Marie “Lisa” Peak (Courtesy photo Cedar Rapids Gazette)
Marie “Lisa” Peak
20 YOA
Waverly, IA
Bremer County
September 7, 1976
On Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1976, at approximately 11 a.m., the nude, beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found lying face down under a lone cottonwood tree in a ditch on the John Anhalt farm beside a gravel road a quarter mile north of Waverly’s city limits. Peak had been sexually assaulted, and, according to autopsy findings, died of suffocation and a broken neck. None of Peak’s clothes were found at the scene.
Peak, the daughter of Knoxville veterinarian and former city councilman Dr. Frank Peak and Mary Peak, had been a sophomore majoring in journalism at Wartburg College in Waverly, and had returned to the campus the day before she disappeared following summer vacation.
Bremer County in Iowa
Friends last saw Peak early afternoon on Labor Day when she said she was going shopping at the Willow Lawn Shopping Center in Waverly. When she didn’t return to her dorm to go on a scheduled date, the friends reported her missing.
Waverly in Bremer County
Earlier in the year, Peak had provided information to authorities regarding a sensational sex and extortion scheme. The information led to the arrest of 40-year-old used car salesman John Joseph Carmody, Jr., of Mason City, Iowa. Carmody had blackmailed more than a dozen women into having sex with him with threats of mafia retaliation if they refused. FBI officials later proved his claims to mafia connections were false. In May 1976 Carmody pleaded guilty to rape and extortion and was sentenced to 40 years at Fort Madison’s Iowa State Penitentiary. Peak spent her May term as a reporter for the Clarksville Star.
Peak and Iowa writer Chuck Offenburger had planned to write a book about the blackmail scheme, and on August 23 had written Carmody of their plans. The week before Peak’s murder, Offenburger received a letter from Ted Enabnit — a Mason City attorney who represented Carmody in the court proceedings — stating “Mr. Carmody and his professional writer associates are and will produce the appropriate literary work to tell Mr. Carmody’s story from the mass of accumulated materials” (Offenburger, The Des Moines Register, Sept. 9, 1976).
Offenburger said Peak had received threats after Carmody was imprisoned from women who said they loved [Carmody] and wanted to marry him (Tri-City Herald, WA, Sept. 10, 1976).
Julie Benning
Valerie Klossowsky
Many wondered if Peak’s murder might be connected to two other Waverly homicides.
The nude body of 19-year-old waitress Julie Ann Benning of Clarksville was found in March approximately six miles from the location where Peak’s body was discovered. Benning had been missing since late November 1975.
A third unsolved murder happened five years earlier when the partially clad body of Valerie Lynn Klossowsky, 14, was found south of Waverly. She also had been strangled.
On May 7, 2010, State and Bremer County officials exhumed Lisa Peak’s body with the hope that by re-examining the body, they might discover new evidence that would help close the case.
Bremer County Attorney Kasey Earl Wadding said that advancements in technology could lead to the discovery of new evidence upon further examination of Ms. Peak’s remains. “You can recover evidence after a long period of time,” Wadding said.
Wadding says he does not have any hard leads and is unsure whether the examination by the Division of Criminal Investigation and State Medical Examiner’s Office will provide any, but that there is the possibility evidence still exists.
Lisa Peak was born December 10, 1956.
If you have any information about Lisa Peak’s 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.
Valerie Klossowsky
Valerie Lynn Klossowsky
14 YOA
Resided in Waverly, IA
Body found outside Denver, IA
Bremer County
Case Number: 71-00549
June 13, 1971
Bremer County in Iowa
On Tuesday morning, June 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky of Waverly was found on a creek bank under a bridge on a lonely country road three miles west of Denver, IA. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School student had been strangled.
Waverly in Bremer County
Valerie was last seen alive on Sunday, June 13, near the Waverly municipal swimming pool. She had gone to the pool with a girlfriend, but the friend said Valerie stopped outside the pool’s entrance to talk with some people and said she’d join her friend at pool side shortly.
Valerie never appeared. Later, when the friend left the pool, she found Valerie’s swimming suit and towel outside, but Valerie was gone.
She was reported missing at 10 p.m. that night.
Two days later, two young boys tramping along a small creek in a rolling area discovered her body, clothed only with the upper garments, which had been pulled up around her shoulders.
Investigators search for Valerie Klossowsky. Courtesy photo Waterloo CourierThough described by relatives as “tall and strong for her age,” an autopsy disclosed Valerie had been strangled with such force that it fractured her larynx.
