field.”²

A ditch is exactly how law enforcement described the location of Tammy’s body to the media: “it is possible that the victim was killed elsewhere and placed in the ditch (emphasis added), which is a steep ravine leading into a wooded area.”³

Was anybody else cleaning out their vehicles (with the trunk door open) on homecoming Friday, less than twenty-four hours after the Stephenson party?

Was anybody else assuming the police would be impounding their cars? And why would Stukel need to clean out his car in the first place?

He admitted to the police that he used pot. He admitted to the police that he was drinking that night. What was he afraid they were going to find? Why would he have had his trunk opened at that car wash? Do most people clean the inside of their trunks on a regular basis?

WORKS CITED

1. Rothanzl, Lorna. “Experts Testify in Stukel Trial.” Yankton Press and Dakotan, Oct. 1, 1996

2. Rothanzl, Lorna. “Friends Testify at Stukel Trial.” Yankton Press and Dakotan. Oct. 2 1996

3. Anderson, Dan. “Clues sought in Tammy Haas’ death.” Yankton Press and Dakotan. Sept. 24, 1992