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The Boy Scout turned serial killer: The John Joubert story Killer went undetected for years Share Shares Copy Link Copy

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There is no single look or physical feature that can define the face of a serial killer. John Joubert was a Boy Scout on the high school track team and played clarinet in the band. According to his teachers, He was a good student, was a very good inn. Michaela was an honor student growing up in Portland, Maine, He lived with his mother and sister after his parents divorced very, very tight. Although he excelled academically, he didn't get along with many of his classmates and was often a target for bullies who was a little boy off with Michael years. And, you know, a lot of kids picked on, but they seem to defend themselves, and I think because I did not. Sometimes I wonder what he deserved that kind of abuse, that he would get moving, you know, the name. Anything. When he graduated from high school, Joubert attended Norwich University in Vermont. Free from his mother's grasp. He skipped classes and flunked out his freshman year. It was that summer in 1982 that Joubert committed his first murder at the age of 19 over there by the factory where the 11 year old Richard stats in was on this jogging trail when Joubert spotted him and started biking alongside him until they reached the other side of the cove. The next morning, a woman heading to work found Richard's body was strangled. He was night, and John took you by the hour. Yeah. A year after Richard's murder, Joubert joined the Air Force and moved to Nebraska. There, his killing spree continued. In September of 1983 13 year old Danny Jo Eberly was out delivering newspapers. He'd only just started his bike route when he mysteriously vanished. His bike was abandoned outside someone's home, which was a big red flag for Danny's family, who said he would never be so careless with his bike. All this paper route money had gone to like baiting the bike that he got. He was responsible and blow off paper up to go play with friends. Three days after Danny's disappearance, police organized a mass search. The one who police chief was looking for less than 30 minutes when he discovered Danny's body, and all of a sudden I just looked down and I just Here he is. I saw a young boy only in his briefs. He was tied up and tape all over him. He was mortally wounded. I could see that Danny had been stabbed multiple times, his throat cut and there were bite marks on his body. After killing Danny Joubert attended a Boy Scout meeting. Flags were flown at half staff in Dani's memory. As for the crime itself, police had little to go on, save for an unusual piece of rope made up of multicolored strands used to tie Danny Joe's hands and feet. Given the violent nature of the crime, police did know one thing for certain. Someone that does that little boy way. We felt it was unanimous. You do it again. In December of 1983 11 weeks after Danny first disappeared, Joubert claimed another victim, 12 year old Christopher Paul Walden, was walking to school when Joubert spotted him while driving by in his car. Christopher's body was found three days later by a pheasant hunter while the body was lying there, frozen his books, his knapsack and always longed for Stack. There you imagine someone making you take your clothes off, just your shorts on and walking in the snow, making you lie down snow. Get the knife held at your throat. There's nowhere to go. He's overpowering you, knowing that you're going to be killed. It would have to be a terrible, terrible feeling. A little boy to go through this time, police had a witness. A woman had seen Joubert with Christopher. Of course she didn't realize it was a kidnapping at the time. Well, the first I thought maybe it was a kid not doing what he wanted. And then I thought maybe it was a lover's squirrel. I mean, I really didn't think it was anything violent that Sunday night when they came to tell me that they found his body. That was agonizing because I felt that was my fault. I mean, I thought if I could have found that car before Sunday night, this little boy would be okay. A description and a sketch of the killer were released to the public. Despite police having little to go on Jouberts. Next attack would be his last. A church preschool director was preparing for kids to arrive when she noticed a vehicle circling the building. Finding it suspicious, she memorized the license plate. The man in the car parked and approached her. At first, he asked for directions to another street, then asked if there was a phone inside he could use. When the teacher said no, he threatened her and tried to push her inside the building. She managed to get past him and ran the serial killers. The big thing in their procedure is control, and you've got to break that concentration of control. Police tracked the license plate number, leading them to Joubert. They went to his barracks at the Air Force Base, where he was stationed. There they found his duffel bag, and in it an unusual piece of rope with multicolored strands, the same rope used to tie up Danny Jo. Hours after his arrest, Joubert confessed to the murders from