Dennis First

Dennis First
(Courtesy The Gazette)

Dennis Lee First — SOLVED

Homicide

Dennis Lee First
64 YOA
Hawthorne Hills Apartments
2249 C St. SW, #5
Cedar Rapids, IA
Linn County
May 11, 2007
Arrest Made: March 1, 2023
Charged: Curtis Padgett, 42

 

UPDATE

Curtis Padgett Arrested for 2007 Killing of Dennis First

March 1, 2023

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – Police have made an arrest in a nearly 16-year-old Cedar Rapids murder case.

Curtis Padgett (Courtesy Linn County Sheriff’s Office)

Curtis Padgett, 42, is charged with first-degree murder in the May 2007 death of Dennis First. First, 64, was found dead in his apartment in the 2200 block of C St. SW on May 11th, 2007. His death was investigated as a homicide at the time, but no arrests were made. Investigators said Padgett killed First by beating then stabbing or cutting him following an argument…

… Padgett is also connected to another Cedar Rapids cold case in the 2001 disappearance of Erin Pospisil. Pospisil, then 15, was reported missing on June 3, 2001. She was last seen leaving her home with Padgett according to investigators. Padgett told police that he gave Pospisil a ride to a friend’s home in southeast Cedar Rapids. Padgett said that no one answered at the friend’s home and Pospisil then left in another vehicle that had pulled up to the home. She reportedly told Padgett that she would get a ride with the people in the car. No charges have been filed in her disappearance.

Full Story at KCRG.com


Original Case Summary compiled by Jody Ewing

 
Dennis Lee First, 64, died early Friday morning, May 11, 2007, after being stabbed and beaten at his efficiency apartment located at 2249 C St. SW, Apt. No. 5, in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

According to Tammy Mims, assistant manager for the Hawthorne Hills Apartments, First had prostate cancer, didn’t have many visitors and lived on Social Security.

In a Cedar Rapids Gazette article published Monday, May 14, 2007, Mims said that when a friend called and asked her to check on First, she notified Robert Gross — a maintenance employee at the apartments — and asked him to go to First’s apartment.

Linn County in Iowa
Linn County in Iowa
 
Cedar Rapids in Linn CountyCedar Rapids in Linn County

Gross, who’d worked at the apartment complex for eight years, said he knocked several times on First’s door, and when no one answered, entered the residence at approximately 7:30 a.m.

Inside, he found First lying face up on the bed, feet on the floor.

“I saw him lying there and I just walked in about five steps and looked at his stomach to see if it was moving,” Gross told The Gazette. “It was not, and a dried trail of blood ran down his cheek from his mouth to the bed.”

” . . . all of the sudden . . . he’s dead.”

Gross described First as a friendly man who caused no trouble, said hello to people and fed birds and squirrels.

Neighbor Curtis Padgett told The Gazette he sometimes rolled cigarettes for First and had last seen him Wednesday night.

“I was going to go knock on his door (Friday morning),” Padgett said in the May 14, 2007 article. “When I came out, they were carrying him away in a body bag.”

Mark Stender, one of First’s other neighbors, told the paper he’d visited First just briefly at noon on Thursday to check on him, and that he’d been fine at that time.

“And then all of the sudden they tell me he’s dead,” Stender said.

Cedar Rapids Police Lt. Kenneth Washburn said in a press release that an autopsy conducted Saturday, May 12, showed First died from loss of blood. Washburn didn’t go into further details about First’s injuries but said the death was being ruled a homicide.

First’s death certificate noted a cutting/stab wound to the right side of First’s neck and multiple blunt force injuries to his head and chest.

According to the medical examiner, First had bled to death in the 24 hours before his body had been found.

Evidence collected at the scene was sent to the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation’s state crime lab in Ankeny for testing.

“He did not deserve to die like this.”

“He had a rough life,” First’s ex-wife, Christine Burmeister of Tipton, told The Gazette on Monday, May 14, for an article published Tuesday, May 15, 2007. “It’s hard to believe somebody … (would) stab him. He could hardly get around.”

First and Burmeister had two children; son Brad was born in 1963 and daughter Laura in 1965. In the 1970s, the couple lived in Olin in Jones County, where First worked as a purchasing agent at a Monticello steel company. He’d been living in Cedar Rapids since the couple’s 1981 divorce.

Apartment where Dennis First was slainCourtesy photo Google Street View
Dennis First was found dead at this Cedar Rapids apartment building with multiple stab wounds and multiple blunt force injuries to his head and chest. The Linn County coroner said First died from loss of blood due to the stab wounds.

