Wendi Patrie told the court that her husband didn’t come to bed that night. She said she woke around midnight as the 25th crossed into the 26th to use the restroom and glanced downstairs, noticing he was awake watching TV or on his computer. Up again at 2 a.m., she hollered downstairs. When she didn’t get a response, she looked out a window and noticed his car was gone.

The wife said Randy Patrie finally returned home around 7:45 a.m. Sept. 26 and pulled his car into the backyard. Later that day, she saw him unloading boxes from his vehicle.

She then recounted how she heard about Kenneth Gallmeyer’s death a few days later while watching the TV news. Randy Patrie was sitting beside her during the broadcast.

“He turned white like he just seen a ghost,” Wendi Patrie said. She said he swallowed hard and got up to go to the kitchen.

Not long after that, Hamm confronted Randy Patrie about the slaying.

“I said, ‘You didn’t have anything to do with that?’ He just kind of laughed and said no,” Hamm testified.

Investigators spent the months that followed the slaying tracking down leads. They questioned acquaintances, relatives and known criminals in the area.