BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A man indicted in connection with a St. Francois County cold case appeared in court Wednesday morning to plead not guilty.
69-year-old Wesley Marler was recently charged with first-degree assault in the 1989 death of Jimmy Wade Martin outside of a Bonne Terre bar.
Martin’s death later became the focus of the Small Town Forgotten podcast.
For longtime St. Francois County resident Chris Hulsey, there’s only one way to describe Bonne Terre.
“It’s just your everywhere small town USA,” Hulsey said. “Everybody knows everybody.”
However, for the past 35 years, the Bonne Terre community has held a dark secret.
“In 1989, Jimmy Wade Martin was murdered,” Hulsey said. “A man was charged that night, sat in trial for 3 years, and before his trial was let out and let free.”
After years without any movement in the case, Hulsey started the Small Town Forgotten podcast with Martin’s twin daughters in an effort to keep the case from going cold.
“We knew just talking to the public that a lot of people knew what happened,” Hulsey said. “A lot of people were telling the same story about what happened. As we dug into that we just continued to uncover that everything kept pointing in the same direction.”
Hulsey admits waiting years for answers was the hardest part of the investigation.
“We weren’t sure if it was going to happen because there were setbacks,” Hulsey said.
The evidence the Small Town Forgotten team was able to gather helped Missouri State Highway Patrol indict 69-year-old Wesley Marler’s indictment for first-degree assault in connection with Martin’s death.
“Our stated purpose for the podcast from the beginning was justice for Jimmy Martin,” Hulsey said. “We’ve taken that as far as we can. Now that an arrest has been made it’s out of our hands and it’s in the hands of Wesley Marler’s peers.”
Following recent developments in this case Hulsey says he plans to release a new episode of Small Town Forgotten on Friday following a 11-month hiatus.
Marler is being held in the St. Francois Co. Jail on a $500,000 bond.