Polk County in Iowa

Altoona in Polk County

Gregory Neal Dickey

Homicide

Gregory Neal Dickey
23 YOA
Interstate 80 eastbound on-ramp
Altoona, IA
Polk County
Case # 7500248
February 18, 1975

Case summary by Jody Ewing

On February 18, 1975, Iowa State Trooper Charles Black discovered a 1966 green Ford van on Interstate 80 at the eastbound “on” ramp at Altoona. The van bore a 1973 Washington license plate number L84590 and, apparently abandoned, was impounded.

On April 7, 1975, the father of 23-year-old Gregory Dickey contacted authorities and stated the van belonged to his son. The younger Dickey had left Davenport, Iowa, on February 11 — just one week before Black found the vehicle.

When officials broke into the van in search of clues as to where Gregory Dickey may have been headed, they discovered his body in the van’s back seat under a blanket, a cord wrapped around the young man’s neck.

A coroner ruled Dickey’s death as “murder by strangulation.”

More information coming soon.

Sources:

• Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
• “Report more than 70 unsolved murders in Iowa,” Des Moines Register, Jan. 25, 1976