The cold case of a man killed in a bar brawl is being solved 35 years later, thanks to his twin daughters' podcast. Angela Williams and Andrea Lynn were 11 years old and enjoying a sleepover at the time that they learned their father's body had been found in the street on October 13, 1989.
He had suffered a fatal blow to the head after getting caught in a bar fight while he'd been out for a drink at a local tavern in Bonne Terre, Missouri.
More from LittleThings: Mom Arrested & Now Faces Charges In Death Of Newborn 37 Years After Body Was Found
A man was initially arrested in connection with the death of Jimmie Wade Martin, but went free after the charges were dropped days before the trial. After years with no further arrests, and with witnesses dying or moving away, the case went cold.
In 2007, at age 29, the twins were desperate to get justice for their father. They were the same age he was when he'd been killed.
"That’s when it hit how young he really was at the time,” Lynn said. “Because when you’re 11, 29 seems so old. And then when you actually get to 29, you realize, wow, he was so young."
After not hearing back from local authorities about getting the case re-opened, the girls took matters into their own hands. With "Jimmie's Bible" in tow — a binder with their father's police, autopsy results, and coroner’s reports — they started going around knocking on doors for answers.
"If we saw a name in the report, heard a name mentioned or heard a rumor about something that happened that night, we would just show up at someone’s house and be like, 'Will you please talk to us?'" Williams said.
More from LittleThings: Woman Claims To Be Cherrie Mahan, 8-Year-Old Who Vanished From Bus Stop in 1985
In 2020, the daughters and their cousins, Shawn Lee Martin and Chris Hulsey, started a podcast called Small Town Forgotten, containing all the information they were piecing together. In 2021, they got a call that the case was being reopened.
Melissa Gilliam, the St. Francois County prosecuting attorney at the time, said that the podcast "was a vehicle that brought the case to our attention" and that "new leads have emerged in the case and investigators are continuing to work diligently to unearth information that could lead to charging the person responsible for Martin’s death."
In early September 2024, the girls got the call of a lifetime. A man had been arrested and was taken into custody in relation to the killing — 35 years later. Wesley Paul Marler, 69, was charged with assault in the first degree and has pleaded not guilty. He is being held on a $500,000 bond.
Marler's attorney, Christopher G. Hartmann, says there's a lot of unreliability pertaining to the case now. "Many of the witnesses of the incident are now deceased, memories are not as sharp and reliable after 35 years, and any physical evidence that was gathered has been sitting for 35 years," he said. "We believe that when all of the evidence has been presented and reviewed that Mr. Marler will be exonerated on this charge and his innocence will come to light."
The daughters believe all signs point towards Marler, who was at the tavern on the night their father was killed and also accused Martin of having an affair with his wife. Marler and Martin had even gotten into a fistfight a few weeks before the bar brawl.
"Thank goodness I was off work, because I couldn’t handle all the emotions that went through me," Lynn said. "I laughed. I cried. I screamed. Just emotions everywhere."
As for Williams, she trembled all over for hours after receiving the news. "You would be on cloud nine one second, and then crying the next," she said.
They are keeping hope that justice will finally be served, and want the person who took their father away from them too soon, be held accountable.
The twins grieve the fact that their father didn't get to see them both get married, and the fact that he will never meet his four grandkids, but they are glad to finally be getting answers. All thanks to their podcast, the truth is finally setting them free.