Monday night, the night after Valerie was last seen, an area resident reported a neighborhood prowler to police. The prowler also had been reported in the neighborhood on Saturday night, June 5.
Valerie, an older sister, Denise, and a younger sister, Michele, lived with their father, Harold, and their grandmother in a white frame house at 217 Fifth St., N.W. in Waverly. Valerie’s mother, who’d been married to and divorced from Howard three times, had married again and lived elsewhere.
Downtown Waverly, Iowa (courtesy Wikipedia)
Howard Klossowsky — who worked at Schield Bantam Division of the Koehring Co. in Waverly and was active in the Army Reserves — allegedly had confided to a neighbor that he was not “close” to his three daughters. When Valerie did not return Sunday night or Monday, Klossowsky said he suspected she had probably hitch-hiked to Waterloo.
Neighbors described the young teen as quiet but friendly and said she was a frequent playmate of neighborhood children.
The Bremer County Sheriff’s Office, Waverly police and Bureau of Criminal Investigation agents investigated the murder, which included interviews with some 150 persons within the first month. The Waverly Auxiliary Police canvassed more than 100 households in attempts to find more information about Valerie’s activities the night she disappeared. Investigating officers were unable to place the girl either in an automobile or on a motorcycle that Sunday night.
Julie Benning
Five years later, investigators found themselves investigating two other strangulation homicides in Bremer County and wondered if the three cases might be connected.
Julie Ann Benning, 19, disappeared from Waverly, IA, the day after Thanksgiving on November 28, 1975. A Butler County road maintenance worker found her nude and decomposed body in a roadside ditch northeast of Shell Rock on March 18, 1976.
Lisa Peak
On Sept. 7, 1976, the nude and beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found in a ditch under a lone cottonwood tree a quarter mile north of Waverly’s city limits.
Peak had been sexually assaulted and died of suffocation and a broken neck.
When the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) established a Cold Case Unit in late 2009, all three victims were included in the roughly 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 cases where progress was being made. They also follow up on any new leads provided in these cases.
Courtesy photo Duane Heit, findagrave.comValerie Lynn Klossowsky was born March 7, 1957, to Mr. and Mrs. Howard Klossowsky. She was survived by her parents, her two sisters and her grandmother.
Valerie was buried in the New Hampton Cemetery in New Hampton, Chickasaw County, Iowa.
Anyone with information regarding Valerie Klossowsky’s unsolved murder — or that of Julie Benning or Lisa Peak — is encouraged to contact FBI Special Agent Jon Moeller at (712) 258-1920, or the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010.
Julie Ann BenningJulia “Julie” Ann Benning
Case # 76-00382
18 YOA
Disappeared from Waverly, IA (Bremer County), Nov. 28, 1975
Body found in Shell Rock, IA (Butler County), March 18, 1976
She had a quick smile, a zany laugh. She was bright, beautiful, spunky and ambitious. She loved getting out to meet people and making things happen.
She loved live music and the weekly Top 100 Countdown.
Her creativity spilled over into every aspect of her life; she not only designed and sewed her own dresses, but painted landscapes and portraits of all things closest to her heart.
Julie Benning shows off some of her artwork. Courtesy photo Benning familyShe also was an avid reader — Nancy Drew mysteries were a favorite — was already writing her own stories and had an interest in investigative journalism.
But the day after Thanksgiving on Friday, November 28, 1975, 18-year-old Julie Benning suddenly vanished without a trace while on her way to work in Waverly, Iowa.
Her father, Lowell Benning of rural Clarksville, drove to Waverly and reported her missing to Police Chief Clarence Wickham. Mr. Benning knew that Julie — the eldest of his five daughters — would never just disappear without a word, and asked police to contact area media about his missing child. Wickham, perhaps not fully convinced foul play was involved, suggested Benning make the media contacts.
The distraught father went to newspapers and radio stations in person, asking they alert the public about his daughter’s disappearance. KWWL Radio reported on the story, and a Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent was sent to work with the family.
Initial reports stated Julie was last seen that Friday afternoon, walking on Bremer Avenue on her way to work as a waitress at the Sir Lounge in Waverly’s downtown business district. Chief Wickham would later announce he’d also heard reports that Benning had been spotted in a shoe repair shop Friday at 5:05 p.m. to get a pair of shoes she’d left there.
