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Feb. 2, 2023 | by Chad Thompson, KCCI.com
WEBSTER COUNTY, IOWA — An arrest was made Thursday, Feb 2, 2023, in a years-long cold case in Webster County.
Christopher Todd Johnson, 49, of Cedar Rapids, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of Donald Preston.
In December 2016, Preston was found shot to death in a field near Johnson Avenue and 225th Street.
Donald E. Preston
Investigators say Johnson and Preston were together in Johnson’s Toyota Corolla on the day of Preston’s death. Johnson allegedly drove Preston around on gravel roads in rural Webster County before shooting and killing him.
An autopsy showed Preston died of gunshot wounds to the head and abdomen.
Johnson was arrested in Cedar Rapids after being released from the Federal Bureau of Prisons after serving about five years for possessing a firearm as a prohibited person. He pleaded guilty to that charge in 2018.
Johnson was taken to the Webster County Jail on a $1 million cash bond.
June 6, 2022 | by Ethan Hewett, kmaland.com
(Sidney) — After nearly two decades, law enforcement and family members are still hoping for more information on the murder of a former Fremont County minister and mental health care worker.
Kevin Lane Morse (courtesy Daniel Morse)
On June 20, 2002, Kevin Morse was shot while fishing along the banks of the Missouri River in Fremont County. After authorities discovered Morse’s body near a levee next to the river below the Nebraska City Bridge along Highway 2, a massive two-state search was launched to find the killer, including the Fremont and Otoe County Sheriff’s Office, Iowa and Nebraska State Patrols, the Nebraska City Police Department, and other agencies. However, neither of the potential suspects would be found. Fremont County Sheriff Kevin Aistrope, who was a deputy at the time, tells KMA News the first challenging task was locating Morse.
“Nobody was sure where he was, they thought he was by the river somewhere but they didn’t know for sure, so it took us a little while to figure out where it was,” said Aistrope. “We had a deputy head that way, and then I actually talked to the rest home because that’s the one that called us and said there had been a shooting.”
According to reports, Morse had called the director of nursing at the Country Acres Care Center, which he managed, and informed them he had been shot but couldn’t identify his location before his phone went dead.
May 12, 2022 | by Amber Salas, KTIV.com
SIOUX CITY (KTIV) – Several people walked through the main streets of Downtown Sioux City Thursday afternoon to remember the lives of indigenous women who have been murdered or have gone missing.
It was a day for the community to come together to honor those who have been lost — and to fight for change moving forward. Ten different Siouxland tribes from cities including Lincoln, Santee, and Omaha were there to make their voices heard.
“I think moving forward, organizing these events and keeping their memory alive. It’s the best way moving forward to just just keep it alive,” said Joshua Taylor, Memorial Walk Organizer.
April 28, 2022 | by Daniel Perreault, KWWL.com
WATERLOO, Iowa (KWWL)- Thursday marked three years since the unsolved death of 25-year-old University of Northern Iowa graduate Micalla “KK” Rettinger.
Her dad Steven still thinks about her constantly and said he misses her as much today as the day it happened.
“All you can do is go to work as a physician and take care of other people and hope it gets better,” Steven said. “Some days, I can set it aside and compartmentalize it but not the anniversary and her birthday.”
Rettinger’s stepmother Kelly Lange dreads the entire month of April, and thoughts and memories of Micalla dominate her brain on the anniversary and the days leading up to it.
By Don Jorgensen | April 15, 2022
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A cold case investigation involving a Sioux Falls man is not over.
Last November, KELOLAND Investigates reported a judge ruled that Algene Vossen, 80, was mentally incompetent to stand trial for the murder of a Willmar, Minnesota, woman back in 1974.
Prosecutors immediately filed an appeal and Thursday, April 14, presented their arguments in front of a judge.
Now KELOLAND Investigates has learned there may be more to this story, a lot more.
Algene Vossen is accused of killing Mable Herman of Willmar, Minnesota, almost 50 years ago.
By Jeff Reinitz | April 15, 2022
NEW HAMPTON – A former Charles City man has pleaded not guilty to allegations he killed a retired grocer as he slept at his rural Nashua home in 2012.
Randy Lee Patrie, 49, entered a written plea of not guilty to a charge of first-degree murder Monday. He also waived his right to trial within 90 days of indictment.
