Valerie Klossowsky

For us, Valerie has stopped in time – still that shyly smiling junior high school student of the photos in 1971 newspapers. If she were alive, she would be 54 years-old.

As we mark the anniversary of Valerie’s murder, we are encouraged by the recent exhumation of Lisa Peak, who was found beaten and strangled in a ditch just north of Waverly on September 7, 1976. Bremer County Attorney Kasey Wadding hopes that something will be found that can be analyzed by modern scientific methods not available 34 years ago.

Some have long speculated that Valerie’s and Lisa’s deaths were related to each other and to that of Julie Ann Benning, 19, who went missing from Waverly on November 28, 1975 and whose remains were found in a ditch northeast of Shell Rock on March 18, 1976.

The three Bremer County murders have many similarities. Advancements in DNA may bring a break in the case of Lisa Peak which will help solve the other two.

Time marches on, but so does science; and those who murder are finding that time is not on their side.

Every year, Julie Benning and her four sisters helped their father clear rocks from the field before he planted.

She was bright, beautiful, spunky and ambitious, and always eager to get out and meet people and make things happen. She had a zany laugh and quick smile, designed and sewed her own dresses, loved live music and the weekly Top 100 Countdown.

She also was an avid reader — Nancy Drew mysteries were a favorite — was already writing her own stories and had an interest in investigative journalism. But the day after Thanksgiving in 1975, Julie Ann Benning suddenly vanished without a trace.

The recent Plainfield High School graduate’s whereabouts remained a mystery for nearly four months until a Butler County road maintenance worker discovered her body alongside a quiet country road. Thirty-four years after the spirited and independent teen first went missing, her case remains unsolved.

If you think you have any information that could help solve this case please click here to send your information to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.