Marlys Wohlenhaus was an animated, energetic eighteen-year-old girl. Then, one afternoon, everything changed. She should have been safe working at the town restaurant. She should have been safe in her own home. She should still be alive today. But in May 1979, Marlys became the victim in every parent’s most horrific nightmare.
At once a gripping story and an in-depth look at the grief of losing a child, Justice for Marlys relates the true account of a serial killer, Joseph Ture Jr., who slipped past the law again and again during a three-year-long crime spree. It was Ture who brutally murdered Marlys Wohlenhaus in her own home. John S. Munday, the husband of Marlys’s mother, reconstructs the murder and the seventeen-year investigation that led to the capture and conviction of Ture, allowing the reader to explore the horror, obsession, dedication, and finally the peace that he and his wife experienced in the search for and eventual conviction of her daughter’s killer. Justice for Marlys generates suspense and sympathy as Munday recounts how Marlys’s case was solved through the efforts of the victim’s tenacious family, supportive news media, and persistent investigators.
Munday gives readers a terrifying sense of the unimaginable grief and despair in the hearts of those who lose a child, yet he also shares his intensely personal exploration of the resilience and power within the human spirit.
John S. Munday is an intellectual property attorney who lives with his wife Fran in Isanti County, Minnesota. He is also the author of Surviving the Death of a Child, a contributing editor for Grief Digest, and a member of the board of directors of the Other Side Magazine.
