On Saturday, May 13, 1978, police—acting on a tip—found the beaten and strangled body of 31-year-old James A. Harsch in his mobile home on the east side of Mill Dam Road just outside the city limits of Burlington, Iowa. He had been dead about a week.

A large amount of marijuana was missing, making drugs the primary motive for the murder. As drug use in Iowa became more prevalent in the 1960s and the following decades, so too did violent crimes like robbery and murder.

The Greater Burlington Area Crime Stoppers offers a thousand dollar reward for details that would solve this case. If you have any information, call them at 319-753-6835 (319-75-DO-TEL). You can remain anonymous.

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Thirty-five-year-old Arthur Leon Ransford was last seen on November 22, 1983. Nearly five months later, on May 13, 1984, his body was found inside in a large yellow bag buried under cement blocks just off Rural Route M in a wooded area overlooking the Mississippi River south of Montrose, Iowa, in Lee County.

He was born March 20, 1947 in Scotland County, Missouri, to Thelma Maxine Long and William Bryon Ransford. He served in the military during the Viet Nam era. His parents and a daughter survived.

If you have any information about the unsolved murder of Arthur Leon Ransford, contact the Lee County Sheriff’s Office at 319-524-1414 or 319-372-1152 or report details to the DCI Cold Case Unit.