Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner
(Courtesy photo Brittany Wise)

Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner

Homicide

Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner
24 YOA
2800 Fleur Drive
Des Moines, IA
Polk County
August 8, 1995

Case Summary compiled by Jody Ewing

 
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.

A “Rough Life”

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.

Polk County in Iowa
 
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.

Officials Examine Links in Murders

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.

About Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner

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.com

Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner is buried at Paton Cemetery in Greene County, Iowa.

She 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.

Information Needed

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.

Sources:

• Personal correspondence with Brittany Wise (victim’s daughter), December 2012 – ongoing
• “Twenty years later, still no answers,” Part of the GONE COLD: EXPLORING IOWA’S UNSOLVED MURDERS series, The Independence Bulletin Journal, October 3, 2015
• “Gone Cold: Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner,” The Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier, August 8, 2015
• “Unsolved homicide: Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner,” The Carroll Daily Times Herald, Monday, August 3, 2015
• “Gone Gold: 20th anniversary of Des Moines woman’s death approaches,” Iowa Newspaper Association, August 3, 2015
• “20th anniversary of Des Moines woman’s death approaches,” The Mason City Globe Gazette, August 3, 2015
• “Gone Cold: Connie Bodensteiner of Des Moines — This story is part of “Gone Cold,” a series of stories exploring Iowa’s unsolved murders,” Special to the Register, August 2, 2015
• “Gone Cold: 1995 killing of Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner still unsolved,” Iowa Newspaper Association / Sioux City Journal, July 31, 2015
• Kimberly Frazier, correspondence with Iowa Cold Cases, February 2012 – ongoing
• Find a Grave Memorial
• Social Security Death Index
• “Slayings keep D.M. police stumped,” Des Moines Register, September 13, 2003
• “No links seen between 2 killings: Victims’ paths crossed, but Des Moines, Waterloo deaths appear unrelated, say police,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 18, 1995
• “News Roundup – No Links Found in Murders,” East Iowa Journal, August 18, 1995
• “C. Bodensteiner,” Eldora Herald Ledger, August 15, 1995
• “Local Girl Dies; Still No Answers,” Eldora Herald Ledger, August 15, 1995
• “Inquiry retraces homicide,” Burlington Hawk Eye, August 13, 1995
• “Police look for murder links,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 13, 1995
• “D.M. murder victim had troubled past, mother says,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, August 11, 1995

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