Hard-working Rhonda Knutson, 22, was murdered on Labor Day 1992.
Sadly and ironically, Labor Day of 1992 proved deadly for a hard-working young Iowa woman, the very type the holiday was created to honor.
When she was murdered early Monday, September 7, 1992, Rhonda Knutson was at the center of a perfect combination of danger factors.
The 22-year-old woman worked alone overnight in a Phillips 66 Convenience Store on Highway 63 six miles south of New Hampton in Chickasaw County.
That Labor Day weekend, thousands of vehicles passed by on the major north-south artery during one of the busiest travel times in the year.
Convenience stores like the one where Rhonda worked provide a welcoming oasis for leg-stretching, calls of nature, jolts of caffeine, beer, cigarettes, gas, and snacks.
Customers come in. Customers leave. It’s a never-ending parade of travelers of all ages and personalities and destinations.
At night, the convenience store can be Ernest Hemingway’s “clean well-lighted place,” offering the lonely a round-the-clock haven where a pot of coffee is always brewing and someone is behind the counter to listen.
In fact, an insomniac area farmer regularly came in the middle of the night to chat with Rhonda.
But a convenience store, with a nearby highway providing quick escape, can also be the ideal target for robbery committed quickly and efficiently. Or the assault or murder of the clerk, who is usually alone.
What sort of person stopped early in the morning at the New Hampton Phillips 66 Convenience Store on Labor Day 1992?
Whatever the original motive, the result was that Rhonda was taken to a back room and bludgeoned to death. There was no sexual assault or robbery.
Customers saw a man who looked like this sketch on the night Rhonda was murdered.
Customers said two truck drivers caught their attention. Both were heavy-set, dark-haired, white males between 35 and 45. One was clean-shaven and drove an unknown vehicle. The other had a beard and moustache and was thought to be driving a conventional tractor pulling a white/silver trailer.
Sketch of second man seen the night of Rhonda's murder
Rhonda was not wary of truckers. Her dad was one, so she enjoyed hearing about their rigs, destinations, and cargoes. That lack of caution might have proved deadly if one of these men was involved in her death.
Intense investigation, searches of regional truck stops, posters, rewards, plans to air the case on “America’s Most Wanted,” and use of psychics have not resulted in answers for Rhonda’s death.
Her long-time, live-in boyfriend Al Wolf was not a suspect; and the Chickasaw County Sheriff investigated and quelled rumors that county deputies were involved.
Any suspect authorities are left with was probably a stranger who came into the store during the night.
Rhonda’s large and caring family and her friends need answers for this brutal crime.
If you have information that you believe would help bring Rhonda Knutson’s killer to justice, contact the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office at 641-394-3121 or
the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s Cold Case Unit.
Lisa Peak
While many families celebrate today’s Labor Day holiday, at least two Iowa families will mark the day with another kind of remembrance: the loss of a young, vibrant daughter, and the cold case anniversary of each of their untimely and senseless deaths.
Thirty-three years ago on Tuesday, September 7, 1976, the nude, beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found lying face down under a lone cottonwood tree in a ditch a quarter mile north of Waverly, Iowa’s, city limits. She had been sexually assaulted, and, according to autopsy findings, died of suffocation and a broken neck. None of her clothes were found at the scene.
Peak, a sophomore majoring in journalism at Wartburg College in Waverly, had just returned to the campus following a summer vacation break. She disappeared the following day — Labor Day — after telling friends she was going shopping.
Many couldn’t help but wonder if Peak’s murder might be connected to two other Waverly homicides.
The nude body of 19-year-old waitress and budding writer Julie Ann Benning of Clarksville had been found March 18 approximately six miles from where Peak’s body was discovered. Benning had been missing since late November 1975 and had been strangled. An autopsy report established her death was due to “homicidal violence, caused by injury to the throat area.”
Five years prior to Benning’s murder, the partially clad body of Valerie Lynn Klossowsky, 14, was found south of Waverly. She, too, had been strangled.
All three cases remain unsolved.
Labor Day also proved deadly for another young Iowa woman. On September 7, 1992, Rhonda Anette Knutson — a month shy of her 23rd birthday — was murdered in the early morning hours while working the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. shift at the Phillips 66 convenience store in Chickasaw County. Knutson died from severe traumatic head injuries caused by beating from a blunt object.
The investigation into her death included hundreds of interviews by deputies and agents from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, along with the employment of a private investigator and several psychics.
Her case also remains unsolved.
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