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December 27, 2018
Weeks before the Iowa Legislature convenes for its 2019 session, incoming Iowa House District Rep. Jon Thorup — a 20+ year Iowa State Patrolman with a proven, spotless record — sat down for an interview with the Newton Daily News to discuss his list of priorities and goals leading into his first term.
Courtesy photo Newton Daily NewsThorup said his legislative priorities are largely influenced by the comments he has received from constituents, and one of his personal priorities involves public safety; a topic, Thorup admitted, that “means a whole lot of things.”
One of those things will be to push for more funding for Iowa law enforcement agencies to solve cold cases.
The longtime public servant’s commitment to unsolved homicides began years before the recent arrest in Michelle Martinko’s 39-year-old unsolved murder; in 2015, Thorup put together a comprehensive Cold Case Project that has been shared with the Iowa Department of Public Safety. And now, using advancements in DNA and Genealogy technology like that used in Martinko’s case, he says Iowa has an opportunity to solve “a lot of old homicides” as well as sexual assault cases.
“I’d like to see some of those high level, really serious violent crimes investigated further,” Thorup said. “…To me there’s nothing more important than preventing more homicides because a lot of times these people will kill again. If they get away with it once, what’s to prevent them?”
Read more about Thorup’s priorities at the Newton Daily News.
December 26, 2018 | The Gazette
An Iowa City lawyer with a record of handling high-profile cases filed paperwork to defend Jerry L. Burns, 64, the Manchester man accused in the murder of Michelle Martinko, a Kennedy High School senior.
Leon Spies entered his appearance as Burns’ defense attorney with the Linn County District Court on Tuesday.
Though Burns’ request for a public defender was approved Dec. 21, Spies said he entered his appearance after Burns’ family “made arrangements” for him to represent Burns. Spies declined to go into detail on what those arrangements were.
December 26, 2018 | KWWL.com
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police say tips have picked up on the 1995 disappearance of Iowa news anchor Jodi Huisentruit after she was featured on CBS’ “48 Hours” this month.
Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley told the Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier that police received at least two dozen calls and emails since the episode aired Dec. 15.
Brinkley didn’t comment on the information in the tips, citing the ongoing investigation. But he told the newspaper that he hopes the exposure from the program will help spur more people to come forward with information.
Read the full story
December 25, 2018 | by Courtney Fiorini, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
MASON CITY — Tips in the Jodi Huisentruit case picked up after a CBS news documentary aired Dec. 15.
Courtesy photo Chris Zoeller, The Globe Gazette“We have received at least two dozen calls/emails,” Mason City Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said. “We are still working to follow up on the information.”
It has been 23 years since Huisentruit, 27, was last seen. She was declared legally dead in 2001, and no one has been charged in her disappearance.
The day she disappeared, Huisentruit — a KIMT-TV television anchor in Mason City — told a colleague she was on her way to work early that morning but never arrived. Police found signs of a struggle outside her apartment.
Brinkley said he couldn’t comment on the information received since it involves an ongoing investigation, but added there has plenty to sort through.
“We hope that the exposure the case received through the ‘48 Hours’ feature will be useful in obtaining additional information about the case from people who may not yet have contacted law enforcement,” he said.
“48 Hours” and reporter Jim Axelrod hoped to reveal new information about the search for Huisentruit in the hour-long episode titled “FindJodi.”
Read the full story and view other articles and videos at The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
December 20, 2018 | KCRG.com
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) — Following the arrest of Jerry Burns, Wednesday, for the 39-year-old murder of Michelle Martinko, other law enforcement in the area was hoping to apply the investigative techniques used by Cedar Rapids Police Department officers to close their own cold cases.
Closing the case with the help of genetic science has led other agencies to wonder if they could do the same.
“We learn a lot from each other,” said Major Chad Colston, with the Linn County Sheriff’s Office. “We always keep in touch with local law enforcement, other law enforcement agencies.”
Ronald Novak
Colston has been helping oversee a Linn County cold case from about 35 years ago, the homicide of Ron Novak. The 24-year-old was found bound, beaten and shot to death inside his rural home, December of 1983.
Like Martinko, detectives, years later, found another person’s blood at the Novak crime scene. Colston has been coordinating with local police recently in hopes the DNA evidence from the ’83 murder can also be cross-referenced with genealogical data to find a match.
December 19, 2018 | by Alex Ivanisevic and Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
Michelle Martinko
Exactly 39 years after Michelle Marie Martinko was killed and left in her family’s car in a Cedar Rapids mall parking lot, police arrested and charged a Manchester man with first-degree murder.
Police arrested Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, on Wednesday morning in the decades-old fatal stabbing. Burns, who was 25 when Martinko died, will make his first court appearance Thursday morning in Linn County.
In a statement announcing the arrest, police said Burns was questioned at his job Wednesday in Manchester and denied killing Martinko. He could not offer a “plausible explanation” for why his DNA was found at the crime scene, authorities said.
December 19, 2018 | KCRG.com (includes official press conference)
Jerry Lynn Burns (Courtesy Photo)
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – On the 39th anniversary of her brutal murder, Cedar Rapids police announced Wednesday an arrest in the Michelle Martinko case.
Jerry Lynn Burns, 64, was arrested Wednesday morning and is facing a first-degree murder charge in the case. Michelle Martinko was murdered in the parking lot at Cedar Rapids’ Westdale Mall on the night of December 19, 1979. Her body was found early the next morning.
Officials said they were able to solve the cold case using DNA technology to develop a suspect profile. The initial sample was announced on Oct. 2, 2006 and was sent to the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. This database compares samples to the DNA of convicted offenders. No match was made through CODIS.
A covert DNA sample collected from a suspect by police was matched to blood found at the crime scene. With this evidence, investigators questioned Burns at his workplace in Manchester, where he denied committing the alleged killing. He was unable to offer an alternative explanation for why his DNA would have been found at the crime scene. He will appear in Linn County Court Thursday morning.
Watch the full press conference at KCRG.com
December 17, 2018 | By Jeff Reinitz, The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier
Kaiden Estling (Courtesy wcfcourier.com)
MAYNARD – Authorities have upped a reward for information in the hit-and-run death of a Maynard teen.
Kaiden Estling, 14, and his moped were found on Highway 150 near 118th Street on shortly after 10 p.m. on June 28, and he was later pronounced dead.
On Monday, Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers announced it had increased its reward in Kaiden’s case to $6,500 for information leading to an arrest. The increase came following a donation, according to Crime Stoppers officials.
