Earl Thelander — A Nation's First
Copper Thieves Steal Lives
A home where five generations once lived, laughed and loved
Homicide
Earl Thelander
80 YOA
Home Residence: 710 1st Street, Onawa, IA
Crime Location: 20877 Gum Ave., Onawa, IA, Monona County
Date of Crime: August 28, 2007
Date of Death: September 1, 2007
Case summary by Jody Ewing
* Please Note: While all case summaries listed on Iowa Cold Cases are written in third-person format, this particular victim is ICC founder Jody Ewing's stepfather. For that reason, it is written in first person.
 Earl Thelander poses with a pitchfork in the yard of the rural home he and his wife, Hope, were preparing for a renter. Photo by Hope Thelander |
My stepfather, Earl Thelander of Onawa, IA, died from second- and third-degree burns sustained over 80% of his body in an August 28, 2007 explosion after copper thieves stripped propane gas lines from a country home he and my mother, Hope Thelander, owned and were readying for a renter.
Located approximately two miles north of Onawa at 20877 Gum Ave. in Monona County, the house formerly belonged to my maternal grandparents, Raymond and Dorothy Archer. After my grandfather passed away in January 2004, Mom and Earl moved my grandmother into town to live with them. Grandma had never learned to drive, and Mom already had been making several daily trips out to the farm to check on them and take them grocery shopping or to doctor's appointments.
Eventually, when it came time to sell my grandparents' rural home and acreage, Mom and Earl decided they'd like to purchase it from Grandma in efforts to keep it in the family. If no one in the family wanted to live out there, they said, they could always rent it out. Mom was the oldest of my grandparents' six children (five still living), and all were in agreement it just made sense for "Hope and Earl" to buy the property.
 Earl Thelander and Hope Ewing in 1982, the year they were married. |
After all, that's what Mom and Earl did for a living. Throughout their small but tight-knit rural community (pop. less than 3,000), "Earl and Hope Thelander," who were by no means wealthy, were well-known for their willingness to work hard, together, to buy and fix up older homes and apartment buildings and, if necessary, work with down-on-their-luck tenants so families still had a place to call home.
My sister Kim and her husband Jon jumped at the opportunity to move out to the quiet rural home, and while my brother-in-law worked side-by-side with Earl putting new vinyl siding on the home, Mom and my sister wallpapered inside and redid floors. Every Sunday, in an attempt to "keep tradition going," numerous family members would trek back out to the farm for "Sunday dinner" at 1 p.m. Kim even learned how to perfect Grandma Archer's family-favorite recipe we'd all come to expect for Sunday dinner: homemade chicken and noodles. And just like Grandma and Grandpa had always done, Kim and Jon raised their own chickens.
During the summer, 2007, Kim and Jon moved their family back to town. They had kids involved in after-school sports and other activities, and the kids — who'd lived "in town" all their lives but weren't yet old enough to drive — missed the freedom they'd had visiting with friends.
Mom and Earl never missed a beat. They kept working to improve the home, and Kim and Jon even went out to help as they readied the home for yet a new family.
Copper Thieves in the Night
On August 27, 2010, before dusk, Mom and Earl — a few months shy of their 25th wedding anniversary — returned to the farm where Earl mowed the acreage and my mother worked inside the house.
At 4:00 a.m. on August 28, Earl woke my mother and told her he wanted to show her something. He led her outside, where they watched the eclipse of the moon in what they didn't know had just become the last morning they'd ever spend together.
 Hope and Earl Thelander were well-known throughout their small community and loved by all. |
At 8:30 a.m., Earl headed out to the farm alone to install a new water pump and tank in the home's basement. Once there, he discovered someone had smashed the kitchen door's glass and broken into the house. The smell of propane gas drifted through the jagged glass shards and out into the entryway where he stood.
Some time since they'd left the night before and early that morning, thieves had broken in, entered the basement, cut and stolen copper propane and water lines and let the house fill with propane gas.
Earl immediately headed back outside, where he turned off the propane at the tank. He then called my mother and asked her to notify the county sheriff. Mom called the Monona County Sheriff's Department, and then — along with my sister Kysa and Mom's youngest sister Beverly and Bev's husband Dave (who'd been in town visiting with Mom at the time) — drove the two miles out to the farm.