A trial date hasn’t been set.
Last week, the court appointed the Dubuque Public Defender’s Office to represent Patrie after the Waterloo office notified the court of a conflict.
Authorities allege Patrie broke into the home of Kenneth “Carl” Gallmeyer, 70, and killed him with a shotgun in September 2012. Investigators found Gallmeyer’s home had been ransacked.
by Jeff Reinitz | April 14, 2022
NASHUA – Arraignment has been set for next week for a Charles City man accused of killing a retired grocer in Nashua a decade ago.
Investigators with the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Office in January filed a charge of first-degree murder against 49-year-old Randy Lee Patrie, who had long been suspected in the shotgun slaying of Carl “Ken” Gallmeyer, 70.
When the murder charge was filed, Patrie was serving prison time at the Federal Correctional Institution in Fairton, N.J., for possessing stolen guns.
Last week, the Waterloo Public Defenders Office was appointed to represent Patrie. Arraignment is scheduled for Tuesday.
April 5, 2022 | By Jeff Reinitz, The Courier
NEW HAMPTON — Defense attorneys are asking the court to postpone arraignment for a Charles City man accused of killing a retired grocer in Nashua in 2012.
Randy Patrie
The Waterloo Public Defenders Office was appointed to represent Randy Lee Patrie as he fights first-degree murder charges in the shotgun slaying of 70-year-old Kenneth “Carl” Gallmeyer.
Patrie, 49, had been scheduled to be arraigned in Chickasaw County District Court in New Hampton on Tuesday, but Chief Public Defender Aaron Hawbaker requested a one- to two-week continuance because of a conflict of interest and the need for alternative counsel.
The nature of the conflict wasn’t disclosed, but Hawbaker had earlier suggested Patrie killed a 5-year-old girl while representing another defendant in a different murder case.
Feb. 28, 2022 | by Crystal Bonvillian, Cox Media Group
Lee Rotatori’s graduation photo. (Courtesy Council Bluffs Police via Greg Gunsalus)
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Iowa cold case detectives have cracked a 40-year-old murder case using DNA and genetic genealogy, but one question remains: Who killed Lee Rotatori’s alleged killer?
In the summer of 1982, Rotatori, 32, was new to Council Bluffs. The Michigan native had arrived days earlier to start a new job as food services director of Jennie Edmundson Hospital.
Thomas O. Freeman, who authorities allege killed Rotatori, was found buried in a shallow grave four months after Rotatori’s murder. (Courtesy Council Bluffs Police Department)
She was found slain in her hotel room the morning of June 25, 1982. According to Council Bluffs police officials, she had been stabbed once in the heart.
The case went cold until February 2021, when cold case detectives using genetic genealogy tied Thomas O. Freeman to DNA left on Rotatori’s body.
Freeman, of West Frankfort, Illinois, could not be arrested, however. Freeman, 35, had been found buried in a shallow grave near Cobden, Illinois, in October 1982, just four months after authorities allege he killed Rotatori.
His fatal shooting remains unsolved.
Feb. 25, 2022 | by Mike Brownlee, The Daily Nonpareil
In mid-June, 1982, Lee Rotatori made the roughly 617-mile trek from Nunica, Michigan, to Council Bluffs.
The 32-year-old arrived in Council Bluffs for a job as food service director at Jennie Edmundson Hospital and checked into the Best Western Motel at 27th Avenue, where she would stay until her husband arrived with the couple’s mobile home.
Rotatori started orientation for the position on Monday, June 21. That Thursday afternoon, she went boating on Lake Manawa with her newfound hospital friends. She later went to a local McDonald’s to pick up some dinner on her way back to the motel.
The next day, Friday, June 25, a motel employee found Rotatori dead in her room, the victim of a single stab wound. It’s a case that remained cold for decades, before advancements in DNA technology and the relentless work of Council Bluffs Police Department officials and a civilian from Pennsylvania helped crack the case.
According to coverage from The Daily Nonpareil and Omaha World-Herald, along with material from the Iowa Cold Cases database, there was no sign of forced entry. The restaurant employees were the last to see Rotatori alive before her death, and the amount of food from the restaurant indicated it was for only one person. The Pottawattamie County medical examiner determined she might’ve been dead for 12 hours before her body was found. A medical examiner’s report also determined Rotatori had been sexually assaulted.
