Courtesy photo Alicia GaddyCecil Travis Gaddy
19 YOA
Osceola, IA
East Shaw Street
Clarke County
January 31, 2004
Cecil Travis Gaddy found happiness in many things.
He worked as a farm hand and repaired small engines. He taught himself to play guitar and enjoyed writing songs. He had a keen interest in computers, and routinely fixed problems for those who came to him for help.
Clarke County in Iowa
Osceola in Clarke County
Life took its first cruel turn when the 16-year-old teen, his pregnant sister and her husband and another friend were passengers in a van and the driver lost control. When the vehicle started to roll, Cecil used his body to protect his sister, but eventually was thrown through the windshield and left with a broken back.
Paralyzed from the waist down, Cecil struggled to regain his independence and keep up with his favorite activities. Though he couldn’t walk, he could still use his hands, and his trusty wheelchair could take him nearly anywhere he wanted to go.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesAfter high school he rented his own house and kept the place spotless. He also began hanging out with the wrong people — offering them drugs and money in exchange for their friendship. Some “friends,” however, soon started taking advantage, sticking around for days at a time and making more and more demands. Cecil’s personal items and pain medication began to disappear.
In January of 2004, Cecil called his sister, Alicia Gaddy. He told her his friends wanted him to set up a meth lab in his home but he’d refused to let them do it. He told Alicia he’d also cut them off from his money and his pain meds, and was afraid of what they might do.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesLess than a week later on Saturday, January 31, Osceola fire officials responded to a call stating Gaddy’s East Shaw Street home was on fire. They found his body in a back bedroom, even though investigators determined the fire began on the living room sofa.
Another peculiar detail was Gaddy’s wheelchair; they found it in the front yard, several feet away from the house. How had Cecil got from the chair all the way across the snow covered yard and into his house?
According to Gaddy’s family, there was no way he could have dragged himself into the home. It was the only way for him to get around once inside, and he never would have left it outside.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesSeven years later, Alicia Gaddy — who now lives in Phoenix, AZ — spoke to Channel 13′s Aaron Brilbeck via Skype’s video calling about what she remembers from that night, what she saw, and her brother’s friends, whom she described as a bunch of leeches.
“They would be at his house grabbing at him for all the money he had,” Alicia told Brilbeck. “All the pills that he had. Medication. He just wouldn’t have anything left for himself. It was sad. It was horrible.”
Alicia said her brother felt he had no true friends he could count on, and that everybody was just taking advantage of him. She also recalled getting the news that her brother was trapped in the blaze and rushing over to his home.
“The house was on fire. They were still trying to put it out and the wheelchair was outside,” she said.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesThe State Fire Marshall’s report indicated: “Mr. Gaddy’s wheel chair was observed outside the home’s front door. The ground surrounding the home was covered with deep snow averaging 8-inches.”
Why would Cecil Gaddy have crawled through eight inches of snow to get into his home when he had a ramp he always used?
“The Clarke County Police named it an accident pretty much the same day and there was no investigation,” Alicia Gaddy said. “And, they could not find the cause of the fire.”
Channel 13′s Brilbeck asked Osceola Police Chief Marty Duffus — who didn’t work for the police department at the time of the fire — why the wheelchair would have been outside.
Courtesy WHO-TV, Des Moines“I would have the same question. How’d the chair get there?” Duffus said. “But there again, I don’t know who to ask.”
Despite knowing where the fire had started, investigators acknowledged they’d never been able to nail down a cause. Gaddy was a smoker, but his body hadn’t been found anywhere near the sofa.
Officials questioned several of Gaddy’s friends, though none admitted to seeing him the night before the fire. And, with so much time passed since the fire, Duffus said finding evidence to reopen the case was almost impossible.
“I hope I don’t sound glib, cold, whatever, but the fact of the matter is, if those were the concerns they should have been brought up while the best possibility of some sort of evidence may have existed,” he said.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesDuffus also said the only way the case would be reopened was if someone came forward with new, credible information.
It wasn’t the news Alicia had hoped to hear; all she’d wanted was answers. She’d not only lost her brother, but also her best friend, she told Brilbeck. And, her son would never get the chance to know his uncle.
“It’s very upsetting. I always imagined this, you know, hanging out and doing all sorts of things. Playing music,” Alicia said in the WHO-TV interview. “Now it’s never gonna happen. And it’s just, it’s really upsetting. I don’t know how else to put it, I guess.”
The State Fire Marshall’s office told Channel 13 they spent three months investigating the case, and that the lead investigator lost a lot of sleep trying to figure out why the wheelchair was in the front yard, but had never come up with any answers. The State Fire Marshall’s office would, however, be willing to reopen the case if anyone should contact them with new information, a department spokesperson said.
The site where the home once stood is now an empty lot where someone stores two boats.
Courtesy photo WHO-TV, Des MoinesCecil Travis Gaddy was born April 8, 1984, in Des Moines, Iowa, to Bobby Gaddy and Denise Roberts Gaddy. He grew up and attended school in Murray, and had lived in Osceola for the few years prior to his death.
He attended the Baptist Church in Murray and loved spending time with his niece and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his father, Bobby Gaddy, and great-grandfather, Cecil Montelle Chew.
Courtesy photo Alicia GaddyHe was survived by his mother, Denise Gaddy and her friend, Kirk Sanderson of Osceola; two sisters, Teresa Luncsford and Alicia Gaddy of Osceola; a niece, Candace, and nephews Eathan and Logan; grandparents, Russell and Beverly Roberts of Truro; great-grandmother, Mildred Chew of Osceola; several aunts, uncles and cousins; other relatives and a host of friends.
Services were held at 11 a.m. on Thursday, February 5, 2004, at the Hopeville Methodist Church, with Pastor Dwayne Henrichs and Alan Rusk officiating. Honorary bearers were Cody Fulkerson and Ryan Fulkerson. Interment was in the Hopeville Cemetery.
WHO-TV Channel 13′s Aaron Brilbeck reports on the mystery – and the questions – behind Cecil Gaddy’s death.
February 4, 2011
If you have any information about the death of Cecil Travis Gaddy, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Cold Case Unit at 515-725-6010, send an e-mail to coldcaseunit@dps.state.ia.us, or contact the Osceola Police Department at (641) 342-2121.
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