Jay and Jaymie Grahlman

Jay Grahlman with daughter Jaymie

 

Jay and Jaymie Grahlman

Double Homicide

Jay Ernest Grahlman, 38
Jaymie Chantelle Grahlman, 6
3755 H Ave. NE
Cedar Rapids, IA
Linn County
April 5, 2003

 

A special thanks to Jaymie’s mother, Shannon Salmons, for providing all the photos included here.

Case Summary by Jody Ewing
Jaymie Grahlman

Jaymie Grahlman

Jay Grahlman, 38, and his 6-year-old daughter, Jaymie, died from injuries suffered in a late-night fire set at their Cedar Rapids home on Saturday, April 5, 2003.

Jaymie — whose autopsy report included a number of pathologic diagnoses — died Sunday, April 6, after being removed from life support. Jay died the following Wednesday, April 9, from complications due to burns he sustained in the fire.

Also in the home at the time of the fire was Jay’s girlfriend, Vickie Reed, 32, Reed’s daughters, Kylie Reed, 9, Nicole Reed, 7, and Grahlman’s youngest daughter Ida Mae Grahlman, 3, whose mother, “Monica,” was in Mexico.

The 3755 H Ave. NE house sat at the end of a quiet dead-end street. Reed (who also went by Reed-Grahlman though the couple wasn’t married) stated in published reports that she pulled Jay and three of the daughters to safety but couldn’t find Grahlman’s daughter Jaymie.

Once Jay realized Jaymie still remained inside, he ran back into the burning home to search for her. His efforts — tragically unsuccessful — cost Grahlman his own life; while frantically searching for his young daughter, he sustained second- and third-degree burns over 37 percent of his body on his face, scalp, neck and shoulders.

Firefighters, searching on hands and knees, found Jaymie alive but unconscious early Sunday morning in the home’s bathtub. She lay stretched out on her back, face up, almost as if she’d peacefully gone to sleep in the bathtub* and not heard the screams all around as Reed rushed others to safety.

Family friend and neighbor Brian Zirtzman — a 39-year-old man with an IQ of just 67 — was later charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson but acquitted by a Linn County District Court jury after testimony inferred Zirtzman had likely been coached before going to police with a memorized confession “too complex” to be made by a man with a 67 IQ.

* Problems with Posturing

The “posture” of how Jaymie’s body was found is in direct contrast to the posturing of a body exposed to great heat.

According to forensic pathologist Dr. Dinesh Rao (forensicpathologyonline.com), the posture of a body is referred to as Pugilistic Attitude (boxing, fencing, or defense attitude). When the body comes in contact with great heat, the legs become flexed at the hip and knees, the arms are flexed at elbows and wrists are held out in front of the body, all fingers are hooked like claws, and contraction of paraspinal muscles often cause a marked opisthotonus, an “attitude” commonly adopted by boxers.

This stiffening is due to the coagulation of proteins of the muscles and dehydration which cause contract; the flexor muscles, being bulkier than extensors, contract more.

This occurs whether the person was alive or dead at the time he or she sustained the burns.

The American Burn Association estimates that 75% of all burns in young children are scalding injuries.

Jay Grahlman (right) with brother Duane

Jay Grahlman (right) with his brother Duane

The Day, Night of Fire

The family had spent the day socializing and barbecuing with Jay Grahlman’s brother Duane Grahlman and the developmentally disabled Zirtzman.

The unemployed Zirtzman lived with his parents, Delbert and Orian Zirtzman, across the street and two houses up from the Grahlman’s at 3748 H Ave. NE.

According to a Cedar Rapids Gazette article dated April 8, 2003, Reed said the family of six had stayed up until just after 10 p.m. Saturday, enjoying each other’s company before heading to bed. (She would later testify it wasn’t until after 11 p.m. when she got the girls ready for bed.)

“About an hour later, I heard a crash and smelled smoke,” Reed told the Gazette. “The whole bedroom, hallway and house was filled with smoke.”

The fire was reported at 11:55 p.m.

Reed described to the Gazette how the series of events unfolded:

  • That she first rescued daughter Kylie Reed, 9, and Ida Mae Grahlman, 3, from the burning home;
  • That she then found her husband [sic] on the living room floor and pulled him to safety;
  • That she went back in and rescued her daughter, Nicole Reed, 7, even as the flames grew;
  • That she then entered the home a final time — a house now filled with smoke and flames — to look for 6-year-old Jaymie.

Reed said she looked under a bunk bed, broke out a window and moved furniture looking for the child but could not locate her.

“I couldn’t breathe anymore,” she said of her retreat.

Dave Koch, then-spokesman for the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, said that by the time fire officials arrived, flames were already shooting through the roof and from windows on three sides of the house.

Neighbor Orion Zirtzman — Brian Zirtzman’s mother — said her husband and others had to hold back Jay Grahlman to keep him from going back into the burning house to find Jaymie.

Jaymie Grahlman with brothers Jarrod (top) and Jesse

Jaymie Grahlman with her brothers Jarrod (top) and Jesse, whom she called “big bubby” and “little bubby.”

