The Cattle Thief, the Missouri Murders, and His Trail of Destruction

Two cattlemen show up at the home of a known cattle thief, and were never seen again. It sounds like a story from 150 years ago, but its not. It happened in July. Now, Garland “Joey” Nelson, the cattle thief, has been charged with murdering the two cattlemen who came to his farm in Missouri, never to be seen again. The details around the murders and what lead to them are pretty disturbing.

Nick and Justin Diemel were murdered and burned at the home of Garland Joey Nelson.

The details that are being reported are that two brothers, cattlemen from Wisconsin, Nick and Justin Diemel, had sent some cattle to Joey Nelson in Missouri for him to feed. This is a common practice in today’s world of consolidated, specialized agriculture, that causes too many problems to list here. Anyways, in July they decided to fly to Missouri, rent a truck and drive out to Nelson’s farm outside of the town of Braymer. What happened next only Joey Nelson knows. What he has admitted to is that he took the Diemels’ rented truck to a parking lot in Holt Missouri, approximately a 35 minute drive, where he left it running. He then started to walk home and dumped both their cell phones along the road. He got rides back to his place from a series of different people. When he got home he says he found the brothers dead and stuffed in barrels. He moved the barrels to the pasture with a skid loader where he covered them in diesel fuel and burned them. He then buried them in a manure pile. What police have found are the brothers remains, a .30-.30 rifle, a neighbor who heard gunshots on the morning of the Diemels visit, and Nick Diemels blood on some of Nelsons clothes.

Well, you don’t have to have much of an imagination to come up with what happened and if you are familiar with Joey Nelson’s story it seems pretty obvious why it happened. Nelson’s story is that he’s a cattle thief. He takes in cattle to feed and never returns them and never pays for them. So as far as a murder case it seems pretty cut and dried, but there is so much more to the story.

I had heard of the after effects of some of Joey Nelson’s lesser crimes long before I had ever heard his name. Last year, I’d been told of the long line of bull racks, (semi trailers for hauling cattle) lined up on the road outside of a local feedyard here in Iowa, Cyclone Cattle Co. The trucks had come to haul the cattle away, and the bank was taking over. This is always news but its never too big of a surprise. Feeding cattle is a tough business and its even tougher if you’re doing business with a crook. Which is exactly what this feedyard, Cyclone Cattle was doing. They were doing business with Joey Nelson.

I learned this when it was reported on the popular Agriculture news program Market to Market. For some reason after Nelson had served a 13 month sentence in Leavenworth prison for cattle fraud, Market to Market decided to do a story on him.

That report seems more like a pity party for the poor boy who tried his hardest to pay himself instead of the people he owed. It also raised more questions than it answered. For one, why the hell is the government run Farm Service of America handing out loans to 19 year old’s who don’t have any idea what they’re doing? If you aren’t old enough to buy beer or rent a car, maybe you shouldn’t be starting your own cattle feeding operation on the governments dime. Maybe the folks at Market to Market should look into that. Also, why is the only person being interviewed here the convicted felon? Do you think maybe he isn’t telling the whole story? Do you think the fact that his main customer going bankrupt might have something to do with the fact that they were doing business with this guy? Its pretty obvious he doesn’t think he did much wrong back then. According to the charges there were 3 other people besides FSA that he screwed over. Maybe reach out to those people. I’m pretty sure they’ll have a lot different story to tell.

Unfortunately after Nelson got out of prison and the Market to Market story ran he was able to find new people to screw over. Now that he is charged with murder they are telling their stories, and guess what? They sound a lot different than his. Below is a story Kansas City’s KCTV5 News ran where they interviewed a man who had rented Nelson a pasture.

312 cattle in a pasture that will feed 105. 170 cattle starved to death in one pasture. That is someone who is a little more than just in over their head. I don’t know how you could starve 170 cattle to death. How do the neighbors see this and do nothing. And this Amish guy? I believe in second chances too, but a good second chance for Joey Nelson would have been a job scooping shit, not renting him a pasture.

Then there is the story of David Foster, one that is the most similar to what the Diemel brothers probably went through before arriving on Nelsons farm. This is also from KCTV5.

So why did the Diemels decide to go to Nelsons farm? Most would probably think they were looking to collect what was theirs in whatever way possible, but according to another report by KCTV, one of the Diemels employees says that Nelson promised to pay them if they came, he believes Nelson lured them there to murder them.

So it looks like the cattle thief killed two men who were looking for their cattle or their money. It sounds like something that happened 150 years ago, but it didn’t. Back then Nelson would’ve died at the end of a rope for killing men and burning them. Today the death penalty is an option for prosecutors as well. Either way the story will never have a happy ending. There are now 4 children in Wisconsin who will never see their father or uncle again. Nick’s wife Lisa who is left to raise her children without their father, recently stated, “This monster will rot in hell for what he has done. I am sure there is no ability to even comprehend the rippling effects of the actions he chose and no sentence will ever be enough.”