November 10, 2018 | By Joe Duggan | The Omaha World-Herald
Shanna Golyar
LINCOLN — When Shanna Golyar asked the state’s high court to reverse her conviction and life sentence for first-degree murder, she pointed out that criminal investigators never found a murder weapon, a single witness or most importantly, a body.
Cari Farver
In rejecting Golyar’s appeal Friday, the Nebraska Supreme Court relied on volumes of circumstantial evidence amassed by investigators in one of the most bizarre romantic obsession murders the state has ever seen.
The 43-year-old woman not only killed Cari Farver for kindling a relationship with the man Golyar was obsessed with, she spent four years impersonating the victim in text messages, emails and Facebook postings. A unanimous Supreme Court ruled that overwhelming circumstantial evidence in the case overcame the lack of a body or doubts about premeditation.
Full Story at The Omaha World-Herald
October 3, 2018 | By Meredith Ecklund, The Muscatine Journal
Annette Cahill (Photo Special to the Register)
MUSCATINE — A trial date has been set in the murder case that had been cold for more than 25 years.
Defendant Annette Cahill will appear March 4 for the 1992 killing of Corey Lee Wieneke, a judge ruled in Muscatine County District Court.
According to court documents filed by District Court Judge Patrick McElyea following the recent bond hearing, a hearing is scheduled for Dec. 7 at the Muscatine County Courthouse.
Full Story at The Muscatine Journal
Ben Roseland, 19, of Clinton, Iowa, missing since Feb. 9, 2008. (Contributed photo)
October 2, 2018 | By Alma Gaul, The Quad-City Times
People disappear under various circumstances. Toddlers may simply wander away when a caregiver is distracted, or they might be snatched by a parent in a custody dispute.
Teens may argue with their parents and/or want to be independent.
Adults may want to escape bills, the law, or their spouse.
And there are those who have no apparent reason to vanish.
Here are 11 cases of missing persons that made headlines in the Quad-Cities in the past 35 years.
Full Story at The Quad-City Times
Sept. 30, 2018 | By Juliet Muir, NBC NEWS | Cold Case Spotlight | DATELINE
Despite living in different states, Tom Mather and his cousin Katherine Mather-Siegel were close growing up, Katherine told Dateline. She and her family lived in Michigan while Tom’s family lived in Springdale, Iowa.
Tom Mather
“He was the older cousin who would go out and make sure we all had a good time. He would take us out for ice cream and take us out on the town,” Katherine told Dateline. “He would be the bright light and would make the trips fun for us.”
Katherine told Dateline that in 1991, 32-year-old Tom had a full-time job working on the University of Iowa’s maintenance staff. She said he was well liked at work, and known for being an all-around good guy.
Full Story at NBCNews.com/Dateline
September 28, 2018 | KSTP.com
A judge in Iowa Friday signed an order to seal for another year a search warrant signed last year on an individual deemed a person of interest in the disappearance of Minnesota native and TV news anchor Jodi Huisentruit in June 1995.
The earliest the warrant could be unsealed would be Sept. 28, 2019.
Court records show police executed the search warrant looking for GPS information on a pair of cars connected to John Vansice, a friend of Huisentruit’s and the last person to see her alive.
September 14, 2018 | By Juliet Muir, NBC NEWS | Cold Case Spotlight | DATELINE
Maureen Farley
Maureen Brubaker Farley and her six siblings grew up with their parents in their Sioux City, Iowa home. Maureen was the eldest sibling. She was a bit of a wild child, her mother Mary Ann Brubaker told Dateline.
“She was really outgoing and really friendly with everybody,” Mary Ann said, describing her daughter.
Lisa Brubaker Schenzel is the youngest sibling in the Brubaker family. Lisa said that, despite being 13 years older, Maureen loved spending time with her and bringing her wherever she went.
“The very first memory I have is sitting in her car on her lap,” Lisa told Dateline about a holiday memory she has. “We were driving around the city and she taught me the words to ‘Silver Bells.’ It was night and we were going over a bridge.”
September 12, 2018 | By Jason Clayworth, The Des Moines Register
The idea that a public record reviewed or collected by an Iowa investigator can be considered forever confidential is a relatively new interpretation of the law, and one that makes it impossible for the public to police the police, an author of the state’s 40-year-old public records law and a state records advocate say.
Iowa law enforcement had for decades generally made records such as full police reports and 911 transcripts available to the public once an investigation was completed, noted Randy Evans, director of the nonprofit Iowa Freedom of Information Council.
But in recent years, several Iowa law enforcement agencies have maintained that any record that is part of their investigative file — even secondary records produced by other agencies that are not directly associated with a case — should be considered confidential forever.
Full Story at The Des Moines Register
September 9, 2018 | By Mike Bell, Nonpareilonline.com
Brian Davis
RED OAK — A Shenandoah man convicted in 2015 of the first-degree murder of his girlfriend had his post-conviction relief hearing Friday morning and argued key elements of the investigation and prosecution were flawed.
According to Fremont County Sheriff’s Office reports, on the morning of July 18, 2009, Brian Davis reported to local dispatch that his girlfriend, Holly Durben, shot herself in the head.
Holly Durben
When deputies arrived at the Highway 59 farmhouse shared by Davis and Durben, deputies found Durben’s body in an upstairs bedroom.
She was lying on the bed with a massive gunshot wound to the left side of her head, near her cheek. Her left hand was on the pistol grip of a 12-gauge shotgun with an 18-inch 3 barrel, and her left thumb rested on the trigger. The only identifiable fingerprints on the gun belonged to Davis and Durben was right-handed.
Full Story at The Daily Nonpareil
September 6, 2018 | By Amanda Gilbert, KWWL.com
WATERLOO (KWWL) – Black Hawk County is starting a new initiative in honor of Jake Wilson.
It’s been a week since authorities confirmed human remains found in Wolf Creek were the remains of the missing La Porte City teen, after he went missing while on a walk in April.
If you have a family member with dementia, a child with autism, or a friend with a disability that causes him or her to wander, there are devices out there that can help you keep track of them and find them if they are lost.
Sheriff Tony Thompson and people in the community are bringing those devices to Black Hawk County, after the news of Jake Wilson’s disappearance.
Full Story at KWWL.com
September 5, 2018 | KCCI.com
Today marks 36 years since West Des Moines paper boy Johnny Gosch disappeared.
The 12-year-old went missing while on his paper route. He would be 48 years old today.
West Des Moines police still considers it an active case.