Full Story at The Daily Nonpareil
A young man was hit and killed on I-80 in Dallas County, but to this day no one knows who he is. Now investigators and scientists are working to extract DNA from his cremains to figure out who he is.
Feb. 24, 2022 | by James Stratton, KCCI.com
DALLAS COUNTY, IOWA — Gail Bray’s husband wrote a letter without knowing who the final recipient would be.
The letter, attached to an urn of the remains of a young man.
Perhaps the recipient of the letter from the, now deceased, Joseph Bray was Lanae Strovers.
“We really don’t know who this urn actually belongs to,” Strovers said from inside Hamilton’s Funeral Home.
Strovers is a funeral director there, but connects missing and unclaimed remains to families in her free time.
The letter, a small story in the Dallas County Newspaper, and now the details from the family who was the first to respond are the only clues researchers have to connect the pieces of a 34-year puzzle.
Feb. 8, 2022 | Iowa Department of Public Safety Press Release
DES MOINES, Iowa – More than 300 Iowans are currently missing. The Iowa Department of Public Safety’s relaunch of the Missing Person Information Clearinghouse website – iowamissingpersons.com – provides an interactive design and advanced functions to make it easier to help identify and locate people.
Established in 1985 within the Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), the Missing Person Information Clearinghouse compiles, coordinates and disseminates information in relation to missing persons and unidentified body/persons. Since 2005, the Clearinghouse has been sharing missing person information through a public-facing website that combines an individual’s identification data supplied from law enforcement agencies across the state with a photo provided by families.
Development of the new website enhances the display of persons currently missing, and provides more robust search capabilities to improve the user experience. Upgraded features include an advanced search function that allows users to select identifiable body details, date of birth, type of incident and originating law enforcement agency, among others. Users can also create a downloadable poster featuring a missing person and access a child fingerprint ID kit.
Jan. 13, 2022 | by Johnny Marks, KOEL.com
Rhiannon Olson
Cold cases often make for interesting, often fascinating stories, right? We see/hear unsolved crime stories on TV or a murder podcast, and it’s engaging. But usually, when you see or hear these stories, you’re so far removed from what happened that it’s hard to have a real emotional attachment. That’s not so much the case with this unsolved triple homicide in Waterloo.
This homicide cost a woman who was 9-months pregnant her and her baby’s life, and her boyfriend was also killed.
Read More: 19 Years Later Murder of Pregnant Waterloo Woman Still Unsolved
(Page also includes: Iowa’s 25 Most Violent Cities According to the FBI)
Oct. 27, 2021 | by Hailey Barrus, KTIV.com
SIOUX CITY (KTIV)- Nearly 40 years ago, Terri McCauley was murdered in Sioux City and to this day her family still hasn’t received justice for her.
Terri McCauley
McCauley’s case is among many “cold cases” the Sioux City Police Department handles each and every day.
In September 1983, 18-year-old Terri McCauley met with some friends in downtown Sioux City and never returned home. On Oct.1, McCauley’s mother contacted the Sioux City Police Department and filed an “attempt to locate” report to find her daughter. With no success, McCauley’s mother filed an official missing person’s report on Oct. 5. McCauley’s body would be discovered less than 24 hours later.
McCauley’s body was discovered near 33rd Street, off of Floyd Boulevard, where she was shot point-blank with a 20-gauge shotgun.
Oct. 26, 2021 | by Marisa Sarnoff, Law & Crime
William Rulli (Courtesy Des Moines Police)
After nine years, police in Iowa say they have finally made an arrest in the brutal 2012 death of a well-known homeless man in Des Moines.
William “Billy” Rulli, 35, is currently serving time in a state penitentiary for first-degree burglary, state records show. He’s not set to be released before June 2032. Now, police say, he has also confessed to murder, according to a statement from the Des Moines police posted on Facebook on Tuesday.
Stanley Golinsky
Stanley Golinsky, 56, was found dead under a railroad bridge on the Des Moines River some nine years ago, his body badly beaten and burned.
