Unsolved Murders of Betty Lou Cantrell (28) & Sally Ann Hutton (14)
Tuesday September 30, 1969 was the last day anyone had seen Betty Lou Cantrell alive. Cantrell was a 28-year-old mother of two, who worked as a waitress at the 24 hour Dine-Out Cafe in Iola Kansas. She was working the early morning shift that day and was seen in the cafe around 4:30 am by a night patrolman. He saw her sipping a cup of coffee sitting at one of the tables. By the time her coworkers were starting to show up, around 5 am, they noticed that the lights in the diner were off and there was no sign of Cantrell or her car. The diners “Closed” sign was displayed and the doors were unlocked. Someone notified the police and they showed up shortly after. They found drops of blood and a handprint where Cantrell was seen sitting along with drops around the diner. The drops of blood were reportedly nothing more than when someone cuts their finger. There were also two coffee cups at the table, one with lipstick and one without. And an estimated $30 was missing from the register. Later that afternoon, her car was discovered with the keys still in it, along a railroad corridor at the south end of town. While examining the car, they found two more small traces of blood, but still no signs of Betty. And there were no signs of a struggle in the car nor the diner. And some of her belongings such as her purse and radio were missing. Search parties of people on foot, in boats, and in cars soon began, but nothing came of them that day.
The search for Betty continued through Friday October 3rd still with no leads on her whereabouts. Around noon, a call came into police about a body found about a mile away from what used to be the Allen County Country Club. The body was located in a ditch at the intersection of 2000th Street and North Dakota Road. Upon the arrival, police discovered the deceased body of a woman that had been beaten so viciously that her facial features were unrecognizable. She also had other injuries like a broken leg and a back injury, suggesting she may have been run over with a car. Investigators believed that the object she was struck with could have been a tire iron or something similar. They also noticed that a base of a car jack was near her body. There was a lack of blood at the scene, indicating she was murdered somewhere else. The coroner placed her time of death between 10 and 15 hours before she was found, so around 10pm and 12am the night before. There were no signs of sexual assault. Her cause of death was reported as the result of blunt force trauma to the head.
Though there was a woman’s body found, Betty’s husband, David Cantrell, quickly confirmed it was not her. The body found was later identified as missing 14-year-old Sally Ann Hutton. Hutton was the daughter of Ray and Elsie Hutton and had last been seen Thursday, the night before, leaving an Iola Junior High football game at Riverside Park. Friends and family of Sallys found that to be a little out of character for her, as she was a shy, reserved, and soft spoken girl that didn’t really take part in such activities. She had told her parents that she was going to the game with a cousin. She was seen by several witnesses attending the game. So it is known that she was where she said she was going to be. Shortly after the game ended, she was seen leaving with an unknown suspect or suspects in a car. Some have said she could have possibly left in a metallic blue Chevy. And witnesses could not confirm if she left with one or more people in the car. And none of the claims have ever been verified by police. No motive for the murder has ever been released to the public, if one is known.
Later that day, around 5pm, a man traveling across the old Kentucky Street bridge noticed a body floating in Elm Creek. He notified the police immediately and they arrived shortly after. When officers arrived, they noticed that the woman had also suffered several severe blows to her head. The blows were so powerful, her teeth were dislodged. They found a bloody rock nearby and suspected that it was used to cause the injuries she sustained along with more bloodied tissues. The woman also had a broken finger on her right hand, a finger on her right hand was bruised along with one of her knees. She was also missing a shoe. The body had been in the creek for several days, making it difficult for the investigators to identify the cause of death. It was said by the coroner, she likely died Tuesday morning, when she went missing, and her cause of death was ruled a drowning. But officials wanted an autopsy to be done to verify the cause of death due to the nature of her body and how long she had been in the water.
