歪歪漫画

STEARNS COUNTY, Minn. 鈥� Herbert Notch had been on the run for two years when officers with the Federal Fugitive Task Force closed in on him at a Phoenix convenience store on Aug. 24, 1993.

At the time he was apprehended in Arizona, Notch was among central Minnesota鈥檚 notorious criminals, with a wrap sheet that included the violent kidnapping and stabbing of a 14-year-old girl and holding a 24-year-old mother at knife point.

Yet on that particular summer day, authorities were on the hunt for Notch for another reason.

Before fleeing the state, Notch was charged with one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of attempted criminal sexual conduct, stemming from the violent sexual assault of a 27-year-old woman.

After officers honed in on and arrested Notch, he was extradited back to Minnesota, where he underwent a jury trial before being acquitted of the charges. The defense relied heavily on the argument that the woman gave Notch consent, and it worked.

The prosecutor attempted to submit into evidence photographs from Notch鈥檚 1977 conviction, which included photographs of the 14-year-old girl鈥檚 wrists, with tape Notch used to confine her while allegedly sexually assaulting her.

The 27-year-old Benton County woman had the same marks.

Following his acquittal, Notch was set free. His known criminal history ended there, and he lived out his days in Montevideo, Minnesota, until his death in 2015.

Yet before he died, he was confronted with one more crime.

Notch spent the last days of his life hospitalized in St. Cloud for liver failure. Before he breathed his last breath, he had one last visitor: Rita Reker, the mother of Mary and Susan Reker.

Image courtesy of Stearns County Sheriff's Office

The Reker girls were kidnapped in St. Cloud while walking from a store on Sept. 2, 1974. Their bodies were found 26 days later on the outskirts of town, near a quarry.

Rita Reker didn鈥檛 receive a confession that day, but she did leave with satisfaction, according to a 2024 interview with St. Cloud Live.

Now, 10 years after his death, the Stearns County Sheriff鈥檚 Office is actively pursuing whether Notch killed the Reker girls.

Advanced DNA technology and forensic genealogy are in the process of attempting to determine if DNA retained from the crime scene leads them to Notch.

鈥淚f and when we obtain a DNA profile from an item of evidence related to the Reker homicides that we are not able to account for, that profile will be tested against the known profile of Mr. Notch,鈥� Stearns County Sheriff鈥檚 Office Lt. Zachary Sorenson told Forum News Service.

The 14-year-old girl pretended to be unconscious in the summer of 1977 after Notch stabbed her twice, sexually assaulted her and buried her under a pile of brush at a remote gravel pit in Luxembourg, just miles outside of St. Cloud.

Notch was 18 years old at the time.

He intended to leave the girl to die, according to court testimony given by his accomplice, James Wagner.

After Wagner and Notch drove away, the girl pushed off the piles of brush and made her way to the nearest home. The owners called law enforcement, and she told them everything.

She had been working at the Twenty-Fifth Avenue Dairy Bar in St. Cloud when the two men came in, armed with a gun and demanding money. That wasn鈥檛 all Notch was after, though. He kidnapped the young girl at gunpoint and forcibly led her to the car he and Wagner were driving.

Wagner testified that he saw Notch stab the girl once before they both covered her with brush.

Notch later confessed to stabbing the 14-year-old girl with his 6-inch-blade buck knife before taking her to the gravel pit, where they tied her up with tape. The initial criminal complaint stated the girl was raped.

During the trial, a psychiatrist testified that Notch had a 鈥渇earlessly savage quality about him,鈥� according to coverage of the trial by the St. Cloud Times.

In exchange for his confession, four of the six charges were dismissed. Those charges included attempted first-degree murder, second-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of kidnapping.

Instead, Notch pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and aggravated robbery.

He was sentenced to up to 40 years in prison at what was then known as the St. Cloud Reformatory for Men.

Notch was released after serving just 11 years and went on to commit a similar crime six months later.

On Feb. 25, 1988, Stearns County sheriff鈥檚 deputies arrived at Notch鈥檚 home at around 10 p.m. and arrested him in the sexual assault of a 24-year-old woman.

Notch was formally charged with multiple counts of assault and criminal sexual conduct, all stemming from the same victim.

Image from Newspapers.com / Original head shot appeared in a 1992 edition of the Star Tribune

Earlier that day, the woman had a meeting with St. Cloud police, during which she detailed three separate incidents that occurred the month prior.

Notch moved in with the victim after he was released from prison in June of 1987. They were introduced by a mutual friend while he was still in prison.

The relationship didn鈥檛 work outside of prison, though. The woman kicked Notch out of the house after their relationship ended six months after his release.

Yet Notch continued to enter the house without permission, according to court documents.

The woman alleged that on Jan. 3, 1988, Notch entered her home without permission and used a knife to threaten her while he sexually assaulted her, according to a 1988 newspaper article.

It didn鈥檛 end there.

The woman told police officers that Notch again gained entry into her home five days later by tricking her and displaying a knife in a threatening manner, causing her to fear for her life, according to court documents.

After another week passed, the woman claimed Notch confronted her with a knife outside of her workplace, where he threatened her and ordered her to get into her vehicle and drive.

At trial, Notch was convicted on one count of burglary and one count of false imprisonment, yet jurors weren鈥檛 able to agree on a criminal sexual conduct conviction.

Jurors cited the relationship between Notch and the victim as their main reason for not delivering a guilty verdict.

For each conviction, Notch was sentenced to 36 months in prison.

By 1991, Notch was a free man.

In the summer of 1993, Notch offered a 27-year-old woman a ride home from Tom鈥檚 Bar in St. Cloud. The criminal complaint states Notch drove to a rural area in nearby Benton County, where he forced the woman into the back of his pickup truck before tying her wrists and punching her before sexually assaulting her.

After the woman came forward and charges were filed, Notch fled the state. After a two-year nationwide manhunt led to his arrest and return to Minnesota, Notch was found not guilty. His past relationship with the victim was cited as a main factor in the acquittal.

A background check conducted by Forum News Service shows Notch settled into a home in rural Montevideo. His known criminal record remained clean until the day of his death at age 58.

Now there鈥檚 a possibility that his rap sheet could grow.

Sorenson told Forum News Service in February that DNA obtained from the Reker crime scene was undergoing advanced DNA testing with an out-of-state agency.

鈥淲e still have physical evidence that was collected early in the investigation still in our possession,鈥� Sorenson said. 鈥淐urrently some of which is being tested with advancements in DNA technology.鈥�

If a DNA sample is extracted that does not belong to the girls, Notch will once again be brought into the fold 鈥� and the question of Notch鈥檚 involvement could be answered.