SEBEKA, Minn. — It took Lisa Colsen 47 years to write the story of her sister’s disappearance and murder.
When she did, it fulfilled a promise she made to her sister Sandra (Sandi) Karnes all those years ago.
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It was a story that Colsen began writing in 1976 at the age of 16 in the midst of the search for her sister, and now, at 63, her book, tells the tragic story of her sister's disappearance on a cold winter night in December 1976 and the aftermath that would follow Colsen throughout her life.
“I always said that when I got the book published everyone would know her. That’s what my goal was other than for sanity,” said Colsen. “For her not to be forgotten.”
In 2023, Colsen would go back and revisit the pages that she wrote all those years ago — from seeing evidence of a crime inside her sister’s home to the four-month-long search to the discovery of her sister's body by police in a shallow grave in a wooded area in southeastern Otter Tail County.
Published in December 2023, “Shadows of Yesterday” is a story that Colsen carried with her for over four decades to keep her sister’s memory alive, and to one day share the story of her sister’s murder and the details that led up to finding the killer.
December 1976
Sandra Karnes was many things all at once — a vibrant young woman, headstrong and resilient. She was a devoted friend, a daughter and a sister to eight siblings.
“Sandi was excitable and had her goals she wanted for her life and had them all set in stone,” said Colsen.
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Colsen said her sister was open and honest, a spirited person with a great laugh. Before she went missing, Karnes had plans to attend the technical college in Alexandria to study nursing. She was 17 years old when she went missing, just one month shy of her 18th birthday.
In the book, Colsen describes the trials and tribulations of growing up with parents who struggled with alcoholism. It would lead to a series of moves throughout her life, from an 80-acre farm to a small, two-bedroom home and, for a time, foster care.
According to Colsen, when she was about 6 or 7 years old, she went into foster care alongside her sister. They were placed in the same foster care home together, and Karnes, being one year older than Colsen, was her little sister’s protector. Later, her mom divorced their father and would eventually remarry, but the family’s struggles with alcoholism would prevail, often leaving the children with little supervision.
A testament to their close bond, Colsen describes a memory in her book of the two sisters hitchhiking in 1975.
“Sandi wanted to go see the ocean. We only had $3, and after carrying our suitcase for a short while, we ditched those, too, because they were too heavy to carry,” said Colsen.
The two young sisters, ages 15 and 16, made it as far as Fargo. With no money, no change of clothes or a place to stay, they slept outside underneath some bushes. Defeated, cold, and hungry, the two girls would get a ride back home from a postal worker. However, Colsen said the girls pinky swore that someday they would go see the ocean.
The disappearance and search for Sandi
In her book, Colsen describes the events that led up to discovering that her sister was missing, the four-month-long search that followed and the struggles that her family endured while searching for Karnes.
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At the time of her disappearance, Karnes was working at Knute Nelson Care Center in Alexandria, Minnesota, and had just moved into a new apartment with a friend and coworker. The small apartment duplex home on Hawthorne Street was the last place Karnes was seen alive in December, 1976.
According to Colsen’s book, the same day Karnes moved in, her roommate had invited an old friend, a man named Harley Hayden Jr. (referred to as Harley Hallen Jr. in the book), to move into the apartment to help with the rent.
In her book, Colsen takes readers through the series of events that took place that day and what led the family and the police to suspect that something terrible had happened to Karnes.
From the blood evidence left behind and the statements made by the roommate and Hayden himself, to the eventual discovery of her sister’s body, Colsen describes the details of a crime that continues to haunt her as she recounts searching for her sister every night for four, long months.
In December 1976, Colsen was living in Glencoe, Minnesota, attending school, and she said she’ll never forget the day her mother called her asking if she knew where her sister was.
“She called me, she called all of us kids and asked if we knew where Sandi was,” said Colsen.
Karnes was reported missing on Dec. 3, 1976, just three days after she moved into the apartment. Hayden was the last person to see Karnes alive.
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“I went to her home after the police had been there,” said Colsen. “I think I knew that she was gone, just by all the blood.”
Colsen describes going to her sister’s apartment with their mother, looking for any sign that she was still alive. Karnes’ coat, hat, gloves, and purse were left inside the apartment. Blood was found throughout the apartment inside the bathroom, in Karnes’ bedroom, on the walls and doors, and inside a small pantry closet in the kitchen. Evidence of a clean up was also present after police found that blood had seeped through the floorboards into the basement.