Between approximately 10:00 – 10:15 a.m., Monona County Sheriff Jeff Pratt and Onawa Police officer Joe Farrens arrived at the farm. At that time, Sheriff Pratt, Officer Farrens, Mom and Earl, Dave Anderson and Kysa Ewing went through the house opening windows in efforts to ventilate the home and ensure no individuals (i.e. perhaps those who had broken in) were found unresponsive in any of the rooms. (They later were told the explosion hadn't occurred at that particular time because oxygen levels in the home were too low.)
Crime scene evidence included tire tracks in the freshly mown lawn, suggesting the perpetrator(s) drove a small, lightweight pick-up. However, no tire casts were made and no fingerprints taken from the kitchen doorknob (point of entry) because law enforcement officials said neither the sheriff's department nor the police department currently had deputies or officers qualified or trained in extracting fingerprints.
With the home's windows and doors now all open and statements provided to law enforcement, Mom and Earl were informed they and other family members could return to town while [law enforcement] finished working the crime scene.
At approximately 11:30 a.m. — insisting it wouldn't take long and that he wouldn't be too late for lunch — Earl drove back to the farm to check on the investigation's process. Earl — whom my mother and family often joked was "80 years old going on 60" — still worked daily on his and my mother's rental properties and was anxious to get the new water pump and tank installed.
When he arrived, Earl found the acreage abandoned. Law enforcement officials had gone, and no yellow crime scene tape closed off a perimeter, which, if present, would have indicated fire department officials had not yet determined gas fumes at a safe enough level for individuals to enter the residence and/or pass beyond the marked perimeter.
Earl entered the house, and, smelling no propane gas, felt it was safe for him to work. In the basement, however, my stepfather discovered water had leaked onto the floor from the cut and stolen water lines. He set up a squirrel cage blower to help expedite drying the basement floor and plugged it in. The home suddenly exploded, throwing him all the way across the room and into a basement corner.
Altered Lives
 For approximately $20 worth of stolen copper, thieves claimed the life of Earl Thelander of Onawa, IA, and reduced this family home to nothing more than a pile of rubble and twisted metal. Photo by Jody Ewing |
Back in town, my cousin, Norman Johnson, had just arrived at Mom and Earl's home, hoping to surprise them with a hot pork tenderloin lunch. By then, Bev and David and my sister Kysa had all gone home, and Norman — a chef at a local restaurant — knew how busy Mom and Earl had been and what lay ahead the following day. He also knew from experience how much they'd appreciate the pork tenderloins and hoped the three of them could enjoy the meal together. Mom and Norman decided to wait for Earl until they'd sit down to eat.
Mom, who was scheduled to undergo surgery for a breast biopsy the next morning, bent over the kitchen sink and began washing her hair as they waited. She'd just grabbed a towel to wrap around her head when Earl — who'd survived the explosion and forced himself to find the basement steps to crawl out and then drive himself the two miles home to the woman he loved — walked through the door, still in shock, his body and clothes burned and hanging in shreds. "It just exploded," he said when Mom looked up. "What exploded?" she asked as she went to him. "The house," he said.
Mom didn't want to wait for an ambulance, so she and Norman got Earl into Mom's SUV and they took him to the Burgess Memorial Hospital in Onawa. Once there, they immediately began to contact Earl's six adult children and Mom's five. Almost all 11 of us lived within close proximity and had time to get to the hospital and talk with Earl — who was remarkably alert and coherent as he described what happened — before he was sedated and then taken by Life Flight to the Clarkson Burn Center at the University of Nebraska Hospital in Omaha.
As we watched the helicopter fly away, his words in the emergency room kept going through my mind. "Your mom is going to think I did this on purpose to steal all the attention away from her surgery tomorrow," he'd joked. And then, seriously, with eyes not quite so wide beneath his singed eyebrows, "But when I went in, I didn't smell a thing. I should have known better."
Our entire family headed down to Omaha to wait.
