Courtesy photo Webshots
On Tuesday morning, May 26, 1998, sometime between 9 and 9:45 a.m., Patricia Anne “Pat” Jauron, 45, was viciously stabbed several times in the rural Sioux City home she and her husband, Eugene “Gene” Jauron, had vacated six months earlier.
The couple had just moved out of one home at 1516 Old Highway 141 and into another across the road at 1541 Old Highway 141, and had been selling off the last few items from the former home.
According to Gene Jauron — who spent more than 40 years as a meter reader for MidAmerican Energy — the couple had held an earlier yard sale and a person who’d attended the yard sale allegedly called several times afterward inquiring about purchasing the waterbed and setting up a time to meet.
Sioux City in Woodbury CountyPatricia, who’d just retired from the Sergeant Bluff Middle School, went across the road at the scheduled appointment time, and, according to her husband, was “supposed to be gone only for a few moments.”
In a 2005 interview with KTIV News Channel 4 reporter Melissa Lanzourakis, Gene Jauron talked about his late wife and said he believed he’d met her killer face to face.
From his home across the highway, Jauron said he saw a red car, and believed the car belonged to the man who murdered his wife.
When Pat didn’t return home, Jauron said he went to check on her at the other house. He said he found the waterbed in the basement covered in blood.
“He’d hit her in the head, knocked her down and tied her up,” Jauron said. “She still had the twine on her one arm, but she got loose. He started stabbing. She got out the basement door and she got out into the yard and he must have stabbed all the way out.”
Jauron said he’d found his wife’s body over an embankment and that all he could do was hold her. The stabbing had been so forceful, he said, that “the knife’s blade had broken off in [Pat’s] chest.”
Jauron contacted the Woodbury County Communications Center at approximately 10:52 a.m. to request assistance.
According to the medical examiner, Patricia Jauron died sometime shortly after 9 a.m.
Courtesy photo Sioux City JournalThe couple had been married 25 years and were just settling into retirement.
“She was the life of the party…never see her grumpy…always willing to help everybody,” her husband said.
Gene Jauron said he felt there were still many clues to be followed up on, and believed they met the killer at the garage sale before the murder.
The man, he said, paid for a dresser that day but never came back for it.
Jauron said the same man told him he worked at an area packing plant, and that phone calls made before the murder were traced to a pay phone near a local convenience store.
As for the red car in the driveway, Jauron said they were clues he’d like to see tackled in a cold case crime unit. He also believed someone in Siouxland knew what happened.
“Somebody around here knows,” he told KTIV’s Lanzourakis in the 2005 interview. “He would have had to have been the most horrible bloody mess you ever seen in your life. All I can do is hope they get him.”
Investigators called the savage murder “personal in nature,” indicating the victim very likely knew her killer.
On Thursday, June 4, 1998, Woodbury County Sheriff Dave Amick announced that a Sergeant Bluff couple and a local business, all of whom wished to remain anonymous, and Pioneer Bank had each contributed $2,000 to start a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Mrs. Jauron’s killer. At that time — just nine days into Patricia’s unsolved slaying — Amick said the sheriff’s department and other area law enforcement were looking for the red car Gene Jauron said he saw during the time period his wife was killed.
Amick hoped the $7,000 reward, which included $1,000 from Crime Stoppers, would draw out those who knew something.
“People come forward with information for different reasons; sometimes it’s money,” Amick said about the new reward in a Sioux City Journal article published June 5, 1998.
In August, investigators and command staff from the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office and Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation agents conducted a case review in attempts to develop new avenues to resolve the murder, and on October 29 presented the case to a criminal investigative analyst from the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC).
By early November, the NCAVC had begun analyzing the case in efforts to develop a profile of the Sioux City woman’s killer.
A Journal article published Nov. 7, 1998 acknowledged authorities had focused on the red car at one point in the investigation. They hoped the analysis from the NCAVC would help them further examine the facts in the unresolved case.
Gene Jauron died without ever seeing his wife’s murder case solved. He passed away on Thursday, January 12, 2012, at a Sioux City hospital.
Courtesy photo Sandy Smith, findagrave.comPatricia Anne “Pat” (Kane) Jauron was born July 16, 1952, in Emmetsburg, Iowa, the daughter of Leo Michael and Phyllis (Gilchrist) Kane. She attended grade school in Cylinder, Iowa and graduated from Emmetsburg High School in 1970. She then attended Iowa Lakes Community College.
She married Gene Jauron on Aug. 8, 1972, in North Sioux City. She had been a resident of Sioux City since 1972. She was employed with the U.S.D.A. for a brief time and later was the librarian and then secretary for Sergeant Bluff Middle School.
She served on the Sergeant Bluff School Board from 1995 to 1997.
She died in Sioux City on Tuesday, May 26, 1998.
Services were held at 10 a.m. Saturday, May 30, at Sergeant Bluff Middle School, with the Rev. Gerald Feierfeil of Nativity Church officiating. Visitation was held at the Christy, Smith and Hockenberry Funeral Home on Friday, May 29, from 1 to 9 p.m., with the family present from 6 to 9 p.m. Burial was in Memorial Park Cemetery.
Survivors included her husband; her mother of Cylinder, Iowa; a daughter and her husband, Annette and Howard Simpson of Guymon, Okla.; two sons, Jason Patrick of Le Mars, Iowa and Kevin Andrew and his wife Sherrie of Cedar Rapids, Iowa; a brother and his wife, William and Ann Kane of Los Lunas, N.M.; three sisters and their husbands, Sherrie and Harlan Meints of Ute, Iowa, Ginger and Dale Hoffman of Graettinger, Iowa and Therese and Charles Duhn of Emmetsburg; and a granddaughter, Kayla Simpson.