Police and volunteers searched for Johnny Gosch in the days following his disappearance, but the days turned to weeks, months and years.
Theories of kidnapping and sex rings have come and gone. The case even inspired the first missing children pictures on milk cartons thanks to Anderson Erickson Dairy.
Thirty-six years later, there still have never been any credible clues to prove what exactly happened to him.
September 2, 2018 | By Jodi Long, WHOTV.com
Jesse Leopold
BOONE, Iowa — Next month will mark two years since a Jewell man went missing. Then 23 – year – old Jesse Leopold was last seen leaving his work at a meat processing plant in Jewell before he vanished. A few days following his disappearance, his pickup truck was found at Ledges State Park with the keys still in the ignition. Since his son’s disappearance, Jerry Leopold’s quest to find Jesse has consumed him.
“It’s been 689 days,” he says. It’s the number of days since his Jesse was reported missing. Jerry believes he knows what happened.
“I think that he was murdered. Plain and simple. There was no suicide in the park because a body surely would`ve turned up by now.”
August 31, 2018 | By Joe Duggan, The Daily Nonpareil
LINCOLN, Neb. — The lack of a body, a weapon or even eyewitnesses didn’t allow Shanna Golyar of Persia to escape conviction in one of Nebraska’s strangest homicide cases.
Shanna Golyar
Instead, the 43-year-old Iowa woman is doing life in prison for murder and arson because she wrote dozens of text messages posing as her romantic rival, who disappeared in 2012, never to be seen again.
On Wednesday, an attorney for Golyar urged the Nebraska Supreme Court to erase a guilty verdict and order a new trial in the case.
“The state presented a decent amount of evidence. However, the problem is the vast majority of that evidence had nothing to do with murder or arson,” said Lori Hoetger, an assistant Douglas County public defender.
August 29, 2018 | By Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
A service of remembrance has been set for Jake Wilson, the teenage boy with autism who disappeared from an eastern Iowa town more than four months ago.
The service will be at 2 p.m. Oct. 7 in the Union High School gymnasium. Amid the search for Jake, human remains were found earlier this month in Wolf Creek in La Porte City, where he went on a walk the night he vanished.
“Jake has touched so many lives and will forever be loved,” his family said in an obituary through Kearns Funeral Service.
A high school sophomore who loved the outdoors, Jake told his family he was going for a walk near the creek before he disappeared April 7. The search for Jake gained attention across Iowa as authorities received hundreds of unique tips and a number of reported sightings in other states, none of which turned out to be him.
Full Story at The Des Moines Register
August 28, 2018 | By Mike Kilen, Des Moines Register
It’s been a hard summer for the families of the long-term missing in Iowa.
People are asking them how they are coping after two well-known cases that emerged in 2018 were apparently resolved in August, while they wait in limbo. (Mollie Tibbetts‘ death has been confirmed, and authorities say they’ve recovered remains consistent with those of Jake Wilson.)
Some cope by dedicating their lives to the investigation, even buying a gun and interviewing suspects. Others continue to hand out photographs, or scan the internet for stories of unidentified remains found. Some petition to have their loved one declared dead.
“Everyone finds their own coping skills,” said Carolyn Pospisil, whose 15-year-old stepdaughter Erin Pospisil was last seen on June 3, 2001, in Cedar Rapids. “But the biggest part, for me, is remembering that you have a life, and you have to go on with it — move forward. That doesn’t mean I give up.”
Read the Full Story at The Register
Valerie Peterson
August 26, 2018 | By Jane Curtis, Editor of The Messenger
I don’t know about you, but I’m more than ready to kick last week to the curb.
It was a bad week all around, but it was a particularly bad week for Iowa.
It was the week when we were reminded that going for a simple run alone in our state can end in devastating results.
August 24, 2018 | By Jeff Reinitz, The WCFCourier.com
WATERLOO – A community should be a voice for its children, the Rev. Quovadis Marshall told a crowd gathered at the Riverloop Amphitheatre Thursday night.
And sometimes that voice should be silence.
And so Marshall, also known as “Pastor Q,” of Hope City Church, led about 170 people — many holding candles — in a moment of silence Thursday night as the community reeled from a week of sadness.
“For some of these parents, they will never hear the laughter of their child this side of eternity. The voices that will shape our culture, some of them have been extinguished and taken from us. For them we stand in silence,” Marshall said.
“Our silence says ‘you don’t stand alone,’” he said.
Last week, human remains were found in Wolf Creek near where 16-year-old Jake Wilson had vanished in April. In a cornfield outside Deep River, the body of 20-year-old Mollie Tibbetts of Brooklyn was found Tuesday, about month after she disappeared, and one man has been charged in her slaying.
August 24, 2018 | by Grace King, Mt. Pleasant News/The Cedar Rapids Gazette
Michael Lee Syperda (Courtesy Quad-City Times)
Michael Syperda was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole and is to pay $150,000 restitution for the murder of Elizabeth Syperda, who disappeared from Mt. Pleasant just over 18 years ago.
Syperda, 58, of Rifle, Colo., and a former resident of Henry County, was convicted of murder in his 22-year-old wife Elizabeth Syperda’s death on June 25 following a five-day trial in May. Judge Mark Kruse found the defendant guilty, despite that her body has never been found. Michael Syperda will be held at the Iowa Medical and Classification Center in Coralville.
Given the opportunity to comment before sentencing on Thursday at the Henry County Courthouse, Syperda responded, “No, your honor,” to Judge Kruse after conferring with his lawyer Kym Auge.
August 6, 2018 | by Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
Jake Tibbetts, brother of missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, is hopeful for her safe return. Kelsey Kremer, kkremer@dmreg.com
Amanda Goodman almost had a panic attack when she looked out to her backyard the other day and did not see her young son playing.
With two recent high-profile cases of people missing in Iowa, the mother of four children, ages nine months to 10 years, described herself as nearly hyperventilating when she couldn’t spot the boy because he was rolling in the grass.
“It’s a very unsettling feeling around here,” said Goodman, a former KWWL anchor who works as the executive director of Family & Children’s Council of Black Hawk County. “These children are vanishing.”
Full story at the Des Moines Register
August 3, 2018 | WCFCourier.com
WATERLOO — Pictures in a photo album were all Julie Burge had to teach her children about their grandmother as they grew up.
Diane Courbat
“I remember everything about her. I talk to my kids about her. My oldest daughter looks just like her,” said Burge, of Des Moines.
