In mid-August of 1978, 59-year-old Glenn W. Turner was passing through Iowa, transporting a new van and towing another to Pella. He was nearly 600 hundred miles from his home in Arcanum, Ohio.

What should have been a pleasant drive across the state during one of the most distinctive times of the prairie calendar — fields tall with corn, wildflowers blooming in the ditches — ended in brutal death.

On August 8 someone beat him, stole his wallet, and left his body in the back of the van in the parking lot of the Latin King Restaurant at 2222 Hubble Avenue in Des Moines.

The Latin King parking lot where Glenn Turner's body was found August 11, 1978

When Glenn’s body was discovered on August 11, he became Des Moines’s 21st homicide of the year, although it was hardly the sort of distinction we would’ve have wished for him or any other visitor to Iowa.

His family took Glenn back to Ohio. Left behind, however, was the mystery of who viciously killed and robbed him in our state.

If you have any information on the 1978 homicide of Glenn Turner, contact the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864.

(photo courtesy of Google Street View)