She was preceded in death by her father and a son, Eugene “Buck” Jauron.
Pallbearers were Steve Jauron, Ron Brandl, Jim McCrystal, Roger Miltenberger, Larry Nabor and Ray Geary.
If you have any information about Patricia Jauron’s unsolved murder, please contact the Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office at 712-279-6010 or 800-352-6352, or Crime Stoppers at 712-258-8477 or 800-728-6401.
KTIV’s Melissa Lanzourakis contributed to this report.
I still love you and miss you everyday Mom!!!!
I knew Patty in the early 1970s. She was so much fun and a good person. When I went to college, we lost touch. I had no idea she had been murdered until my sister shared this post on her FB. I was devastated to find out that she had been murdered and murdered so brutally.
I don’t know whether law enforcement has viable DNA that can be tested, but there are several labs that are now doing Genetic Genealogy and using DNA matches to identify one or more suspects. The first case solved using this method was the infamous Golden State Killer case.
One lab, Parabon Nanolabs has solved well over 100 cold cases in the last few years. There is a cost for their services and the investigating LE agency has to contact Parabon to start the process. I imagine the other labs offering this service operate the same way.
The most important question is whether there is DNA that was collected at the crime scene and whether the DNA has been properly stored for for 25 years.
I’m not an expert by any means but I have been a domestic violence advocate for 15 years. The personal nature of Pat’s murder points to someone close to her. Some marriages aren’t as happy as they seem from the outside. I’m sorry to all of Pat’s family and friends. I know how hard this must be, no matter how much time passes.
I’m a genealogy nut working on Iowa family links when I came across Patricia’s “Find-A-Grave” posting and a link to the case. Wonder if with all the advances in DNA profilling, whether the police have any viable crime scene DNA that could be tested. The “GenMatch.org” site in Canada can and has been used in a number of cold cases over the last few years to solve cases that have gone cold for many years. Either of Gene’s sons could have their DNA tested so that it could be used to screen out Gene’s DNA from the crime samples. That might identify a DNA of a possible suspect.
I’ve used the sight to validate whether a possible ancester is or is not a long lost relative.
I was wondering the same as well, I have been looking into all the DNA stuff and the genmatch and how they have solved some cold cases. Being this is family, I would love to see it solved! I have my beliefs and am curious to know how right I am?
I shared her case with Kendall Rae, a youtuber that spreads awareness off cases.
Why oh why would someone do this? I pray that the person responsible will be found.
Clarice, as our unending prayers…Thank you.
Omg. Had no idea that’s how your mom died. Can’t imagine the pain that goes with not having any answers. So senseless!!! So sorry!
Thanks, Kallie
She was an awesome lady and someone knows what happened-may justice be served for her and the family.
Very wonderful woman. I so wish they would catch the monster that did this.
Loved Pat. She was special and you never had a dull moment at school. Still don’t know if they did a DNA find or not but of course it has to be matched. Just don’t understand why so many murders in Sioux City have gone cold. If I sound angry, I am, 18 years later.
So sad
Sad day for all of Sgt Bluff
What a great lady she was. Very sad this case hasn’t been solved.
Cory DeZena this is the case i was telling you about in sioux city
That’s some crazy stuff!!That’s my fav road to drive on too
Watch out for the red vehicle lol
???
Please solve this case of my friend.
So very sad for all of your family. Praying it is solved.
Shared
Thanks for sharing, Penny!
Ginger I remember that day so sadly. Doesn’t seem possible it was that long ago but I am sure it is an eternity for you. Prayers to all of you. Please god make your hearts lighter with your memories
I hope this case gets solved. Someone knows something! Miss you my friend.
:(
We miss you pat
Pat was such a wonderful person.
You people are monsters. You have no idea who that old man was or what he was like. Yet you act like professionals and just declare he did it based on your own arrogance. None of you know anything. And this article is extremely painful on this man’s family. He begged for 14 straight years to reopen the case, passed several lie detector tests, and his entire family, who would know him better than any of you, know he couldn’t have done it. His dying wish was to know who murdered his wife. I hope you all suffer something this tragic just for the world to turn around and point fingers at YOU. Maybe then the definition of “empathy” would creep its way into your vile minds.
Who the hell wishes something like this on somebody? This is my family, and as much as it hurts when people point the finger at Gene, I would NEVER wish this upon ANYBODY. Losing somebody like that is the most traumatic thing. It is devastating. I don’t want anybody to ever have to suffer like our family did. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Remember, these are just ordinart people reading the story and making their own inferences. They do not specialize in this sort of thing. They are not professionals. They are simply people reading an article and drawing conclusions based on what they read. They do not deserve to have somebody taken from them in such a horrific way. Grow the hell up.
Mongo- You should be ashamed of yourself.
I remember a close friend being one of the first responders and always believed that the husband did it!! Just too convenient
I remember when this happened. I too thought it was the husband.
That is terrible. I’m betting it was the husband. He waited quite awhile before calling the police and he knew quite a few too many details…
I pray someone comes forward.
This is just horrible, I have a friend that was murder also and is under the Iowa Cild Cases !! Hope and pray they find both of these murders !!!
She was such a wonderful, good person. I think of her often. She was a bridesmaid in my wedding and each anniversary as well as today I’m still filled with sadness. Miss you Patty! You will always be in my heart.
I remember the day I received the phone call about Patty, the phone call from our cousin Joann. Patty and family had been to our home a few summers before her death. I did not know it would be the last time I would see her.
to many unsolved cases due to not enough detectives/resources or attention.
Very Sad. God bless
This is very sad. It breaks my heart. what is wrong with people. Sorry for the family and friends loss. God Bless.
I can’t believe the Jauron phone records didn’t net any suspects with a red car.
plus he called from a pay phone , he planned it…
Miss you Pat!!!