Linn County in Iowa

Cedar Rapids in Linn County

Dennis W. Chaffee

Homicide

Dennis W. Chaffee
33 YOA
914 28th St. SE
Cedar Rapids, IA
Linn County
July 17, 1983

Case summary by Jody Ewing

Dennis Chaffee spent the weekend of July 16 – 17 at home with his 1-1/2-year-old twins — son Adam and daughter Maria — and on Monday was to return them to their mother, Mary Hernandez, who resided in Marion. But when Monday arrived, Chaffee didn’t answer his phone when Hernandez called, nor did he show up for work at Wilson Foods in Cedar Rapids where he’d been employed for the past 15 years.

Concerned, Hernandez called Chaffee’s parents, Harlon and Betty Chaffee, also of Cedar Rapids. When the Chaffees went to investigate at 8:30 p.m., they found the toddlers, dirty and thirsty, but unharmed. Their son, however, lay at the bottom of the basement steps, dead from several gunshot wounds.

Chaffee, 33 — a Vietnam vet whom police described as “a kind of loner” — had been shot once in the arm and twice in the head with a small caliber weapon. The gun was not located at the scene.

Courtesy photo Cedar Rapids Gazette

Dennis Chaffee was found shot to death at the bottom of his basement steps in this Cedar Rapids brick home. His 1-1/2-year-old twins were in the house at the time but neither were harmed.

The house sat back from the street and was surrounded by shrubbery, large trees and a fence. And though the two-story brick home was somewhat in disarray, police didn’t believe it had been burglarized. The door was found closed but unlocked.

After discovering their son’s body, the Chaffees took the children across the street to the home of Judy Ryan. Ryan cared for the twins for about an hour, at which time they were picked up and taken to Mercy Hospital for examination.

Hernandez picked up her children early Tuesday morning after an interview with Cedar Rapids detectives.

Dennis W. Chaffee was born September 15, 1949, in Cedar Rapids. He was a member of Salem United Methodist Church and the United Food and Commercial Workers AFL-CIO Local P-3.

He was survived by his parents, Harlon E. and Betty L. Chaffee of Cedar Rapids; twin children, Adam and Maria, at home; two brothers, Jack L. of Radcliffe, Ky., and Milo M. of Eyota, Minn.; and a grandmother, Mrs. Ted Hoover of Robins.

Courtesy photo paforbes

Dennis Chaffee’s tombstone in Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery

Services were held at the Turner Chapel East by the Rev. Paul Hasel of Salem United Methodist Church, and burial was at Cedar Memorial Park Cemetery.

Sources:

• “Murder Suspected in C.R. death,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 19, 1983.
• “Tots found with body of C.R. murder victim,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 20, 1983.
• “Dennis W. Chaffee” Obituary, Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 20, 1983.
• “Police tight-lipped about murder,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, July 21, 1983.
• “C.R. police proud of record in solving homicides,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, Sept. 18, 1983.