Burge was only 17 years old, and her own daughter was almost a toddler, when Burge’s mother, 34-year-old Diane Courbat of Waterloo, was shot in the head and died a few days later.
If she was still alive today, Diane Courbat would have a total of nine grandchildren — all grown — and nine great-grandchildren.
August 3, 2018 | KOEL.com
A candlelight vigil that focused on unsolved cases involving young people in Iowa was attended by more than 200 people Wednesday night (Aug. 1, 2018).
Parents, friends and community members gathered at the RiverLoop Amphitheatre in downtown Waterloo for the “Light Up The Night For Our Kids” event. One of the speakers was 27-year-old Morgan Collum of Brooklyn, the cousin of missing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts.
“The last two weeks have been really difficult,” Collum said. “You wake up and you look at yourself in the mirror and you’re like ‘how am I going to get through this day, what am I going to do to get through this day, how am I going to help to bring Mollie home?’ If it wasn’t for God, I don’t know how I’d be standing here in front of you.”
August 1, 2018 | KCCI.com
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa – Mollie Tibbetts’ case is bringing back difficult memories for another Iowa family.
Erin Pospisil
It’s been 17-years since Erin Pospisil vanished in Cedar Rapids, and she’s never been found.
Erin was 15-years-old when she disappeared, but her mom, Carolyn Pospisil, says the difference was her daughter was labeled a “runaway”, so it didn’t get the same level of a dedicated search.
Pospisil says she’s hopeful Mollie’s family gets answers soon, but watching national coverage of her case is like reliving her own pain all over again.
“There is no normal, and no way to say this is the way that things are supposed to go, because this isn’t supposed to ever happen. And there’s no right or wrong way for the process to happen,” said Carolyn Pospisil.
August 1, 2018 | By Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
WATERLOO, Ia. — Elizabeth Collins would have turned 15 this week.
To celebrate, her family and friends sang a birthday song, ate cake and released lanterns and balloons Tuesday at Angels Park, a community healing project where the abandoned bikes of her and her cousin were found in July 2012. Months after finding the bikes, the bodies of the kidnapped girls were discovered in a wildlife area.
Now, more than six years later, Elizabeth’s mother, Heather, feels sick when she sees reports of missing children and young adults. She understands the anxiety their family and friends are experiencing.
“It’s like a club, an unwanted club,” she said in a shirt displaying the faces of Elizabeth and her cousin, Lyric Cook-Morrissey. “It’s still a nightmare every day that I wake up.”
July 31, 2018 | By Amanda Gilbert, KWWL.com
EVANSDALE (KWWL) – Today would have been Elizabeth Collin‘s 15th birthday.
The Family & Children’s Council of Black Hawk County posted to Facebook, saying, “But it’s another heavenly birthday for Elizabeth. Let’s make a promise today, on her birthday, that we will not stop fighting for justice for her and Lyric. Their names may have faded from the headlines…but we will NEVER forget and never stop.”
Angels Park in Evansdale also posted to Facebook, saying, “Happy Heavenly 15th Birthday Elizabeth !!!!”
Full Story
July 31, 2018 | By Mike Kilen, The Des Moines Register
Iesha Husted last saw her brother in Centerville, Iowa, in January. Sebastian Husted, 19, has been missing ever since.
“Nobody has written about it,” Husted said.
That’s in sharp contrast to the case of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts, who was listed as missing from Brooklyn, Iowa, on July 18.
Her unsolved case has received considerable state and national media attention from the Register, television stations and national media outlets, including ABC, CNN and Fox News.
Iesha Husted believes she knows the reason why.
“I think it is because our family is poor. We don’t have the funds to get his face out there,” said Husted, 25. “We don’t have a tight-knit community to rally around. A lot of people think he was an 18-year-old boy running away from his problems.”
July 30, 2018 | by Michael DaSilva, WHOTV.com
WARREN COUNTY, Iowa — “I was just sitting there, watching TV, and I smelled smoke,” said Janet Michael of rural Norwalk. “I thought, oh my God, one of the trailers (is) on fire or something.”
Bill and Kay Wood
It was Saturday night, July 30th, 2011. The home of Bill and Kay Wood was ablaze. Michael, who lives nearby, remembers that night well.
“I came outside and walked down the stairs and you could see the flames, and they were as high as the trees,” she said.
Fire destroyed the house, located just south of Des Moines’ city limits. The next day, Bill’s body was discovered among the charred remains of the home. Autopsy reports showed Bill died of multiple gunshot wounds. Kay was never found.
July 29, 2018 | by Shelly Ragen, The Oskaloosa Herald
Rick Lynne Davis
OSKALOOSA — A 1986 death ruled a suicide is back in the spotlight again after questions are raised by the victim’s daughter who is actively investigating her father’s death.
Monica Speaks, 39, of Marshalltown, shared her father’s case file documents including scene photos.
Speaks is also studying forensic science and this death so close to home has inspired her investigative instincts.
Her father, Rick Lynne Davis, was found deceased in his car on July 20, 1986, on A Avenue East, Oskaloosa, with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
Read the Full Story at oskaloosa.com
July 29, 2018 | by Alex Kirkpatrick, KCCI.com
Dennis Strable
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — About two dozen family members and friends gathered Sunday evening to remember a bicyclist shot and killed two years ago this week.
Dennis Strable, 59, was fatally shot the morning of July 24, 2016, at the intersection of 45th Street and Kingman Boulevard. No one was ever arrested in the case.
Strable’s niece, Margaret Coady, told KCCI that she hopes renewed interest in the case will prompt someone to come forward with information that will lead to an arrest in the homicide.
July 25, 2018 | by Mike Kilen, The Des Moines Register
Investigators are sifting through electronic data from social media accounts and a physical activity tracker to help them in the search for Mollie Tibbetts, the 20-year-old from Brooklyn, Iowa, who has been missing for one week.
More: For the latest on the Mollie Tibbetts search, download the Des Moines Register app for your smartphone and tablet. iPhone | Android
The avid runner always wore a Fitbit, which tracks the distance traveled and other information. She was seen running the night she disappeared, while dog-sitting at the home of her boyfriend and her boyfriend’s brother in Brooklyn.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has several agents dedicated to the case because additional expertise is needed in forensics to explore the areas around Brooklyn and in high technology to gather information on cell phones, social media and Fitbit, said Mitch Mortvedt, assistant director of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, a state agency investigating the case.
Read the full story at the Des Moines Register
July 22, 2018 | By Shelly Ragen, The Oskaloosa Herald
OSKALOOSA — A new tip shared recently online from a relative has shed a little more light on the Denease Monson Latham cold case.
