Brandyn Preston
Brandyn Preston
19 YOA
1101 10th Ave.
Fort Dodge, IA
Webster County
Date of Crime: May 8, 2011
Date of Death: January 22, 2012
Derrick J. McElroy, 26, of Fort Dodge, has been charged with first-degree murder.
On Sunday, May 8, 2011 — Mother’s Day — Brandyn Preston of Fort Dodge was shot in the neck while attending a bonfire party in the back yard at 1101 10th Ave. SW in Fort Dodge.
Webster County in Iowa
Preston, 19, was taken to Trinity Regional Medical Center just after 4 a.m. and then transferred to Iowa Methodist Hospital in Des Moines.
The bullet lodged in Preston’s spinal cord, leaving the basketball enthusiast paralyzed from the neck down and dependent on a ventilator to breathe.
Despite a number of individuals present when Brandyn Preston was shot, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Larry Hedlund said it didn’t mean they necessarily saw what happened. Nor did officials have any evidence indicating the bullet was meant for Preston. According to Hedlund, investigators felt Preston’s shooting resulted from an ongoing feud between other individuals.
Preston had been in Fort Dodge about six months, his father, Pat Preston, told the Fort Dodge Messenger in an article published September 4, 2011. After getting his GED, the 6 foot 7 Preston planned to try out for the Iowa Central Community College basketball team.
Instead, the teen ended up in a Nebraska rehabilitation center until August, 2011, when his mother, Kimberly Wood, moved him back to Tampa Bay where she could care for him.
Courtesy photo Edmund D. Fountain, Tampa Bay TimesWood and her husband, Donovan Wood, who’d raised Preston, hoped military benefits would help pay for a home nurse; Donovan Wood was an Iraq War Bronze Star recipient. But, with him now working in the private section, benefits were limited. The family finally got Medicaid to approve a home health care nurse, but was unable to find one willing to work with Preston due to the ventilator.
Kimberly Wood quit her job as a patient service representative at CVS-Caremark to care for her son full-time.
Like Lisa McCuddin, also of Fort Dodge, Preston was shot while engaged in everyday activities. McCuddin was shot on October 2, 2004, while riding in the passenger seat of a vehicle.
In efforts to encourage those with information to come forward, an anonymous donor provided Crime Stoppers with $10,000 for two $5,000 rewards for information leading to the arrests and convictions of those responsible in the McCuddin and Preston cases.
Said Fort Dodge Police Chief Tim Carmody of the rewards:
“If you know something about an incident that would get a violent person off the street and you don’t take action on that and don’t share that information, how are you going to feel when your loved one is injured as a result of their actions later?”
“You have the opportunity to prevent something like that from happening again. This is our community. We decide how it’s governed. But we have to have the participation cooperation and partnership of the citizens to make it happen.”
Officials believed witnesses were afraid to come forward out of fear of being a snitch.
Courtesy photo KCCI Channel 8 NewsThe Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s Special Agent Larry Hedlund said people know what happened to McCuddin the night of her shooting, but won’t come forward due to fear.
“They know who the shooter is,” Hedlund told the Messenger. “They know he’s a violent person. Justifiably, understandably, I’m sure that’s part of it,” he said. “Part of it may just be a mindset ‘we don’t cooperate with the police; we don’t snitch.’”
Knowing something and being able to prove it in a court of law is a whole different standard, Carmody said, which is why they need help from those who know what happened. That information makes up the extra puzzle pieces they need to put the whole picture together. They hope the rewards might persuade those who know something to come forward it both McCuddin’s and Preston’s cases.
Officials stressed that informants need not identify him- or herself. Tips can be texted or submitted through Crime Stoppers.
On Sunday, January 22, 2012 Brandyn Preston passed away in Tampa, Florida, where his family had taken him for longterm care.
Fort Dodge Police Chief Tim Carmody said in a press release about Preston’s death:
“Our condolences go out to Brandy’s family and friends. We are confident that there are those in our community that have specific information that would help us to provide closure for Brandy’s family and friends and to get the suspect(s) off the streets.”
“As you may or may not know, the Webster County Crime Stoppers has posted a $5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible in this case. It is the hope of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Webster County Attorney’s Office, the Fort Dodge Police Department and our community that if the $5,000 Crime Stoppers reward doesn’t motivate those who know the truth to do the right thing, perhaps the memory of Brandyn Preston will.”
Said Hedlund about Preston’s death: “It’s a tragic waste of life that shouldn’t have happened. It’s a tragedy for him, and a tragedy for his family.”
Brandyn Preston was born in Rolla, Missouri, on October 25, 1991, and grew up with his mother and stepfather. He was a basketball standout while attending Waynesville High School in Missouri, before moving to Tampa where he attended East Bay and Robinson High School.
He was Baptist by Faith.
In 2011, he made what his mother, Kimberly Wood, called a “personal journey” back to Iowa to learn more about his biological father and his father’s side of the family. There, he not only found his father, but his paternal grandmother and half-siblings.
He is survived by his loving mother Kimberly & Donovan Wood of Tampa; father, Patrick Preston and Valerie Newsome of Ft. Dodge, Iowa; sisters Brittany, Samantha, Tayloren and A’Jianna; brothers Christopher, Patrick, Deshawn, Anthony, Kameron, Kaden, Kayden, Jacori, and Nick; maternal grandparents Cheryl and Martin Wendel, Lawrence Wood and Diane Wood-Medley; paternal grandmother Mattie Preston; and aunts, uncles and cousins.
He was preceded in death by Lemon B. Preston and Eugene Preston.
Visitation was February 3, 2012 at Brewer & Sons Funeral Home, 3328 S. Dale Mabry Hwy in Tampa, from 4 – 6 p.m., with services at 6 p.m.
If you have any information regarding Brandyn Preston’s murder, please contact the Fort Dodge Police Detective Steve Hanson at (515) 573-1426, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Agent Jim Thiele at (515) 972-4100, or Crime Stoppers at (515) 573-1444. You may also submit a tip online at www.wccrimestoppers.com, text “LEC” with the tip to CRIMES (274637), or direct your information to Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
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