James Chamberlain
Beneath Wabash Railroad Trestle
Ottumwa, Iowa
Wapello County
May 25, 1893
James Chamberlain, a carpenter who lived on Ottumwa’s south side, was found lying in mud and water in the Des Moines River beneath the Wabash Railroad trestle in the city’s old Richmond section on Thursday, May 25, 1893.
Chamberlain died from blunt force trauma after being hit in the head with a heavy object.
Though Chamberlain was still conscious when discovered by authorities, he died from the skull fracture the following day.
A source familiar with the case who did not wish to be publicly identified contacted Iowa Cold Cases in July 2012 to provide additional information on this case. According to the source, a tall, light complexioned black female and a black male (names on file with Iowa Cold Cases) witnessed their respective family members in the company of Chamberlain that day, and subsequently witnessed their fatal attack on Chamberlain.
Courtesy photo Iowa GenWeb Project, Wapello CountyThe two covered up and concealed the murder for years, the source said.
A Cedar Rapids Weekly Gazette article dated June 8, 1893 stated there was no clue to the murderer that amounted to anything more than a strong suspicion, and that the affair was “shrouded in the deepest mystery.”
The Gazette said similarities existed between Chamberlain’s murder and that of David Sutton, also of Ottumwa. Sutton, 43, was shot in the head and found behind a meat market on Ottumwa’s east side three months earlier on February 15, 1893. Both men’s murders remain unsolved.
If you have any information about James Chamberlain’s unsolved murder, please contact the Ottumwa Police Department at 641-684-5555.
Melvin Royale Adams
55 YOA
Agency, IA
Wapello County
February 13, 1983
Melvin Royale Adams, a 55-year-old Royal Canadian Air Force veteran, was found dead in a small cabin south of Agency, Iowa, just off Cemetery Road near the Cliffland Bridge on February 13, 1983. The cabin was located on property owned by the Coghlan family.
Adams, who had celebrated his 55th birthday just five days earlier, had been partially decapitated.
The Vermont native was estranged from his wife, Betty Mae (Pentzer) Shoemaker Adams, at the time of his death. The couple had no children together, although Betty had a son and daughter from a previous marriage.
In correspondence sent to Iowa Cold Cases in July 2010 by Betty’s niece, Suzanne Eaves Koehler, Koehler stated that Melvin (nicknamed “Mez”) had kept a “diary” of sorts regarding his sick days and the days he didn’t feel well. He lived next door to Ronald McLeran, a man with whom Adams frequently drank. Betty Dyer, a friend of McLeran’s, discovered Adams’ body.
Adams’ murder — which occurred in the same area as that of Francis Jordon — was investigated by Wapello County Sheriff Bud Erwine. Jordon’s murder also remains unsolved.
Koeller described her late uncle as a truly nice person with faded good looks and a Vermont clippy twang. Her aunt, she said, had met Mez’s family in Vermont, and they were proud of Mez’s military service with the RCAF.
Betty Adams died of congestive heart failure on July 1, 1988.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comMelvin Royale Adams was born February 8, 1928 to Leon Adams and Nellie Ackerson.
He is buried at the Ottumwa Cemetery in Wapello County, Iowa.
If you have any information about Melvin Adams’ unsolved murder please contact the Wapello County Sheriff’s Department at 641-684-4350 or Iowa Cold Cases via our Contact form.
Agency in Wapello County
Wapello County in Iowa
Homicide
Melvin R. Adams
55 YOA
South of Agency, IA
Wapello County
February 13, 1983
On February 13, 1983, 55-year-old Melvin Royale “Mez” Adams was killed with a sharp instrument in a cabin near the Cliffland Bridge over the Des Moines River in Wappelo County south of Agency.
Mary Jayne Jones
Mary Jayne Jones
17 YOA
Blakesburg, IA
Wapello County
Case Number: 74-00243
April 9, 1974
Robert E. Pilcher
On Tuesday, November 13, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) agents and Wapello County Sheriff’s deputies arrested Robert Eugene Pilcher, 66, of Des Moines, Iowa in connection with the 1974 homicide of 17-year-old Mary Jayne Jones of Ottumwa.