At first, detectives weren’t sure if Golinsky was killed or whether he had perhaps died by suicide or accident. They soon determined that Golinsky’s death was a homicide based on his injuries, Des Moines CBS affiliate KCCI reported at the time. Police suspected Rulli was the killer early in the investigation but didn’t have enough to move forward with an arrest.
Oct. 20, 2021 | by Fernando Garcia-Franceschini, KCRG.com
Marlon Barber Jr.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (KCRG) – Wednesday marked nine years since 15-year old Marlon Barber, Jr. was shot at the 21st and Jackson Street area in downtown Dubuque.
A 16-year-old was also shot, but survived. Police say they have clear leads on the investigation, but still, almost 10 years after, have one main holdup.
”We have people of interest, I would say strong interest,” Lt. Ted McClimon, with the Dubuque Police Department, said. ”The problem for us has been lack of cooperation from some of the witnesses and people who were there that night who we believe have information that could put us a little bit closer, you know, potentially file a charge if the right information was provided or details provided to us.”
Oct. 7, 2021 | by Bradford Betz, Fox News
Maureen Brubaker Farley (Courtesy Facebook)
Iowa police have solved the 50-year-old cold case murder of a 17-year-old girl through DNA evidence.
Cedar Rapids police have identified Maureen Brubaker Farley’s killer as George M. Smith who died in 2013 at the age of 94.
Two teenage boys found Farley’s body in a wooded ravine in what is now Tait Cummins Park, on Sept. 24, 1971. She was partially clothed with no shoes. An autopsy report determined she had been sexually assaulted and struck in the head, causing a skull fracture that killed her.
Oct. 5, 2021 | by KCRG Staff
Maureen Farley
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The Cedar Rapids Police Department announced on Tuesday it successfully identified the suspect in the homicide cold case of 17-year-old Maureen Brubaker-Farley from 1971.
The body of Brubaker-Farley was found in a wooded ravine off Ely Road SW on September 24, 1971.
On September 24, 2021, exactly 50 years after the Brubaker-Farley’s body was found, investigators say they confirmed the suspect to be George M. Smith using DNA technology.
With that, the case will be closed, with no prosecution, because the suspect, George M. Smith, died in 2013 at the age of 94.
Oct. 1, 2021 | by Andrea May Sahouri, The Des Moines Register
MONTEZUMA — Mayor Jacki Bolen has witnessed strength and togetherness among her town’s residents since news broke Thursday about the nearby discovery of an adolescent’s body.
Xavior Harrelson (Courtesy NamUs)
But she admits it’s difficult to stay hopeful after authorities said clothing found with the remains is consistent with what a local boy was last seen wearing when he disappeared in May.
A farmer tending to his soybean crops discovered the remains Thursday in a field near 110th Street and Ewart Road in rural Poweshiek County. Authorities have said confirming the identity could take eight weeks or more.
However, the family of 11-year-old Xavior Harrelson, who has been missing since May 27, was notified of the discovery, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Full story at Des Moines Register
Sept. 30, 2021 | National Desk, WBAL.com
Earl Hamilton
On the 25th anniversary of his killing, family members of “Big Earl” Hamilton said they still have hope that authorities will be able to solve the cold case.
In the early hours of the morning on Sept. 29, 1996, Hamilton, 53, was shot and killed outside of Big Earl’s Goldmine, a strip club he owned in Des Moines, Iowa.
“He loved people,” Hamilton’s sister, Rose Marie Smith, said in an interview with sister station KCCI Wednesday. “He did whatever he could for people of all ages.”
At the time, investigators considered gang retaliation as a possible motive in Hamilton’s killing, though it led to more questions than answers. Hamilton’s son, Melvin Bryson, said different theories continue to circulate about his father’s murder, adding that he still gets contacted by people about the case with possible new information.
Sept. 3, 2021 | by Darby Sparks, KWQC.com
DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – Gun crimes in the Quad Cities have spiked in recent years. In Davenport alone, there were 109 firearm related incidents reported by July 7 of this year.
As of September 3, Moline had 31 incidents, Bettendorf had eight incidents and Rock Island had 95.
The Quad Cities is on par with national trends. The Washington Post reported 8,100 gun related deaths within the first five months of 2021, or an average of 54 deaths a day.
The crime surge is remarkable enough to cause Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities to increase their reward offer for more information by double.