Denease Latham
Latham’s sister, Donna Booth, has publicly shared that Latham was in a women’s shelter two weeks before her body was found in a creek by Rose Hill.
This cold case is 32 years old and each detail that comes forth may bring some closure to the family.
On Sunday, Oct. 5, 1986, Denease (Monson) Latham suffered blunt force trauma injuries to her head before coming to rest face-down in two feet of water beneath a bridge on Ventura Avenue half a mile north of Rose Hill.
The official ruling was accidental drowning but many including Mahaska County Sheriff Russell Van Renterghem and former Sheriff Paul DeGeest have shared concerns over the case.
July 22, 2018 | by Matthew Leimkuehler, The Des Moines Register
BROOKLYN, Ia. — The same poster fills nearly every downtown storefront on Jackson Street.
It’s hanging in the deli, a crafts store and the local print shop. One word, typed across the center of the flyer, shouting at each passerby in a blazing red font:
“Missing.”
Community members in Brooklyn, Iowa, an eastern Iowa town of roughly 1,500, continue to search for Mollie Tibbetts, a 20-year-old University of Iowa student who went missing last week.
“It’s frustrating; it’s powerless,” said Mollie Tibbetts’ aunt, Kim Calderwood, of Brooklyn. “We’re racking our brains, thinking what can we think of to tell the investigators. It’s the worst thing … to want to fix something you can’t fix.”
Read the full story at the Des Moines Register
Ricky Morehouse III
July 18, 2018 | By Todd Magel, KCCI.com
DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — Officials have ruled the death of a 2-year-old southern Iowa toddler who died in a March 2001 house fire as a homicide, sparking renewed interest in a cold case that has troubled a Union County family for nearly two decades.
Officials initially called Ricky Neal “Little Ricky” Morehouse‘s death accidental after he died on a cold March 3, 2001, in the bathroom of his mother’s rental home in Kent, but the death certificate has now been changed to homicide.
July 16, 2018 | By Shelly Ragen, The Oskaloosa Herald
Edward A. Schmidt
OSKALOOSA — A chilling unsolved homicide that happened in the early 1970s on 506 High Avenue East is all but closed according to law enforcement officials. And like so many cold cases, it’s the internet that keeps it alive.
Iowa Cold Cases, a nonprofit and volunteer service is staffed soley by Jody Ewing (iowacoldcases.org) has dedicated her life to the thousands of cold cases in the state of Iowa. That’s a daunting task for one person working for the lost and forgotten.
Mahaska County has several cold cases. None of which are opened or being investigated by local officials or the DCI. Mahaska County Sheriff Russ Van Renterghem is the only known officer to have looked into one particular case, but the files have gone missing causing a hiccup in an already difficult endeavor.
Edward Arthur Schmidt was an 85-year-old bachelor and local attorney found beaten to death in his basement law office on Thursday, Jan. 13, 1972.
July 15, 2018 | by WHOTV.com
EVANSDALE, Iowa — An annual bike ride in eastern Iowa took on a bit of a different purpose this year.
The sixth annual Memorial Ride and Drive honored Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins on Saturday. The cousins were taken while riding their bikes and later killed in Evansdale in 2012.
Jake Wilson
The yearly ride is for family members to remind others they are still looking for answers. This year, though, the ride also had another purpose. Riders wore blue ribbons in honor of Jake Wilson, the La Porte City teen who has been missing for three months.
“Riding for justice for the girls, riding for Jake, and riding for other cases that have not been solved. These parents are still waiting for the killer or for their child to be found, and it’s heartbreaking,” said Heather Collins, Elizabeth’s mother.
All the money raised from this event will go to Angel’s Park and Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers.
July 12, 2018 | By Jeff Reinitz, WCFCourier.com
EVANSDALE — Missing persons cases and unsolved homicides — some going back more three decades — will be highlighted Saturday as the community turns out to remember two young cousins whose killer has evaded justice for six years.
Elizabeth Collins and Lyric Cook
The Memorial Ride and Drive for Lyric and Elizabeth marks the disappearance of cousins Lyric Cook-Morrissey and Elizabeth Collins. The two young cousins disappeared July 13, 2012, while riding their bikes in Evansdale, and their bodies were found months later in another county. No arrests have been made.
The annual ride draws 300 to 400 people and raises money for the local Crime Stoppers program — which pays money for tips that solve crimes — and Angels Park, a memorial for the cousins and others taken too soon.
This year, the event will include a tribute to honor the victims of up to a dozen other unsolved crimes, said Drew Collins, Elizabeth’s father.
“For a lot of these families, it has been 20 years or even 30 years, so they kind of feel forgotten, they feel like their cases are forgotten. We just want to let those people know, from Crime Stoppers, that they are not forgotten,” Drew Collins said. “I just feel that getting the word out on some of these other cases could help them” lead to an arrest.
June 25, 2018 | by Andy Hoffman, The Hawk Eye
Elizabeth Forshee-Syperda
MOUNT PLEASANT — Elizabeth Syperda disappeared in 2000. Her body was never found, but a district judge was nonetheless convinced her estranged husband killed her.
District Judge Mark Kruse announced this morning before a crowded and emotion-filled courtroom in Henry County District Court that Michael Syperda was guilty of first-degree murder in the 22-year-old woman’s death.
Michael Lee Syperda (Courtesy Quad-City Times)
Syperda was convicted by Kruse after the 58-year Colorado man decided to waive his right to a trial jury earlier this year and, instead, hand his fate over to Kruse to make the decision.
Kruse announced his guilty verdict during a five-minute hearing in which he sternly warned the audience that any emotional display on either side would be met with immediate removal from the courtroom. The courtroom remained silent as the verdict was announced, but one of Syperda’s adult children began sobbing hysterically as she tried to leave the courtroom after Kruse had left the bench.
Syperda showed no emotion when Kruse announced his verdict. He looked toward the ceiling, then turned and looked at several family members, including his adult children, seated in the back of the courtroom.
June 21, 2018 | by Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
Knoxville, Ia. — A Marion County judge heard arguments Thursday after the attorneys of Jason Carter, who was charged with killing his mother days after a civil jury found him responsible for her death, asked for the murder trial to be moved elsewhere.
Jason Carter (Courtesy Marion County Jail)
Carter, 45, was charged with fatally shooting his mother, 68-year-old Shirley Carter, two days after a civil jury in December found him responsible for her June 2015 death. The jury ordered Carter to pay $10 million to Shirley’s estate.