DCI agents said Pilcher — who was arrested at the A-1 Motel in Des Moines — was questioned in the case years ago and released. He is now accused of sexually assaulting Jones and shooting her in the head and chest before leaving her body in his cousin’s Wapello County farmhouse.
New DNA technology finally linked Pilcher to Jones’ murder; DNA samples had been collected from Pilcher’s long list of crimes after 1974.
From WHO TV Channel 13 Des Moines
Mary Jayne Jones, 17, of Ottumwa, Iowa, was found slain in a farmhouse near Blakesburg, Iowa, on Tuesday, April 9, 1974. She had been shot once in the head and once in the heart at close range with a high-powered rifle.
Shortly after 5 p.m. on Tuesday, the Wapello County sheriff’s office received a call from Ernest Marlin, who said his wife had discovered the body in a farmhouse about seven miles west of Ottumwa.
The farm was owned by the Marlin’s son, Max Marlin, and the elder Marlin worked the farm. According to [then] Wapello County Attorney Sam Erhardt, the Marlin’s son was “out west on a vacation” at the time of the slaying. Erhardt said he believed no one was staying at the home at the time of the slaying, although Mr. and Mrs. Marlin had stayed at the house “a couple of nights” before the slaying.
Several guns were found in the house, though it wasn’t determined early in the investigation if any of those found was the murder weapon.
[Then] Bureau of Criminal Investigation agent Wayne Sheston, in charge of investigations, said Jones died of “multiple gunshot wounds.” Wapello County Medical Examiner Dr. Warren DeKraay confirmed that Miss Jones, an Ottumwa drive-in restaurant employee, died from gunshot wounds to the head and heart.
DeKraay said the girl was shot “once in the head and once in the heart from fairly close range with a rifle, apparently a pretty high-powered rifle, judging from the wounds.”
Miss Jones had not been beaten, nor were there signs of a struggle.
Investigators believed Jones was last seen about 11:45 a.m. Tuesday, April 9, at the Union Bank and Trust Co. in Ottumwa. She had been employed at Henry’s Drive-in restaurant in Ottumwa for the past nine months, and restaurant employees said Jones had not been at work since the previous Friday, believed to be because of illness.
Mary Jayne Jones had come to Iowa from North Carolina nine months earlier to visit her sister, Mrs. Pat Williams, who was expecting a baby. Jones stayed with her sister until the sister had the baby in November, and had decided to remain in Iowa rather than return to N.C.
Friends described the 5′ 2″ auburn-haired Jones as an “outgoing girl,” and fellow employees said she was “a bubbly, super girl.”
Roy Ware, owner of the apartment building where Jones had occupied a second-floor, one-bedroom apartment for “about four or five months,” said he’d received a letter Wednesday, dated April 9, 1974, from Miss Jones. Her rent check was in the letter, which said, “You told me to inform you when I have a roommate. Her name is Lynn Guyette,” Ware said the letter stated. Ware said Miss Jones was a very good tenant and a great girl.
Vernon Guyette, Jr., Lynn Guyette’s brother, said his sister met Miss Jones at Henry’s Drive-In, where both were employed. Miss Guyette had been living with Jones for about a month.
Authorities confirmed Jones had also written a letter, postmarked Tuesday, to friends in N.C. telling of a boyfriend named Art who did not want to get married but who had given her a beautiful ring for Valentine’s Day. The BCI said the boyfriend was not a suspect in the case.
Courtesy photo Frances Allen Titsworth, Findagrave.comThe Wapello County sheriff’s department interviewed numerous people and circulated photographs of Jones in efforts to find persons who may have seen her Tuesday before her death.
By week’s end, at least one suspect had undergone a lie dectector test conducted by the BCI, but authorities were unable to gather enough evidence to charge anyone with her murder.
Her case remains unsolved.
Mary Jayne Jones was born September 10, 1956.
Survivors included her mother and stepfather, who lived in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and two sisters, Miss Judy Cabanelius of Fort Bragg, N.C., and Mrs. Patrick Williams of Fairfield.
Mary Jayne was buried in Woodlawn Memorial Park in Fort Smith, Sebastian County, Arkansas.
If you have any information about Mary Jayne’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.