By 1976, Colsen said her mother and stepfather were in the throes of severe alcoholism. She describes the days and nights that followed searching for Karnes, with vivid memories of a search that would leave the family desperate for answers.
“You'd go through buildings, go through snow piles, you know, until it got dark. And that was our life for four months, it’s what we did. Then we went to (Hayden’s) home. It was suspected he had done something to her. But I mean, he took our whole family, not just my sister,” said Colsen.
After the police began to suspect Hayden had something to do with Karnes’ disappearance, he moved back into his parents' trailer park in Parkers Prairie. As they searched for Karnes, the family would routinely drive by his parents' mobile home, and in the book, Colsen describes a moment that she remembers vividly where her stepfather knocked on the door and asked for Hayden. It was then he pulled out a pistol and aimed it at Hayden, demanding to know where Karnes was.
“He raped her, and then he killed her. I’m assuming she said she was going to call the police, and I'm assuming he didn't want that, so he killed her. But he took her and loaded her in the back of his truck and just threw her away in the woods,” said Colsen.
According to Colsen, the police would later find blood inside Hayden’s truck that would lead both the police and the family to believe Karnes was no longer alive. Combined with the statements made by Hayden, the police suspected that Karnes was the victim of a homicide. Later, during the search of the apartment, police also found blood on a hammer that was inside a kitchen drawer.
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According to an article published in the St.Cloud Times on April 5, 1977, officials said Karnes' death apparently was caused by a blow or blows to the head with a heavy instrument.
Karnes' partially nude body was found by police in April 1977, four months after she was reported missing, in a shallow grave in a wooded area in southeastern Otter Tail County.
The arrest of Harley Hayden Jr.
According to the article published in the St.Cloud Times, April 5, 1977, Hayden was indicted by a Douglas County grand jury on two counts of murder in February, 1977.
Hayden pleaded not guilty to both counts of first and second degree murder. He was held in the Douglas County Jail in Alexandria with bail set at $100,000. However, after the remains of Karnes were discovered by Alexandria Police Chief George McKay and his law enforcement team, Hayden’s lawyers opted for a bench trial rather than face a jury.
Hayden, 25, was charged with murdering 17-year-old Karnes and pleaded guilty to a second degree murder charge. According to a story published on April 27, 1977, in the St.Cloud Times, Hayden was sentenced to 30 years in prison. Hayden confessed to the murder of Karnes and told Morrison County District Court Judge Gaylord Saetre that he struck Karnes several times with a hammer. He said he then placed her body in the back of his camper truck and drove to his brother’s land, where he put her body in a wooded area beneath the snow. Hayden then said he returned to the site six days later to bury the body.
According to Colsen, Hayden would end up serving six and half years for the abduction and murder of her sister. However, Colsen said she doesn't harbor any bad feelings towards Hayden and turns to her faith when times are difficult.
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“I know that no matter what, there is a final judge, so justice will be served,” said Colsen. “It may not be here right now, but it will be.”
A sister’s promise
Although most of the book was written when Colsen was 16 years old, she said going back to finish the book was something she knew she had to do. Through her own struggles with addiction, Colsen said that even during her darkest moments in life, she carried the pages she had written with her.
“I didn't think anybody would understand how you could carry these papers with you your whole life and not lose them, but only God knows that,” said Colsen.
Publishing her book fulfilled a longtime dream to tell her sister’s story, and it also fulfilled a promise she made to her sister all those years ago.
“Last year, in December, I just thought, I’m 63, and I promised this to her years ago, when we were searching for her, that I would keep her memory alive and I would tell this story,” said Colsen.
Over the next 45 years, Colsen would go on to have her own children and grandchildren. She lives with her husband in Sebeka and does foster care. She is an animal lover, enjoys reading, riding horses and taking long walks.
She dedicated her book to retired chief of police, George McKay, for being such a good friend to her family during the long process of searching for her sister. It is also dedicated to her sister Sandi, her brother Calvin (Cal), who tragically took his own life, her parents and her grandchildren Oscar and Avryonna, who were tragically taken much too soon.
In her book, Colsen writes, “I want others to know that you can overcome the horrors that are directed at us to become better people.”
"Shadows of Yesterday" by Lisa L. Colsen can be purchased
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