Once firefighters discovered Jaymie’s body in the bathtub, she immediately was flown by air ambulance to University Hospitals in Iowa City. Jay was transported to University Hospitals shortly after being admitted to St. Luke’s Hospital.

The Gazette said none of the other three girls or Reed suffered any injuries, though Reed was treated for smoke inhalation before being released.

Jaymie’s mother, Shannon Salmons of Logansport, Indiana, shared joint custody of Jaymie with Jay Grahlman, and told Iowa Cold Cases she was scheduled to pick up Jaymie on Sunday and bring her back to Indiana for an extended visit.

Instead of a fun Sunday where Jaymie would be laughing and joking with her two older brothers on the trip home, Salmons stood by her daughter’s hospital bedside as Jaymie was disconnected from life support at 9:34 p.m. that same Sunday evening.

Jay Grahlman died the following Wednesday morning at the Burn Treatment/Trauma Center at University Hospitals.

Jaymie Grahlman at age 6

Jaymie Grahlman’s last birthday

Reed said in the April 8 article she thought “Jaymie had gotten up and tried to wake her,” but there was no further explanation as to what she meant by the comment.

‘Accidents Happen’

In a Gazette article published April 10, 2003, fire department spokesman Koch said investigators had determined the Grahlman fire started in a kitchen wastebasket. The investigation into the exact cause was continuing, he said.

In a separate Gazette story published that same day, fire officials said they initially believed the fire started in the kitchen, but that after further investigation had determined the fire started in a utility/laundry room and quickly spread to the kitchen and living room.

Reed called the deaths of Jay and Jaymie “a great loss to our family,” and said they’d always be loved and greatly missed. Reed told the Gazette she and Jay Grahlman had been companions for four years. The victims’ family members told Iowa Cold Cases Jay and Vickie had begun dating in late 2001 or early 2002 and been together as a couple only one year.

“Accidents happen and you can only accept them,” Reed said.

Wrestling with the Aftermath

In the days following the fire, Brian Zirtzman helped organize a church drive to help the surviving family members replace clothing, beds, dressers, towels, dishes, and other household items.

Jay Grahlman with his four children

Jay Grahlman with his four children, Leanna and Boseck (back row) and in front, Ida Mae and Jaymie.

A Coe College sorority organized a Hershey candy bar sale where proceeds would go toward medical bills and funeral costs.

Kaylee DeWitt, a 10-year-old student at Kenwood Elementary where Jaymie attended school, organized a car wash.

Other area organizations asked that donations be made to the Grahlman Family Memorial Fund at any US Bank in the Cedar Rapids area.

Large item pickup also was available by calling the Toddville Free Methodist Church or calling Zirtzman.

The press and community embraced Reed and applauded her heroic efforts for allegedly having saved four of six lives.

Lost in the fire’s aftermath was the close-knit relationship Jay and Shannon shared both before and after Jaymie’s birth — a friendship that ran so deep Shannon had not filed charges when Jay took Jaymie out of state and headed to Iowa a year before the fire. The joint custody legal agreement between Jay and Shannon — both of whom lived in Indiana when Jaymie was born — required that Jay receive written permission before leaving the state with Jaymie.

Jay and his new girlfriend, Vickie Reed, had taken Jaymie with them on the trip to Iowa, where the couple decided to stay and rented the H Ave. NE Cedar Rapids home.

Jay Grahlman's large family

Jay Grahlman (back, left of center) came from a large, close-knit family.

Jay kept in close contact with Shannon, and because Jaymie hadn’t yet started kindergarten, the couple worked things out where Jaymie spent part of her time in Iowa with her father and Vickie, and part of the time in Indiana with her mother.

Zirtzman Gives Bizarre Confession

Two and one-half months after the fire, Zirtzman became a suspect when officials discovered he’d set two fires in his early teen years — once in 1977 when 13 years old and once in 1979 when 15.

According to a Cedar Rapids Gazette article dated June 25, 2003:

On Sept. 26, 1979, Zirtzman was adjudicated as having committed two counts of second-degree arson. He was sent to the Mental Health Institute in Independence in October 1979, remaining there until September 1980, when he was transferred to the psychiatric unit of the Linn County Department of Mental Health Services, according to court documents.

Zirtzman’s juvenile record came as no surprise to Reed; she’d known about the two arson charges long before her own home went up in flames nearly 25 years after Zirtzman’s last arson attempt.

When fire department officials first questioned Zirtzman on June 19, 2003, about the Grahlman fire, Zirtzman — bizarrely articulate in what sounded like a recitation — confessed to starting the fire so he could save the family and become a hero.

Reed’s initial reports to police and fire officials did not indicate Zirtzman was in the home when she first awoke and smelled smoke, nor had she mentioned Zirtzman being present to help with any of the trips into the home to rescue family members.

In a Gazette article dated June 21, 2003, Kirk Hankins, vice president of the St. Louis-based International Association of Arson Investigators, said it is not uncommon for a person to set a fire so he or she can discover it and then warn or rescue others.

“That’s the hero-worship syndrome,” Hankins said.

It wasn’t Zirtzman, however, who discovered the fire, but Reed. Nor had Zirtzman warned or been credited for having made the rescues; the lavish praise for all heroic acts had gone to Reed, not Zirtzman.

