Cold Cases in Dubuque, IA
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Homicide Shortly after midnight on Saturday, February 8, 1964, Gretta Rafferty returned home from work and found the body of her brother, Francis John Rafferty, 58, in the apartment they shared in Dubuque, Iowa. His hands, feet, and legs were bound with telephone wire ripped from the wall and his mouth and nose were covered with electrical tape. He had choked on regurgitated food and died of asphyxiation. |
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Homicide On March 6, 1965, Janet Martin and Donald Martin escaped from their burning house but were unable to save their two daughters, Sherry Lee and Victoria Linn. It was later determined that the house fire was deliberately set and deemed arson. |
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Homicide: On Friday April 23, 1971, the badly battered and crushed body of Kenneth Bouzard was found beneath a boxcar on railroad tracks in Dubuque, Iowa. Police believed Bouzard had been assaulted and struck in the head with a piece of railroad equipment while sitting or lying near the tracks. |
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Homicide: On Saturday, Jan. 4, 1975, at approximately 7:45 p.m., a customer at Dubuque's "Marino's Meal on a Bun" found waitress Jackie Shireman lying in a pool of blood in the walk-in cooler. The 21-year-old newlywed and Sunday School teacher had been stabbed approximately 30 times with a pair of scissors. A trial returned no homicide conviction, and the case remains open. |
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Missing Person: Theodore Hoerstman was reported missing to the Dubuque Police Department in Dubuque, Iowa, on December 6, 1982. Hoerstman is a disabled adult and has a 1-inch appendectomy scar and a scar on his right calf. The name "Sharon" is tattooed on his lower right arm. |
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Homicide: Around 9 a.m. on Oct. 10, 1987, an elderly fisherman discovered 14-year-old Kenny Joe Johnson's body near a floodgate in Dubuque's isolated Maus Park. He was rolled in a 5-foot-by-9-foot piece of yellow-orange nylon carpet that had been dumped at the park, and an autopsy revealed he had been strangled by hand and sexually assaulted. |
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Missing Person: Paul Knockel was last seen in Dubuque, Iowa on November 26, 1990. He has never been heard from again. Few details are available in Knockel's case. |
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Missing Person Crystal Arensdorf of Dubuque, Iowa, was last seen at approximately 2:00 a.m. on July 4, 2001 at Knicker's Saloon, 2186 Central Avenue in Dubuque. Arensdorf -- a minor at the time of her visit to the bar -- was there with friends and trying to get a ride to East Dubuque, Ill. |
If you have any information about any of these cases, please contact
the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010 or
e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us.
Page last updated: April 4, 2010
