Valentine’s Day for most people is a time to celebrate romance, exchange heart-shaped cards and enjoy gifts of decadent chocolate or long-stemmed roses. For four Iowa families, however, it’s a painful reminder of a loved one’s murder or unsolved disappearance, and it hasn’t gotten any easier as the years have passed.
Today we pay tribute to those victims and extend a special Valentine’s Day wish to all who were a part of these victims’ all-too-short lives.
Our first victim, Louis Dale Reed, Sr., was shot at close range inside a Clinton, Iowa shack at Reed’s Auto Salvage on February 14, 1974. The 53-year-old grandfather, who operated the salvage yard on Clinton’s south side, suffered a shotgun blast to the chest and a wound to his left arm.
Missing at the time was Mr. and Mrs. Reed’s dog, Shaggy, who had been at the salvage yard with Louis the day of the slaying. More than one week later, Mrs. Reed found Shaggy way underneath a vehicle, where the traumatized but still breathing dog had gone into hiding after his master was shot.
Maurice Kneifl
On February 14, 1983, Maurice P. Kneifl, 58, left his girlfriend’s residence in Sioux City, Iowa at around 9:30 p.m. but then failed to show up the next morning to give her a ride to work. He was reported missing two days later.
A respected local businessman, Kneifl had served as mayor of Hartington, Neb., for many years. He and his late wife had owned a dry cleaning business for over 30 years before her death on Feb. 18, 1978.
At the time of his disappearance, Kneifl was preparing to testify against a son-in-law — an individual who’d already been incarcerated three times — and believed his testimony would put his son-in-law behind bars for good. Kneifl turned up missing before he had the opportunity to testify.
On February 14, 1998, the body of 20-year-old Ky Van Luong was discovered on a bike path in Des Moines not far from the Des Moines River. Police said Luong had been shot to death in another location and his body dumped along the 6th Avenue and Birdland Drive bike path.
Delores Antonia “Toni” Martinez Hornung was a seamstress and noted for her quilts and beadwork. The 48-year-old mother of a son and a daughter was shot to death in her Keokuk, Iowa home on February 14, 1999. Her boyfriend, Lewis Greer of Bonaparte, Iowa, was arrested and charged with her murder, but acquitted by a Lee County jury.
Every year on or around Toni’s birthday, her mother, Alice Brown, honors her daughter with a photo in the Daily Gate City newspaper. Either she or another family member also calls the Keokuk Police Department to see if there are any updates in the case.
Four different victims in four different cities left behind family members and friends to mourn their loss and wait for answers. Do you have any information that might help solve one of these crimes? More details about how you can help may be found by visiting the victim’s case summary page.
In today’s guest blog, we include here a letter written by one man in search of his missing brother. The writer, Mark Rolfe, acknowledges that his brother, Lee Allan Rolfe, does have a record, but Mark Rolfe’s health is failing and he is sincere in wanting to locate his brother or find out what happened to him. We ask that any responses to this gentleman’s inquiries be courteous and respectful in nature. Thank you for your understanding.
About five years ago, my brother, Lee Allan Rolfe, was living with me when he disappeared on a Sunday morning. I never saw him again.
Missing: Lee Allan Rolfe
My brother does have a record, and law enforcement tracked him to Davenport where they found his car. There was another sighting in Arkansas, and then he was never seen again.
I have never stopped searching for him and need to know if he is still alive or gone. I want him to come home and face up to what he needs to do. I miss him, and want him to know it is okay to come home. I am going to be 64 years old this month, and though I have health issues, I wish to find him.
I’m sending out this message in hopes that he will see it and contact me, where we can get him back home where he belongs. Or, if you’re reading this message and know him or where he is, I’m asking that you please contact me at moose@alpinecom.net or 563-252-2866, or the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office at 563-245-1234 so we might be able to get in touch with him.
Thank you in advance.
Mark E. Rolfe
* NOTE: If you would like to send an anonymous tip to Iowa Cold Cases for passing on to Mark Rolfe, please fill out our Anonymous Tip Form and we will ensure it gets to him.
Courtesy photo Des Moines RegisterLate last week, I received an e-mail from Judith Cabanillas — one of two sisters of Iowa Cold Case victim Mary Jayne Jones. Judith wrote to thank us for including her sister on our site, and said she and her family “were in shock” when they learned Robert Eugene Pilcher had finally been arrested based on DNA evidence legally collected from Pilcher’s long list of crimes after 1974.
“Our family has waited for 38 years for this man to be arrested,” Judith wrote.
She was quick to praise the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office, and all those involved over the years in her sister’s case.
Courtesy Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation“Wayne Sheston, a former agent, worked her case after he retired,” she said. “Mike Berrier kept our family abreast of her case and what was occurring, and Wapello County did a wonderful job of preserving the evidence in her case.”
Who would have thought in 1974, she wrote, that there would one day be computers that could break down one’s cell structure and record it exactly, and that this DNA code would be identifiable to only one person?
“While we understand that this is only the beginning, at least we know there is proof, and while he walked free basically for 38 years, he will never be free again,” she said.
