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Live to Tell: The Harrowing Story of How 13-Year-Old Sandra Cheskey Survived the Horrific Gitchie Manitou Massacre
Night of the Hunters
In the fall of 1973, thirteen-year-old Sandra Cheskey was an average seventh grader who took life as it came with little complaint. Reliable and mature for her age, she was a good girl who had always done her best to stay out of trouble. Be that as it may, on the night of November 17, trouble came looking for her.
Although she had only recently moved to Iowa from neighboring South Dakota, Sandra had settled in quickly, befriending several of the locals in no time at all. Though it would probably be frowned upon today, she had even found a steady boyfriend in a popular, easy-going seventeen-year-old named Roger Essem.
On the night that would forever change a once tight-knit community, Roger had asked Sandra to join him and his buddies Stewart Baade, eighteen, Dana Baade, fourteen, and Michael Hadrath, fifteen, on a trip to Gitchie Manitou State Preserve, a wildlife habitat that straddled the Iowa/South Dakota border.
Not realizing that the park was in the middle of nowhere, Sandra had jumped at the chance to spend more time with Roger. With everyone geared up and ready to go, the group had piled into Stewart’s van for the journey to Gitchie Manitou. As they…