the evidence that we had and when he confessed to us everything match. There's nothing that's gonna bring any bad, but it wasn't happy. Families just like Grant least understanding video. I'm glad in a way that State of Nebraska caught him before the state of Maine. Nebraska does have capital punishment. State immunity doesn't. And I'm gonna feel a lot better after disguise. That student did you think about the death penalty when you came to Nebraska, I never did. I mean, when I first came to the brass frying up, thought about committing any crimes. Once I did, I never thought about getting caught it. I wasn't able to think beyond acting out the obsession. I hear that in some ways you've got a lot of gratification out of killing the murderer's provided material for the violent fantasies. That's all of the gratification that WAAS. I can't do anything except apologize, and I am sorry it shouldn't have happened. In October of 1984 Joubert was sentenced to death in Nebraska. He faced trial in Maine and was sentenced to the maximum of life in prison. He was sent back to Nebraska, where he sat on death row until 1996 when he was executed by electric chair. Joubert was 33. Well, this case took place in the eighties and nineties. It's one that many here in Nebraska remember to this day. We spoke with the news producer and a retired reporter who covered the story during that time on. We're joined today by Carol Cloths and Cathy Be labeled producers on a documentary about Joubert, so I want to start off and talk a little bit about, you know, working on the documentary about the crimes. Why did Joubert agree to an interview And what was it like to talk with him? It was kind of surreal for me. I'll be honest with you, you know, just the process, the drive down there and everything. But I think he was trying to get some public sympathy. He didn't want to die. Yeah, he was basically pleading for his life at the end, hoping that maybe the governor might stop the execution. I said to him, You know, here you are pleading for your life. And all these years ago, these boys pleaded to you for their lives and you didn't listen to them. Why should we listen to you now? And his answer was because you're not me. You're not killers that forever has stuck with me. You know, regardless of what your opinions are on the death penalty, I don't be a killer. You know, it was like I have a killer telling me that in this episode we mentioned there's really no surefire way to identify a serial killer based on the way they look or act in society. In what ways does Joubert really emphasize that? Well, he was so young at the time of the crimes. I don't know if they thought they were looking for a 19 year, 20 year old. You know, I think people have this horrific image of what a serial killer might look like. And you look like a little boy. So how did the community react when that first body was found? And then when it was revealed that a serial killer was at large? I think there was such horror in this town when this happened. And still to this day, Um, you talk to people that were growing up here then and their lives changed. That's a pivotal point that they'll never forget in their lives. And they change the way they raised their kids. I moved here on September 17th. It was my 30th birthday, and Danny Jo Everly was abducted the next day on that Sunday, and it took several days for them, um, to find his body, and I just, you know, it was all over the news. And so that first week was my indoctrination into the city of Omaha. I Just remember, this is not the Omaha, Nebraska I thought I was moving to. I I knew it to be a wholesome community, and everybody else felt the same way. Even people who were native Oma Hahn's. This is not the community they had known either. It was a terrifying time. So how are police able to connect to Jouberts murders in Nebraska to the one in Maine that didn't come until later until after John Joubert was found and confessed to the two murders in the Omaha area? I believe it was An investigator from Portland, happened to be at a workshop of the FBI, and they were talking about this child killer from Nebraska, and it sounded familiar to the investigator from Portland, Maine, and they did some forensics evidence. And they found out that the bite mark on Ricky Stetson, the little 11 year old boy who was abducted by Joubert and killed, matched Jouberts teeth marks. And that's how they figured it out. Are there any final thoughts? Are parting words for viewers of this episode, Anything else that you want to share? I didn't realize how difficult it was gonna be to relive this. It really brings up a lot of emotions, and it's something that we wanna leave in the past. But also we want to learn the lessons that it taught us. We want to make sure that our Children are safe, but we don't want to take away their freedom completely. We want to let them be kids. And that's the the difficulty beyond balance that parents have to try to strike. This'll is a case from the news archives that many Nebraska residents of the eighties and nineties remember. Are there any stories from the past that have stayed with your community for years? Afterwards? I'm Alexandra Stone, and this has been your weekly dispatch.