Nebraska : Steven Paul Haataja
Chadron, Nebraska is precisely what you think of when you think of Nebraska. It is a very small town rural area that is isolated. The population in 2020 was just over 5000 people. One notable thing about this area is that in 1893 during the Chicago Fair Chadron (Shadren) was the starting point of a 1000-mile horse race. It was called the Chadron-Chicago Cowboy Horse Race. I am assuming it started in this town because it was precisely 1000 miles from Chicago. Anyways whoever rode the 1000 miles first would win $1000. In today’s money that would be $34,000. I honestly thought it would be more considering that was 130 years ago and I swear inflation is no joke these days. The name of the town comes from the Lokota language which is the language spoken by the Sioux Native American tribe and it means beaver river city. Every July, they host an annual community celebration called "Fur Trade Days," in honor of its origins as a fur and hide trading post for French and other settlers. Chadron's Museum of the Fur Trade is the largest of its kind in the United States and attracts thousands of visitors every year. I swear even though some of these towns seem so small and have very little going on there is always at least one thing that makes them stand apart from other places.
I had to use a different site to find the crime stats of this small town because my normal go-to of neighborhood scouts would not pull anything up. So today I am using crimegrade.org. As I was about to start researching this I was thinking I am finally going to have a very safe town. This has to be the one that blows all the other cities out of the water as far as safety goes and I would be wrong. This is a different ranking system but Chadon is ranked a D in the normal ABCDF grading system. Violent crime is an A- so that is good but property crime is a D- Chadron is in the 18th percentile for safety, meaning 82% of cities are safer and 18% of cities are more dangerous. So this town is not at all what I was expecting.
Steven Paul Haataja (Haw-dee-ya)was born on July 20th, 1960 to parents Esaja and Doris Haataja. He had three sisters Sharon, Laurel, and Emily. During high school, Steven won the west river math contest three years in a row. To say he was smart would be an understatement. He had a lot of interested and many would describe him as an interesting guy. Steven was a top-ranked chess player in Nebraska at one point. He got his bachelors in mathematics but also minored in Theater, Psychology, and Political Science, this guy absolutely loved to learn. He went on a received his graduate degree in math from the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. Steven continued his education to earn his Ph.D. in you guessed it, math in 2006. He was having a rough time personally and decided he needed to start fresh. Steven was recovering from a broken hip because of an ice skating accident that happened in March of 2005. He had trouble walking and couldn't walk very far on an incline but if the road was flat he could usually handle it pretty well. In January of 2006, he was hospitalized for a suicide attempt, he had recently gotten divorced, and with his injury, he was having problems with his mental health. He was diagnosed with depression and started medication right away. Steven was seeming like he was getting the help he needed and moving forward in life.
Steven was offered a professor position at Chadron State College and started working there in the Fall of 2006 but by December of that same year, he would vanish without a trace. Steven was described as a shy and nerdy guy with thick glasses and pants too short. However, if anyone got him started about one of his many interests you couldn't get him to shut up. He was passionate and was always learning of ways to help his students learn. He was teaching college algebra and calculus at that small college, he was well-liked by other faculty and students. He went above and beyond for his students, on the day he disappeared he was actually scheduling a makeup exam for a student that missed it. He went out of his way to help these young adults learn. Steven was working on becoming a part of this community and I have to say based on a documentary I watched for Steven only living in this town for a few months he made quite an impact on the locals. Many people spoke about him as a friend. The neighborhood bartender, other professors, and even members of a community choir program that he was a part of spoke of Steven fondly. As an introverted previous military spouse moving to a town where you do not know anyone can be scary so I have to give Steven props for putting him out there and making friends so quickly.
On December 4th, 2006 the day started like any other, Steven woke up in his basement apartment, got ready for work, and made his way to his office on campus by 830am. His first class was at 9 and he proceeded throughout the day like normal. As I said earlier he was also making plans for a student to make up a test. Around 5 pm he is seen in a pizza hut and then he is back at his office on campus at 6 o'clock that evening. He was caught on security camera at an atm taking out some money and then the next time he would be seen was around 9-10 pm that night. When a woman saw him leave his apartment, we know he then walked to the store and purchased a 7-pound bag of charcoal. A store clerk actually knew him and confirmed that Steven did in fact come in that night. This was the store he would always go into and you know how small towns are everyone knows everyone. After the store, we don’t know for sure what happened next but the very last time we would know the exact whereabouts of Steven would be at 11:41 pm when his work computer was logged into his office on campus. I do wonder if there were security cameras on campus. I would assume there would be cameras in 2006. After he logged into his computer that night there is zero reports of anyone ever seeing him alive again.
That next morning when Steven did not show up for his classes and the staff at the college couldn't get a hold of him, they would call the police to report him missing. Yes, Steven had only worked there a short amount of time but he had never been late or missed work in that time and he was already considered a reliable person so it was very strange to everyone that he just didn't show up.
Police go to his apartment to perform a welfare check and nothing looks suspicious. Stevens's apartment was very clean and organized, friends did report he was compulsively neat. His bike was there so they figured he would have walked to wherever he was because his car wasn't working. Police did find perishable food in the fridge including milk so they didn't think he would have just taken off if he just bought groceries. Also, remember this is a super rural town slightly isolated from any other towns so his walking would be out of the question unless he hitchhiked or someone he knew gave him a ride but the problem with that is that everyone he knew had no clue where he was.
