Amish Murder Revisited...

Marjorie Yoder survived the attack her husband Amos did not.

By Kevin Williams

It's been two years since Amos Yoder, 79, was murdered in his Kentucky home on a Sunday morning.  And his wife Marjorie was viciously attacked.  Two years later the crime remains unsolved.

I do have sources who know some things about the community and people involved.  I'm not a fan of anonymous sources, but sometimes I am more interested in what a person has to say than who says.  Marjorie did survive the attack but am being told she can provide very little information.

This is a recap of what happened as posted on Amish365 two years ago:

Some media reports have indicated the couple was “choked”, but Kentucky State Police public information office Stu Renke says that is not the case, it was “blunt force trauma.”

State Police process the crime scene outside the Yoder home.

AMISH OR MENNONITE?

I’ve seen differing reports about whether the couple was/is Amish or Mennonite, the source says that they “refer to themselves as Mennonites and do use horse and buggy on Sundays and for weddings and funerals.”    The source said that everyone in their area knows one another:

“Where we live is mostly farmland.  They are real nice people,easy to get along with,” the source said.

It doesn’t really matter whether they are Amish or Mennonites, it’s a tragedy.  A friend of mine says Amos Yoder is Amish and she is a credible source.  Why the discrepancy in reports?  Guthrie, Kentucky, where is murder took place, is home to the New Order Electric Amish, a small group of progressive Amish.  From Todd County’s website:

Todd County is home to the oldest Amish settlement in Kentucky. Founded in 1958, the “Guthrie community” is home to “electric” New Order Amish that originate from a now-defunct Amish church at Stuarts Draft, Virginia. Though they dress plain, use the horse-and-buggy, and speak Pennsylvania Dutch, New Order Amish differ somewhat from Old Order Amish in that they tend to have a greater focus on missions and outreach and are generally liberal on technology – such as the use of electricity in homes, and tractors and other modern machinery on their farmsteads. While New Order Amish dot the rural landscape in southern Todd County, a growing settlement of Old Order Mennonites exist in the northwestern portion of the county near Fairview.