Donald Nervig
Donald Amos Nervig
53 YOA
7380 6th Ave.
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
Case Number: 1965-20581
December 15, 1965
At the end of the workday on Wednesday, December 14, 1965, 53-year-old Donald Amos Nervig closed up his co-owned business, Nervig and Avila Speedometer and Electrical at 814 Center Street in Des Moines.
When he left the building, Nervig was wearing a brown work uniform with the name of the automotive supply shop stitched over the pocket and a brown tweed sports coat. He carried a bank bag containing between 200 and 350 dollars in checks and cash.
Nervig headed to the Executive Lounge, a downtown bar at 605 Seventh Street, where he encountered Ronald Leroy Kyger, 26, of 2930 Tiffin Avenue. The two men had never met before that night, but they shared drinks and then went to a Highland Park restaurant for dinner.
Afterwards, they got into Kyger’s car and drove north. Kyger said the two argued about Kyger’s driving and Nervig got out of the car and walked away at Second Street and Hoffman Road near the Firestone Tire and Rubber plant at the northern edge of the city limits. It was 9:15 p.m.
A temperature of 27 degrees and 16-mile-per-hour winds created a wind-chill of 14 degrees, which would have been especially uncomfortable to Nervig, who had severe arthritis, took heart medication, and was unable to walk long distances.
Nervig was never seen alive again as far as authorities know. Neither the bank bag nor money was ever located.
Courtesy photo Des Moines RegisterOn January 9, 1966, Nervig family friend Floyd R. Gabbert organized a search party of 150 people — Boy Scouts, law enforcement, firemen, and volunteers — to walk the vicinity where Nervig was last seen.
Starting at 8:00 a.m., they broke into five groups and scoured the area from the Des Moines River to East 14th Street and from Broadway Avenue north to and including the Margo Frankel Woods State Park.
Travelers on Interstate 80 saw them tramping the fields north and south of the busy highway.
When the search began, it was five below zero. Volunteers took breaks to warm up and have hot drinks at the Saylor Township Fire Station.
Floyd Gabbert remained optimistic that they would find nothing and believed his friend Donald Nervig was still alive.
NW Sixth Drive and NW Sixteenth Street intersect in Polk County a mile north of Saylorville. From the elevated spot at the intersection, a wooded ravine runs southward and parallel to NW Sixth Drive. In those days after a snow, neighborhood children launched their sleds at the top and slid down to a little creek that ran under NW Sixth Drive 100 feet away where they skated.
About 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, January 26, 1966, Michael Dale Howell, 13, and Stephen Lawrence Bacon, 12, both residents of NW Sixteenth Street in rural Polk County, made their last run of the day down the ravine and headed home.
Usually, the boys would have gone to the road to walk back, but that day they pulled their sleds up the deep ditch. They tripped over something in the snow and, when they saw what it was, ran to get help.
The boys had discovered the body of Donald Nervig frozen into the ice at the bottom of the ravine, five miles north of where he was last seen.
Nervig was still attired in his work uniform but was missing one shoe. His brown tweed sports jacket was found along a fence 50 feet away on NW Sixth Drive.
Volunteers from the Saylor Township Fire Department used axes to free the body from the ice. Underneath, there were traces of blood. The body was taken to Dahlstrom’s Funeral home and allowed to thaw so Nervig’s person could be searched and an autopsy performed.
Nervig’s body was found 50 feet from an old barn on the property of Charles Warren at 7390 NW Sixteenth Street. Warren observed the search party for Nervig on January 9, but it did not come as far northwest as his farm.
Polk County Medical Examiner Dr. Leo Luka said Nervig died from a blow to the back of the head with a blunt object. The victim was alive at least 10 to 12 hours after he was last seen at 9:15 p.m. on December 14, 1965.
Des Moines Police worked with two Polk County Sheriff’s Deputies on the case to follow up tips and track down witnesses.
In early February, Polk County Sheriff Wilbur Hildreth asked the public for information concerning Nervig’s whereabouts between 9:15 p.m. December 14, 1965 and mid-morning the next day, a time when he was believed alive. They hoped someone saw him walking on the street or gave him a lift.
The last person known to see Nervig — Ronald Leroy Kyge — took a lie detector test which, authorities told the media, “tended to substantiate his account.”
Nervig’s wife Stella offered a 500 dollar reward for information, but the case was never solved.
Donald Amos Nervig was born December 28, 1911 near Humboldt to Sadie Nelson and Amos T. Nervig, Sr., residents of the Norwegian community there. He had a sister, Edith M. Nervig Hartung, and four brothers, Amos T., Jr., Thomas A., Irvin L., and Stanley M. Nervig.
Donald Nervig enlisted in the Army in 1944 and served in WWII. He and his wife Stella had three daughters, two at home in Des Moines, and one married and living in California at the time of his death.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1965 murder of Donald Amos Nervig should be directed to the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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