This Story is Terrifying- The Story of Alayna Ertl
This Story is Terrifying- The Story of Alayna Ertl
That morning, they planned to leave to go camping with the family for a few days. Everyone had their bags packed up and were excited for the trip to begin, but when they took a look outside, their pickup truck was gone from the driveway, and that wasn’t the only thing that was missing.
The case I have for you today is one of despicable betrayal and seemingly out of nowhere. Now, while this case didn’t get a lot of media attention, it completely devastated a small town. It made everyone there wary of who they could trust and who their friends were. This is the story of Alayna Ertl.
Background and the Night Out
Alayna Ertl was born on October 31, 2010, to her parents, Kayla Ertl and Matthew Ertl, in the small town of Watkins, Minnesota. Alayna always had a smile on her face, and she was a snuggly and giggly little girl. She loved to play dress-up, sing Disney songs, and dance to the radio. Alayna also loved to learn new things from her big brother, Carter; the two of them got along better than most siblings did. Her favorite colors were pink and purple, and her favorite movie was Frozen. The outdoors, going on day trips with her dad, and her dog named Daisy were some of Alayna’s other favorite things. Kindergarten was also set to start in the fall for Alayna, and she was very excited for it.
Now, her father played softball every Friday night in Watkins for a team known as the River Rats. After a game on August 19, 2016, Matthew and his friend Zach Anderson decided to go out for some drinks. Now, the two of them played softball together, but they had previously worked together at a utility company for four years. Zach lived in Coon Rapids, which was over an hour away, so when they played softball in the summer, Zach would often stay at the Ertl family home overnight so that he didn’t have to drive all the way back there—especially since they would usually go out for drinks after their games.
The two went to the Riverside Tavern, which is also the sponsor of their softball team—that’s also the reason why the two of them, Zach and Matthew, are known as regulars at this bar. When the bar closed at 1:00 AM, they called a ride and decided to go to another bar. They were going to meet up with Matthew’s wife, Kayla, at Gordy’s Bar in Watkins, which was actually just a few blocks away from the Ertls’ home. They each had a couple of drinks here while joking around and telling stories. Now, the bar closed at 2:00, and the three of them slowly made their way out. Matthew and Kayla walked home and made their way back around 2:30, maybe a little bit after. When they arrived back home, Kayla put Alayna in her bed. Now, I’m assuming she was sleeping on the couch or something and she just picked her up and brought her into her room, but I couldn’t find the details on why she was put to bed that late. I’m guessing she was already sleeping, though.
Sometime between 3:30 AM and 3:45 AM, Zach made his way to the Ertl house as he was going to spend the night. Him and Matthew decided to sit up for a little while and chat, and one of the things that Zach kept bringing up was how much he loved to go hunting and to go hunting at his family’s cabin. The two of them ended up retiring to bed around 4:00 in the morning.
The Discovery and Search
The family had a camping trip planned the following day, August 20, and they were all packed up and ready to go. Alayna and her brother were so excited, but when they woke up that morning around 8:30 AM, Matthew and Kayla discovered that Alayna was missing. Their white pickup truck and Zach were also nowhere to be seen.
Matt and Kayla had known Zach for years, so it didn’t even pop into their heads that maybe he had done something bad, because they trusted him and he also had no criminal record. So they decided to get in their other vehicle and go around town looking for their 2002 white GMC Sierra pickup truck. They figured maybe there was a reason or an explanation as to why Zach had taken Alayna—there had to be, he wouldn’t have just done that out of nowhere. After searching around town for the truck, they went back and searched their camper, their house, their property, as well as the neighbors’ yards, and there was no sign of Zach, Alayna, or the truck.
They called Zach over and over, but he didn’t answer. They remembered that Matthew had left his phone in the truck to charge, so they decided to give his phone a call and see if Zach might answer that, but there was still no answer. At this point, Matthew told Kayla to go call the police, so around 10:30 that morning, they filed a missing child report, and an Amber Alert went out. The search for Zach and Alayna began.
Initially, police were able to ping Zach’s cell phone, but unfortunately, the signal got lost just before 2:00 in the afternoon. The Cass County Sheriff’s Office dispatch received a call from a man who identified himself as Zach Anderson’s father. His father said that he believed his son was the man in the Amber Alert. He told them that his son had called him earlier that day to ask him for permission to go to the family’s cabin in Motley, Minnesota. Zach’s father gave police officers permission to enter his property as well as his house to aid in their search.
Investigation at the Cabin and Finding Alayna
Upon arriving at the Anderson family’s cabin in Motley, right outside Wilderness Park, one of the officers noticed the top of a white truck. It was over in a ravine towards the southwest end of the property. When they made their way over there, they confirmed that it was indeed the Ertls’ 2002 GMC Sierra truck. However, there was no sign of Zach or Alayna. The truck had been pulled into the ravine and then to a brushy wooded area; it looked like Zach was trying to hide the truck, but did an absolute terrible job of it.
