Dorothy Coon
Dorothy Coon
36 YOA
2017 61st St., Des Moines, IA
Body found in rural Chariton, IA
Lucas County
Des Moines PD Case # 1960-10204
DCI Case # 6007871
August 27, 1960
On Monday evening, August 29, 1960, Dorothy Coon was found dead in a ditch alongside a road in Lucas County, Iowa, 12 miles north of Chariton. Her body — clad in a dark green dress and white shoes — was discovered by a farmer mowing weeds. Mrs. Coon’s purse was found one mile away.
Lucas County in Iowa
The Lucas County Sheriff’s Department said Mrs. Coon had been dead two or three days.
Sheriff’s dept. officials said heavy rains over the weekend may have washed away or covered up footprints, tire tracks or other clues involving in her slaying.
Preliminary reports showed no wounds on Coon’s body, but authorities noted there were bruises on the throat area and fractured neck bones indicating she may have been strangled.
Coons, a department store business office clerk and divorced mother of two teenage children, Nancy, 19, and Dennis 17, left home around midnight on Friday but never returned.
Richard Coon — Mrs. Coon’s ex-husband — provided a satisfactory alibi for his whereabouts from the time Dorothy went missing until her body was found. The two had divorced 10 years earlier and Richard had since remarried. He and his wife had relocated to Albia, Iowa, the year before.
The Coon’s children were living with Dorothy at the time of her murder but were asleep when she left the house late on Friday night.
If you have any information about this unsolved crime please contact Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
Fred Barton Sanders
43 YOA
Chariton, IA
Lucas County
Case # 66-01164
Date of Death: October 1, 1966
Body Found: November 11, 1966
On November 11, 1966, a man’s skeletal remains were found next to the Rock Island Railroad tracks one and three quarters of a mile south of Chariton, Iowa, in Lucas County.
Papers and a wallet adjacent to the remains identified him as Fred Sanders, a U.S. Army veteran who served during World War II with the 745th American Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion.
On Sanders’ cemetery gravestone, family members list his date of death as October 1, 1966.
When the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) established a Cold Case Unit in late 2009, Fred Sanders’ murder was one of approximately 150 cases listed on the Cold Case Unit’s new website as those the DCI hoped to solve using latest advancements in DNA technology. Although the Cold Case Unit closed down in December 2011 due to lack of funding, the DCI continues to investigate the cases where progress was being made. They also follow up on any new leads provided in these cases.
Courtesy photo Doris Christensen, findagrave.comFred Sanders was born in Lawrence, Kansas, on December 10, 1922, to Clara Jane Hothan and Clyde Barton Sanders.
He married Norma Norma Cathryn Schoonover in 1942.
He served in the United States Army during World War II as a Technician Fifth Grade with the 745th American Anti-Aircraft Artillery Gun Battalion’s Continental Air Command.
He is buried in Chariton Cemetery in Lucas County, Iowa.
If you have any information about Fred Sanders’ unsolved murder please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010, e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us, or send your information to Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
Chariton in Lucas County
Lucas County in Iowa
Dorothy Coon
Homicide:
Dorothy Ruth Coon
36 YOA
2017 61st St., Des Moines, IA
Body found in rural Chariton, IA (Lucas County)
Des Moines PD Case # 1960-10204
DCI Case # 60-07871
August 27, 1960
On Monday evening, August 29, 1960, Dorothy Coon was found dead in a ditch alongside a road in Lucas County, Iowa, 12 miles north of Chariton. Her body — clad in a dark green dress and white shoes — was discovered by a farmer mowing weeds. Mrs. Coon’s purse was found one mile away.
Homicide
Fred B. Sanders
43 YOA
Chariton, IA (Lucas County)
Case # 66-01164
November 11, 1966
On November 11, 1966, a man’s skeletal remains were found near the Rock Island Railroad tracks one and three quarters of a mile south of Chariton, Iowa. Papers and a wallet adjacent to the remains identified him as Fred Sanders, a WWII veteran.
Lucas County in Iowa
Homicide:
Dorothy Ruth Coon
36 YOA
2017 61st St., Des Moines, IA
Body found in rural Chariton, IA (Lucas County)
Des Moines PD Case # 1960-10204
DCI Case # 60-07871
August 27, 1960
On Monday evening, August 29, 1960, Dorothy Coon was found dead in a ditch alongside a road in Lucas County, Iowa, 12 miles north of Chariton. Her body — clad in a dark green dress and white shoes — was discovered by a farmer mowing weeds. Mrs. Coon’s purse was found one mile away.
Homicide
Fred B. Sanders
43 YOA
Chariton, IA (Lucas County)
Case # 66-01164
November 11, 1966
On November 11, 1966, a man’s skeletal remains were found near the Rock Island Railroad tracks one and three quarters of a mile south of Chariton, Iowa. Papers and a wallet adjacent to the remains identified the body as that of Fred Sanders, a World War II veteran.
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