There was quite a bit of blame laid on the local authorities by the public over Steven’s investigation. Police weren't actively looking for him, he's an adult, and he had just moved to this area that he had zero ties to they honestly just thought he skipped town. Another professor at Chadron state college who taught forensics and was a previous homicide detective led searches with his classes and tried to assist the investigation but it wouldn’t take long before local authorities would tell him to stop searching and then the college would tell him not to use their resources in the search for steven including emailing updates from his work email. You think they would want to help in any possible way they could and if you want to think selfishly this is a good opportunity for forensic students to get hands-on experience as well but the college didn't want any part of that.
On March 9th, 2007 local ranchers were looking for a runaway steer in the area known as Pine Ridge when they stumbled upon a body that had been charred. This area had experienced a wildfire the previous summer but this body looked like it hadn't been out there that long, they alerted authorities right away and the rumor mill started running wild. Steven was the only person missing from the area so it was speculated that these remains were his pretty quickly. It wouldn't take long for the medical examiner to confirm that it was indeed Steven Haataja but the circumstances regarding his death would be anything but straightforward.
Steven was about three-quarters of a mile away from the college, so not far at all. However, in very hilly terrain, it would be completely dark out there at night. His body was bound around the torso, ankles, and to a tree. His body was significantly burned, we are talking like 98%-99% of his body. Zero evidence of anyone other than Steven being out there that night. The manner of death was smoke inhalation and obviously being significantly burned. This is the only information police released at that initial press conference after the body was found. They did state they didn't know if it was a murder or a suicide. Locals were upset with the lack of searches and couldn't understand how this could be him taking his own life. Police explained that Steven’s hands were not bound so he could have tied himself up and even though he had trouble walking it was not impossible for him to walk to this location after leaving the college that night back in December. The family was in complete support of law enforcement. They even made statements about why the cause of death is not being released and I quote “Law enforcement officials have explained to us how that can happen we don't want others to speculate on what happened to steven. It doesn't serve any purpose other than hurting the investigation and his family” end quote. Many of the town’s people believed it was a homicide and not suicide no matter what the police said. Steven was a large man we are talking six foot four inches tall and about 230 pounds the thought that someone carried him or forced him through this hilly rocky terrain is not exactly plausible though.
Remember the charcoal he bought that night well there was a charcoal fire next to his body and all reports said he was alone while he made this purchase. I forgot to mention he also bought peppermint schnapps the night he went missing and this bottle was found next to his body as well.I would assume authorities tested this for DNA and fingerprints on this bottle because they said there was zero evidence of anyone else being with Steven out there that night. They would release some information from the autopsy and it turned out Steven had a high level of alcohol present in his system, and the bottle found points at him drinking heavily that night.
On the other side of that coin, everyone Steven had met and become friends with said he was happy with his new job, he was making plans, and he had just bought groceries why would he have done this? Every time I struggle if someone would commit suicide I think of Robin Williams and how most people would have never guessed he struggled with depression that would ultimately lead him to take his own life. We never know what someone is truly dealing with sometimes until it is too late.
Theories over the years have been pretty outlandish about a serial killer traveling through the area to come upon Steven as he was walking in town. Another one was this was a hate crime because Steven appeared to be Effeminate and many thought he was a part of the LGBTQ community apparently this town is one of those backwoods places that do not accept love is love. I do want to mention there is zero evidence of Steven being anything but straight but I did want to mention this rumor because the locals would mention it in a documentary made about his murder. A psychic came forward and said he was killed by a student in a basement somewhere, obviously, that proved to be completely false.
Steven Haataja’s death has been ruled a suicide, a ruling that his family has accepted however, his death still causes people to question pretty much everything about this case. This case reminds me of the Deborah Collier case out of Georgia we covered a while ago. Her case has also been ruled a suicide and just like Steven's case Deborah was found burned in the middle of nowhere, she was clutching a tree not tied to it but with that case, I couldn't believe it was a suicide so it is understandable that people that knew Steven could not fathom he would take his life in such a gruesome way. Another thing people cannot get over is the fact that Steven had a broken hip just a year before that and was honestly still recovering. Many people do not believe he would have been able to make the walkthrough that terrain that was hilly while drunk and carrying all the stuff that was out there.
If anyone knows what happened in this quiet Nebraska town please contact the Chadron police department at (308) 432-0510.
Sources:
https://www.9news.com/article/news/local/professors-death-remains-a-mystery/73-343967631
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2022/03/the-bizarre-vanishing-and-death-of-steven-haataja/#\
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chadron,_Nebraska
https://crimegrade.org/safest-places-in-chadron-ne/
https://www.newspapers.com/image/895326143/?terms=Steven%20Haataja&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/895410533/?terms=Steven%20Haataja%20&match=1
https://www.newspapers.com/image/895606600/?terms=Steven%20Haataja&match=1
https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2022/03/the-bizarre-vanishing-and-death-of-steven-haataja/#
https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/nebraska/disturbing-event-movie-ne/