His defense team asked the judge, Brad McCall, to move the criminal trial out of the county, arguing that publicity of the civil trial was so widespread, it would be difficult to find an impartial jury. When asked if media coverage had been statewide, Jason’s attorney, Christine Branstad, said consumers of Marion County and Des Moines news organizations would have prior knowledge of the case.
June 21, 2018 | by Pat Finan, The Journal Express
KNOXVILLE – Jason Carter’s attorney argued Thursday that his murder trial should be moved from Marion County because of extensive publicity. District Judge Brad McCall took no action on the motion, but told attorneys for both sides to be ready when the trial begins next March.
Christine Branstad said media coverage of the civil trial that found Carter liable of the 2015 killing of his mother, Shirley, would make it impossible to find enough impartial jurors in the county. The trial should be moved, she said.
“The publicity has been statewide, has it not?” McCall asked her.
June 15, 2018 | by Ryan J. Foley, AP/Des Moines Register
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — The son and boss of an Iowa grandmother charged in a 25-year-old homicide said Thursday they were stunned by her arrest and confident she’s not the killer.
Authorities arrested 55-year-old Annette Cahill, of Tipton, two weeks ago, charging her with first-degree murder in the 1992 beating death of her friend Corey Wieneke. They said the charge came after an unidentified new witness gave police information implicating Cahill, who has been jailed on a $1 million bond and faces life in prison if convicted.
Cahill has worked since 2009 as a proofreader and customer service assistant at the Police Law Institute, which provides online training courses that are taken monthly by thousands of police officers. Her boss, David Oliver, of North Liberty, said her arrest came as a “complete and utter shock.” He said the two had talked years ago about the impact that Wieneke’s death had on her, and how she had been long ago cleared as a suspect.
June 4, 2018 | by Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
Annette Cahill (Photo Special to the Register)
A Cedar County woman has been charged in the 1992 bludgeoning death of a 22-year-old man in rural West Liberty, authorities said.
Annette Dee Cahill, 55, of Tipton, was arrested Thursday and charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Corey Wieneke, whose fiancée found him dead on his bedroom floor Oct. 13, 1992, in his Muscatine County home, police said.
A witness went to authorities last year and told them that a few weeks after the killing, Cahill made comments that she was responsible for the homicide, according to a criminal complaint. She told another person Wieneke had been killed with a baseball bat before that was public knowledge or the weapon had been recovered, officials said.
June 3, 2018 | By Juliet Muir, NBCNews.com
Alicia Hummel
Alicia Hummel was known in her hometown of Sioux City, Iowa as “loving,” “wonderful,” and incredibly loyal to her friends and family, according to longtime friend Jody Hanson.
Jody and Alicia met in kindergarten and never lost touch. “She was one of the most amazing people,” Jody told Dateline.
“She was the definition of a best friend,” Bethany Svacina, another of Alicia’s longtime friends told Dateline. She said people like Alicia are difficult to find.
“People get so wrapped up in their own lives they forget to be there for others. Alicia didn’t,” Bethany recalled. “She always made time for those she loved, even when she may have needed their support more than they needed hers.”
May 31, 2018 | By Mario Rossi, WeAreIowa.com
MARION COUNTY – The defense team for Jason Carter says there is exculpatory evidence in the civil case that found him liable in December 2017 for the death of his mother, Shirley Carter.
At issue are the proceedings surrounding Carter’s civil trial, in which the defense states “because the criminal investigation into Shirley Carter’s murder was ongoing and ‘active’ before and during the civil trial, the State was not required to give to [Carter] exculpatory evidence showing Jason did not murder Shirley Carter”.
In new court filings and submitted exhibits, Carter’s legal team states that an interview with an inmate at the Marion County Jail in 2015 was an omission by the state in providing exculpatory evidence.
“On September 2, 2015, Special Agent in Charge Mark Ludwick was contacted by a law enforcement officer who informed him an inmate… wanted to speak with a police officer” — Brief in support of petition for relief and motion to vacate judgment
In the interview, Robert “Joe” Sedlock says a man named Joel Followill told him that he and his brother John “were in the process of burglarizing a home when the female homeowner (Shirley Carter) spooked them and [John] shot her twice.”
Read the full story at weareiowa.com
READ: Full court appendix detailing Jason Carter’s petition for relief
May 30, 2018 | by Stephen Gruber-Miller, The Des Moines Register
Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Michael Motsinger answers questions about the arrest of Jason Carter in the 2015 shooting death of his mother, in a news conference in Knoxvlle on Monday Dec. 18, 2017. Angela Ufheil/The Register
Lawyers for an Iowa man found civilly liable for his mother’s shooting death say law enforcement withheld exculpatory evidence that indicates someone else was responsible for the killing.
A civil jury in December found Jason Carter responsible for the death of his mother, 68-year-old Shirley Carter, who was shot to death on June 19, 2015, at her home in rural Marion County. The jury ordered Carter to pay $10 million to Shirley Carter’s estate.
Two days after the civil verdict, Jason Carter was arrested and charged with first-degree murder in Shirley Carter’s death. A trial date has not been set.
May 29, 2018 | By Anelia K. Dimitrova, Waverly Newspapers
Julie Benning
Throughout his law enforcement career, Rich Greenlee, now a retired Chief Deputy with the Bremer County Sheriff’s Office, tried to help crack open the still unsolved murders of two Waverly women — 18-year-old Julia Benning and 19-year-old Lisa Peak.
Lisa Peak
At the time of her death, Benning was a waitress at the Sir Lounge in Waverly. Peak was a Wartburg journalism student, who along with Des Moines Register reporter Chuck Offenburger, was planning to write a book about a sex and extortion scheme that had put John Joseph Carmody Jr., a car salesman, in prison for 40 years.
Working both cases, Greenlee felt the weight of responsibility on his shoulders and to remind himself daily of the fact that the murders had not been solved, he posted the girls’ pictures on his file cabinet.
May 23, 2018 | by Steve Saunders, Fox42KPTM.com
UNION CO., Iowa (FOX42KPTM) — Rick and Robin Morehouse say even after all these years, the feelings are still raw.
“It just gets easier to deal with, but it never goes away,” said Rick Morehouse.
Reggie and Ricky Morehouse (Courtesy Robin Morehouse)
They are the father and step mother of two adorable and once inseparable twins.
“They were such good boys,” said Robin Morehouse.
Back in March 2001, Rick says he got home from work when the truly unthinkable happened.