Again Betty Cantrell’s husband, David Cantrell, was called in to see if the body belonged to his wife. He confirmed that it was in fact Betty by recognizing the jewelry she was wearing. The investigation into who murdered Betty quickly began. Evidence from the two scenes indicated that Betty was taken from the diner by the assailant, beaten in the head possibly by the bloody rock that was found, and then brought to the creek where she was later drowned. And the motive seemed to be a robbery gone wrong. The official autopsy was performed by a Wichita coroner and confirmed to be drowning.
Allen County Sheriff’s office and the KBI found no evidence to support that the two murders were connected and to this day still have not. They are continuing to investigate both cases separately. It took a while for either case to have any solid leads or suspects.
From the beginning it was clear that the investigation into Bettys disappearance wasn’t handled properly. The investigation started out very slow because police seemed to have the idea that she just got up and walked away from her job and family that morning. They didn’t suspect foul play until her body was found bloody and beaten. There wasn’t any immediate action or seriousness taken with the evidence that was found. They allowed the diner to clean up the blood that was found, they didn’t think anything of the bloodied tissues found nearby and at the crime scene. Had the evidence been preserved or even considered part of the investigation, maybe her case would be solved.
But on January 23, 1970, Bettys case would take, what was thought, a step forward when Joseph Marion (Jack) Shoemaker, 50, was arrested by KBI on first degree murder charges. Shoemaker had been under investigation two weeks after her body was found. He was originally brought in, in October for public intoxication and disorderly conduct, but comments he was making to law enforcement during that arrest led them to believe he was connected with Bettys disappearance and murder. Jack was known around Iola as the town drunk and when he was being hauled into the jail, he told the sheriff “I killed someone!” During his interrogation, Shoemaker was allegedly given more alcohol by officers to “keep him talking”. He eventually mentioned several things that weren’t known to the public such as cash being the only thing taken from the register (no coins were known to be missing), he knew there were two coffee cups on the table where Betty was seen sitting, and he knew that rocks were placed on top of her after her death. He also noted that he saw Betty alive that night in the diner and waited for a customer to leave before he eventually entered. He claimed he knocked her out when he struck her with a sugar container and proceeded to drag her out to his car. After driving her to the banks of Elm Creek, he claimed he beat her with a sock full of rocks and held her head under the water until she became unresponsive. He then placed large heavy rocks on top of her body to hold it down. The items that were missing, her radio and glasses, he claimed to have taken after murdering her and dumping them in the Neosho River.
The summer of 1971 is when his case went to trial. Bob Talkington, the defense attorney, went hard on Shoemaker’s confession, which he later recanted. Talkington noted that the information police claimed to have only been known by them was public knowledge and most everyone in town knew the details. And the fact that none of the evidence was processed, including the blood in the cafe, a handprint, and the bloodied tissues. A psychiatrist testified that Shoemaker was probably lying during his confession. The jury deliberated for six hours over two days and initially found Shoemaker not guilty. After his trial wrapped up, Shoemaker left town. He later died in 1977. Shoemaker’s arrest and trial was really as far as Betty Cantrell’s murder case went. Once Shoemaker was arrested and tried her case went from open to closed and has remained that way. To this day her files are still sealed and rarely looked at by detectives.
As for Sally Huttons case, it is still at a standstill but remains open. There were no immediate suspects or arrests, if any at all known to the public. The case is just passed from one retiring detective to the next.
Even years later, Sally’s sisters Carolyn Henry and Brenda Welch were still bringing awareness about her murder. Both sisters wrote letters to the Iola Register every October asking for the public to come forward with any information that might help the investigation. Brenda sadly passed away in 2012. But to this day Carolyn still wants and is fighting to find her sister justice. Carolyn said “never a day goes by that I don’t think about Sally. I’ve just learned to live with it and go on. Sometimes I think about the nieces and nephews I might have had.”
Detectives on both cases believe that both killers are now likely deceased. But finding Betty and Sally justice is still in the works.
Anyone having information that might be helpful is encouraged to call the Allen County Sheriff’s Office at (620) 365-1400