On December 12, Julie’s 19th birthday arrived, but there would be no celebration without her.
In addition to designing and sewing her own clothes, Julie Benning’s creative talents also included writing and painting. Courtesy photo Benning familyA missing person search that sometimes extended to other states produced no clues to Julie’s whereabouts until March 18, 1976, when a Butler County road maintenance worker found her nude and decomposed body in a roadside ditch along a quiet country road about a mile northeast of Shell Rock, Iowa.
An autopsy report established cause of death as “homicidal violence, caused by injury to the throat area.”
A 1975 graduate of Plainfield High School, Julie Benning lived on a farm near Clarksville with her parents and four younger sisters, but had been staying with her aunt and grandmother, Malita Benning and Mrs. Emil (Frieda) Benning, in northwest Waverly while employed in Waverly.
The friendly teen had no enemies, and officials struggled to come up with a motive.
As a senior at Plainfield High School, Benning had sharply criticized the taking of human life and life imprisonment. In a May 8, 1975 school newspaper editorial, Benning wrote:
“Murder is a horrible crime to commit and, of course the offender must be punished, but does that mean he should rot in prison until he dies? I don’t think so . . . nor do I think any person has the right to say someone should never be let out of prison, or give them the death penalty.” She urged her readers to “Put yourself in their shoes — the convicts are still humans, too. I hope people will be willing to help them and lend support in convicts’ efforts to rehabilitate themselves.”
Every summer, Julie Benning and her four sisters helped their father clear rocks from the field before he planted. Courtesy photo Benning familySix months later, the outspoken teen was dead, though a high school editorial hardly seemed like a motive for murder, particularly given the months passed since its publication.
On Saturday, March 29, 1976 at about 8 p.m., Butler County Attorney Gene Shepard received an anonymous letter postmarked March 27 from Oelwein, Iowa. Authorities didn’t say how or where the note was found, but said officers wanted to look further into information contained in the note.
On Tuesday morning, Sept. 7, 1976 — less than six months after Benning’s body was discovered — the nude, beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found in a ditch a quarter mile north of Waverly’s city limits six miles from where Benning’s body was found.
Peak had been sexually assaulted, and, according to autopsy findings, died of suffocation and a broken neck. None of Peak’s clothes were found at the scene.
Lisa Peak
Peak, the daughter of Knoxville veterinarian and former city councilman Dr. Frank Peak and Mary Peak, had just returned to the Wartburg College campus in Waverly the day before to begin her sophomore year with plans to major in journalism. Peak had told friends she was going shopping Monday afternoon but never returned to the campus that night.
Investigators cited a number of similarities in the Benning and Peak slayings, and FBI criminologists were consulted to determine if the same person murdered both young women.
Both Benning and Peak were attractive and described as “outgoing” or “popular.” Both disappeared in broad daylight. Miss Benning was purported to have last been seen in a shoe store, and Peak reportedly was going to pick up a pair of shoes. Both women’s bodies were found nude, but due to decomposition, authorities never said whether they were able to determine if Benning had been sexually molested.
Valerie Klossowsky
Both women also had interests in journalism and enjoyed reading about and writing mysteries.
Questions also emerged as to whether the Benning and Peak murders had any connection to another area homicide four years earlier.
On June 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky of Waverly was found on a creek bank under a bridge three miles west of Denver, Iowa. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School student also had been strangled.
All three homicides remain unsolved, and the FBI continues to investigate connections in the three cases.
Julia Ann “Julie” Benning was born December 12, 1956.
Survivors included her parents, Lowel Henry and JoAnn (Demro) Benning of rural Clarksville; four sisters, Lori, Kelly, Carol and Linda, all at home; and a grandmother, Mrs. Emil Benning of Waverly.
Memorial services were conducted at 3 p.m. on Sunday, March 21, 1976, at the United Methodist Church of Christ at Pleasant Valley near Clarksville, with burial in Pleasant Valley Cemetery in Clarksville, Butler County. Kaiser-Corson Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.
When the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) established a Cold Case Unit in late 2009, Julie Benning’s 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 already was being made. They also follow up on any new leads provided in these cases.
If you have any information about Julie Benning’s unsolved murder, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010, e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us, or contact Special Agent Jon Moeller at the Federal Bureau of Investigation at (712) 258-1920.