Courtesy the Gazette

Courtesy the Gazette

Fire investigators recommended Zirtzman be charged with arson in the Grahlman deaths, but the prosecutor, Linn County Attorney Harold Denton, opted to increase the charges to first-degree murder, saying the charges applied because Zirtzman [allegedly] killed the Grahlmans while committing first-degree arson — a forcible felony.

Fire officials had yet to agree on where the fire started. An investigation by an insurance agency maintained the fire began in the home’s kitchen, while two other fire investigators stayed with their second theory that it began in the utility room.

No known other individuals were questioned as possible suspects.

On June 20, 2003, Brian Zirtzman was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson. If found guilty, he faced life in prison.

Before that interview, Zirtzman signed a Miranda statement waiving his right to silence, said Capt. Al Brockhohn, the Cedar Rapids Fire Department’s lead investigator, in a Gazette article published Feb. 14, 2004. After the session was transcribed, Zirtzman balked when Brockhohn reviewed the Miranda waiver.

“Maybe I should do that, have an attorney,” Zirtzman said in a videotape made to corroborate the interview. “I want to have an attorney, I guess.”

At that point Brockhohn said he ended the session and placed Zirtzman under arrest. Zirtzman was held at the Linn County jail under a $500,000 bond.

Trial Plagued by Incongruities and Conflicting Details

Six men and eight women served as jurors and alternates for Zirtzman’s trial. Testimony began Wednesday, July 7, 2004.

In his opening statement, County Attorney Harold Denton said that during a police interview in June 2003, Zirtzman confessed to setting the fire by placing clothes over the furnace.

Zirtzman’s 67 IQ “makes the confession suspect,” co-defense attorney Julie Trachta said in her opening statement.

According to a Gazette article published Thursday, July 8, 2004, Vickie Reed, who’d moved to Sioux City after the fire, was the first to testify at the Linn County District Court trial.

Crying on the witness stand, Reed maintained she pulled her husband [sic]and three of four children out of the house before firefighters arrived, but had been unable to find Jaymie. The Gazette reported:

The day of the fire, a Saturday, had been a family day, Reed-Grahlman said. While her husband [sic], his brother and Zirtzman hung out, the children played in the yard. In the evening they grilled out and played cards.

Play ended about 11 p.m. at the conclusion of “Buffy the Vampire Slayer,” a favorite TV show of Reed-Grahlman and Kylie Reed, then 9.

Reed-Grahlman said she tidied up the house and prepared the kids for bed. “You know, brushed teeth, pottied, hugs and kisses and tucked in,” she said.

Kylie and Ida Mae Grahlman, 3, climbed into bed with Reed-Grahlman in the master bedroom. Jay Grahlman, who had been drinking beer for much of the day, moved from the card game to a recliner in the living room for the night.

Reed told the jury that Zirtzman, who didn’t drink, was the last one awake, but didn’t explain how she knew that or why she wouldn’t have asked him to go home once everyone else went to bed.

2004-7-8-crg-trial-vickie-reed-on-standCourtesy Cliff Jette/The Gazette
Vickie Reed cried on the stand Wednesday, July 7, 2004, while testifying about her efforts to locate the four children in her burning home in Cedar Rapids in April 2003.

Reed also testified that after she’d pulled Kylie, Ida Mae, Jay and Nicole out of the house to safety, she saw Brian Zirtzman on his porch across the street and called to him for help.

Zirtzman, Reed testified, helped her move a small garden table to the window of Jaymie’s bedroom, where she and Zirtzman broke out the window and she tried to enter the house again to search for Jaymie.

In Reed’s initial reports to police and the press, she’d spoken of breaking out the window, but never credited Zirtzman with helping her. Reed said she’d already searched the house for Jaymie — even looking under furniture — so it wasn’t clear why she directed Zirtzman to place the garden table beneath the (most obvious) room Reed already would have checked.

Dr. Dan Rogers of Fort Dodge — a psychologist hired by Zirtzman’s defense team — said Brian Zirtzman’s IQ of 67 placed him in the bottom 1 percent of adults. Rogers had interviewed Zirtzman at the Linn County Jail in December 2003, and testified that the words allegedly used by Zirtzman in his confession were well beyond his ability to use them correctly.

Zirtzman, 40, could read at only a second- or third-grade level and scored “very poorly” — in the bottom 0.5 percent — in a standard Miranda comprehension test, Rogers testified.

“That’s as low as the norms go,” Rogers said. “He clearly did not understand there is a right to remain silent. He thought he’d be arrested if he didn’t talk.”

Zirtzman was unable to understand his rights when interviewed by investigators, said Rogers, who also testified in support of a defense motion to suppress Zirtzman’s [confession] to Capt. Al Brockhohn.

2004-7-10-crg-alan-brockhohnCourtesy photo Jim Slosiarek/The Gazette
Capt. Alan Brockhohn, a certified fire investigator with the Cedar Rapids Fire Department, explains to the jury Friday, July 9, 2004, the extent of fire damage to one of the rooms in the Jay Grahlman home.

“[Zirtzman] said something to the effect of, he didn’t want to hurt anyone” in the June 19 interview at the fire department, Brockhohn testified.

