On November 2, 2021, Nohema Graber, a Fairfield High School Spanish teacher, mysteriously disappeared near Chautauqua Park, Iowa. Her family reported the 66-year-old missing the same day. Police reportedly found her badly beaten body in the same Iowa park, as per The Independent. Suspicion soon fell on two of her students, Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale. Both were 16 when police arrested them two days after the gruesome discovery.
Earlier this year, in April, both Miller, now 17, and Goodale, now 18, pleaded guilty to first-degree murder. The outlet further reported that the teens conspired to murder Graber after she gave Miller a bad grade that affected his overall GPA. They reportedly bludgeoned her to death using a baseball bat.
How did police solve Iowa Spanish teacher Nohema Graber’s murder?
Fairfield High School Spanish teacher Nohema Graber was a mother of three when she was brutally murdered. According to the Des Moines Register, detectives claimed her last known whereabouts were at Chautauqua Park, where she frequently went for walks. There, they found her badly beaten body under a tarp, wheelbarrow, and railroad ties on November 3. She died of severe “trauma to the head.”
Within days, police arrested two of Graber’s students, Willard Miller and Jeremy Goodale, both 16 at the time. They charged the teens as adults with first-degree murder and first-degree conspiracy to commit murder. According to NBC News, prosecutors alleged that the teens conspired to murder Graber over a bad grade she gave to Miller. The high schoolers were worried that the poor grades would prevent him from participating in a study abroad program.
The Independent reported that investigators found incriminating digital evidence found on Goodale’s cellphone and his Snapchat account. Moreover, a witness, who knew both suspects, showed the police Snapchat posts in which Goodale implicated himself along with Miller. He had allegedly revealed that the duo “were involved in the planning, execution and disposal of evidence” in the Spanish teacher’s murder.
NBC’s report confirmed that both Miller and Goodale pleaded guilty to the crime earlier this year. In July, the former received a life sentence with parole after 35 years. As for Goodale, his sentencing hearing concluded recently, and a judge handed him life with parole after 25 years.