Earl died four days later on September 1, 2007, surrounded by all his children and stepchildren, nearly two dozen grandchildren and a few great-grandchildren, and my mother — his wife, Hope — who held her face close to his as he opened his eyes to gaze at her one last time before passing away from all our lives.
With Earl's death came the nation's first — and only known to date — innocent fatality resulting from the growing copper theft epidemic.
The estimated value of the copper stolen and exchanged for a good man's life: less than $20.
Defining Death – in Silence
From the beginning, numerous opinions and debate emerged as to how Earl's death should or would be classified. He'd died, of course, due to burns he'd suffered in the explosion, but was it a homicide? Involuntary manslaughter? Murder in the second degree? Or, as some wondered, just a plain old accident?
None of that mattered right now, we were told. The only thing that did was that we not openly address the press using any words related to punitive measures. To do so, we were told, would likely "scare away" those who might otherwise come forward with information they held about the crime. Better they thought the charges would be minimal — given the circumstances — rather than something more ominous.
We were not to mention the H-word or M-word. The irony grew palpable the day I stood in my mother's dining room near "Earl's chair" where he always sat to drink his morning and afternoon coffee, and saw lying amidst the stacks of hundreds of sympathy cards my mom received and was still responding to, a copy of A Guide to Survival: Information for the Family and Friends of Homicide Victims, sent to my mother by the Iowa Attorney General's office.
Despite a $5,000 Reward the Thelander family offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction in Earl's case (which could be claimed anonymously), no one ever came forward and no one has ever been charged in his death.
Defining Murder – in the First Degree
Now, as the third year anniversary of Earl's "death" draws near and still without a single conscience bared, one can only assume those responsible or those who know who is responsible, knew — perhaps all along — far more about Iowa's legal code than for which anyone gave them credit. Too, they could have read "Monday's Our View: Tragic turn" — the Sept. 10, 2007 position piece compiled by (Council Bluffs) Daily Nonpareil editors in response to the Monona County Attorney's statement that first-degree murder charges in Earl's case would be ruled out unless intent to cause "Thelander's death" could be proven — and knew the newspaper was absolutely correct.
The Nonpareil said, in part:
Iowa law states "A person who kills another person with malice aforethought either expressed or implied commits murder." By leaving a dangerous situation posed by the propane leak, the thieves knowingly placed Thelander in mortal danger before the explosion. Since the result was Thelander's death, the thieves are ultimately responsible and should be charged with murder. Anything less would be a travesty of justice and an insult to Thelander's family.
Anything less, I also might add, would breach the very Iowa codes upon which our state's criminal law is based and practiced and wherein violators prosecuted. Though many Iowa codes come into play in regards to Earl's murder, they are threaded together so seamlessly it would be difficult for one to not see the obvious legal conclusion. In essence:
- Iowa Code 707.2 - Murder in the first degree is defined as a person killing another person while participating in a forcible felony.
- Iowa Code 702.11 - Forcible felony is defined as any felonious child endangerment, assault, murder, sexual abuse, kidnapping, robbery, arson in the first degree, or burglary in the first degree.
- Iowa Code 713.3(1)(c) defines Burglary in the first degree as when a person intentionally or recklessly inflicts bodily injury on any person while perpetrating a burglary in or upon an occupied structure, whereas;
- Iowa Code 702.12 - Occupied structure is clearly defined as any building, structure, appurtenances to buildings and structures, land, water or air vehicle, or similar place(s) adapted for overnight accommodation of persons, or occupied by persons for the purpose of carrying on business or other activity therein. Perhaps most importantly, IA Code 702.12 goes on to state that these structures are considered an "occupied structure" whether or not a person is actually present [when the burglary occurs].
It should also be mentioned here that with Forcible Felonies (IA Code Section 702.11), sentences cannot be suspended; there is no court discretion. This includes charges for murder and voluntary manslaughter, felonious child endangerment, sexual abuse (except between spouses), kidnapping, robbery, arson in the first degree, and last, but certainly not least, burglary in the first degree.
Thus, should those responsible for Earl's death be apprehended and charged, Iowa's criminal code allows for no discretion and nothing less than a charge of Murder in the first degree.