Information from Zirtzman’s juvenile record was not given to the jury during the six-day trial; the court ruled the two and one-half decades-old arson convictions far too distant to even be considered relevant.

In each of the two cases when Zirtzman was a teen — both of which were set in the same neighborhood where Zirtzman and his family still lived — neither fire had been set with anyone present in the home. One neighbor said the then-teen had actually waited until he knew no one was home before lighting the fires.

In her 1979 house fire, neighbor Georgie McNamara said fire investigators told her Zirtzman had waited until she left, then gone behind her house, leaned in a window and held a cigarette lighter to bedroom curtains to start the fire. The fire, she said, gutted her home and destroyed most of her family’s possessions.

In the following years and those leading up to the Grahlman fire, Zirtzman’s criminal record in Linn County included one assault, one interference with official acts and one contempt of court charge, according to the Cedar Rapids Gazette. There’d been no other arson attempts since the 1979 incident.

More than two decades later when Jay and Vickie moved into the last house on the dead-end street, McNamara testified she’d warned Vickie Reed to be careful of Zirtzman — and that she’d told Reed about his juvenile arson record.

Throughout his trial, Zirtzman’s inattentive behavior and carefree demeanor depicted more that of a distracted, bored child than a man on trial for murder.

Prosecutors said Zirtzman set the fire so he could save the family, whom he visited frequently. That plan went awry when the flames spread too quickly, they told the court.

2004-7-14-crg-casey-jonesCourtesy photo Cliff Jette/The Gazette
Defense attorney Casey Jones presented his closing argument to the jury on Tuesday, July 13, 2004. In seeking a not-guilty verdict for Brian Zirtzman, Jones said, “We ask that this fire does not claim a third victim.”

The details weren’t adding up for jurors. If the flames had spread so quickly and kept Zirtzman from making any of the planned rescues, how did Vickie Reed later manage to make three or four trips back into the home to rescue the others … and emerge with no burns of any kind and only minor smoke inhalation?

Two separate firefighter crews had risked their own lives searching for Jaymie, conducting the first search in Jaymie’s bedroom per Reed’s expectations. The first team searched until their oxygen supply ran out, and a three-man replacement crew then entered the home. They crawled from room to room, yelling out to each other to identify their locations in the smoke-filled house.

Within minutes the second team found Jaymie, not in her bedroom as Reed had indicated, but lying face up in the bathtub, said Capt. Daniel Peck.

In the July 8, 2004 Gazette story, Reed said it was difficult to determine everyone’s injuries at the scene because “we were all black, covered with soot.”

Everyone, except Jaymie.

The court seemed less concerned with Reed’s initial claims of being Jay Grahlman’s wife and then changing her story to say they’d only been married one year, and then finally admitting the two were never married. Reed was then referred to as Grahlman’s common-law wife, though the couple had lived together only one year and Jay was making plans to reunite with the mother his youngest daughter, Ida Mae.

Defense attorney Casey Jones asked the jury to consider that Jay Grahlman may have accidentally started the fire himself — perhaps by dropping a cigarette in the laundry room while going back to light the furnace — but even that possible scenario raised more questions than answers; no proof existed that the furnace had gone out, and Reed herself had already told authorities Jay was passed out in the living room when she went to bed.

Jessie Salmons' mermaid drawing of his sister, Jaymie

Jaymie’s brother Jesse Salmons drew this picture of Jaymie as part of Iowa Cold Cases’ art tribute to the victims.

Redefining ‘Family Fun’

According to Jaymie Grahlman’s official autopsy report, her last day of life — and the weeks preceding it — were likely anything but fun-filled family barbecues.

Conducted at Broadlawns Hospital Morgue on April 8, 2003, at 9 a.m. by Deputy State Medical Examiner Dennis F. Klein, Jaymie’s pathological diagnoses revealed other disturbing evidence in addition to the second- and third-degree burns.

The 6-year-old lay on the examining table, nail polish on her fingernails, and a tag on her left big toe bearing the name, “Grahlman, Jaymie.” A hospital bracelet around the right ankle read, “Grahlman, Jamie, 99283877.”

The autopsy report included the following diagnoses:

  • Thermal injuries — skin erythema and blisters (second-degree burns) on the face, anterior chest, abdomen and extremities (an estimated 33% surface area of the body).
  • Thermal injuries — Focal tissue charring (third-degree burns) on face.
  • Brain swelling.
  • Hydrothoraces (100 mL right, 150 mL left) — [defined as an accumulation of fluid in one or both pleural cavities, often resulting from disease of the heart or kidneys].
  • The liver showed chronic inflammation.
  • Hydroperitoneum (50 mL) — [defined as an accumulation of fluid in the peritoneum; often associated with cirrhosis of the liver].
  • Microscopic lung cultures revealed the child suffered from Bronchoalveolar pneumonia (streptococcus pneumoniae), scarring on bronchial tissues, and acute, chronic inflammation in the trachea.
  • Soot was present in mucus in the upper airways, consistent with smoke inhalation.
  • Examination of the brain revealed swelling consistent with anoxic encephalopathy.
  • Blood cultures revealed the child also suffered from Escherichia coli (e-coli).

