Ruth Kingery-Pohlmeier
Ruth Ann Kingery-Pohlmeier
37 YOA
3839 E. 14th
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
Case # 2004-14785
April 25, 2004
On Sunday evening, April 25, 2004, the body of Ruth Kingery-Pohlmeier, 37, was found wrapped in a blanket next to the AMF Des Moines Lanes bowling alley on the city’s northeast side. According to police, Kingery-Pohlmeier was the victim of a brutal attack and died from severe blunt trauma injuries to her head and face.
Pohlmeier lived at an apartment building located at 1210 E. Seneca Ave. — less than two blocks from the bowling alley — and the building’s male residents were asked by police to submit DNA samples in efforts to eliminate them as potential suspects.
One of 11 siblings, Pohlmeier also had a brother who’d been murdered five years earlier. Police Sgt. Tony Steverson said Samuel John Kingery, 42, of Ames, was killed August 25, 1999, by his friend Patrick L. Curnes during a dispute. Curnes, 44, of Nevada, Iowa, was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2000 for Samuel Kingery’s slaying, and Steverson said there appeared to be no connection between the two homicides.
Courtesy photo AMFThere is a $3,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or conviction in Ruth Kingery-Pohlmeier’s case.
Ruth “Ruthie” Ann Kingery was born August 1, 1966, to George and Mertice (Baker) Kingery.
She had an abundant smile and zest for life, and looked to find good in all that crossed her path.
She was survived by three sisters, Mary Elliott of Boone, Laura Fraizer of Des Moines and Alice Schnormeier Kingery of Gilbert; and four brothers, David of New Virginia, Dan of Phoenix, Paul of Des Moines and Chuck Kingery of Arizona.
She was preceded in death by two sisters, Georgie Anna Kingery and Phyllis Long; her father, George; her mother, Mertice; and one brother, Samuel.
If you have any information on Ruth Pohlmeier’s unsolved murder please contact the Des Moines Police Department at (515) 283-4864, Crime Stoppers at (515) 223-1400 or Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
I am a cab driver. picked someone up from a hotel that was in a fight and I was wondering if the woman murdered had a large gash in the bottom of her foot from glass.she acted like she really had no place safe to go.