Charles Sanders
Charles Edward Sanders
67 YOA
Court Ave. River Bridge
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
Case # 1954-33401
April 15, 1954
The body of 67-year-old Charles “Charlie” Edward Sanders was found in the Des Moines River under the Court Avenue Bridge in downtown Des Moines, Iowa, on April 15, 1954 — the day before Good Friday.
The decomposed body was identified by his son-in-law William Edward Graves. Charles was struck on the head and his wallet and cash were stolen. The case quickly went cold.
Charlie Sanders was born July 25, 1886 in Carlisle, Iowa, to Emily Jane Clement and John Henry Sanders. His parents and grandparents immigrated to Iowa from Indiana and from Virginia before that. He was the third of four children.
On June 10, 1910, Charlie married Mabel Leona Burk in Knoxville, Iowa, and they had eight children. He was a painter and paperhanger who made a good living for his family, even during the Depression. They always had plenty to eat and there was a large and close extended family living nearby.
Charlie was easy-going, kind, friendly, and happy. He was generous and always quick to make peace rather than to argue with others. He usually had an unlit cigar clamped between his teeth.
But like all lives, his had rough spots as well. His and Mabel’s first child, Irene, died at the age of 3 in 1917 and their son Ronald Munson Sanders lived only a month in 1929. Charlie’s mother passed away in February of 1935 and his wife Mabel died on New Year’s Eve of the same year. She was only 42. He went into what the family described as a “tailspin” after that.
He continued to work and recently had been paid for a job. Family members speculate that someone who knew Charlie had money struck him on the head at his home while he slept, perhaps not intending to kill him. However when the blow was fatal, the robber disposed of the body in the Des Moines River.
Family members also believed the investigation of Charlie’s death was inadequate and that the authorities and the public mistakenly regarded him as a bum or hobo murdered under a bridge.
Charles Edward Sanders was buried in Hamilton, Iowa. He was survived by his children — Carver Claude Sanders, Lillian Lorene Sanders Walker, Pauline Lois Sanders Du Bois, Gerald Fremont Sanders, Betty Jean Sanders Graves, and Donald Eugene Sanders — as well as his siblings Adelaide Dell Sanders Clough, Nancy Bell Sanders Shanks, and Walter F. Sanders.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1954 murder of Charles Sanders should be directed to the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office at 515-286-3306, or Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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