The only soot deposits present on Jaymie’s body were on the top of her left foot, the tops of her hands, and a 6-by-3-inch area on her back’s left side.

The coroner’s report made no mention of singed hair or singeing anywhere on Jaymie’s body.

According to Forensic Pathologist Rao, burns produced by flame may or may not produce vesication (blisters), but singeing of the hair and blackening of the skin are always present.

CAUSE OF DEATH: Complications of smoke inhalation and thermal injuries.

MANNER OF DEATH: Homicide.

Almost all burns were confined to the front of Jaymie’s body. Only two burns were found on the backside — both just above her knee area — and consistent with circumferential burns.

types-of-burn-injuries

On Wednesday, July 14, 2004, a Linn County District Court jury found Brian Zirtzman not guilty on all three charges.

The arson case is now closed, though there is no statute of limitations on murder and the possibility exists that another suspect could still be charged with two counts of first-degree murder.

Jay and Jaymie’s murders remain unsolved.

About Jay Grahlman
Jay Grahlman

Jay Grahlman

Jay Grahlman was born May 16, 1964, in Sumner, Iowa to Dale and Marilyn (Pett) Grahlman.

He was survived by his two other daughters, Leanna of Bettendorf and Ida Mae of Cedar Rapids; a son, Boseck of Bettendorf; his father and step-mother, Dale and Marilyn of Fredericksburg; two brothers, Michael of Macon, Mo., and Duane of North Liberty; three sisters, Carolyn Ohrt of Lee’s Summit, Mo., Cheryl Ackerman of Waterloo and Diane Mendicino of Salem, Wis.; girlfriend Vickie Reed and her two daughters, Kylie and Nicole; and his special friend, Shannon Salmons of Indiana and her two sons, Jarrod and Jesse.

About Jaymie Grahlman
Jaymie Grahlman

Jaymie Grahlman

Jaymie Chantelle Grahlman was born October 30, 1996, the daughter of Jay Ernest Grahlman and Shannon Christine Salmons.

She was survived by her mother, Shannon Salmons of Logansport, Indiana; two brothers, Jarrod Thomas Salmons and Jesse Stephens Salmons of Logansport; two half sisters, Leanna of Bettendorf and Ida Mae of Cedar Rapids; a half brother, Boseck, of Bettendorf; her maternal grandmother, Lahoma Salmons of Logansport, Indiana; maternal great-grandmother, Edna Clay, North Lewisburg, Ohio; two uncles, Scott Salmons and his wife, Angie of Martensdale, Iowa and Steve Salmons and his wife, Lori of Des Moines; one aunt, Cheryl Schroder, Logansport; four cousins, Calvin Salmons, Stephen Salmons and Brandon Shephard, all of Logansport, and Heather Salmons, Monticello.

In addition to her father’s death three days after her own, Jaymie was preceded in death by her maternal grandfather, Calvin Salmons, and one sister, Katie Christine Salmons.

jay-and-jaymie-grahlman-gravestone-findagraveCourtesy photo Julie Farland, findagrave.com
Graveside services were held in Rose Hill Cemetery for both Jay and Jaymie Grahlman.

Services for both Jay and Jaymie were held at the Rettig Funeral home in Tripoli, Iowa, and then both caskets taken to Rose Hill Cemetery in Fredericksburg, Iowa, in Chickasaw County for burial next to Jay’s brother, Chuck, and his mother, Ida Mae.

Defrosting Cold Cases, an international true crime blog dedicated to victims of unsolved homicides, featured the Jay and Jaymie Grahlman case as its April 2014 “Case of the Month.”

Information Needed

Anyone with any information about Jay and Jaymie Grahlman’s case is asked to contact one of the following individuals or agencies:

Linn County Crime Stoppers accepts anonymous tips, and rewards for information may be available.

A Special Tribute to Jay and Jaymie Grahlman, compiled by Jody Ewing

Sources and References:

 

Copyright © 2024  Iowa Cold Cases, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

28 Responses to Jay and Jaymie Grahlman

  1. Jonas Roy Helme says:

    It seems fairly likely that Reed is actively omitting parts of the story like Zirtzman’s involevement in the rescue, could she be trying to distance herself from him? Could she have been trying to avoid anyone suspecting her involevement in Zirtzman’s testimony?

    The terrible condition of Jaymie points to possible child abuse, this is backed up by the scalding-like burn marks on her body causing the burnmarks on 33% of her body, yet not causing any singeing of the hair. Could Jaymie have been trying to ease pain from scalding by submerging herself in the bathtub?

    I theorize that Zirtzman had been exploited to take the blame, this could be done by promising him that he would also be hailed as a hero after giving the testimony that someone else prepared for him. Could Reed have been the one to design the testimony?

    Reed possibly caused the fire to cover up the abuse of Jaymie, afterall if she died in a fire thsi would cover up the scalding wounds and make the bacteria in Jaymie significantly harder to detect.

  2. Curious One says:

    I am confused about a thing: Jaymie was found in the bathtub, but, no one ever says whether there was water in the tub.

    The unique pattern of burns on her front side may be because she was floating in water and only got burned where her skin was above the water line?