August 20, 2021 | by Roger Hamer, WOWT.com
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) – A Pottawattamie County jury has found Matt Kennedy not guilty of the 1999 murder of Kim Ratliff.
The week-long trial has been plagued by time. Ratliff was 22 years old when she was found murdered and put into her car 22 years ago.
The 52-year-old broke down in tears after hearing he had been cleared of first-degree murder. Kennedy was accused of killing his step-sister Kimberly Ratliff.
She was killed in 1999, her throat had been slashed. The prosecution tried to link small samples of Kennedy’s DNA, which was found of Kimberly’s clothing and said he was the last known person to see her alive.
August 19, 2021 | by Brian Mastre, WOWT.com
COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) – Lost evidence and apologies as a cold case goes to a jury.
Kimberly Ratliff
Older cases are always more difficult to try because witnesses die and memories fade. This case gets even more complicated than that.
At the Pottawattamie County Courthouse on Thursday, a man on trial for murder planned to do something that rarely happens: He was going to testify.
“Yes, I would like to testify,” Matt Kennedy told the court.
He planned to defend himself by taking the witness stand this morning, but then his attorney said he began shaking as the jury walked in.
The defense attorney asked: “We need to know: What’s your decision You can still change your mind.”
He changed his mind.
July 21, 2021 | by Eric Ferkenhoff, Des Moines Register
There is no question that something terrible happened to Laura Van Wyhe 25 years ago when the Iowa City woman’s body was found alongside a highway near Kahoka, Missouri.
Laura Van Wyhe at age 20, in a photo provided by her friend, Anne Champion. Special to the Register.
But what exactly happened to the young mother, and who did it, remains a mystery for her family and authorities in both states to this day.
The case is resurfacing now not only because of the upcoming anniversary, but also because of new leads police are chasing and a reward that was offered in the case by an old friend and prominent New York attorney, Anne Champion.
This much is known:
Read full story at The Des Moines Register
June 8, 2021 | by Angela Kennecke
Wilma June Nissen
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — 23-year-old Wilma Nissen’s life was as troubling as her death. Nissen was the “Jane Doe,” found murdered in a ditch in Northwest Iowa in 1978.
Nissen, who had been working as an escort and dancer out of Sioux Falls, wasn’t identified until nearly 30 years after she was killed.
As the years pass, now adding up to 43… the case gets colder. But as we see in our latest KELOLAND Investigation into cold cases, cracking this case could hinge on technology that isn’t even available here yet.
Not much happens along these rural roads in Lyon County, Iowa. But in 1978, the entire community was in for a shock.
May 21, 2021 | by Olivia Schmitt, KWWL.com
Shawn North
WATERLOO, Iowa (KWWL) — Today marks exactly 20 years since Shawn Michael North was shot and paralyzed in his driveway, and there are still unanswered questions about who did it.
North told police two people knocked on his door in the 1200 block of Doreen Avenue and demanded his truck. When he refused, he told investigators they shot him.
Evidence from the scene shows he was shot by two different caliber firearms, according to authorities.
The shooting left him paralyzed from his chest down for 15 years. A complication from one of his gunshot wounds led to his death on August 30, 2016.
May 19, 2021 | by Taylor Vessel, KWWL.com
Greg Walker Jr. (Courtesy KWWL)
WATERLOO, Iowa (KWWL) — The family of Greg Walker Jr. still awaits an answer in his 2018 murder.
Walker was gunned down at his Waterloo home during an attempted burglary on May 19th, 2018. Since then, no one has been arrested in his murder.
His murder empowered community leaders and family to take a stand on gun violence as they held a vigil in his honor.
“Keep everyone aware that gun violence is happening, gun violence is serious, and it does take tolls on different families in different ways. But it is out there, and we should all be working towards preventing it,” Walker’s cousin Mineisha Ford said.
May 12, 2021 | by Zach Richardson, KTVO.com
Harry’s brother, Mark Milligan, has been searching for answers about the moments leading up to his brother’s disappearance. (Courtesy KTVO)
FREMONT, Iowa — The search to find Harry Dennis Milligan continues.
His brother, Mark Milligan, has been working diligently to find answers about his brother’s disappearance.
After sitting in the cold case files for nearly 37 years, the case has been reopened.