I asked Judith, who resides in Redding, Calif., if she would like to share any information about Mary Jayne with our readers. She responded with the following, in which she describes a beautiful young woman known not just as “Jayne,” but a daughter, sister, aunt, grandchild, and most of all, a friend — one who has been missed and loved every moment of the past 38 years.
Judith wrote:
What can I say about Jayne… she was an amazing individual. Always happy with a smile, full of energy and life. She had strong family beliefs and was always there to help another.
There was a mischievous twinkle in her brown eyes and she laughed a lot and freely.
I am not certain what Jayne wanted to do when she became an adult. I could always picture her in a field where she helped people. At 17, when she was murdered, I am not certain that she had decided what field of study she planned to go into.
Our family has grieved for thirty-eight years. That does not change nor go away. We have missed her every day since she was so callously taken from us.
Our older sister Jacque, who lived in Ottumwa at the time, has three boys. I had a daughter, and in memory of Jayne named my daughter Marijayne.
We intend to come to Iowa whether Robert Pilcher takes a plea or stands trial. My sister and I intend to make victim impact statements during sentencing. We want the Judge/Jury to understand that Jayne was not a throwaway person, without family or friends.
I have prayed that Pilcher would one day be caught, and my prayers have finally been answered.
“This is our beginning and hopefully the peaceful resting of her spirit,” Judith told Iowa Cold Cases.
For other families who’ve lost one they loved due to violence, Judith says:
“I pray for you and I pray for justice in honor of your loved one(s).”
To most people, Thanksgiving — as well as the big Black Friday shopping day that follows — is simply a welcome holiday and an opportunity to get great savings on big-ticket items or Christmas gifts. Offspring living in distant states or countries will often travel thousands of miles to celebrate the weekend-long occasion with parents or grandparents and enjoy catching up with siblings while feasting on turkey and stuffing, mashed potatoes and gravy and homemade pumpkin pie.
Courtesy photo Benning familyFor some Iowa families, however, Thanksgiving remains a painful reminder of a loved one’s absence — one not just missing from this year’s festivities, but one whose unexplained disappearance or murder has never been solved — particularly if the crime occurred on or near the Thanksgiving holiday.
Julie Benning‘s family knows this all too well. When the 18-year-old Clarksville, Iowa teen went missing the day after Thanksgiving in 1975 while on her way to work, her parents and four younger sisters knew right away something had happened. Her distraught father drove to Waverly to report her missing, and went to area newspapers and radio stations, asking they alert the public about his daughter’s disappearance.
Nearly four months later, a Butler County road maintenance worker discovered Julie’s body in a roadside ditch along a country road about one mile northeast of Shell Rock, Iowa. The friendly teen, a 1975 Plainfield High School graduate who painted landscapes and portraits and also designed and sewed her own dresses — had been raped and strangled.
Martha Erickson
Martha “Marty” Erickson was murdered the day before Thanksgiving in 1995 while on her way to a dance. Her body was later found in Avon Lake’s shallow waters in Polk County. She’d been beaten and stabbed.
Police believe Marty may have been killed by someone she’d tried to help; the 47-year-old Avon resident enjoyed helping alcoholics and drug addicts fight their demons, even though she had no personal addictions.
Larry Murillo
Twenty-five-year-old Larry Murillo went to work on Thanksgiving night in 2009 and returned home disoriented. His mother took him to see a doctor, who prescribed an anti-depressant for anxiety.
By Saturday Murillo was having hallucinations, and told his mother somebody was following him and that he felt scared. That night, Murillo left the house and went out into the cold without so much as a pair of shoes. He has not been seen since.
Roberta “Bobbi” Crawford, an Ellsworth Community College teacher who raised her son and was just beginning to enjoy her role as a new grandmother, was slain in her Hampton home the week before Thanksgiving in 1999. An autopsy concluded the 53-year-old died of blunt force trauma to the head.
Courtesy photo WHO-TVBobbi’s son Lee Crawford — a social studies teacher in Sigourney, Iowa — received word that something happened to his mother and made the three-hour drive to her home not knowing what had happened. In a January 2011 interview with WHO-TV’s Aaron Brilbeck, Crawford described the trip as the “three hour drive from hell.”
Crawford said he credited his wife, Jolie, also a teacher, with helping him through the first years after his mother’s murder and still remains hopeful it will one day be solved.
Courtesy photo April PlyerScott Tompkins, 23, was shot less than one week after Thanksgiving on November 29, 1995, while stopped to fix his windshield wipers at a Muscatine intersection. His body was found just blocks from the Hardee’s restaurant where he worked as assistant manager.
Hardee’s manager Chris Park described Scott as “just a real nice young man” and didn’t believe Scott had “an enemy in the world.” Scott’s mother, Sharon Tompkins, is confident her son was killed by Muscatine gang members. She doesn’t believe justice will ever be doled out for all those responsible in her son’s murder; while she waits, she continues her anti-gang advocacy.
