Susan Kersten
Susan Pearl Kersten
38 YOA
Iowa City, Iowa
Johnson County
Case Number: 95-11388
September 24, 1995
Late on Sunday, September 24, 1995, Susan Kersten’s body was found in a car that had been set on fire in a field south of the Regency Trailer Court in rural Iowa City, where she lived.
Investigators didn’t initially suspect a homicide until an autopsy performed three days later revealed she’d been beaten to death.
Kersten — the mother of four children, including 1-year-old twin daughters — had attended a family reunion in Davenport the day of her murder and was last seen at her mobile home that evening. She allegedly had left the twins, Andrea and Patience, with Steve Klein, their father and Kersten’s ex-boyfriend.
Kersten was divorced from Roy Kersten of Williamsburg the year before.
According to Johnson County sheriff’s detectives, Klein was the only person known to have had access to Kersten’s home.
Courtesy photo Jason KerstenDetectives filed an application to search Klein’s mobile home as well as a car and a pickup on his property, and said they were looking for blood, hair and other body specimens, a tire iron, possible weapons or means of inflicting blunt trauma, clothing and other items.
During the search of Klein’s mobile home, officials seized a number of items including a cotton rag, a pair of brown cotton gloves, five matchbooks, a lighter and a large plastic bottle of paint thinner.
Earlier in the year, Klein had denied being the twins’ father. In early July, however, blood tests confirmed his paternity, and a conference to set a civil trial to determine child support was scheduled for October 16.
Kersten — a gifted and promising artist who already had sold several paintings in Eastern Iowa — was murdered less than a month before the conference could be held. According to Roy Kersten, one of his ex-wife’s paintings hangs in the Williamsburg, Iowa, post office.
While the case has been actively investigated over the past 15 years, no arrests have been made.
During the summer 2007, a University of Iowa law student, Mollie Buzzard, worked full-time on the case, reviewing investigative reports and conducting more than 100 interviews. She accompanied Johnson County Sheriff’s Office Detective Kevin Kinney as he re-interviewed people questioned by investigators after Kersten’s death.
Courtesy photo Jason KerstenIn November 2007 Susan Kersten’s family announced a $7,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of her killer. The announcement came at a news conference where several of Kersten’s relatives pleaded for the public’s help in solving the case. The Carol Sund/Carrington Foundation donated $5,000 for the reward fund and Iowa City Crime Stoppers donated the other $2,000.
In a November 15, 2007 interview with the Cedar Rapids Gazette, Kersten’s son Jason Kersten — who was 17 years old at the time of his mother’s death — said he’s prayed for a long time that his mother’s killer would be brought to justice. He said he’s working with local businesses to display his mother’s artwork to help keep her murder in the public mind and that he’ll keep fighting for a resolution to the case.
“It would give me closure and put a lot of things to rest in my mind,” he said.
Family and investigators encourage anyone with information to come forward.
If you have any information about Susan Kersten’s murder, please contact Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek at (319)-354-3729 or Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
Thank God for the technology that lets this page be displayed for all of America to read.
Thanks so much, John. We feel the same; every one of these victims mattered to many.