Map of Woodbury County in Iowa

Woodbury County in Iowa

Cold Cases in Woodbury County, Iowa

 
Please note: Some of these cases may fall under the jurisdiction of the Sioux City Police Department or other cities/townships within Woodbury County. They are listed here for cross-reference purposes because they are in Woodbury County.

The cases are listed in chronological order. More information may be found on each victim’s case summary page.

 

Rev. George Haddock

Homicide
Rev. George Haddock
56 YOA
Corner of 3rd and Water streets
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
August 3, 1886

Just after 10 p.m. on August 3, 1886, the Reverend George Haddock of Sioux City, Iowa, was shot as he left his buggy at the stables. He lay dead in the gutter on the southwest corner of 3rd and Water streets.


Thecla Gerken

Thecla Gerken

Homicide
Thecla Gerken
23 YOA
Corner of Ninth & Jones streets
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
June 27, 1917

On Wednesday night, June 27, 1917, Thecla M. Gerken of Woonsocket, South Dakota, was shot and killed while out for a walk with a friend in Sioux City, Iowa.


Jimmy Bremmers

Jimmy Bremmers

Homicide
Jimmy Bremmers
8 YOA
2701 Cottage Ave.
Sioux City, IA (Woodbury County)
Body Found in Plymouth County
Estimated Date of Death: August 31, 1954

Eight-year-old Jimmy Bremmers disappeared on August 31, 1954, after visiting friends on the block where he lived on Sioux City’s west side. His body was found by county workers almost one month later on Sept. 29. Ernest Triplett — an itinerant music salesman for Flood Music in Sioux City — was arrested, charged and convicted in Jimmy’s death, but the conviction was overturned in 1972.


Donna Sue Davis

Donna Sue Davis

Homicide
Donna Sue Davis
21 months of age
715 Isabella Street
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
July 10, 1955

Donna Sue Davis, 21 months old, was abducted from her crib in her Sioux City, Iowa, home the evening of July 10, 1955. Her battered body was found the following day at the edge of a South Sioux City, Nebraska, cornfield.


Homicide
Hilda Fletcher
53 YOA
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
December 15, 1958

Hilda Fletcher was found beneath a blood-soaked bed in her Sioux City, Iowa, home on December 15, 1958. The 53-year-old died of a brain hemorrhage and there were abrasions and contusions over much of her body.


Thomas Myles Dougherty

Thomas “Myles” Dougherty

Missing Person
Thomas Myles Dougherty
45 YOA
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
January 12, 1961

Forty-five-year-old Thomas Myles Dougherty, a WWII double amputee fitted with prosthetic metal “hooks” on both arms, disappeared on January 12, 1961, after an early morning breakfast at the Metropolitan Café in Sioux City, Iowa. He was last seen driving a 1954 dark green Tudor Ford with white sidewalls in front and black mud and snow grips on the rear, Iowa license plate number 97-11426.


Leo Joseph Smith: 1912-1969

Homicide
Leo Joseph Smith
56 YOA
Correctionville, IA
Woodbury County
Case # 69-00525
April 10, 1969

Early Thursday, April 10, 1969, Iowa Highway Patrol officers found 56-year-old Leo Joseph Smith’s body at a rest area on Highway 20 thirty miles east of Sioux City, Iowa, in Woodbury County. His throat had been cut.


Unidentified Body
Description: White male, 33-53 years of age, approximately 5’6″ tall
Details: Skeletonized remains found 08/30/88 in a roadside ditch 1/2 mile east of Correctionville in Woodbury County.
Cause of Death: Unknown.
Estimated date of death: 1971 – 1973
Agency: Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office 712-279-6010


Jesse Hanni

Jesse Hanni

Billy Isom

Billy Isom

Triple Homicide
Ernest William (Billy) Isom II, 27;
Jesse James Hanni, 26;
Freta Fawn (Bostic) Isom, 24

117 Morningside Avenue
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
December 3, 1974

At 11:22 a.m., the bodies of three persons were found brutally murdered in a rented two-story home in Sioux City, Iowa. The mother of victim Ernest William “Billy” Isom discovered the bodies.

Freta Bostic

Freta Bostic

Freta (Bostic) Isom — pregnant at the time — was found on the dining room floor, wearing only a housecoat, shot once through the back.

Billy Isom — shot five times in the head and body — lay naked on a mattress on the living room floor.

Jesse Hanni was found fully clothed, wearing a winter jacket, and had been shot once through the back and once behind the left ear in execution style.

