| 3/9/2009 11:18:00 AM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Tim Hack and Kelly Drew |
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Families hopeful that slayings can be solved
By Ryan Whisner
Regional Editor
The families of two 19-year-old Fort Atkinson area teens murdered nearly 29 years ago are hoping renewed interest in the couple's murder will bring closure to their nightmare.
Timothy Hack and Kelly Drew were leaving a wedding reception at the Concord House on Aug. 9, 1980, when they apparently were abducted. For 72 days, officials and volunteers conducted what has been described as the largest manhunt in Jefferson County's history.
Their bodies were found at the edge of the woods off Hustisford Road in the Town of Ixonia. In the years since, more than 100 suspects have been investigated and thousands of leads pursued, but their killer - or killers - has never been found.
With renewed funds from the U.S. Department of Justice, the state Department of Justice Division of Criminal Justice "cold case" unit is revisiting the Hack-Drew murder case. Also, WMTV 15 (NBC 15 Madison) is kicking off a series of reports on cold cases, with a story on the Hack-Drew murders tonight during the 10 p.m. news broadcast (see related stories on page 1).
The renewed interest in the case pleases the victims' families.
"We're happy to see someone working on it," Tim's brother, Patrick Hack, said. "If they do something to catch the people who did it, great, but it's still not going to bring Tim and Kelly back. At least it will be closure on this story, though."
For Mike Drew, Kelly's brother, a captain with the Jefferson Police Department, the renewed interest in the case is kind of exciting.
"I'm kind of excited, but a little apprehensive at the same time," he said.
Turning it over to the state's "cold case" unit at least gives another chance of cracking the case, Drew said.
The captain said that apparently, some kind of DNA evidence is slated to be analyzed.
"I don't know what they have or whether it's going to positively identify a suspect, but I've got a lot of faith in the guys working on the cold case unit," Drew said. "I know from speaking with some of them that this case, it haunts them."
He said he fears that, if the killer or killers is found, it might be someone the families know.
"I still don't believe it's going to make any sense, even if you find the person or persons responsible," he said.
On behalf of Kelly's family, Drew said he is hoping for the best: That the case is resolved and it doesn't end up going to trial. That would be even more difficult for the families to bear.
"Certainly, if they solve it, that will end this chapter and it will probably make things a little easier," he said.
Tim and Kelly were missing for more than two months during a wet, hot summer. For both families, it was the waiting that hurt the most.
"I think that next day, everyone in the family knew that it was bad," Hack recalled.
The parents of the young couple had contacted one another early on Sunday, Aug. 10, after they realized the pair were missing.
"I think my mother knew at that moment that they were not coming home," Hack said, recalling how, during those days, there were hundreds of people out at the Hack farm.
Today, Patrick lives down the road from the Hebron Cemetery, where Tim and Kelly are buried. His brother's murder is never far from his thoughts.
Mike Drew feels the same about his sister.
"The hardest thing to me that entire time was simply not knowing," Drew said, noting that he was just 14 years old when Kelly was slain.
"If someone dies in a car accident, boom, it's there and you can deal with it," he said. "For both families, that entire time we were holding out hope that something could happen, that they could be all right."
Those 72 days lasted a lifetime for the Hack and Drew families. The not knowing ended Oct. 19 and 20 when their bodies were found. Yet they still didn't know how it happened.
"When it first happened, we were obviously hoping for a quick result and obviously that didn't happen," Hack said of the investigation. "The last 10 years, it's been very quiet, although it's something that's been on everybody's mind every day."
He was 16 years old at the time of his older brother's murder.
"I can remember that day, that week and that month like it was yesterday," he said. "It's not a bad thing that it's back in the news."
Since he was 18 years old, Patrick has been the caretaker of Tim's 1977 Oldsmobile. His own son, Timothy - named after the uncle he never knew - eventually will inherit the car, so it will remain in the family.
With various television programs on "cold cases" being solved, he said. There is some optimism as the state takes up the case once more.
Speaking for the Hack family, Patrick said that as a whole, most are hopeful that some new evidence can be found.
He acknowledged that personally, he is a bit skeptical about the possibility of investigators cracking the case after 29 years.
"You never know, though. Maybe they have more information than they've had in the past," Hack said. "Somebody got away with murder."
He said he always has felt that the perpetrator was someone familiar with the area.
"Where they found the bodies, you're not going to find that spot by driving by in the middle of the night," he noted.
Meanwhile, Drew said he still hopes the case can be solved.
"Most of the guys from the state and FBI, over the course of my career, have said that it's a solvable case," he said. "Thirty years later, how solvable, I'm not sure."
Drew recalled that the late Sheriff Keith Mueller always had said it was a solvable case, and he had expressed regret not having the evidence to close it.
"I have hope," the captain said.
Drew said that his sister's murder was not the driving force in his decision to become a police officer. If anything, it almost pushed him away from that field, because he knew if he remained within Jefferson County, it would be difficult.
However, a few years after the murder, he did an internship at the sheriff's department.
"I was always going to do this and it didn't really change it, but it sure made me think," Drew said.
He said he doesn't really buy into the concept that finding the killer will bring the families "closure."
"What does it really close?" Drew asked. "It doesn't. Tomorrow, she's just as dead as 10 years from now. Basically, we've been robbed of her."
The captain said that one of the most difficult things for him personally is knowing that his sons would have loved his sister, because she was just simply "that kind of fun."
Drew said that any resolution or discovery of the perpetrator would be nice, but not the end of the nightmare.
"That would be nice. Does it ever really end? No. Young kids dying just doesn't make any sense, especially being killed," Drew said.
Meanwhile, about once a year, people ask Patrick Hack the same question; "Anything new?" The answer has always been the same: "No."
With the renewed interest in the case, he said, he now at least is hopeful that perhaps this year his response will be different.
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