Sheila Jean Collins
Sheila Jean Collins
18 YOA
Case # 6800287
ISU Student
Last seen in Ames, IA
Found in Rural Colo, IA
Story County
January 26, 1968
Sheila Jean Collins was a wonderful young woman — attractive, intelligent, friendly, honest, and kind. And her life ended much too soon.
In January of 1968, Sheila was a second quarter freshman at Iowa State University in Ames. It was her first time away from her loving family and home in Evanston, Illinois.
The 18-year-old was an excellent student, a member of the synchronized swimming team, and a dishwasher in her dorm cafeteria.
Friends were drawn to her bright personality and outgoing manner. She loved music and dancing, drank only moderately, did not use drugs, and did not participate in radical politics.
Sheila had a boyfriend, a sophomore studying teaching at University of Northern Illinois in DeKalb. Though separated by distance, they wrote, phoned, and tried to get together as often as possible, given their busy college schedules.
At the time of her death, Sheila was in the process of transferring to his university; and, although she was not aware of it, he was planning to propose to her in the spring of 1968.
Her boyfriend scheduled a visit to Ames on Friday, January 26 during his university’s semester break, which he was spending at his parents’ Skokie, Illinois, home.
However, he worried that his car might not make the trip to Iowa and that his finances (he worked two jobs) might not allow it.
He phoned Sheila from Skokie late on the afternoon of January 26 with the bad news that he wouldn’t be able to come.
Sheila was crestfallen, but cheered up when they sat a new date for his trip.
During the Fall Quarter of 1967-68, Sheila — as many students did then — placed her name, hometown, and phone number on the ISU Memorial Union “Going My Way?” ride-board.
She hoped to share expenses with someone traveling to the Chicago area on breaks, holidays, and long weekends.
Just after she and her boyfriend hung up, she received a phone call. She excitedly told her Elm Hall dorm-mates that it was from “a guy” who got her name and phone number off the Union ride-board. He offered to take her “right to the door” of her parents’ home.
Thrilled at the prospect of arriving in Evanston and surprising her boyfriend, she accepted the stranger’s offer of a ride and agreed to meet him at a street corner near her ISU dorm.
The man wanted to leave immediately, so Sheila hurriedly packed and called her parents to let them know she was coming.
She asked some of her friends if one would walk with her to the corner, but all had plans or wanted to stay in for the night.
Sheila was last seen about 8:30 p.m. standing with her suitcase at the busy intersection of Beach Avenue and Lincoln Way. Some witnesses say they saw her get into a small dark car, perhaps a blue Volkswagen.
She never arrived home.
At 2:00 p.m. Sunday, January 28, a fox hunter and his young son discovered Sheila’s body — covered with her green coat — in a ditch near a snow bank along a name-less gravel road near Colo.
She had been struck on the head and strangled. Her belongings were found in a field across a fence from her body.
Sheila borrowed two dollars from a dorm-mate to make the trip; only one dollar was left in her purse. Nothing else was gone from her purse or suitcase, so robbery was an unlikely motive.
The crime scene strongly suggested a sexual crime, but the autopsy did not seek or preserve evidence that would establish that.
The Story County Sheriff’s Office, the Ames Police Department, and the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation thoroughly worked the case, interviewed witnesses, and followed leads.
Unfortunately, the Story County Attorney had political aspirations and strongly imposed himself on the investigation, even questioning and photographing witnesses.
He had been trying to build a name for himself by raiding local stores that sold what he believed was “obscene” literature and by ferreting out drug users in the Ames Community (a small number at best).
He leaked false information to the press that Sheila was a “student radical” and involved with drugs — both assertions were patently NOT true.
By making it appear that Sheila’s death was part of a “drug ring,” he believed he could advance his career.
Six weeks after her death, he ran in the Republican Primary for Iowa Attorney General and lost. Within a few years, he abruptly resigned his position.
But, the irreparable damage he did to Sheila Collins and to a successful investigation and prosecution of her killer was already done.
By following false and, in some cases, fantastical and absurd leads, he led the investigation so far away from the facts that it went cold and the murder remains unsolved.
Sheila Jean Collins: daughter, sister, and friend
Sheila Jean Collins was born August 2, 1949 in Elmhurst, Illinois, to Muriel and James Ray Collins. She grew up in Evanston and attended Evanston Township High School, where she was an active club member, swimmer, and superior student. She was also an excellent seamstress. She was survived by two younger sisters, Lee Ann and Patricia Lee Collins.
Information and questions about the unsolved 1968 murder of Sheila Jean Collins should be directed to the Story County Sheriff’s Office at 515-382-6566, the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation Cold Case Unit, or Iowa Cold Cases through the Contact form.
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