Denny Whelan, 70, Omaha Private Investigator Worked High-Profile Cases: Hell's Angels, Moonies
Shrike!
Investigator Worked On Some High-Profile Cases
June 29, 2006
http://www.ketv.com/news/9449394/detail.html
OMAHA, Neb. -- Omaha private investigator Denny Whelan died
Wednesday night at the age of 70 after a battle with cancer.
He made a career out of solving unsolved crimes, locating missing
children and freeing the innocent. In 1987, Whelan found himself
in trouble when he tried to expose a religious cult. He
eventually succeeded in rescuing a Colorado college student from
the Moonies, but charges were filed against Whelan.
"She escapes and goes back to the Moonies, they go to the
prosecutor and he's charged with kidnapping," said Omaha defense
lawyer James Martin Davis, who got the charges dismissed.
Davis said he always knew Whelan as one who operated on the edge.
He said he would go the extra mile to track someone down and
solve a difficult case.
"I used to say it's possible to hide from the law, but it's
impossible to hide from Denny Whelan," Davis said.
Davis said that Whelan helped solve the murder of Mary Kay
Harmer, who disappeared in 1975 after attending a Hell's Angels
party. With Whelan's help, Harmer's skeleton was found in a
Carter Lake manhole more than eight years later.
"We obtained his immunity, and he testified and Red Nesbitt was
convicted of murdering that little girl," Davis said.
More recently, Whelan dedicated his time to the organization Free
the Innocent. In his basement office, he pored over old evidence
trying to free people he believed had been falsely convicted.