    At any rate, It seems pretty obvious that Ms. Reed has some explaining to do regarding the months leading up to the fire and the bizarre collection of pathologies found during Jaymie’s autopsy. The girl would have been greatly suffering having ALL of those things wrong with her at the same time! How does that even happen? She had E-coli poisoning (which is typically transmitted through ingestion of feces from an infected animal or person which was then transferred to a food item). She had cirrhosis, pneumonia, and anoxic encephalopathy.

    Regarding anoxic encephalopathy: “Anoxic encephalopathy, or hypoxic-ischemic brain injury, is a process that begins with the cessation of cerebral blood flow to brain tissue, which most commonly results from poisoning (for example carbon monoxide or drug overdose), vascular injury or insult, or cardiac arrest.”

    Jaymie was being abused or, at the very LEAST, she was neglected. I am wondering if Vicki Reed suffers from Munchausen by Proxy – she was poisoning, or making Jamie sick in an attempt to gain attention for herself as the loving parent.

    I think Jaymie became critically ill (or as Jody theorizes was scalded) and rather than seek medical attention, Vicki decided to setup the house fire in the hopes that Jaymie would be burned to death and Vicki’s crimes would be gone with her.

  3. Dawn says:

    After reading the case evidence and the comments, I think it is the responsibility of the Cedar Rapids Police and Iowa State Patrol to solve these cases, when it is obvious to most what should be looked at. All of the evidence is there but needs a fresh set of eyes to see what others have missed. My curiousity lies with Jaymie’s autopsy. This child was 6 years old and not only had Ecoli but cirrhosis of the liver? I am so curious as to why a child of this age would have the ailments described by the medical examiner and secondly, when was the last time she had been to the doctor? Too many grey areas that need brought back into the light! The family needs closure and it is time to talk to Vicki again, because I think there is waaaaay more to this story than what she had told!

    • Curious One says:

      I agree. It needs to be explained why Jaymie had all of those pathologies at the time of her death. She SHOULD have been showing symptoms. The anoxic encephalopathy is caused by complete loss of blood flow to the brain and is typically found in coma patients who have suffered cardiac arrest, or drug overdose, or other SERIOUS incidents. She had cirrhosis, pneumonia and e-coli poisoning. She would have not seemed healthy – she probably would have been underweight and lethargic, possibly coughing, vomiting, diarrhea, etc.

      Are there any reports about what she was like before her death?

  4. Patrick Kerrigan says:

    Several months ago, I caught a program on obscure television channel about arson invesation. I was watching a friend’s foster daughter. They showed a house set on fire by a Florida fire department. There were two expert arson investugators there watching. After, the fire was out, they inspected and found signs that they connected with arson. Yet, they the fire was not arson.

    Also, the ATF has this hugh facility, where they can reconstruct the fire. Their were certain assumptions on how certain fires can reach certain temperatures. Well, the experts were surprised when it reached that temperature faster then be expected.

    So, the fire and circumstances around Jaymie’s death, need to be revisited. The newer forensic tools, may reveal something different about the point of origin.

    We know that Texas, executed a guy for murders by arson. Yet, we now know, that it could not be arson, if investigated with today’s tools, and better knowledge of fires.

  5. Kim says:

    One-time suspect in this case, Brian Zirtzman, passed away this week from cancer:
    https://www.thegazette.com/obituaries/brian-zirtzman-20170526-0000062878-01

  6. chad lynch Norfolk,VA says:

    First jody ewing keep up the great work! Group we saying maybe a Jon Benet Ramsey case Mom gets mad at a mistake Jaymie makes. Accidentally or intentionally kills her. Then figures she must cover it up! Why did DCI CCU disband? Money!

  7. Shannon my heart goes out to you. I live in Johnson county were recently they had a cold case (Susan Petersen/Stephen Klien) solvers after 20 years due to the tv show cold justice. Have you ever considered contacting them? Never give up on justice for your baby. Karma is something else and that woman will get hers. Didn’t anyone find it odd she moved away right after as well? Good luck to you and hope to see some good news on this case soon.

  8. ICC has many arson cases listed on the site, and in every single one, the fire was set to cover up another crime. The thermal burns on Jaymie’s body have distinct lines of demarcation and her legs have circumferential burns, both of which are consistent with scalding burns. (Burns by flash, flame or scalding all result in “thermal” burns.) The average person uses cold water to alleviate burns, and Jaymie was found laid out in a supine (face-up) position in the bathtub. She had no singeing to her hair despite the thermal burns to her face that extended well beyond her hairline. With all the screaming and commotion going on after the fire began, no 6-1/2-year-old child would purposely choose to lie down in a bathtub as if simply going to sleep. She wouldn’t have been taking a bath near midnight when everyone else was asleep. Had she been conscious, she could easily have made it out of the bathroom. But, when firefighters bring a child into an emergency room and say she’s just been rescued from a “house fire,” who would even stop to question, even for a second, that her injuries might be scalding burns? Unconscious people still breathe, which explains the small amount of soot found in her lungs. This case should have been reopened years ago, but it’s not too late. This sweet little girl deserves nothing less.

    • I completely agree. I spend my nights going thru your cases on here and I cant believe how many of them are unsolved when it’s so obvious who the killer/killers is just from reading the facts presented. I cant imagine the heartbreak for the families involved. My thoughts and prayers are always with them.

