Mason City in Cerro Gordo County

Mason City in Cerro Gordo County

Map of Cerro Gordo County in Iowa

Cerro Gordo County in Iowa

Cold Cases in Mason City, Iowa

 

 

 

 

Lillian DeMaris

Lillian Eileen DeMaris

Missing Person
Lillian Eileen Demaris
Age at Report: 31
Date of Birth: May 12, 1921
Classification: Endangered
Medical: Demaris is classified as disabled
Missing from: Mason City, IA
Missing Since: August 14, 1952

Lillian Eileen Demaris was last seen in Mason City, Iowa on August 14, 1952. She has never been heard from again.


Dwane Dreher

Dwane Dreher

Missing Person
Dwane Roy Dreher
Age at Report: 33
Missing From: Mason City, IA
Case # 52274
Missing Since: November 7, 1955

U.S. Navy veteran Dwane Roy Dreher, 33, went missing after last being seen around 7:30 p.m. on Nov. 7, 1955, by his father in Mason City, Iowa. Dreher’s vehicle was found near the Winnebago River — all his belongings still inside — the following day. Dreher — a merchant marine — was reported missing to the Mason City Police Department on Nov. 9, 1955.


Lucille DeVries

Lucille DeVries

Homicide
Lucille Elaine DeVries
22 YOA
607 3rd Street NE
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
Case Number: 63-00204
October 10, 1962

On October 10, 1962, Lucille Elaine DeVries, 22, was discovered dead in the back seat of her burning vehicle parked in the driveway of her Mason City apartment.


Norma Jean Horgen

Norma Jean Horgen

Homicide
Norma Jean Horgen
18 YOA
Case Number: 66-01036
Mason City, Iowa
Cerro Gordo County
September 10, 1966

The body of Norma Jean Horgen, 18, was found near the northwest shore of Iowa’s Clear Lake on September 10, 1966. The St. Ansgar teen had been a cosmetology student in Mason City.


Andy Hatges

Andy Hatges

Homicide
Andy Hatges
75 YOA
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
March 8, 1968

Andy Hatges, 75 — owner of West Vu Market, 2601 Fourth St. S.W. in Mason City, IA — was found dead in his home on March 8, 1968, when he failed to open his store that morning. His throat had been slashed.


Homicide
Charles Hines
45 YOA
11 S. Delaware Ave.
Mason City, IA
August 2, 1975

Charles Hines, 45, was found on the sidewalk outside the Delaware Tap, 11 S. Delaware Ave., Mason City, at 2:45 a.m. on August 2, 1975. Investigators were checking out the report of a fight involving Hines when they found his body, and believe he died after an assault.


Elgin Strait

Elgin Strait

Homicide
Elgin Hobert Strait
80 YOA
Case # 77-00254
Mason City, Iowa
Cerro Gordo County
March 18, 1977

On March 18, 1977, the body of Elgin Hobert Strait, 80, was found at his Mason City residence. He died from a gunshot wound to the head.


Roger Joynt

Roger Joynt

Homicide
Roger Thomas Joynt
26 YOA
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
Case Number: 78-06397
September 29, 1978

On September 29, 1978, the body of Roger Joynt was found in a ditch 2.5 miles east of I-35 on County Road B-20 around the Mason City area with 8 bullet wounds throughout his body.


Grace Esquivel

Grace Esquivel

Missing Person
Graciela (Grace) Esquivel
Age at Report: 25
DOB: December 21, 1957
Missing From: Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
Missing Since: June 10, 1983

Grace Esquivel, 25, the mother of a six-year-old daughter, Angie, was reported missing in June 1983. She lived at 1619 N. Pennsylvania Ave. in Mason City.


Rodney Olsen

Rodney Olsen

Missing Person
Rodney J. Olsen
Age at Report: 32
DOB: October 1, 1954
Mason City, IA
Missing Since: October 18, 1986

Rodney Olsen, a rural Mason City farmer, was reported missing on October 18, 1986. Olsen was the father of a young son and farmed northeast of Mason City. He had moved from his native Britt area not too long before he disappeared.


Homicide
Dillon Luna
15 days old
1429 N. Federal Ave.
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
April 30, 1992

Dillon Luna, the 15-day-old son of Joseph and Christine Luna, was found dead of smoke inhalation on April 30, 1992, as his parents’ 1429 N. Federal Ave., Mason City home burned to the ground. The fire was caused by arson, investigators said, and was ignited in the living room — the same room where the infant’s body was found — according to the fire marshal’s investigation.


John Snyder Jr.

John Snyder Jr.

Homicide
John Snyder Jr.
1 YOA (20 months old)
10 S. Adams Ave.
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
July 20, 1994

Twenty-month-old John Snyder Jr., the son of John Snyder Sr. and Lisa Sellmann, was reported as missing from his father’s Mason City apartment on Wednesday morning, July 20, 1994. The toddler was found dead in Willow Creek the following day. Michael Jason Cisneros was tried for first-degree murder in the boy’s death, but acquitted by a Cerro Gordo County jury on July 14, 2014.


Billy Pruin

Billy Pruin

Undetermined
Billy Pruin
43 YOA
Mason City, IA
Cerro Gordo County
April 4, 1995

William Thomas “Billy” Pruin was shot at his rural Mason City, Iowa home on Tuesday, April 4, 1995, after having gone to town to purchase a new tractor.
 


Jodi Huisentruit

Jodi Huisentruit

Missing Person
Jodi Huisentruit
Age at Report: 27
600 North Kentucky Ave.
Mason City, IA
Case # 95-08176
June 27, 1995

At approximately 4:30 a.m. on June 27, 1995, CBS affiliate KIMT-TV morning and noon anchor woman and producer Jodi Sue Huisentruit was abducted from the parking lot of her apartment before leaving for work that Tuesday morning.


Gerald Best

Gerald Best

Homicide
Gerald Best
50 YOA
4 N. Madison Ave.
Mason City, IA
December 30, 1999

Gerald Best was found stabbed to death on Dec. 30, 1999, in his apartment at 4 N. Madison Ave. in Mason City. His throat had been slashed.

 

3 Responses to Mason City

  1. Cheryl says:

    I lived in MC in 2006. I can’t remember the guys name…he worked at Best Buy and had a French name.
    He lived in the same apartments as Jodi Huisentruet and he knew her. He was obsessed with the story and told me that they would never find her. That she had been thrown into mill. He creeped me out and I never went out with him again. 😬

  2. karen jean tanner says:

    I’m noticing so many disappearances in Iowa of disabled people from even the 1970s, unbelievable, seems like the State or some agency may be involved with so many of them. I also find it unusual that the more recent missing persons have no photo, most everyone has photos nowadays with cellphones and facebook, seems suspicious they have no photos, more like deliberate.

  3. Rose says:

    I was told that alot of carnival workers were buried in Hugo tx and have alot of unclaimed

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