Straddling the South Dakota border, Iowa’s ninety-one-acre Gitchie Manitou State Preserve is renowned for its 1.6 billion-year-old Precambrian Sioux quartzite dwellings and Native American burial grounds.  The prairie preserve’s pink colored bedrock is the oldest exposed rock in the Hawkeye state.

The ancient outcroppings of historical significance were of little interest, however, to five area teenagers in the late fall of 1973. For them, Gitchie Manitou was a favorite hangout. The historic and archaeological prairie made for a good place to gossip, to play music, and to smoke a little weed.

In Algonquian scriptures, Christian missionaries translated Gitchie Manitou as “Great Spirit” or “God.” On the evening of November 17, 1973, however, Lucifer was lurking at Gitchie.

As the carefree teens warmed by a camp fire, the cool evening was interrupted by a cold and calculated crime. The prairie preserve in extreme northwestern Iowa became the scene of extreme carnage.

Section of Gitchie Manitou State Preserve

As the group of four boys and one girl, all from nearby Sioux Falls, South Dakota, sang by their campfire, they were heard by three men poaching deer, brothers Alan, David, and James Fryer. Although the Fryers were also from Sioux Falls, they did not know any of the teens.

Upon seeing the youths smoking marijuana, the brothers, ages twenty-nine, twenty-four and twenty-one, concocted a ruse; they would pose as narcotics officers and confiscate the dope. Armed with shotguns, the men stationed themselves on a ridge overlooking the teenagers’ camp site. As they prepared to conduct a “raid,” they altered their plans.

The Fryer Brothers

Left to Right: Allen, David, and James

Without warning, the Fryer brothers opened fire on the unsuspecting teens. Seventeen-year-old Roger Essem was killed instantly, while eighteen-year-old Stewart Baade was wounded. Fourteen-year-old Dana Baade, fifteen-year-old Michael Hadrath, and the group’s lone girl, thirteen-year-old Sandra Cheskey, ran for cover in the trees, but the Fryers found them and ordered them out. As the terrified teens emerged from the woods, Allen Fryer told them that he and his brothers were police officers and had the authority to shoot anyone seen using illegal drugs. He then promptly shot Michael Hadrath in the arm.

Allen and David Fryer then ordered Dana Baade, Sandra Cheskey, and the wounded Michael Hadrath to follow a trail away from the campfire. They then bound Sandra and placed her in the group’s van. They also brought the wounded Stewart Baade back to the van.

Allen Fryer then drove away in the teenagers’ van with Sandra, leaving Stewart Baade, Dana Baade, and Michael Hadrath with James and David Fryer. The younger Fryers then shot the three young boys to death.

          Roger Essem     Stewart Baade     Dana Baade    Michael Hadrath  

After slaying the boys, James and David Fryer returned to their pickup and met their brother on the road. Allen Fryer forced Sandra into the truck, and the group drove to a farm where James Fryer raped her and held her captive for the evening. Early the following morning, Allen filled his pickup with gas and, unexpectedly, drove Sandra home, still under the pretense of being a police officer.

The bodies of Dana Baade, Stewart Baade, and Michael Hadrath were discovered the following day; Roger Essem’s body was also found that day by the campfire, site of the initial onslaught.

Bodies Found

On November 29, twelve days after the shootings, Lyon County Sheriff Craig Vinson drove Sandra through the countryside looking for anything familiar.

She recognized a farmhouse near Hartford, South Dakota, twenty-seven miles northwest of Gitchie Manitou, as the one in which she had been raped.

Sandra Cheskey

The farm was owned by Allen Fryer’s employer, a local farmer.

Ironically, within a minute of the Sheriff and Sandra’s arriving at the farm, the eldest Fryer brother arrived in the pickup the brothers used in the commission of the crime; it too was recognized by Sandra.

Sheriff Vinson arrested Fryer at the scene; his brothers were apprehended shortly thereafter.

Brothers Arrested

All of Iowa wanted the Fryer brothers fried, but the state had abolished capital punishment in 1965.

The trio were tried separately for the murders of the four boys. Allen Fryer was found guilty of four counts of first degree murder and sentenced to four consecutive life terms in prison. As he was awaiting transfer from the Lyon County jail, he and James escaped and stole a vehicle. The Fryers’ freedom was short-lived, however, as they were captured within the week in Gillette, Wyoming.

James Fryer was convicted of three counts of first degree murder and one count of manslaughter; David Fryer pled guilty to the same counts. Both were also sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Because of James Fryer’s life sentence, prosecutors opted not to try him for the rape of Sandra Cheskey so as not to subject her to any additional trauma by having to further testify.

Brothers Convicted

The Fryer brothers are serving their sentences at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility in Fort Dodge, Iowa.

Aged Brothers Behind Bars 

Left to Right: Allen, David, James

Sandra Cheskey’s life was spared that evening and her testimony was instrumental in convicting all three of the Fryer brothers.

The now sixty-three-old wife, mother, and grandmother said in a recent interview with the Lyon County Reporter that she has largely healed physically, emotionally, and spiritually from the ordeal.

After years of refusing to speak about the incident, the “Gitchie Girl” now talks about that awful evening, frequently traveling and holding question and answer sessions.

Sandra Cheskey

“The Gitchie Girl”

The pink colored bedrock at Gitchie Manitou bedrock is the oldest exposed rock in Iowa.

The pink color is from the quartzite that is still quarried in the area.

Gitchie’s History 

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44867920/roger-norman-essem#

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75479720/stewart-w-baade

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75479796/dana-e-baade

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/75716666/michael-robert-hadrath

SOURCES:

• Argus Leader, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
• Cedar Rapids Gazette
• Des Moines Register
• Gitchie Girl by Phil and Sandy Hamman
• Lyon County Reporter
• Sioux Center News