    • Shawna, I also do the same. It just makes me sick that growing up in CR I was told it was SO safe. I counted up all the total cold cases here in CR and IA and I was shocked! If I had the money, I would do this full time to help. It is just SO sad that no one really did a thing back then on all of these or even now with all the horrible things going on here in CR.

  9. And when I do call , the fire investigator is forwarded my messengers, the guys stated in this never call me at all… something fishy is going on

  10. Jaymie is my daughter and I agree with checking in to Vicki , but she was not Jaymie step mom, I have called and called on this matter an Noone will return my calls , my daughter can Jay just don’t seem to matter to anyone and they are letting a murderer live her life like it never happened !

  11. Why havent they looked into this step mom because it seems to me she was doing it all for attention and then push the blame off on the mentally handicap guy.

  12. I remember this one like it was yesterday

  13. How incredibly sad. Why hasn’t anyone looked into this supposed step-mother?? It was obviously her.

  14. tina says:

    was Jayme being poisoned… sounds like she suffered from a lot of ailments.

  15. Cheryl Ackerman says:

    He has a drivers license. It was mentioned somewhere he drove and had a job. If Brian Zirtzman has such a low IQ, how did he get a drivers license. I find a drivers exam is not easy for a lot of people . Was he off his meds for a while in jail when they came to that conclusion, therefore going through withdrawals. It is always easy to play dumb. RIP brother and niece

  16. darkkan13 says:

    This is going wIth my gut of course but I think Vicki killed Jamie or at least tried to or thought she did and started the fire… she used zirtzman to cover her tracks possibly trying to use his background since she was told about it when she moved in then she coached him. He wasn’t too smart. That’s why she checked areas she knew the girl wouldn’t be in. Made that weird remark about jaymie. Both fires might have been points of origin. She was hoping the fire would go faster. Eat the evidence but it didn’t since they found the girl in the bath tub. Possibly tried to drown her. Well this is all conjecture. Just a hypothesis.

    • Jody Ewing says:

      Darkkan13, there are points from your hypothesis I think need to be addressed, but first I’d like to say I believe this case could have been solved by now if 1) the DCI still had their Cold Case Unit, and 2) if investigators had petitioned the court to exhume Jaymie’s body to clarify a critical detail not mentioned or addressed in her original autopsy report.

      I have a copy of Jaymie’s complete autopsy report (including the body sketch that outlines the thermal burn areas), and I’ve read and studied it thoroughly, taking into consideration the fact that firefighters found Jaymie lying fully stretched out (as if sleeping calmly) on her back in the bathtub. In my personal opinion, no scared 6-year-old (if conscious) would passively lie there while breathing in smoke and/or soot. I do not, however, believe Vickie tried to drown her. That said, the other points in your hypothesis are in alignment (to varying degrees) with documentation already provided to the state, yet Vickie, like everyone else, is still innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. Disinterring a loved one’s body is not pleasant for anyone, but has the potential to answer overlooked questions and/or even clear an innocent suspect.

      As the ‘Types of Burn Injury’ chart shows up above, burns are one of four separate types, yet four different sources may cause thermal burns. What we know and don’t know:

      • Jaymie suffered thermal burns. But, were they caused by exposure to fire/intense heat or scalding?
      • Jaymie’s autopsy sketch indicates patterns of circumferential burns (circular and wraparound in nature as when a splash of hot liquid falls downward at point of contact with body).
      • No known singeing in Jaymie’s hair or on body (none noted by family members; no singeing recorded in autopsy report).
      • The scattershot area of thermal burns to Jaymie were confined almost exclusively to the front of her body, with circumferential patterns wrapped just under her legs.
      • If Jaymie’s burns resulted from scalding, is it possible she was placed in the bathtub with cool water to ease the pain and slow the blistering?
      • Is it possible Jaymie lost consciousness while in the bathtub due to the severity of several third-degree burns?
      • The only minor soot deposits present on Jaymie’s body were on the top of her left foot, the tops of her hands, and an area on the left side of her back. (Consistent with brushing against charred doorjambs while being carried from the home.
      • Jaymie suffered no burns at all to her bare feet.
      • Approximately 33% of front of Jaymie’s body had blistering.
      • If conscious, wouldn’t the frightened child have yelled for help? Would she cower in a corner to escape the heat or calmly lie down stretched out in the bathtub?
      • If conscious and seeking rescue before succumbing to soot and smoke inhalation, how did any heat or flames reach her body’s front side when trying to leave the bathroom, yet not affect her back side when she returned to escape to the bathtub?
      • Jaymie had third-degree burns on her scalp that extended beyond her hairline. Why was there no singeing, or was it simply overlooked?
      • Why would Brian Zirtzman wait two and one-half months to give a motive of wanting to be a hero and save the family when Vickie’s acts of heroism had already been made known in numerous media reports?
      • Why did Vickie direct firefighters to search areas away from the bathroom?
      • If Brian Zirtzman truly set the fire so he could “save the family,” why was he not readily present to help rescue family members that night to fulfill an alleged motive for setting the fire?
      • For all her heroic efforts in trying to find Jaymie, how did Vickie escape any burns or injuries?
      • Was Brian Zirtzman, a simpleminded but friendly neighbor, coerced into confessing with promises he’d be hailed a hero, too?
      • Hospital personnel’s expectations: when told a young girl and her father were pulled from a burning home, who would think to question whether Jaymie’s burns may have been caused by scalding? Both instances present as thermal burns
      • A face exposed to fire burns and singes hair before the skin.
      • What are some other possibilities we’ve not yet explored here? What are your thoughts?

