Angela Buck

Angela Renee Buck

Homicide

Angela Renee Buck
37 YOA
North Pilot Grove Road
Waterloo/Dunkerton, IA
Black Hawk County
August 9, 1995

Case Summary by Jody Ewing

On Friday, August 11, 1995, two men hunting for turtles discovered a body in a ditch near a creek on North Pilot Grove Road in Black Hawk County, Iowa. The body lay just below a short bridge in a wooded area about one and one-half miles east of Independence Avenue in Waterloo and south of Dunkerton.

Black Hawk County in Iowa

Waterloo in Black Hawk County

Officials identified the body as that of 37-year-old Angela Renee Buck of Waterloo, and believed she had been dead not more than two days. An autopsy determined cause of death as a single gunshot wound to the chest.

According to published reports, Jeff Edgar, 33, of Waterloo, and Brad Hague, 34, of Jesup, were looking for places to set turtle traps when they stumbled upon Buck’s body. As they crossed the North Pilot Grove Road bridge, they saw the body lying about six feet from the water. The men went to a nearby farmhouse and notified officials.

On Sunday, August 13, the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office announced it was handling the case as a homicide, but did not identify any suspects or a motive.

[Former] Black Hawk County Sheriff Mike Kubik said officials weren’t sure if the body had been dumped at the creek or if the death occurred there, and no arrests have been made in the case.

Officials said Buck did not have a permanent address, but was from the Waterloo area. She had worked as a nurse’s aid and later worked at Ravenwood Health Care Center.

Courtesy photo Matthew Putney, WCF Courier

When former Black Hawk County Sheriff Michael Kubik retired in Dec. 2008, he said he still thought about two cases that went unsolved; that of Dale Redman of LaPorte City and Angela Buck. He said investigators hadn’t given up on bringing the perpetrators to justice.

Connection Studied, Ruled Out

Three days before Buck’s body was discovered, the body of 24-year-old Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner of Des Moines was found in a basement storage unit in a Des Moines south side apartment. Bodensteiner had been strangled. Both women had records of prostitution and at one time had worked for Greg Peterson, a “John” who operated a prostitution service out of his Urbandale, Iowa, mobile home.

Authorities investigated possible connections between the two murders, but later said they were not connected.

“Their paths had crossed, but there’s nothing we found at all that these were related,” Des Moines Police Sgt. Tom Trimble told the Cedar Rapids Gazette in an article published August 18, 1995. “There were no real similarities at all in the method.”

A business rival beat Peterson to death in August 1994, a year before Buck’s murder.

About Angela

Angela Renee Buck was born April 17, 1958, in Waterloo, Iowa, the daughter of Richard and Lorene (Crowley) Buck. She married Dwight Shelton in Waterloo, and the couple later divorced. Family and friends described Angela as a woman with a big heart who loved her four children, but who fell upon hard times and in with the wrong crowd.

In 1970 at age 12, Angela was selected as the Evansdale Junior Miss, was a violinist in the school orchestra and also was interested in horseback riding. Prior to her death, she was attending school in Madison, Wis., to become a radio announcer.

Courtesy photo Iowa Gravestone Project

Angela Buck is buried at the Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery in Black Hawk County.

She was survived by two sons: Damien Spooner of Evansdale and Nathaniel R. Shelton of Marshalltown; two daughters, Renee R. Shelton and Korene C. Shelton, both of Marshalltown; her father and stepmother, Richard and Nora Buck of Waterloo; two sisters, Alana R. Buck of Waterloo and Amanda M. Tix of Rochester, Minn.; two brothers, Aaron E. Buck of Layton, Utah, and Anthony R. Buck of San Luis Obispo, Calif.; and two stepbrothers, Jeffery and Daniel Schatz, both of Waterloo.

She was preceded in death by her mother.

Memorial services were held at 2 p.m. on Thursday at the Waterloo Memorial Park Cemetery chapel, with burial in the cemetery. Visitation was held from 5 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kearns, Huisman-Schumacher Chapel on Kimball and for an hour before services Thursday at the cemetery.

Memorials were to be directed to the Waterloo DARE program.

Information Needed

If you have any information regarding Angela Buck’s unsolved murder please contact the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office at 319-291-2587 or Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.

Sources:

• Korene Shelton (victim’s daughter)
• Angela Buck family members
• Iowa Gravestone Photo Project
• “Next chapter,” WCF Courier, December 26, 2008
• “No links seen between 2 killings: Victims’ paths crossed, but Des Moines, Waterloo deaths appear unrelated, say police,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 18, 1995
• “Murdered woman had series of scrapes with the law,” The Waterloo–Cedar Falls Courier, August 15, 1995
• “Metro Deaths: Angela Renee Buck,” The Waterloo–Cedar Falls Courier, August 15, 1995
• “News Roundup Waterloo,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 14, 1995
• “Police identify murder victim,” The Waterloo–Cedar Falls Courier, August 14, 1995
• “Police look for murder links,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 13, 1995
• “Officials work to identify female shooting victim,” The Waterloo–Cedar Falls Courier, August 12, 1995