Waverly in Bremer County
Bremer County in Iowa
Valerie Klossowsky
Homicide:
Valerie Lynn Klossowsky
14 YOA
Waverly/Denver, IA (Bremer County)
Case # 71-00549
June 13, 1971
On Tuesday morning, June 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky of Waverly was found on a creek bank under a bridge on a lonely country road three miles west of Denver, IA. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School student had been strangled.
Julie Benning
Homicide:
Julie Ann Benning
18 YOA
Disappeared from Waverly, IA (Bremer County)
Body found in Shell Rock, IA (Butler County)
Case # 76-00382
November 28, 1975
Julie Ann Benning, 18, disappeared from Waverly, IA, the day after Thanksgiving on November 28, 1975. A Butler County road maintenance worker found her nude and decomposed body in a roadside ditch along a quiet country road about a mile northeast of Shell Rock on March 18, 1976.
Lisa Peak
Homicide
Marie “Lisa” Peak
20 YOA
Waverly, IA (Bremer County)
September 7, 1976
On Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1976, the nude, beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found lying face down under a lone cottonwood tree in a ditch a quarter mile north of Waverly’s city limits. Peak had been sexually assaulted and died of suffocation and a broken neck.
Denver in Bremer County
Bremer County in Iowa
Valerie Klossowsky
Homicide:
Valerie Lynn Klossowsky
14 YOA
Waverly/Denver, IA (Bremer County)
Case # 71-00549
June 13, 1971
On Tuesday morning, June 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky of Waverly was found on a creek bank under a bridge on a lonely country road three miles west of Denver, IA. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School student had been strangled.
Bremer County in Iowa
*Please Note: The cases listed below are within Bremer County but may fall under a city police department’s jurisdiction. They are included here for cross-reference purposes. More specific information may be found on each victim’s individual page.
William Meadows
Homicide:
William Lawrence Meadows
36 YOA
Case # 61-00280
Plainfield, Iowa (Bremer County)
January 23, 1961
Town Marshall William Lawrence Meadows, 36, was shot and killed on Monday, January 23, 1961, while investigating a burglary in progress at the Hartmann Packing Plant in Plainfield, Iowa.
Valerie Klossowsky
Homicide:
Valerie Lynn Klossowsky
14 YOA
Waverly/Denver, IA (Bremer County)
Case # 71-00549
June 13, 1971
On Tuesday morning, June 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old Valerie Lynn Klossowsky of Waverly was found on a creek bank under a bridge on a lonely country road three miles west of Denver, IA. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior High School student had been strangled.
Julie Benning
Homicide:
Julie Ann Benning
18 YOA
Disappeared from Waverly, IA (Bremer County)
Body found in Shell Rock, IA (Butler County)
Case # 76-00382
November 28, 1975
Julie Ann Benning, 18, disappeared from Waverly, IA, the day after Thanksgiving on November 28, 1975. A Butler County road maintenance worker found her nude and decomposed body in a roadside ditch along a quiet country road about a mile northeast of Shell Rock on March 18, 1976.
Lisa Peak
Homicide
Marie”Lisa” Peak
20 YOA
Waverly, IA (Bremer County)
September 7, 1976
On Tuesday, Sept. 7, 1976, the nude, beaten body of 20-year-old Marie “Lisa” Peak was found lying face down under a lone cottonwood tree in a ditch a quarter mile north of Waverly’s city limits. Peak had been sexually assaulted and died of suffocation and a broken neck.
Lyric Cook
Double Homicide
Lyric R. Cook
10 YOA
July 13, 2012: Went Missing from Meyers Lake
Evansdale, IA in Black Hawk County
Body Found in Seven Bridges Park in
Bremer County, December 5, 2012
Lyric R. Cook, 10, and her cousin, Elizabeth Collins, 8, were reported missing to the Evansdale Police Department in Evansdale, Iowa, on Friday, July 13, 2012. The girls’ bodies were discovered by hunters December 5, 2012, in Seven Bridges Park near Readlyn in Bremer County.
Elizabeth Collins
Double Homicide
Elizabeth J. Collins
8 YOA
July 13, 2012: Went Missing from Meyers Lake
Evansdale, IA in Black Hawk County
Body Found in Seven Bridges Park in
Bremer County, December 5, 2012
Elizabeth Collins, 8, and her cousin, Lyric Cook, 10, were reported missing to the Evansdale Police Department in Evansdale, Iowa, on Friday, July 13, 2012. The girls’ bodies were discovered by hunters December 5, 2012, in Seven Bridges Park near Readlyn in Bremer County.
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