Connie Craft, 20, was murdered near Cresco June 30, 1975

The Albion Gravel Pit northwest of Cresco was empty the last weekend of June 1975. The usually swimmers and partiers had other entertainment.

The Mighty Howard County Fair was in full swing, just as it had been every June since 1893. Thousands packed the Cresco fairgrounds for cattle shows, rodeos, stock car races, and midway thrills.

Twenty-year-old Cresco native Connie Craft had attended the fair all her life. In 1975, she was studying cosmetology in Minnesota, so the celebration that year was also a reunion with family and friends.

On Sunday evening, June 29, Connie enjoyed the fair with pals and was seen at 12:30 Monday morning sitting alone on the steps of a building across from the Police Station.

An hour later she was dead, bludgeoned and drowned in the deep and chilly Albion Quarry seven miles away.

All small towns have their rumor mills and the one in Cresco still grinds out theories about Connie’s mysterious death.

Some in Cresco believe that the murder was covered up by an influential person, that it involved someone Connie knew who was using drugs, and that the true condition of her body was not made public. Others have heard that an article of her clothing was found in a local man’s vehicle — perhaps an item that divers unsuccessfully searched for in the chilly water where Connie died.

If you have information concerning the unsolved murder of Connie Craft, contact the Cresco Police Department at 563-547-3101 or the Howard County Sheriff’s Office at 563-547-3535.