About Earl Thelander
Earl was born May 9, 1927, in Arcadia, Neb., the son of Henry and Amanda (Gestrine) Thelander. He grew up in Polk, Neb. He graduated in Stromsburg, Neb., in 1944. After graduation, he went into the U.S. Coast Guard. After his discharge, he began farming and farmed for several years.
On Feb. 3, 1950, he married Berniece Obrist and to this union six children were born. They lived and farmed in the Osceola area until he began working for Mamco Manufacturing Company in Stromsburg. He later transferred to Honeggars Manufacturing Company in Onawa. After they closed, he went to work for Onawa Propane and in 1967, started his own business, Thelander's Plumbing and Heating in Onawa. He was blessed to have his entire family involved in the business.
On Dec. 30, 1982, he married Hope Ewing in Onawa. They lived in Onawa, where he enjoyed doing yard work, gardening, watching the birds and squirrels on his back deck and his "coffee time." The couple owned and operated Thelander's Softener Service and Thelander's Rentals. They owned the Monona Hotel and the Park Hotel and many other rental properties over the years.
Earl was a member of First Christian Church of Onawa and helped with Boy Scouts when his sons were younger. He enjoyed spending time with his family and was also loved by the entire community. He is greatly missed.
He is survived by his wife of 25 years, Hope Thelander of Onawa; six children, Doug Thelander of Castana, Iowa, Byron (Sharon) Thelander of Onawa, Vicki (Otis) Gray of Onawa, Cindy (Doug) Miller of Sioux City, Gaylen (Ruthie) Thelander of Madera, Calif., and Brad Thelander of Sergeant Bluff; five stepchildren, Kim (Jon) Berens, Jody (Dennis Ryan) Ewing, Lori (Steve) Mathes, Kysa Ewing and Brett (Deb) Ewing, all of Onawa; 22 grandchildren; 13 great-grandchildren; four sisters, Betty (Clarence) Nielsen of Stromsburg, Neb., Darlene Gordon of York, Neb., Jean Twarling of Sidney, Neb., and Wanda (DeLano) Ahlquist of Loveland, Colo.; three brothers, Doyle (Gina) Thelander of Lincoln, Neb., Darwin (Sarah) Thelander of Peel, Ark., and Dean (Ginger) Thelander of Harrison, Ark.; and numerous cousins, nieces and nephews.
He was preceded in death by his parents; a grandson, Bobby Gray; his father-in-law, Raymond Archer; a sister-in-law, June Ooten; and three brothers-in-law, Hal Gordon, Glenn Twarling and Dan VanWinkel.
If you have any information regarding Earl Thelander's death, please call the Monona County Sheriff's Department at 800-859-1414 or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010.
Articles, videos and news reports on Earl Thelander's death
Afterword
Six days after Earl's funeral, my mother was diagnosed with Stage III, Grade 3 invasive breast cancer. She underwent a mastectomy the following month and spent close to one year undergoing chemotherapy and radiation. She currently is in remission.
On Thursday, February 14, 2008, the Iowa House Judiciary Committee assigned a Subcommittee to House Study Bill 660 -- An Act relating to scrap metal transactions, prohibiting certain sales and imposing criminal penalties. While supported by organizations such as the IA Assn. of Electric Cooperatives, the IA Utility Assn. and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, the bill met with resistance from organizations such as the IA Assn. of Business and Industry and Alter Trading Corporation, and died after failing to make the Iowa House's March 7 first funnel date. See the list of companies/lobbyist names that were for or against Iowa's bill.
A number of other states, however, not only passed in that same session House and Senate resolutions similar to Iowa's failed HSB 660, but expanded the scope of these laws from specifically copper to more general nonferrous metals. See State Copper and Scrap Metal Theft Statutes.
Ironically, Iowa — with the U.S.'s only know innocent fatality to date — remains one of only three states still without copper and scrap metal theft statutes. The other two states are North Dakota and Alaska.
On Saturday, February 16, 2008, the Onawa Volunteer Fire Department conducted a controlled burn of all that remained of the rural home.
Page last updated July 5, 2010