May 6, 2021 | KWQC.com
Ben Roseland
CLINTON, Iowa (KWQC) – Clinton native Benjamin Roseland was last seen leaving a house party on the evening of Feb. 9, 2008. He was 19-years-old at the time.
He told his friends he was going to get snacks at the Hy-Vee across the street, but camera footage proved he never made it.
TV6 Investigates talked to Roseland’s family and one sister, who is as determined as she was more than 10 years ago, to find answers.
April 22, 2021 | by Dustin Teays, raccoonvalleyradio.com
The Iowa Senate passed a bill that would allow for the creation of a dedicated cold case unit in Iowa.
State Senator for District 10 Jake Chapman says the cold case unit would be with the Department of Public Safety. Chapman says it isn’t a bill most people think about until it affects someone they know.
“Fortunately, I have not had to experience that and I think most Iowans probably have not had to experience that but for those who have had loved ones who have unfortunately had loved ones murdered and then subsequently there has been no conviction in those cases here in the state of Iowa we do not have a cold case unit.”
Full story at raccoonvalleyradio.com
April 14, 2021 | by Taylor Vessel, KWWL.com
DES MOINES, Iowa (KWWL) – In a 46-0 vote, Senate File 561 passed in hopes of creating a dedicated cold case unit with the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
“A similar unit existed for 3 years up until a decade ago, and some cold cases, as far back as 40 years, were solved,” said sponsor Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux County.
The bill will create a dedicated cold case unit under the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. It would consist of 2 special agents to pursue past killings regardless of when they occurred.
“They’re solvable. We just need to look into them,” said Drew Collins, who’s no stranger to the unsolved.
April 13, 2021 | by Rod Boshart, The Sioux City Journal
DES MOINES — Law enforcement again would have the tools to try to solve long-standing criminal mysteries under legislation the Iowa Senate passed Tuesday to re-establish a cold case investigation unit within the state Department of Public Safety.
Senate File 561, which passed on a 46-0 vote, would assign two full-time DPS agents to a unit tasked with conducting follow-up criminal probes after an initial criminal investigation has been completed by law enforcement. The focus would be on unsolved murders, missing children and missing adults presumed to be dead, said Sen. Jeff Taylor, R-Sioux Center, the bill’s floor manager.
Currently, no specific DPS unit is assigned to handle existing cold cases, but the major crimes unit takes responsibility for investigating unsolved cases as time and resources allow.
“This legislation means a lot to families,” said Sen. Kevin Kinney, D-Oxford, a retired Johnson County law officer who told his Senate colleagues of the unforgettable feeling of satisfaction that comes with telling family members that authorities had arrested a suspect after “20-some years” in a cold-case homicide probe.
Full Story at the Sioux City Journal
Ashley Okland
April 8, 2021 | by Daniel Lathrop, Des Moines Register
April 8 marked the 10th anniversary of the unsolved slaying of West Des Moines Realtor Ashley Okland, 27, killed while showing a home.
But hers is not the only murder mystery in which Iowa families and investigators are still hoping for answers.
Over the past 30 years, about 1 in 3 Iowa homicides has gone unsolved, and there have been hundreds of other unsolved killings since Iowa became a state in 1846.
March 11, 2021 | by KC Baker, people.com
Tammy Zywicki (Courtesy the Zywicki family and People Magazine)
On a sweltering August day in 1992, Tammy Jo Zywicki dropped her younger brother off at Northwestern University in Illinois, and set out for Grinnell College in Iowa, excited for her senior year.
The 21-year-old never made it.
Hours after Tammy left the Chicago area and headed west toward Iowa on I-80, her white 1985 Pontiac 1000 hatchback was found abandoned on the side of the road, five miles east of LaSalle, Illinois.
Tammy — an upbeat, athletic, talented amateur photographer from Marlton, New Jersey — was nowhere to be found.
For nine days, her family, friends and the police looked for her.
Their desperate search ended on Sept. 1, when a driver spotted her body, wrapped in a blanket, on the side of a Missouri interstate.
March 3, 2021 | by Cymphanie Sherman, Iowa’s News Now
DES MOINES, Iowa — Dozens of homicides and disappearances across eastern Iowa are unsolved, some dating back several decades.