      Please keep a civil tone and open mind with any discussions. There’s no doubt many lives were damaged and forever changed by the tragic loss of a father, brother, son, uncle, daughter, sister, granddaughter, niece, and charming little girl nicknamed “Sissy.”

      Autopsy reports, numerous interviews, and other documentation is available to official law enforcement agencies upon request.

  17. Lori says:

    I concur Jody that Zirtzman more then likely did not start the fire. Law Enforcement can at times get tunnel vision and target 1 person to the exclusion of others but all they want, as do all of us, is to take a killer off the streets.

  18. thoughts and prayers

  19. Kiley says:

    That is really sad:(

  20. TNT says:

    CEDAR RAPIDS MAN (Brian Zirtzman) ARRESTED FOR INDECENT EXPOSURE IB FRONT OF CHILDREN:

    Posted December 30, 2011 12:30 pm by Jeff Raasch/SourceMedia Group News

    Updated: Cedar Rapids Police confirm that Zirtzman is the same Brian Zirtzman found not guilty of murder and arson in a fire that killed a Cedar Rapids man and his daughter in April of 2003. The July 15, 2004 story from the day the jury ruled in the case is added below.

    CEDAR RAPIDS – Police arrested a Cedar Rapids man Thursday night after witnesses said he masturbated while he was watching them.

    Brian Zirtzman

    Brian D. Zirtzman, 47, was arrested on suspicion of four counts of indecent exposure. According to a police report, he masturbated in the back doorway of his apartment at 2279 C St. SW, Apt. D.

    Police said three females, ages 6, 11 and 18 were outside playing around in the yard with a 20-year-old male around 9 p.m. when they noticed Zirtzman watching them and masturbating. They questioned his actions and he went inside.

    The witnesses said they had seen Zirtzman before, but were not friends with him, according to police.

    Officers arrived and found Zirtzman inside his apartment. He was taken to the Linn County Jail.

    Story written by Elizabeth Kutter from the day the jury ruled in a case where Zirtzman was found not guilty of murder and arson.

    CEDAR RAPIDS Â… Brian Zirtzman walked out of jail a free man Wednesday after a jury found him not guilty of murder and arson in a fire that killed a father and daughter.

    “The victory belongs to the Lord, the lawyers and the jury,” said Zirtzman’s twin brother, Brad.

    The stone-faced Zirtzman of the courtroom was all smiles as he lugged three yellow plastic bags of clothes and books to the lobby of the jail where his family greeted him. Zirtzman had been in jail since June 2003, unable to post a $500,000 bond.

    Zirtzman, 40, was accused of starting an April 5, 2003, fire in the home of his neighbors Jay Grahlman and Vickie Reed-Grahlman and their four children at 3755 H Ave. NE. The fire claimed the lives of Jay Grahlman, 38, and his daughter Jaymie Grahlman, 6. Reed-Grahlman and the other three children survived.

    Law enforcement officials could not be reached to say whether Zirtzman’s acquittal would prompt them to reopen the case.

    Zirtzman, who lived across the street at 3748 H Ave. NE, spent the afternoon and evening of the fire socializing at the Grahlman’s home playing cards and watching TV. He was the last one awake before the fire roused Reed-Grahlman about 11:55 p.m.

    Zirtzman was charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson in June 2003 after he confessed to starting the fire.

    On Wednesday, Judge David Remley read the verdict, “Not guilty on count one. Not guilty on count two. Not guilty on count three.”

    Zirtzman’s mother, Orion Zirtzman, collapsed sobbing. Her husband held her as Pastor Doug Morris of the Toddville Free Methodist Church led the family in prayer in the back of the courtroom.

    “We’re very pleased with the verdict, but our hearts go out to the Grahlmans.

    We’re very mindful of their loss,” defense attorney Casey Jones said. Family and friends of the victims filed out of the courtroom quietly.

    The defense case focused on several issues attorneys believed were key to Zirtzman’s innocence: His confession, a psychologist said, was too complex to be made by a man with a 67 IQ. An insurance investigator concluded the fire was accidental or of unknown origin. No physical evidence tied Zirtzman to the fire, and he had no motive. And perhaps Grahlman had accidentally started the fire.

    The prosecution emphasized other points: Zirtzman was the last person awake at the Grahlman house. The fire started just as Zirtzman described in his confession, and his motive for starting it was to be a hero.

    Information from Zirtzman’s juvenile record, which contains two fires, was not available to the jury.

    • Jody Ewing says:

      Thanks so much for sending along this information. Somehow I’d missed this article when it first came out and appreciate your sending it. Despite Zirtzman’s background, this still surprised me. Personally, I do not believe Zirtzman was responsible for the fire that killed Jay and Jaymie Grahlman.

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