Iowa City in Johnson County
Johnson County in Iowa
Officer Edward Leeney
Patrolman Edward M. Leeney
32 YOA
Iowa City Police Department
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
April 29, 1926
On April 29, 1926, Iowa City Motorcycle Officer Edward M. Leeney — married and a father of three young children — was killed in a streetcar collision while in pursuit of a fleeing Ford coupe.
Edward Kriz
Homicide
Edward J. Kriz
43 YOA
Hamburg Inn No. 2
214 North Linn St.
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
November 10, 1962
Edward Kriz, 43, was shot outside the Hamburg Inn No. 2 in Iowa City when he startled a would-be robber on November 10, 1962.
Ronald Lipsius
Homicide
Ronald F. Lipsius
30 YOA
812 South Summit Street
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
May 16, 1966
Ronald F. Lipsius, a 30-year-old Iowa City grocer, was shot to death on Monday, May 16, 1966 as he chased a woman bandit who’d just scooped $35 from a cash register in his 812 South Summit Street store.
Sarah Ann Ottens
Homicide
Sarah Ann Ottens
20 YOA
Rienow Hall
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
Case # 73-00179
March 13, 1973
On March 13, 1973, Sarah Ann Ottens was murdered in Rienow Hall at the University of Iowa.
Jane Wakefield
Missing Person (Presumed Homicide)
Jane Wakefield
Age at Report: 26
DOB: November 19, 1948
NCIC Case No: M-703329643
Missing From: Iowa City, IA
Missing Since: September 6, 1975
Jane Wakefield — a teacher at Penn Elementary School in North Liberty, Iowa — was reported missing to the Iowa City Police Department on Monday, September 8, 1975, after failing to show up for work. Wakefield separated from her husband, John A. Wakefield, in 1975, and had filed for divorce six months prior to her disappearance. One informant told police Wakefield had been murdered and her body cremated and scattered along Interstate 80.
Charles Elmquist
Missing Person
Charles Elmquist
DOB: 05/03/1945
Age at Report: 34
Missing From: Iowa City, IA
NamUs MP Number: 27722
Missing Since: November 16, 1979
Charles Elmquist went missing on November 16, 1979. His 1961 blue GMC van was located on November 17, 1979, parked in the University of Iowa Hydraulics Laboratory storage lot.
Unidentified White Male Infant
Homicide
Unidentified Newborn Baby John Doe
Found in Iowa City Landfill
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
December 21, 1992
Four days before Christmas in 1992, a worker from a Kalona sanitation firm found a naked newborn baby boy’s body in a pile of trash at the Iowa City Landfill. The caucasian infant weighed 9 pounds and 3 ounces, and had just been dumped there around noon with the refuse picked up earlier from surrounding communities.
Susan Kersten
Homicide – Arrest Made, Suspect Entered Alford plea
Susan Pearl Kersten
38 YOA
Iowa City, Iowa
Johnson County
Case # 95-11388
September 24, 1995
On Sept. 24, 1995, Susan Kersten’s body was found in a burning vehicle in a farm field off Highway 923 about one mile south of the Regency Mobile Home Village in rural Iowa City where Kersten lived in Lot 130. The coroner determined she died from blows to the head before the car was set afire. Nearly 20 years later, her former boyfriend, Steven J. Klein, 54, was arrested in Muscatine and charged with first-degree murder. On Feb. 17, 2017, Klein entered an Alford plea and was sentences to 15 years in prison.
Donna Lee Marshall
Homicide
Donna Lee Marshall
37 YOA
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
Case # 96-00444
January 8, 1996
On January 8, 1996, Donna Lee Marshall, 37, was found by her fiancé and daughter in her southeast side Iowa City mobile home with a gunshot wound to the head. She died the next day.
Laura Van Wyhe
Homicide
Laura Van Wyhe
21 YOA
From Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
Found along NE Missouri highway
October 26, 1996
On Oct. 26, 1996, a truck driver discovered Laura Van Wyhe, 21, alive but incoherent, alongside Highway 136 near Kahoka, Missouri. Van Wyhe died three hours later in a Quincy, Illinois, hospital.
Frances Bloomfield
Homicide
Frances Bloomfield – Closed/Cleared by Arrest and Exceptional Means
57 YOA
38 Wakefield Ct.
Iowa City, IA
Johnson County
September 20, 1997
Frances Bloomfield was reported missing on September 22, 1997, by her husband, John, who had returned from a business conference in France. Mrs. Bloomfield’s body was found three days later, bound with pantyhose and wrapped in plastic bound with duct tape, in a ditch along a highway about a half-mile south of Rockford, Illinois. She had been strangled. Investigators believe she’d been killed in her home on Sept. 20. John Bloomfield was arrested in November 2013 and charged with first-degree murder in his wife’s death. He died Nov. 6, 2014 while awaiting trial.
I am glad they keep these cases open. They identified the guy that was found in lake Meade. I bought A small farm near tiffin thirty years ago. After buying it I bought a bulldozer. The guy I bought the farm from said not dig any holes on the place. He told me he buried some farm machinery. Then a a few years later I told him I was going to dig up that junk and haul it to the wilton shredder. He told me something’s are best left buried. . I often wondered what was really buried there. I know he had a barrel of agent orange and figur Ed maybe it was something like that. Then an elderly neighbor told me that whole place was buried with construction waste. I notified the DNR that the place may have toxic wastes buried on it. Never heard anything back. Then due to a chain of unfortunate circumstances including major illness I lost my little farm. Somebody should follow up on this. Lewis Cassill the address of the place is 4018 Ivy Ave SW Oxford Iowa. The burial of this stuff was in the seventies and eighties
There was a new house just built (according to Assessor website) in 2023 https://beacon.schneidercorp.com/Application.aspx?AppID=86&LayerID=841&PageTypeID=4&PageID=572&Q=1104603598&KeyValue=1121227001
Great website! Thought you would be interested to know that the Frances Bloomfield case is no longer cold: https://www.thegazette.com/2013/12/18/former-iowa-city-resident-bloomfield-formally-charged-in-wifes-death
Thank you for your compliment about the website, Alexis!
Though Frances’ husband John Bloomfield has been arrested and charged with her murder, he isn’t scheduled to go to trial until July 2014. There’s more info about the charges/arrest on Frances Bloomfield’s page, but the case won’t officially be closed unless Mr. Bloomfield is convicted.
I’ll make a notation on the respective city/county pages that her case is currently pending trial. Thanks for writing, and have a great weekend!