 


Maurice Kneifl

Maurice Kneifl

Missing Person
Maurice Kneifl
58 YOA
Sioux City Area
Woodbury County
February 14, 1983

On February 16, 1983, the Sioux City Police Department received a report of a missing person — 58-year-old Maurice Kneifl — by Kneifl’s girlfriend, Joyce Fish, and her daughter Lori. Maurice was reportedly last seen on Feb. 14, 1983, driving his 1981 dark brown Fleetwood Cadillac, bearing Iowa license plate HIZ379. He had left Joyce’s residence around 9:30 p.m. Kneifl owned and operated Fethke Cleaners located at 1209 W. 26th Street. An exhaustive search has turned up no leads as to his whereabouts.


Terri McCauley

Terri McCauley

Homicide
Terri McCauley
18 YOA
33rd & Pavonia St.
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
October 6, 1983

On Oct. 1, 1983, 18-year-old McCauley was reported missing by her mother. She was reported last seen alive on Tuesday, Sept. 27, 1983, at approximately 2:15 a.m. in the area of W. 7th & Omaha in Sioux City. At approximately 8:15 a.m. on Oct. 6, 1983, her partially decomposed body was located in a wooded area in the vicinity of 33rd & Pavonia Street by a local resident walking his dog. The victim had died from a shotgun wound to the face.


Ronald Zellmer

Ronald Zellmer

Missing Person
Ronald Leroy Zellmer
31 YOA
Sioux City Area
April 6, 1985

At approximately 5:50 a.m., South Sioux City Police located a 1984 Chevy Cavalier — registered to Zellmer — parked on the south end of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. Sioux City Police were called to check Zellmer’s residence at 1003 Pierce Street, Apt. B-3, and found it empty with nothing unusual within the apartment. Family members reported he had suffered from depression for years. A search of the Missouri River proved unsuccessful.


Unidentified White Male
John Doe
200 Block of S. Lewis Blvd. (Hwy 75)
Sioux City, Iowa
Woodbury County
March 25, 1986

At approximately 9:42 a.m., Sioux City Police responded to a report of a man down under a bridge near Marx Trucking. Marx employees had observed smoke and a noxious odor coming from the area the day before. Investigators located the body of man — believed to be between 40-50 years of age — burned beyond recognition, with a gas can located between the victim’s legs. A nationwide search has not determined the man’s identity.


Homicide
Kevin Clark
26 YOA
1514 Villa Avenue
Sioux City, Iowa
Woodbury County
December 8, 1991

Just after climbing into the back passenger seat of friend’s vehicle after a party, Kevin Clark was shot at approximately 5:19 a.m. on Dec. 8, 1991, by a black male subject who approached the 1981 Chevy Citation with 9 millimeter rifle, shouted an obscenity and then began firing into the vehicle. Clark – who had in his possession a 38 Titan Special revolver – returned the gunfire, but was struck three times in the torso.


Betty Swetnam crime sceneHomicide
Betty Swetnam
73 YOA
1610 West 19th St.
Sioux City, Iowa
Woodbury County
December 31, 1993

Betty Swetnam, a 73-year-old grandmother who operated a massage business out of her 1610 West 19th St. Sioux City home’s basement, was brutally stabbed to death on Friday December 31, 1993.


Kenneth Harker

Kenneth Harker

Missing Person / Likely Homicide
Kenneth Harker
34 YOA
Sioux City, IA
October 3, 1996

Kenneth “Kenny” Harker, 34, of Sioux City, was last seen alive Thursday, Oct. 3, 1996. He’d suffered a head injury several year earlier that left him disabled, but was passionate about building motorcycles and living on his own with a dog he loved and took everywhere he went. On Saturday the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office found Kenny’s 1977 white Chevy Suburban parked on K-42’s gravel road, its doors open, tires flat and out of gas, and tagged it as an abandoned vehicle. That same day, Kenny missed a get-together with his mother, Marie Harker, who tried to reach him again on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday.

On Wednesday, Oct. 9, 1996, Marie let herself into Kenny’s home, where she found his unfed and unattended dog in distress as well as medications her son would never have left behind. She immediately contacted Sioux City police to report her son missing. The Australian shepherd was eventually returned to the woman who’d given Kenny the shepherd as a pup. Nine years after Kenny’s suspicious disappearance and suspected murder, the woman said the dog, his muzzle grayed and eyes and ears nearly gone with age, continued to perk his head as footsteps approached, still awaiting his best friend’s return.


