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Harrison County in Iowa
John Lee Erickson
Homicide
John Lee Erickson
48 YOA
Killed near Mondamin, IA
Harrison County
Body dumped near Onawa, IA
Monona County
April 30, 1997
On Wednesday, April 30, 1997, Vietnam veteran John Lee Erickson, 48, of Council Bluffs was shot in the head near Mondamin, Iowa, in Harrison County. His killer or killers then dumped his body in a ditch off I-29 south of Onawa in Monona County.
The Harrison County’s Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation investigated the homicide.
Erickson, the father of four children, had served as an SP4 with the U.S. Army during the Vietnam War.
His death came exactly one week before his 49th birthday.
His murder remains unsolved.
About John Lee Erickson
John Lee Erickson was born May 7, 1948. He served as an SP4 with the U.S. Army in Vietnam.
Courtesy photo Dan E. W at findagrave.comJohn Lee Erickson is buried at Garner Cemetery in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
Survivors included his wife, Perlene; four children: Josh, Zach, John, and Sarah.
John was laid to rest in Garner Cemetery in Council Bluffs, Iowa.
His wife, Perlene Jo (Floerchinger) Erickson, died without answers on Monday, December 13, 2010 at Jennie Edmundson Hospital, where she’d worked for the past 33 years as a Physical Therapy Technician.
Information Needed
If you have any information about John Lee Erickson’s unsolved murder please contact the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, Council Bluffs, at (712) 322-1585.
Sources:
- Sheriff Patrick Sears, Harrison County Sheriff’s Office, January 12, 2015
- Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation
- John Lee Erickson (1948 – 1997) — Find a Grave Memorial
- Obituaries: Perlene Jo Erickson, Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil, December 15, 2010
- “United States Public Records, 1970-2009,” database, FamilySearch.org, John L Erickson, Residence, Council Bluffs, Iowa, United States; a third party aggregator of publicly available information.
- “Find A Grave Index,” index, FamilySearch.org, John Lee Erickson, 1997; Burial, Council Bluffs, Pottawattamie, Iowa, United States of America, Garner Cemetery; citing record ID 106022153, Find a Grave, https://www.findagrave.com/.
- “United States Social Security Death Index,” index, FamilySearch.org, John L Erickson, 30 Apr 1997; citing U.S. Social Security Administration, Death Master File, database (Alexandria, Virginia: National Technical Information Service, ongoing).
- “BillionGraves Index“, index, FamilySearch.org, JOHN L. ERICKSON.
How do they know he was shot in one place and dumped in another?
How can someone live with themselves after taking anothers life? Sick people out there! Thanks for keeping their stories out there! Ur doing a great thing!
Jodi Frye, there are different ways officials can determine if a victim was killed and dumped elsewhere; one example is when the cause of death would have resulted in specific amounts of blood loss that’s not found at the dump site. Another example is lividity; after death, gravity pulls red blood cells downward, leaving a purplish red discoloration beneath the body where the blood cells congeal. So if this discoloration is found on the victim’s backside but he/she is found lying face down, coroners know the victim lay face up in the hours after death before later being moved.