Page 17 of Her Frozen Heart

“An ice fisher caught her body and brought it up,” Farley said. “He recognized her face. His wife called him a hero when she contacted the aunt. According to her, he risked his life to recover the remains.”

Nikki couldn’t hide her disgust. “Not quite.”

“Is he a suspect?” Farley asked.

“Everyone is until we clear them,” Nikki said. “If you’re ready, please have them join us.”

Farley stood and walked out of frame. Nikki heard a door open and voices. Seconds later, Kesha’s shell-shocked parents sat down in front of the computer, with Chief Farley next to Mrs. Williams. “Crystal and Seth Williams, Special Agent Nikki Hunt with the FBI and Sheriff Miller,” Chief Farley said.

“First off, let me say I am incredibly sorry for your loss, and for the way you were informed,” Miller said.

“That woman who called my sister said her face was recognizable.” Crystal spoke first. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” Miller said, his tone gentle.

“We want to see her.”

“She’s been taken to the medical examiner’s office,” Nikki said. “I don’t know that anyone is answering the phone this afternoon, but I’m going to speak with the medical examiner later today. I will make sure she has your number so she can set that up for you.”

“When can we lay her to rest?” Seth asked.

“We aren’t able to give you that information yet, I’m sorry,” Nikki said. “Is Dion with you?” She already knew the answer, but Nikki wanted to see their reaction when she asked about Kesha’s boyfriend.

“No,” Crystal said. “We stopped by his house and told him and cried together for a bit. He wanted to come, but Seth and I thought it was better if we spoke to you privately first. But we don’t think he had anything to do with this. If the Bloomington detectives had listened, our baby might still be alive.”

“I haven’t had a chance to go through all of their case notes,” Miller said. “But at first glance, it does appear the only suspect they seriously considered was Dion.”

“Even though he’s on the security video the whole time,” Seth said. “Sitting on his phone while Kesha was supposed to be shopping.”

“Out of curiosity, was this the first time the two of them had taken a trip together like this?”

“No,” Crystal said. “They’ve known each other since middle school and had been together for eighteen months or so. We never allowed overnight trips, but Dion was responsible. She was always home on time.”

“And she never mentioned thinking about breaking up with him or issues in their relationship?” Nikki asked.

“She’d decided to go to Mankato State, and Dion’s still got a year left at community college before he can transfer. They squabbled a bit about that, but she told me Dion understood her decision.” She wiped her nose with a tissue. “Please tell me you aren’t going to spend all of your time just looking at him again.”

“Of course not,” Nikki said. “Your impressions of him are crucial. That said, did Kesha ever mention being around anyone who made her nervous? Maybe she felt like someone was watching her or following her?”

Both parents shook their heads.

“Can you think of anyone she might have known who lives in Washington County?” Miller asked.

“We were trying to figure that out on the drive here,” Seth said. “I can’t think of anyone. We have access to her social media accounts. She’s friends with a few people who live in the area, but she’s also friends with people in Florida who she’s never met in person, you know?”

“We made a list for you, though,” Crystal said.

“Thanks, that’s helpful. Would you mind emailing me the names?” Nikki gave them her FBI email address. “We’ll make sure we check them out, although I’m going to be honest with you—Kesha may or may not have known her killer, but it’s unlikely someone her age could have done this. Even if she was taken by a stranger, this killer knew he was going to abduct someone that day, and he’d prepared for it. That’s not usually something we see with younger people, or in domestic situations. I’m not ruling anything out, but I want you to understand that we are likely dealing with an experienced predator, and with the media already converging, there will be ‘experts’ on the news. Hopefully they don’t mention the idea of a serial predator, but if they do, expect even more chaos.”

“I’ve advised them not to talk to any media,” Farley said. “Let the family attorney handle it.”

“That’s good advice,” Nikki said. “I would try to ignore the media as much as possible, because all of it’s going to be speculation on their part. Unless we deem it necessary, Sheriff Miller and I will not discuss the case with any sort of media.” Normally Nikki didn’t spend so much time talking about the press with a victim’s family, but Stanton’s wife had made that difficult. Her actions had taken control of the narrative away from law enforcement, and the only way to regain it was to lock everything down.

“Do you think she suffered?” Crystal invariably asked the question every family member wanted answered. “Please be honest. I don’t believe in sugar-coating things.”

“It’s impossible for us to know that right now, and the medical examiner may not be able to tell, either. The water tends to make things like that much harder to figure out.” Nikki wasn’t about to tell Kesha’s parents that in all likelihood, Kesha was at minimum verbally assaulted and more likely endured much more, even if she was killed shortly after her abduction. Dismembering a body wasn’t an easy task, and in Nikki’s experience the sort of person capable of the clean cuts she’d seen on Kesha’s extremities had a cruel streak that had to be satisfied before he took her life.

The call with Kesha’s parents lasted almost an hour, with Nikki and Miller asking the same questions the couple had likely been asked a thousand times already. They were adamant that Dion wouldn’t have hurt Kesha and asked Nikki to let him have Christmas Eve before they interrogated him. Both said Dion wasn’t an outdoor type of kid, and Mr. Williams had recalled a conversation last year with him about the perils of ice fishing.

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