Drakesville in Davis County, IA
Drakesville, IA (Davis County)
Eldon, IA (Wapello County)
Case # 84-01854
April 13, 1984
Courtesy photo Ottumwa CourierOn Friday, April 13, 1984, the body of 20-year-old Justin Alfred Hook, Jr., was found outside near his burned-out mobile home in rural Drakesville in southeast Iowa. Firefighters discovered Hook’s body about 4:30 p.m. after they’d extinguished the fire.
Hook had been killed by blows to the head.
When police went to tell Hook’s mother — Sarah Link, 41, of Farmington — about her son’s death, they were unable to locate her.
The following Monday, April 16, a farmer found Mrs. Link’s body on a hilly wooded section of his land just north of Eldon. She, too, had died from blunt force trauma to the head.
Eldon in Wapello County, IA
Authorities then launched an intensive search for Hook’s fiancée, 19-year-old Tina Marie Lade of Ottumwa, to whom he’d recently become engaged. Hook had given her an engagement ring the previous week for her 19th birthday. Lade, however, also had gone missing.
Then on Wednesday, April 18, trained police dogs discovered Miss Lade’s body in a ravine about a half-mile from where Mrs. Link’s body was found. Lade had died from blows to the head as well.
Tina Marie Lade
Authorities believed all three victims were killed at about the same time, but the exact time and location of the slayings wasn’t known.
Eight Division of Criminal Investigation agents were sent to Wapello County to investigate the murders, and hundreds of leads followed.
Drakesville residents — who’d known Hook only casually — referred to him as “polite” and a “nice boy.”
One year after the murders and despite some initial “strong suspects,” then-Wapello County Sheriff Bud Erwin said there had been no new breaks and no new leads for months. Erwin said though police continued their investigation, so far they had been unable to determine a motive for the bludgeoning deaths.
No murder weapon was recovered, and tests showed no traces of drugs in the bodies.
When the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation established a Cold Case Unit in late 2009, the murders of Link, Lade, and Hook were three 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.
All three murders remain unsolved.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comSarah Lee (Carlisle) Link was born Jan. 8, 1943, at Fort Madison to Delbert and Mildred Jones Carlisle.
She was survived by her husband, Rex of Farmington; a daughter, Cynthia L. Moyes of Iowa City; two sons, James Hook of Ottumwa and John Crutcher at home; three stepsons, Steven, Anthony and Joshua Link of Quincy, Ill.; two grandsons; her mother and stepfather, Mildred and Joe Michael of Selma; a grandmother, Heldred Jones of Keosauqua; two sisters, Elizabeth Stone of Douds and Mary Jane Harem of Marshalltown; and two brothers, Paul Carlisle of Hermiston Ore., and Thomas Carlisle of Whittier, Calif. She was preceded in death by a son, Justin Alfred Hook, Jr.
Services were held Friday, April 20, 1984, at the Pedrick Funeral Home in Douds with the Rev. Charles Stevens of Burlington officiating. Sarah Link was buried in Iowaville Cemetery at Selma in Van Buren County.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comJustin Alfred Hook, Jr., was born April 10, 1964, in Iowa City to Justin Hook, Sr., and Sarah Lee Link Hook. He spent most of his life in LaHarpe, Ill. He married Mary Kay Ponnies on Jan. 17, 1981. They divorced in February 1984.
He lived on Route 9 in Bloomfield, and had just become engaged to marry Tina Marie Lade of Ottumwa. The couple shared the same birthday — with Hook exactly one year older — and likely shared the same death date, despite the discrepancies in dates on their gravestones. (The exact date of death could not be determined.)
Hook’s survivors included a son, Justin David of Belleville, Ill.; his stepfather, Rex Link of Farmington; his father of Iowa City; a sister, Cynthia L. Moyes of Iowa City; two brothers, James Hook of Ottumwa and John Crutcher of Farmington; his grandparents, Mildred and Joe Michael of Selma and Clara Hook of Iowa City; and his great-grandmother, Hildred Jones of Keosauqua.
Courtesy photo findagrave.comServices were held at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, April 17, at the Pedrick Funeral Home at Douds with the Rev. Charles Stevens of Burlington officiating. He was buried in the Iowaville Cemetery at Selma.
Tina Marie Lade was buried in Fiedler Cemetery in Floris, Ia., in Wapello County.
If you have any information about this unsolved triple murder, please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010, e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us, or contact the Wapello County Sheriff’s Office at (641) 684-4350.
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