Police then approached the cabin and entered with their guns drawn. They did a sweep of the entire place looking for the little girl, but she was still nowhere to be found. However, in plain view on the kitchen table in the cabin, officers observed a single-shot 20-gauge shotgun. There were also multiple 20-gauge as well as 12-gauge rounds scattered all over the table there. However, there was no 12-gauge shotgun anywhere to be seen. The last thing that police discovered on the kitchen table was what appeared to be a suicide note, and there was also a little bit of blood in the top-hand corner.
Police decided to leave the premises and go look outside on the property, as they had discovered there was nobody in the house. There were a lot of woods; it was a very rural area, as Zach had said his family loved to go hunting there. Two police canines were brought in after police found evidence of foot traffic leading into the woods at the back of the cabin. The dogs brought police directly to a swampy area, and there was Zach standing in knee-deep water. He had fresh wrist lacerations that appeared to be self-inflicted. Police were able to take him into custody, however, with no resistance.
Zach was read his Miranda warnings, and when police asked him where the girl was, he at first replied, “What girl?” pretending like he had no idea what he had just done. When the investigators further spoke to Zach in an attempt to find Alayna, he finally told them that she was in the swamp, in the water under a bunch of debris. He also said that he would bring them to her.
Zach was led back down to the swampy area, where they saw freshly trampled swamp grass. As they started to search the area, which was about 80 yards from where Zach originally said that she would be located, the investigator saw something pink, and upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a pink Disney blanket—the same one matching the description that Alayna’s mother had given to officers. Located near the blanket, they found Alayna. She was unclothed and completely submerged in the water, hidden under some brush and other debris, just as Zach had said.
Evidence, Autopsy, and Legal Proceedings
Further investigation revealed that Zach had been seen at approximately 8:30 AM at a convenience store in Browerville, Minnesota. He was caught on video surveillance entering the store alone and purchasing a bottle of water. In the video, he is shown to be wearing a softball uniform. There is then a second video surveillance video from a clubhouse at Wilderness Park in which Zach also appears; he’s seen entering and exiting the clubhouse wearing the same softball uniform as he was wearing in the convenience store video.
When investigators searched the family cabin, in addition to what they had previously found, they also came up with something else: wet clothing. One of the articles of wet clothing was a pair of softball pants that matched the ones that Zach had been wearing in the video surveillance footage. They also found wet shoes and wet socks.
An autopsy was done on Alayna Ertl. In the initial findings of the autopsy, her cause of death was listed as homicidal violence due to strangulation, along with other evidence of blunt force trauma to her head. There was also evidence of sexual assault.
In October of 2016, Zachary Anderson was indicted by a grand jury and arraigned on 19 charges, including first-degree and second-degree murder, two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of second-degree criminal sexual conduct, one count of theft of a vehicle, and two counts of interference with a dead body.
Zachary Anderson’s public defender, Scott Collins, filed a motion on March 24, 2017, asking the judge to dismiss the murder charges against Zachary, suppress evidence gathered during the investigation, or move his trial to a different county. Collins asked the judge to dismiss the indictment against his client on the grounds that there was insufficient probable cause to indict him. He alleged that his constitutional rights were also violated, arguing that Zachary did not wish to provide a statement to authorities and had not waived his right to remain silent.
The Cass County judge ended up ruling that investigators had improperly questioned Zachary, deciding his first statement to investigators was inadmissible at any trial he might face. This meant that the jurors were not allowed to hear what Zachary had told investigators after three times telling them he didn’t want to answer their questions. This information that he had given was the location of Alayna. The judge, however, did uphold all 19 of Zach’s charges.
Zach was scheduled to appear at the Cass County District Court on March 2, 2018, for a pretrial hearing. Instead, at this time, he entered a plea of guilty. He was immediately sentenced to the mandatory penalty in the state of Minnesota, which is imprisonment for life with no chance of release.
Tribute and Conclusion
A candlelight vigil was held, and nearly 1,000 people attended to honor Alayna, which is more people than all of those who live in Watkins. At the beginning of the service, the mourners released hundreds of pink and purple balloons into the sky to pay tribute to Alayna. As the balloons took off into the night sky, the song “Let It Go” from Alayna’s favorite movie, Frozen, was played. A visitation was held to say goodbye to the little girl on August 25, 2016; over 300 people ended up showing up. The next day, on August 26, 2016, Alayna Ertl’s funeral was held at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church in Watkins. She was buried in a nearby cemetery afterwards.
Well, thank you for listening to all of Alayna’s story today. The weird thing about this case is that Zach had no priors except for a few driving offenses, and he also had never showed warning signs of liking children in that way. It’s crazy that Alayna’s father had been friends with Zach for years and never indicated that he noticed any red flags, then one day out of nowhere, this happens. It’s a scenario you would never imagine, especially from a trusted friend. Poor little Alayna was taken from her own home, and probably by someone that she also trusted. I am glad that Zach got the maximum penalty and he won’t ever be released, because so oftentimes that does not happen and they get far less but deserve much more.
