The AmericInn in Blue Earth was the scene of the murder of Mary Klatt in 2003.

Some folks in Blue Earth were quite surprised when an edition of the TV show ‘Murder in the Heartland,’ on the cable channel Investigation Discovery (ID), on Monday, May 23, featured a very familiar place.

Blue Earth, Minnesota.

The program was a story about the May 29, 2003, murder of Mary Klatt of Blue Earth.

She was a clerk at the AmericInn in Blue Earth and was sexually assaulted during her night shift at the motel.

An investigation eventually found that Klatt was killed by a guest at the motel, Roger Allen Morton, who was working with a crew doing roof repair at the United Hospital in Blue Earth at the time.

Morton stood trial in early 2004 where prosecutors used DNA and phone records to prove his guilt. He was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

The producers of the show contacted several local people with first-hand knowledge of the crime and they came to Blue Earth last fall to film the interviews of them.

Molly Halvorson was one of those people. She was a co-worker of Klatt at the AmericInn and a good friend of hers.

“I was contacted by the show and was not going to do it at first,” she says. “But I wanted to tell people how Mary was such a wonderful person, the best friend and co-worker, and that it was such a horrible, awful tragedy that she was killed.”

Also featured prominently in the show is Blue Earth Police Chief Tom Fletcher, who was a city police officer at the time of the homicide.

He echoes Halvorson’s feelings of wanting the story told to make sure Klatt was shown to be the very nice, wonderful person that she was.

Fletcher also had another reason he agreed to be on the program.

“They told me they had talked to the state law enforcement officials,” he says. “I wanted to make sure that it was clear that the local police department and sheriff’s office were deeply involved in the investigation and solving this case.”

Fletcher says he first told the producers that he declined to be interviewed for the program. But later he was convinced he should go on, so he could give the real story of the investigation.

He also had some concern about how they may portray the local police, Mary Klatt herself, or the entire community of Blue Earth.

“I sure didn’t want any notoriety for myself,” he says. “But I wanted to do what I could to get the story reported right.”

Both Halvorson and Fletcher say they are a bit embarrassed about the show, but are glad they had a chance to tell about how wonderful Mary Klatt was.