According to the Gazette, since May 1990, First had been arrested on charges of stealing from local businesses and for drunken driving. He’d also been accused of threatening a man from whom he rented a room.

Things didn’t get any better for First after his son was killed in a 1993 auto accident.

According to Linn County District Court documents published December 15, 1996, First, then 54 and living at 141 36th Ave. SW, was charged with second-offense drunken driving in connection with a March 1 arrest. First pleaded guilty to an amended charge of first-offense drunken driving. He was fined $500, given a 60-day suspended sentence and placed on probation.

First eventually lost touch with his daughter, ex-wife and other relatives, but had begun calling them again a few years prior to his death. He never asked them for anything, Burmeister said.

In the five months before First’s murder, police were called to his apartment on five separate occasions; the Gazette reported three calls were medically related and two for disturbances.

Despite her ex-husband’s earlier troubles with the law, Burmeister wondered why someone would want to kill him, particularly considering his bad health.

“He did not deserve to die like this,” she told The Gazette. “It’s senseless what they did to him.”

Lt. Washburn said in May 14 afternoon news briefing that police hoped evidence found at First’s apartment would help them catch the killer.

“We’re following up our leads and looking at DNA evidence,” Washburn said.

Possible connection to missing teen

In late May 2007, Cedar Rapids police served five search warrants in the case, searching not only First’s apartment but that of Curtis Padgett, the man in Apt. 3 who’d said he sometimes rolled cigarettes for First. Police searched Padgett’s apartment twice and also searched Padgett himself.

In a Gazette article published May 24, 2007, Padgett said officers took his fingerprints and a DNA sample with a swab from inside his cheek. Police also took a pair of Padgett’s boots and other items from his apartment.

Additionally, officers searched 24-year-old Dan Shelton’s apartment — No. 7 — across the hall from where First lived, but didn’t take anything from Shelton’s home.

Erin Pospisil

Erin Pospisil

Padgett was the last known person to have seen 15-year-old Erin Kay Pospisil, who went missing from Cedar Rapids June 3, 2001.

Padgett, a friend of Erin’s older brother, told police in 2001 that he was leaving the Pospisil home the same time as Erin and agreed to give her a ride to her friend Brit’s home. According to Padgett, when they arrived at Brit’s house, no one answered the door, and Padgett claimed that as Erin walked back to his truck, a black Chevrolet Cavalier with tinted rear windows pulled up to the curb. He said Erin went up to the car and had a short conversation with someone, and then told him “These guys will give me a ride” before getting into the Cavalier’s back seat.

Police could find no other witnesses to substantiate Padgett’s story about a black Cavalier in the neighborhood, and Pospisil hasn’t been seen since leaving her home with Padgett.

Both cases remain open and no one has ever been arrested in Dennis First’s murder or Erin Pospisil’s unsolved disappearance.

About Dennis First

Dennis Lee First was born September 11, 1942, the son of Millard and Elvera (Juehring) First. On June 17, 1962, Dennis and Christine Griffin were united in marriage until they divorced in 1981. Together they had two children, Brad and Laura.

Survivors included his daughter, Laura and husband, Devin Schroeder, and their two children, MacKenzie and Mitchell; grandchildren, Jacob First, Ross First and Jessica First; two great-granddaughters; and his ex-wife, Christine (Ken) Burmeister.

He was preceded in death by his son, Brad, in 1993; his parents; and an infant sister.

Funeral arrangements were made through Fry Funeral Home in Tipton. At First’s own request, no services were held.

In a Cedar Rapids Gazette obituary dated May 14, 2007, First’s daughter said her father’s ashes would be laid to rest in a place that meant the most to him. She also wrote:

Although there were many obstacles over the years keeping us apart, a father’s love for his daughter and a daughter’s love for her father never falters. May you now be in peace, dad.

Information Needed

If you have any additional information about Dennis First’s murder, please contact the Cedar Rapids Police Department at (319) 286-5400.

Sources:

 

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4 Responses to Dennis First

  1. Kim says:

    Padgett was arrested today and charged with Dennis First’s murder:
    https://www.kcrg.com/2023/03/01/cedar-rapids-police-make-arrest-2007-cold-case-murder/

  2. Yes – Curtis offered to give Erin a ride to her friend’s house and she left her home with him in his pickup. I’m not aware of any proof that they ever even made it to the friend’s house. Curtis told police the friend “wasn’t home” and that Erin got in another car with some other men. No proof this happened, either. Curtis never ruled out in either cold case.

  3. I didn’t realize that there was that connection!

  4. Lori says:

    Laura, I hope they find the man who murdered your father and he is brought to answer for what he did.

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