Two days after Thanksgiving in 1984, John Green Jr., 3, and his 18-month-old brother, Mark Green, died after two explosions in their Davenport home on November 24. The boys were in an upstairs bedroom when the explosions occurred about 12:30 p.m. near the home’s front door.
The boys’ mother, who screamed and managed to escape the home with a six-year-old daughter and another relative, was unable to get upstairs to rescue her two sons. A police officer attempted to rescue the boys but was overcome by heat and smoke and later pulled out by rescuers.
Paul Knockel
In 1990, when 53-year-old Paul Knockel failed to show up at a family member’s home for Thanksgiving dinner, relatives went to his home, where they found Paul’s wallet, watch and shoes but no sign of him.
The following day, his family spotted what they thought was Paul’s car — a 1981 red Mercury Zephyr — parked along Route 151 just over the Wisconsin border. A few hours later, the vehicle was gone.
Neither Paul Knockel nor his vehicle has been seen since. Relatives believe he may have been abducted from his home and then murdered.
Two days after Thanksgiving in 2006, Dorothy Jenine Rose was found dead in her Cedar Rapids apartment. The 43-year-old had been strangled and had been dead three to four days before the building’s landlord discovered her body.
There are others.
Still, hope remains. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) had but two short years to put to work their newly created Cold Case Unit, but fruits of their labor continue to be witnessed since the unit shut down in late 2011 due to lack of funding. They were making progress — particularly with cases where DNA had been preserved — and remained committed to following through with those cases. Their perseverance paid off.
On July 26, 2011, officials arrested 45-year-old Tracey Ann Richter-Roberts for the 2001 death of 20-year-old Dustin Wehde in Early, Iowa.
On May 23, 2012, the DCI announced that the female remains found in southeast Iowa on March 17, 2012 were believed to be those of Jackie Leigh Douthart, who disappeared from Mount Pleasant on May 22, 2011.
On July 12, 2012, Derrick J. McElroy, 26, was charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of 19-year-old Brandyn Preston of Fort Dodge. Preston was shot May 8, 2011, and died from his injuries on January 22, 2012.
On September 27, 2012, agents with the DCI and Floyd County Sheriff’s Office charged 33-year-old Casey Frederiksen in the 2005 death of five-year-old Evelyn Miller.
On November 13, 2012, DCI agents and Wapello County Sheriff’s deputies arrested 66-year-old Robert Eugene Pilcher in connection with the 1974 homicide of 17-year-old Mary Jayne Jones of Ottumwa.
DNA from other cases continues to be processed, and hundreds of Iowa families remain hopeful that funding will soon restore the DCI’s Cold Case Unit. We need them. They’ve proven they can produce results. And, DNA technology is only going to advance and get better.
This Thanksgiving holiday, while we pay tribute to loved ones lost, we also give thanks to the hundreds of law enforcement officials who work tirelessly to bring killers to justice and peace to families.
Mom and Earl
Five years ago today, my family received news no family ever expects to hear. We were fortunate, however, in that we received a gift few families get to experience when crime comes knocking on one’s door; we each got the opportunity to see and speak to our loved one — and him to us — one last time in conversation not focused on any final goodbye, but words of hope, love, and the promise of many more tomorrows.
Those tomorrows lasted just four more days before my stepfather, Earl Thelander, succumbed to burns sustained in a home explosion brought about by copper thieves. He died September 1, 2007, four months shy of his and my mother’s 25th wedding anniversary.
Mom and Earl had been out the night before working on the rural home they were preparing for a renter — the same country home where my maternal grandparents used to live — and the late-night or early-morning burglars who cut and stole propane gas lines and let the home fill with gas have yet to be apprehended or charged in the crime. My stepdad’s case remains unsolved.
Earl and Mom early on, fixing up a rental property.
Two months after his death, my mom, Hope Thelander, wrote about what she missed most about her husband and best friend; with permission, I’d posted her story to my blog. Read the blog post here.
Today I’d like to post the things I miss most about a good man I felt privileged to call “Dad Earl.”
I miss the way he always looked at my mom.
I miss how he’d always throw back his head in hearty laughter.
I miss the way he so carefully pushed up his glasses, his fingers wrapped around the outer edges, when deep in thought.
I miss watching him carefully tend to his tomato plants and point out those he had marked for BLTs.
I miss watching his face when speaking on the phone to one of his kids.
Earl getting ready to plant tomatoes.
I miss witnessing his meticulous attention to detail whenever he went about fixing something … anything … he made sure things got done right the first time.
I miss hearing the way he’d begin a sentence with “If a guy were to . . .” because he never stopped considering new ways to approach a task at hand.
I miss seeing him sitting in his favorite chair at the kitchen table, sipping coffee from his favorite blue mug.
I miss his silent disapproval and how he’d slowly look down into his lap whenever he heard someone make a judgmental comment about another.
I miss him at family birthday parties, at family barbecues.
I miss seeing him in his favorite pink oxford shirt that always made him look so handsome.
I miss seeing him behind the wheel in his maroon and silver Dodge pick-up truck.
I miss him.
Earl enjoys a day at my grandparents’ farm outside Onawa, Iowa.
Recent Comments