Clarke County in Iowa
George Raymond Keller
61 YOA
Rural Route 34
Clarke County, IA
Case Number: 8105701
September 29, 1981
After a 1979 arson fire destroyed the house on his chicken farm in rural Clarke County, George R. Keller stayed in a garage converted to an apartment while rebuilding. He lived alone and had no telephone.
When the 61-year-old Keller failed to show up as usual for work at an Osceola gas station on Monday night, September 28, 1981, his employer Bob Wetzler knew something was wrong.
Wetzler called George’s sister, Lucy S. Kent, who rushed with her husband from Woodburn to her brother’s farm 12 miles northeast of town on Rural Route 34. Bob Wetzler, too, drove to Keller’s farm.
The three discovered George’s body lying in a pool of blood just inside the garage door. Wetzler told reporters, “He had one hand up in the air like he was lunging or something.”
After an autopsy performed in a Des Moines hospital, Clarke County Sheriff’s officials announced that Keller died of gunshot wounds to the head and classified the death as a homicide.
George R. Keller was born March 18, 1920 in Clarke County to Ina Elizabeth Snyder and Oran Ray Keller.
He had six siblings, including three brothers — Howard Edgar Keller, Charles B. Keller, and Virgil “Virgie” F. Keller — and three sisters, Alma Marie Keller Smith, Edna Ruth Keller Coyle, and Lucy S. Keller Kent.
Keller served his country as a Tech 4 in the Army during WWII.
Because he was a long-time chicken farmer, locals called him “Chicken George.”
Courtesy photo FrankGeorge R. Keller was buried in Bethel Chapel Cemetery in Liberty, Clarke County.
Questions and information about the unsolved 1981 murder of George R. Keller should be directed to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Office at 641-342-2914 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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