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Editor's note: This is Part 2 article of The Mandan Murders, season 9 of the Dakota Spotlight podcast. Go here for here for Part 1.

MANDAN, North Dakota — It was cold that morning, April 1, 2019.

Sunrise.

Justin Bockheim had just arrived at work at RJR Maintenance & Management in Mandan, North Dakota, at around 7:20 a.m.

Bockheim was a relatively new employee, a service maintenance technician at the business, which handled management and repair of apartment buildings.

But this morning, something felt off. Where was his boss Bill Cobb's pickup, usually parked outside?

He walked inside the business and saw a coffee cup, spilled.

Then he saw the body.

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In the second episode of The Mandan Murders, Season 9 of the Dakota Spotlight podcast, host James Wolner returns to the morning of the murders with a minute-by-minute look at Bockheim's discovery, a 911 call and the ensuing discovery of four murder victims.

As he traces a terrible day, Wolner also interviews many of those involved in responding to the quadruple murder at RJR, including paramedics and law enforcement. He also speaks with family of those killed, as they tell what happened on that fateful day.

On April 1, 2019, police responded to a suspicious incident at RJR Maintenance & Management in Mandan, North Dakota. There, they found four people viciously murdered, and the murderer at large. The crimes stunned and astounded the community and sent shock waves of terror across the prairie.

Gallery - Browse with arrow on right

1/8: William Cobb, Robert Fakler, Lois Cobb and Adam Fuehrer, all employees of RJR Maintanence and Management, were murdered on April 1, 2019. WDAY TV

2/8: On the morning of the Mandan murders, Bill Cobb's Dodge Ram pickup was missing from the crime scene at RJR. Contributed / Morton County Clerk of Courts

3/8: A still image from the RJR surveillance camera. Contributed / Morton County Clerk of Courts

4/8: Mandan Police Chief Jason Ziegler stated in a press conference that the murders at RJR were something that no community could be fully prepared for. WDAY TV

5/8: Mandan police officers outside of RJR on April 1, 2019 WDAY TV

6/8: BCI forensic evidence truck parked outside in the RJR parking lot on April 1, 2019 WDAY TV

7/8: A Mandan Police officer securing the area around RJR on April 1, 2019. WDAY TV

8/8: Four people were found dead at RJR Maintenance & Management in Mandan, N.D., on Monday, April 1. WDAY photo

Authorities soon arrested a local chiropractor named Chad Isaak, who was later sentenced to life in prison for the cold-blooded killings. Isaak refused to admit guilt or provide any motive. He took his own life at the North Dakota State Penitentiary on July 31, 2022.

In Season 9 of the Dakota Spotlight true crime investigative podcast, host James Wolner will re-examine this recent case. His exploration is a personal one: He was working in Mandan at the time of the murders and joined the first police press conference, his first step into true-crime podcasting journalism.

Follow along as Wolner re-examines the morning of the murders, the hunt for the killer, his arrest and trial. He’ll seek to better understand the case and the killer’s motive, and remember the lives of those slain.

• Jackie Fakler: Robert Fakler's wife and co-owner of RJR Maintenance & Management. Jackie arrived at RJR to discover ambulance personnel tending to Robert and police officers ushering people out of the building. She called her daughter Jamie and told her she thought Robert was having a heart attack.
• Jamie Binstock: Robert Fakler's daughter. A resident of South Heart, North Dakota at the time, she received a call from her mother Jackie Fakler who said she thought Robert had had a heart attack at RJR. Jamie and her husband packed up their kids and headed to Mandan where later that evening they all learned that Robert had been murdered. Also killed were Lois Cobb, Bill Cobb and Adam Fuehrer.
• Briann Miller: Lois Cobb's adult daughter of Springfield, Illinois. Briann received a phone call from a friend in North Dakota who said social media and news outlets were reporting something happening at RJR where Brian's mother and step-father worked. She immediately called her step-sister Amy Cobb (Bill Cobb's daughter).
• Amy Cobb: William Cobb's adult daughter of Springfield, Illinois. Amy was at work when she received a call from her step-sister, Briann Miller – Lois Cobb's daughter – wondering if she'd heard from their parents. Social media and friends were contacting Briann about something going on at RJR where their parents both worked.
• Tanner Arthaud and Kylan Williams: Metro Area Ambulance paramedics who received a call for a possible cardiac arrest at RJR. They soon discovered multiple puncture wounds on Robert's chest and asked police on scene to see if the scene was safe.
• Bruce Tessness: Mandan Police patrol officer. First police officer to arrive on scene. He immediately began assisting paramedics tending to Robert Fakler. Later he searched the building alongside officers John Henry and Garrett Stepp. Three more bodies were discovered.
• John Henry: Second Mandan patrol officer to arrive at RJR. He noted blood droplets that seemed out of place and then searched the building. He discovered the bodies of Lois Cobb and Bill Cobb in an office area and Adam Fuehrer behind a workbench in the shop.
• Garrett Stepp: Third police officer to arrive on scene. He helped officers Henry and Tessness search and secure the building. Later he secured Bill Cobb's missing vehicle when it was discovered parked at a nearby business. There appeared to be blood smears on the door handle.
• Andrew Tryhus: Morton County sheriff's deputy. Responded to the scene at RJR where he assisted the Mandan Police Department with several duties.
• Pat Haug: Lieutenant at Mandan Police department who investigated the RJR homicides alongside the North Dakota Bureau of investigations.
• Gabriel Goter: Morton County assistant state's attorney and lead prosecutor in the trial of Chad Isaak.

• Chief of Police Jason Ziegler: Chief of the Mandan Police Department, who fielded questions in the wake of the April 1, 2019 murders at RJR Maintenance and Management.
• Adam Fuehrer: A technician at RJR, killed on April 1, 2019.
• Robert Fakler: Co-owner of RJR with wife Jackie, he was killed on April 1, 2019.
• William Cobb: An employee at RJR and husband of Lois Cobb, he was killed on April 1, 2019.
• Lois Cobb: An employee at RJR and wife of William Cobb, she was killed on April 1, 2019.
• Chad Isaak: A 44-year old chiropractor from Washburn, North Dakota, who was found guilty of all four murders at RJR. He hanged himself in prison on July 31, 2022.