David Redowl

David Redowl

Homicide
David Redowl
27 YOA
610 West 3rd St.
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
April 26, 1997

At approximately 2:00 a.m., David Redowl and his 24-year-old sister, Sonja, had a physical altercation in the back yard of their mother’s residence on West 3rd St., which both Redowl and his sister listed as their home. Sioux Police were contacted about 2:07 a.m, and found Redowl with a stab wound to the chest.


Wilbur Brown

Wilbur Brown

Homicide
Wilbur Brown
47 YOA
603 West 5th Street
Sioux City, IA
September 14, 1997

Wilbur Brown was found lying on the ground between a curb and the sidewalk at 603 West 5th St. in Sioux City, Iowa, about 5:30 a.m. on Sept. 14, 1997. An autopsy revealed he’d been beaten about the head and body and died as a result of those injuries.


Patricia Jauron

Patricia Jauron

Homicide
Patricia Jauron
45 YOA
1516 Old Highway 141
Sioux City, IA (Woodbury County jurisdiction)
Case #98-06160
May 26, 1998

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.


Anthony Evans

Anthony Evans

Hit-and-Run Homicide
Anthony Lee “Tony” Evans
5 YOA
1016 21st St.
Sioux City, IA
June 20, 2000

Five-year-old Anthony Evans was struck by a hit-and-run driver in the 1000 block of 21st street in Sioux City, Iowa, on June 20, 2000. The vehicle that hit Anthony was described as a 1996 or newer model white Dodge Dakota pickup truck with an extended cab or possibly four doors.


Matthew Rice

Matthew Rice

Hit-and-Run Homicide
Matthew Joel Rice
17 YOA
310th Street one-half mile east of Cass Ave.
Sloan, Iowa
Woodbury County
Crime Date: September 21, 2002

Matthew Joel Rice, a 17-year-old senior at Westwood High School in Sloan, Iowa, died from injuries sustained after being struck by a vehicle during a hit-and-run on Saturday, Sept. 21, 2002. The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.


Adrian Reuwsaat

Adrian Reuwsaat

Missing Person
Adrian Reuwsaat
69 YOA
Missing From: Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
Missing since: November 3, 2002

Adrian Reuwsaat was reported missing to the Sioux City Police Department in Sioux City on November 3, 2002.

 


Helen Kelly

Helen Kelly

Missing Person
Helen J. Kelly
83 YOA
3646 Court St.
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
Missing Since: May 18, 2005

Helen Kelly of Sioux City, Iowa, was reported missing by her husband on May 18, 2005. Kelly left behind her purse and had not mentioned plans to travel anywhere. She has never been heard from again. Her gold 2000 Honda Accord with Iowa license plates numbered 953EDK also remains missing.


Manuel Ramirez

Manuel Ramirez

Homicide
Manuel Ramirez
6 YOA
1417 Virginia St.
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
March 7, 2011

On Monday night, March 7, 2011, Sioux City police responded to a 911 call from 1417 Virginia Street, where they found 6-year-old Manuel Ramirez dead in the bathtub. Officers administered CPR but were unable to revive the Irving Elementary School first-grader. Officers at the scene were told Manuel had drowned, but Sioux City Police Chief Doug Young said evidence did not point to drowning.


Dale Robinson

Dale Robinson

Missing Person
Dale R. Robinson
Age at Report: 84
Weight: 90 lbs.
Height: 5’06”
Eyes: Blue
Incident Type: Endangered / physical
Missing from: Moville, IA
Woodbury County
Missing Since: August 3, 2013

Dale Robinson, 84, was reported missing to the Moville Police Department on Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. Robinson has Alzheimer’s Disease, and the last verified sighting of him was surveillance footage showing Robinson at the Argosy Casino on Sioux City’s riverfront.


Alicia Hummel

Alicia Hummel

Homicide
Alicia Marie Hummel
29 YOA
Home Residence: Sioux City, Iowa
Body Found in Myron Grove,
Clay County, S.D. (investigating agency)
June 1, 2015

Alicia Marie Hummel, a 29-year-old from Sioux City, Iowa, was found dead in the Missouri River the afternoon of Monday, June 1, 2015, near the shore at a boat dock in Myron Grove, South Dakota. The area — also known as the Highline Area — is about seven miles west of Vermillion.

 

3 Responses to Woodbury County

  1. Leif says:

    Katherine DeKora died of a beating either 14 December 1964 or 14 February 1965. It appears her killing remains unsolved.

  2. Sarah J Henning says:

    Bernice Row was hit by a hit and run driver on Oct 20-1940 in Sioux City, To my knowledge no one was ever arrested for her death. Her death certificate reads: Homicide? Accident?

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