Now, there’s a bill at the state house aimed at helping investigators bring justice to victims.
“A lot of the law enforcement I’ve talked to around the state some of them will tell you that there are guys that will look through these on their own time right, they just don’t have times, resources, etc.,” said State Rep. Skyler Wheeler, (R) Orange City.
Right now, most investigators work to solve Iowa’s cold cases when they’re not working on active cases.
Rep. Wheeler is part of a group of lawmakers working to change that.
Feb. 22, 2021 | by Eva Anderson, weareiowa.com
DES MOINES, Iowa — A bill that would establish a task force to handle criminal cold cases in Iowa is now eligible for debate in the Iowa House.
If passed, it would create funding for two full-time positions within the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to solely investigate cold cases.
Right now, the DCI has 27 major crime unit agents who investigate homicides and violent crimes, but Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the DCI, said they’re often too busy handling active cases.
“The majority of [cold] cases really don’t get looked at unless some new information would come in just by chance,” said Mortvedt. “Otherwise, the priorities that these agents have are obviously the current [cases, such as] homicides, kidnappings, sexual assaults, and officer-involved shootings.”
The bill would require the Commissioner of Public Safety to hire at least two full-time agents and would cost an estimated $309,180 in FY 2022 and $221,400, including the cost for salaries, and training.
Jan. 21, 2021 | by Ryan Matheny, KMALand.com
Brian Heath Davis (Courtesy KMALand.com)
(Des Moines) — A Shenandoah man convicted of a 2009 murder has lost his latest appeal for post conviction relief.
Holly Durben (Courtesy Heather Richardson)
The Iowa Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s ruling Thursday that denied PCR for 40-year-old Brian Heath Davis. Davis filed the original appeal in 2017, arguing that his legal defense was insufficient. A district court judge denied his request in 2018. Davis filed the appeal shortly after that decision and oral arguments were held in November. The three-judge Court of Appeals panel held that the district court’s decision was correct.
Davis was convicted in 2015 for murdering his girlfriend — Holly Durben — at their home south of Shenandoah in July 2009. Davis called authorities and said that Durben had shot herself in the head. Authorities say Davis choked Durben and shot her before calling law enforcement.
Jan. 21, 2021 | by Trish Mehaffey, The Gazette
CEDAR RAPIDS — Convicted killer Jerry Burns, who fatally stabbed 18-year-old Michelle Martinko in 1979, has hired a Chicago-area lawyer who received national attention for representing a man featured in Netflix’s documentary series “Making of a Murderer.”
Court appeal records state Kathleen Zellner, who represented Steven Avery in the true crime documentary, and associate Nicholas Curran, who both practice in Downers Grove, Ill., have joined the appeal team, along with Elizabeth Araguas and Frank Nidey of Nidey Erdahl Meier & Araguas in Cedar Rapids.
The Iowa Attorney General’s Office confirmed that no appeal has been filed at this time. The deadline is Feb. 16.
Burns, 67, of Manchester, was convicted of first-degree murder last February and sentenced to life in prison without parole. His trial attracted national attention because the cold case was solved after 39 years due in large part to DNA evidence and genetic genealogy. He was arrested Dec. 19, 2018 — on the anniversary of her death.
Jan. 2, 2021 | by Andrea Cavallier, Dateline NBC
He was a charming, well-liked fellow. Handsome. Women swooned over him like he was Elvis Presley.
Melvin James “Jimmy” Gallagher (Courtesy Dateline NBC)
His name was Melvin James Gallagher, but everyone called him Jimmy.
“Everyone just loved Jimmy,” his younger sister, Joann Heideman, told Dateline. “He was a good, sweet fella. Good looking. Like Elvis Presley. A real ladies man. And, well, he just had this way about him.”
Joann and Jimmy, only a year apart, were always close. Joann told Dateline she still remembers playing make-believe as children, like taking turns being a cashier while playing grocery store or cooking an elaborate meal at their pretend restaurant.
As they became teenagers and then young adults, Joann said Jimmy naturally stepped into the role of an older brother, protecting his sister at all costs.
“He always looked out for me,” she said. “And even though he’s not here now, I still feel him watching over me from Heaven. Protecting me.”
Full Story at NBCNews/Dateline
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