Humboldt in Humboldt CountyIn the early morning hours on Friday, October 18, 1974, Douglas A. Nielsen was shot and killed during a house party at the home of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Garrison in Humboldt, Iowa. Nielsen, 17, was shot in the kidney area of the lower back with a .22-caliber firearm.
Nielsen’s body was found at approximately 1 a.m. in the Garrison’s basement game room, where investigators said they also seized several other weapons.
Courtesy Carroll Daily Times Herald, December 31, 1974
The Garrisons were vacationing in Wyoming at the time, and the party — attended by some 30 high school and post-high school youths from the Humboldt area — was hosted by the Garrison’s son, Larry Eugene Garrison, 22. Larry Garrison, married and the father of two children, lived in rural Livermore. His father was a Humboldt auto dealer.
Humboldt County Attorney Richard A. Williams said authorities had interviewed about 30 young persons who attended the party, and that state Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) investigators were trying to determine how Nielsen was shot.
BCI Deputy Director Tom Hopewell said three BCI agents and a lab crew joined county and local Humboldt officials to investigate the death, which the BCI treated early on as a possible homicide.
After a month-long investigation by Iowa BCI and city and county authorities, a grand jury was empanelled November 25, 1974, to hear evidence in the case.
In December 1974, the Humboldt County grand jury indicted Larry Eugene Garrison, 22, of rural Livermore, on an open charge of murder in connection with Nielsen’s death. Garrison was arraigned before Humboldt County District Court Judge Jack Hill and released after posting ten percent of the $20,000 bond.
On February 19, 1975, County Attorney Williams asked that the murder charge against Garrison be dismissed because of insufficient evidence and because two polygraph examinations showed Garrison “had not committed the crime and had no knowledge of what might have occurred” at his parents’ home where he’d thrown the party and where Nielsen had been killed.
Judge Newt Draheim of Clarion granted Williams’ motion and dismissed the murder charge against Garrison.
Courtesy The Humboldt Republican, Feb. 19, 1975
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On March 10, 1975, the Humboldt County grand jury began an investigation of what it called “gross inequities” in the administration of justice in the county. County Attorney Richard Williams, 33, was one of the two officials being investigated.
In a press statement, the grand jury stated, “We are aware of the many arrests made by our sheriff’s office and our police department and applaud them,” and then went on to say, “We are appalled at the apparent easy route to dismissal of the charges in almost every case. We believe that many of the dismissals are questionable and we want to know why.”
Williams acknowledged in his own press release that one of the matters he knew the grand jury planned to investigate included “the infamous” dismissal of Larry Garrison’s case in the Douglas Nielsen murder.
When the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) established a Cold Case Unit in 2009, Nielsen’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 federal grant funding for the DCI Cold Case Unit was exhausted in December 2011, the DCI continues to assign agents to investigate cold cases as new leads develop or as technological advances allow for additional forensic testing of original evidence.
The DCI remains committed to resolving Iowa’s cold cases and will continue to work diligently with local law enforcement partners to bring the perpetrators of these crimes to justice for the victims and their families.
Douglas Alan Nielsen was born in Humboldt, Iowa, on June 13, 1957, to Jennings W. and Dorothy Mae (Hansen) Nielsen, and lived in Humboldt all his life. He was a member of the senior class at Humboldt Community High School and served as class secretary. He was survived by his parents, Mr. and Mrs. Jennings W. Nielsen, one brother, Jon; two sisters, Mrs. Larry (Mary Jane) Tinken and Mrs. Tony (Kathy) Herold; and a grandfather, Arthur Hanson of Humboldt.
Courtesy photo Robbie Decker, findagrave.comFuneral services were held the Monday after the murder in Our Saviour’s Lutheran Church with the Pastor Paul Otto and Pastor G. D. A. Engelhardt officiating. Burial was at Union Cemetery.
Honorary casket bearers were Tom Reimers, Larry Smith, Wally Garrison, Bruce Hundertmark, Rodney Harklau, Tim Tinken, Steve Gregory and Rocky Greene. Active casket bearers were Lance Tinken, Dennis Beebe, Dennis Smith, Dan Beebe, Larry Kirchoff and Jim Nielsen.
If you have any information about Douglas Nielsen’s unsolved murder please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at (515) 725-6010 or e-mail dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us.
Praying for justice!
They were protecting their friends. That’s more important then standing up and telling the truth. We then have the local police involved in covering for the guilty parties. I would be suing the Garrison family and their son for the wrongful death of Douglas.
I like that Larry’s parents should crucified their son, for having the party and the fact that someone died in their house from being shot. I would be ashamed and do anything possible for the family
How sad! 30 people at that party, and not one with enough compassion and a concience to just speak up.
Wow what a horrendous injustice.
I have repeatedly told authorities who did this…corruption goes all the way up….
Have u tried calling the state dci instead of your local law enforcement
I went to the local PD 25 years ago and was basically laughed at-they Al got new cars on the force in exchange for favors…I emailed Cold Case investigators. My biggest regret is Doug’s parents dying without resolution.
Turn it in again. Either way, justice needs served. Message cold case and give them a lead :)
Don’t stop until you find someone who will listen!
Agreed, the rest of his damily needs closure!! Pray you find someone that will listen and do what needs to be done!!
I will keep trying, but it gets so frustrating. And I have tried to find the guy that did it, his wife, his kids…it’s like they vanished.
Who
Who vanished? Or who did it? The one that puiled the trigger, his wife and boys vanished…I can find no trace of them…I have looked on Facebook, Iowa Courts Online…I don’t feel comfortable naming the killer in a public forum. It wasn’t First Degree Murder, the shot was not intended to kill…but if it was covered up for so many years, I am not sure what would happen to me if I said the name on here.
That’s sad, seems like a lot of these cases happened in the 70’sbefore all the DNA stuff was available…so sorry for the family