“I get a knock on the door from the Harlan police department to tell me what was going on,” said Morehouse.
The officer was there to tell him that one of his twins died in a fire in what used to be known as the town of Kent, Iowa.
May 18, 2018 | By Sarah Beth Coleman, KWQC.com
James “Jim” Remakel
BELLEVUE, Iowa (KWQC) — On December 25, 2016, the Bellevue Police Department (BPD) was called to the residence of James Michael Remakel located at 606 South Riverview Drive. Upon arrival, law enforcement found a forced open door and the body of deceased Remakel. Bellevue Police requested assistance from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) with the suspicious death investigation.
Drew Mangler, charged with Murder in the First Degree
An autopsy of Remakel was conducted at the Office of the Iowa State Medical Examiner and his death was ruled a homicide. Results of the autopsy showed Remakel sustained multiple sharp force wounds throughout his upper torso, neck, face, and head area, which lead to his death.
Drew Alan Mangler, 23, of Dubuque, Iowa, became a suspect and an arrest warrant was issued for him on May 17, 2018. On Friday, May 18, 2018, authorities took Mangler into custody without incident. He has been charged with Murder in the First Degree in violation of Iowa Criminal Code Sections 707.1 and 707.2(1).
May 13, 2018 | by Carroll McKibbin, guest columnist, The Gazette
My dear mother saw the trials of the human existence through rose-colored glasses and a matching vocabulary. In her world, such woes as death, crime, juvenile delinquency, and mental illness were soothed or eliminated by her special, empathetic language.
Mom did not allow people to die. In her words, they just went to “the great beyond.” And those committed to the state penitentiary, the boys’ correctional facility, or a regional mental institution she described as “visiting” in Fort Madison, Eldora, and Clarinda respectively, as if they were on vacation.
Pregnant single girls, a condition my sensitive mother would never describe with such a repugnant term, were said to be “indisposed” and “visiting” in Sioux City, the site of a home for unwed mothers.
May 11, 2018 | By Lee Rood, The Des Moines Register
GUTHRIE COUNTY, Iowa — Three of this county’s seven deputies and a K-9 dog spent nine hours in March combing a secluded area near Lake Panorama for an alleged rapist.
Michael Mackensie Taylor, 35, a former taekwondo instructor from West Des Moines with a history of harassing women, was accused of beating his victim unconscious, then sexually assaulting her until she ran to a deputy’s car, a criminal complaint said.
Even more disturbing was the alleged arson and murder last May that took the life of two Guthrie Center girls. Melanie Paige Exline, 12, had lived in town a couple of months; her 16-year-old cousin, Shakiah Cockerham, had for most of her life.
“It was devastating to all of us. I don’t know how it couldn’t be with two school-aged girls like that,” said next-door neighbor Chuck Cleveland, 49.
Violent crime is slowly becoming more common in small towns and cities across Iowa, outpacing a rise in the state’s urban centers, a Reader’s Watchdog probe has found.
Statistics vary based on the data and timelines examined. But the rising trend is clear, state analysts say.
May 10, 2018 | by Kim Norvell, The Des Moines Register
Myrtle Cumpston died March 9, 1965 in an apparent robbery. (Photo: newspapers.com/Des Moines Register)
The case of a rural Dallas County woman who was killed and robbed of $50 remains unsolved 53 years after her death.
So do at least four other cases, committed between 1931 and 2011, in the metro’s western-most county. Dallas County Attorney Wayne Reisetter is hoping to change that under a new cold case initiative recently approved by the board of supervisors.
His department is committing $30,000 of investigative resources to determine if any of the county’s cold cases have enough traction to be solved. There are five unsolved cases in Dallas County, according to Iowa Cold Cases, a nonprofit organization that tracks cold cases in the state.
May 9, 2018 | Associated Press and The Des Moines Register
MOUNT PLEASANT, Ia. — A June 25 hearing is scheduled for a judge to rule on whether a man killed his wife, who disappeared nearly 18 years ago in southeast Iowa.
Closing arguments were held Monday in Henry County District Court in the nonjury trial of 58-year-old Michael Syperda. He was charged in December with first-degree murder in the disappearance of Elizabeth Syperda.
She was 22 when she disappeared in July 2000 in Mount Pleasant. Her body was never found. Court records say the couple had been estranged before her disappearance, because she was leaving him for a woman.
Prosecutors say Michael Syperda threatened and stalked his wife. His attorney says there is no evidence linking him to her disappearance or death, if indeed she’s been killed.
May 7, 2018 | The Hawk Eye
MOUNT PLEASANT — Depending on whom you believe, Michael Syperda is either a jealous, abusive husband who killed his wife after she left him for another woman, or an innocent man who has been framed by overzealous prosecutors and an incompetent police department seeking to solve a decades-old homicide.
The 58-year-old Syperda remained stoic as attorneys presented closing arguments Monday in Henry County District Court, where he is on trial on first-degree murder charges in the July 2000 killing of his 22-year-old estranged wife, Elizabeth Syperda.
She vanished from her Mount Pleasant apartment about a month after she moved from the home she shared with Syperda to live with Sara Beckman, with whom she was involved in an intimate relationship.
April 10, 2018 | by Alia Conley, The Omaha World-Herald
Cari Farver
When Cari Farver went missing in 2012, emails and texts sent under her name fooled authorities into thinking she just didn’t want to be found.
“It threw everyone off the scent, as far as law enforcement went,” said Pottawattamie County Attorney Matt Wilber. “I think it’s a good lesson that maybe this case wasn’t taken as seriously as it should have initially.”
Nancy Raney knew her daughter hadn’t intentionally disappeared, missing important family events and not saying goodbye to her son.
Raney and her daughter both lived in Macedonia, Iowa, but Farver worked in Omaha, where authorities later found her SUV. They eventually found Farver’s blood on the front passenger seat bottom. Also in the vehicle, they found a mint container with two fingerprints on it that matched Shanna Golyar’s.
It took Raney’s persistence, detectives who listened to her and law enforcement teamwork on both sides of the Missouri River to secure the first-degree murder conviction of Golyar.
March 16, 2018 | The Des Moines Register
Jodi Huisentruit (Courtesy photo)
Mason City police are looking into two vehicles that may be connected to the disappearance of an Iowa news anchor 23 years ago, according to a new report.
Jodi Huisentruit was a 27-year-old anchor at KIMT-TV in Mason City on June 27, 1995, when she failed to show up for work to anchor the 6 a.m. broadcast. She hasn’t been seen since.
