Janet LaFratte
35 YOA
Case # 7300272
Norwalk, Iowa
Warren County
June 20, 1973
At 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, June 20, 1973, Frank LaFratte called the Warren County Sheriff’s Office to report his 35-year-old wife Janet missing from the couple’s farm northwest of Churchville about 25 miles south of Des Moines.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comDeputies searched the farm for Janet and about 8:00 p.m. that evening found her body in a farm pond behind the family home.
Warren County Medical Examiner S. F. Yugend ruled Janet’s death an “apparent drowning.” Little other information was released about the death; however, the case was investigated by the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation due to what the Warren County Sheriff called “mysterious circumstances of the incident.”
Janet Alvilda LaFratte was born in Jewell, Iowa, March 2, 1938 to Sylvia Lucille Bentson and Jens Christian Christensen. Her father was a blacksmith and welder who immigrated to the United States from Denmark in 1914.
Janet had four siblings — sisters Mary Anne Christensen Martin, Carol Christensen Carstens, and Marjorie Jean Christensen Teig — as well as a brother, Stanley James Christensen.
Janet grew up in Jewell and graduated from high school there. On September 20, 1959, she married Franklin “Frank” D. LaFratte. The couple lived in Des Moines and operated Motel 6-69. Janet earned awards for her work from the Iowa Motel Association and in 1966 Frank was named Motel Operator of the Year by the group.
In 1969, the LaFrattes sold their motel and in 1970 moved to the farm where she died.
In October 1967, the couple adopted a boy they named Pat, and in 1970 adopted a daughter, Chris Ann.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comJanet was active in the Martsensdale St. Paul Lutheran Church, where she served as President of the ALCW. She also belonged to the American Legion Auxiliary Hawkeye Post 550 in Jewell.
Her funeral was held Saturday, June 23 at the Martensdale St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and she was buried at Calvary Cemetery in Churchill.
In her obituary, her family remembered Janet as “an extremely devoted wife, mother, sister, and daughter . . . [who] never knew a stranger, always thinking of others first and giving unselfishly and endlessly of herself.”
Questions and information about the unsolved 1973 death of Janet LaFratte should be directed to the Warren County Sheriff’s Department at 515-961-1122 or to Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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