Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner
(Courtesy photo Brittany Wise)
On Tuesday, August 8, 1995, Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner was found locked in a basement storage bin at a south-side Des Moines apartment complex. An autopsy showed the 24-year-old had been strangled.
A maintenance worker discovered Bodensteiner’s body, which had a strap or belt around the young mother’s neck.
In a Cedar Rapids Gazette article dated Friday, August 11, 1995, Bodensteiner’s mother, Sandy Choate of New Providence, said her daughter had run into problems before she was killed.
Des Moines in Polk County“She had a lot of problems,” Choate said. “She just chose a rough life.”
Bodensteiner had dropped out of school in the 10th grade.
Des Moines police Lt. Clarence Jobe told the Gazette Bodensteiner had been arrested four times on prostitution charges and once on a drug-related charge.
According to Choate, Bodensteiner and her husband, Michael Bodensteiner, had a stormy marriage and separated in 1992. Sandy Choate and her husband, Randy Choate, pleaded with their daughter to return to New Providence, but Bodensteiner always returned to Des Moines, Choate said.
Choate told the Gazette she last saw her daughter July 23 when Bodensteiner came to New Providence to see her 5-year-old daughter, Brittany. Brittany had been living with the Choates since the Bodensteiners separated.
Angela Buck
Authorities at first wondered whether Bodensteiner’s murder may be connected to that of 37-year-old Angela Buck of Waterloo. The day after Bodensteiner’s body was found, Buck was found near a creek on North Pilot Grove Road with a single gunshot wound to the chest.
Des Moines police Sgt. Tom Trimble said in an East Iowa Journal story published August 18, 1995, that both Bodensteiner and Buck had records of prostitution and once worked for the same person.
Officials later determined the two women’s deaths were not connected.
Connie Jo Choate was born December 15, 1970 in Ames, Iowa, to Sandra Shenton and Randy Choate. She had four brothers: Jason, John, James, and Craig.
Courtesy photo Hooked on Family at findagrave.comShe was raised in New Providence, where she attended school.
Private graveside services were held August 11 at the Paton Township Cemetery in Greene County with the Rev. C.G. White officiating.
If you have any information about Connie Choate Bodensteiner’s unsolved murder please contact the Des Moines Police Department at 515-283-4864 or the Iowa DCI at 515-725-6010.
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I see her grave says Connie Jo Choate. Was that her legal name when she died or did the family just not want to have Bodensteiner on it? I can understand if they did it, but would be nice to know what her legal name was at the time of her death. Old DM Register archives seem to just call her Connie Bodensteiner. I’m guessing that was her legal name at the time.
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Connie was my daughter’s best friend and like a daughter to me. I loved her and miss her. May God let everyone who loved Connie find some peace with the loss.
Thanks for sharing, Penny and Linda!
Shared also, Hubbard, IA
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May her soul rest in peace and the God I serve bring her killer to surface
Monsters walk amongst us.
Connie was friends with my sister when they were growing up. .. I was thinking of her.. o the amazing power off Google ; ) n I found this. U resemble her. :) we loved her alot. I just wanted to say that. She’s far from forgotten.