FindJodi.com, a site dedicated to Huisentruit’s case and run by journalists and retired police officers, reported Friday that the Mason City Police Department executed a search warrant on March 20, 2017, for GPS data on two cars related to John Vansice.
Vansice, now 72 and living in Arizona, was a friend of Huisentruit’s who may have been the last person to see her before she vanished.
Full Story at The Des Moines Register
March 4, 2018 | by Diane Langton, The Cedar Rapids Gazette
Frederick Coste
Downtown Cedar Rapids in 1959 was a busy place, with shoppers and business people on the street, especially during the lunch hour. But no one — apparently — saw who murdered a quiet, polite loan officer going about his daily business.
The De Var restaurant at 312 Second Ave. SE was serving lunch Oct. 15 when Thomas McMurrin and Donald McSpadden burst through the door and went straight to Patrolman Donald Hollister.
The two men said they’d gone to the office of Family Finance Corp., upstairs from the restaurant, to apply for a loan. When they walked into the office just after 11:30 a.m., they discovered the manager, Frederick Leonard Coste, lying in a pool of blood in an interview booth.
Feb. 22, 2018 | by Lauren Moss, KWWL.com
DUBUQUE (KWWL) – It was a brutal murder that affected the entire city of Dubuque back in the 70’s.
Jackie Shireman
21-year-old Jackie Shireman, a beautiful waitress and newlywed, was found stabbed to death inside a diner with a pair of scissors. Decades later, the case remains unsolved, but her sister refuses to give up hope that one day her sister’s killer will be found.
Jackie’s sister Debra Husemann says, “It’s probably someone who did know her or had something against her, I don’t know, but to be stabbed 27 times with a pair of scissors… you had to have some anger there.”
It was 1975, what’s now a playground was the popular Marino’s Meal on a Bun diner. Husemann was just 17 years old, but she still remembers the call.
Full Story
Feb. 19, 2018 | by Shelly Ragen, The Oskaloosa Herald
OSKALOOSA –– It’s been over thirty years since a lady out for her morning stroll came across a body lying in a creek bed near her farm in Rose Hill, Iowa.
Denease Latham
It had been a moonless night on Oct. 5, 1986 and down a gravel road a bicycle lay near the middle of the bridge. Underneath the bridge, in a two feet-deep swell in the creek lay Denease Latham from What Cheer.
For all intents and purposes, it looked as if the 24-year-old mother of three had a bicycle accident and wrecked an over a bridge into a creek bed. In the last few years, the death of Denease Latham has appeared on the Iowa Cold Case’s website even though the autopsy report ruled the death as an accidental drowning — leading some to wonder this might not have been accident.
Retired Sheriff Paul DeGeest received a call that Sunday morning in 1986.
Feb. 1, 2018 | by Trish Mehaffey, The Cedar Rapids Gazette
Tait Purk during his retrial on Monday, Nov. 6, 2017. (Courtesy Photo JEFF REINITZ/Courier Staff Writer)
TOLEDO — The toddler left behind when Cora Okonski was murdered in 2000 still looks for her after all these years and can’t give up “what might have been,” his adoptive mother said Thursday during a sentencing hearing for convicted killer Tait Purk.
Deb Calvert, who adopted Austin in 2000 when he was 19 months old, said in her victim’s impact statement that she and her husband have tried to fill that void, but Austin — now 19 — continues to “mourn for a mother he barely knew.” She told the judge that Austin has profound mental health issues including “extreme” anxiety and low self-esteem, and the Tourette syndrome neurological disorder…
… Thursday, 6th Judicial District Judge Ian Thornhill sentenced Purk, 52, to 50 years in prison for killing his 23-year-old fiancee on April 16, 2000.
Jan. 23, 2018 | KCRG.com
Tait Purk’s attorneys filed a motion yesterday asking for a third trial.
In May 2017, a jury found Purk guilty of first degree murder for the death of Cora Okonski. But a judge overturned that verdict saying there wasn’t enough evidence.
Then in December, another judge found Purk guilty of second degree murder.
Jan. 8, 2018 | by Beverly Van Baskirk, LeMarsDailySentinel.com
SIOUX CITY — A rural Plymouth County man was one of five law enforcement officials recently recognized for their work on solving a 2011 Sioux City murder case.
The members of the team that investigated the May 2011 killing of Tony Canfield were recognized for their efforts with the Federal Law Enforcement Officers Association (FLEOA) national group achievement award. The award ceremony took place at the Sioux City Police Department on Nov. 30.
The FLEOA was founded in 1977, and is a non-profit organization that represents federal law enforcement agents across the nation, and currently represents more than 25,000 federal law enforcement agents from over 65 different agencies.
The recipients of the FLEOA award were FBI Special Agent Jonathan Moeller, of rural Plymouth County, Northern District of Iowa Assistant United States Attorney Forde Fairchild, Sioux City Police Department Detectives Heather Albrecht and Mike Simons and Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Office Captain Mike Walsh.
Jan. 5, 2018 | WCF Courier
WATERLOO – Plastic stars dangle on fishing line from a tree on Ray “Sherman” Hill’s lawn, making up a family tree of his loved ones who have passed on.
“There’s my dad, my mom, sister. They all died of natural causes,” he said, pointing to the stars closer to the winter-bare trunk. He then reaches for a star bearing the name “Mikaela” in cursive script on the tree’s outer branches.
“My daughter’s is different. She was murdered,” he said.
Six months after the shooting death of his daughter, Hill is still looking for answers.
Police said someone fired into the bedroom window of Mikaela Bond Hill’s rented Hope Avenue home in the early morning hours of June 3. Bond’s boyfriend and her three children were in the house, but she was the only one hit by the gunfire.
Jan. 1, 2018 | by Luke Nozicka, The Des Moines Register
An intense pace of killings in the city of Des Moines let up late in the year: No homicides were recorded in November and December.
But the 25 homicides in 2017, including three on the first three days of the year, were still enough to be the most in the city since 1978, when 27 people were killed, according to police data.
Law enforcement officials attributed a majority of the killings to soured personal relationships, gang-related violence and a trend of young adults solving trivial conflicts and social media disputes with guns, phenomena Police Chief Dana Wingert said were not unique to Iowa’s largest city.
No one has been arrested or identified as responsible in seven of the 25 killings, giving the police department a 2017 homicide clearance rate of 72 percent. In an eighth case, prosecution was declined for two murder suspects, though the police department considers it cleared.
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