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March 15,1992 ^

FORECAST: Partly to mostly sunny today. IOWA TODAY, FINAL EDITION Highs 34-39; lows 19-23. Today's daylight CEDAR RAPIDS, IOWA 11 hrs., 54 min. See 8A VOL.110 NO. 66 $1.25 A regional newspaper JFserving Eastern Iowa Anderson slowly MURDERE picks up the pieces Editor's note: AP Chief Middle East Correspondent Terry Ander- son was kidnapped by Shiite Muslim fundamentalists seven MISSIN years ago Monday. He was re- leased Dec. 4, 1991. Since then, he l By Rick Smith has been vacationing in privacy in the Caribbean, where he re- and Jeff Burnham Clues, answers prove elusive mains. These are his thoughts on Gazette staff writers the anniversary. or every mystery, But Stack's show, and others like it, "Those shows tend to bring those By Terry Anderson therFe is someone, have come to convince many crime issues back up on the table, rekindle somewhere who knows the investigators that a public airing of thoughts in people so they can rethink I should have known better. things," Meyer says. After 2% years in Lebanon, you truth . . . Maybe it's you." aging, unsolved cases can be a last, get to be able to smell danger. best hope for a solution that otherwise Unfortunately, my nose went So TV actor Robert Stack often might remain forever elusive. In that spirit, Eastern Iowa crime numb. closes "," his "It's all about information, whether investigators have agreed to return to The day before they got me, weekly crime re-enactment show that physical evidence or from people," the sites and traumas of some of the four men in a new Mercedes had has titillated viewers even as it has says Eugene Meyer, longtime Iowa state's best-known or most-intriguing tried to kidnap me as I drove fueled a mini-revolution in the field of Division of Criminal Investigation unsolved murders and disappearances back to work from lunch in my law enforcement. agent and spokesman who now holds of the last 20 years. Those cases will seaside apartment. Terry Anderson Crime investigators are, by calling, the latter title with the Iowa be presented in an eight-part series They screeched past me at a Rejoices upon release in 1991 Department of Public Safety. this week in The Gazette. turn and tried to force my car to the keepers of secrets. the curb. I whipped my car to nearly 20 places — under- around theirs and kept going. ground cells, secret hiding plac- They chased me and tried again, es, even ordinary apartments but I got away with a sharp right but with windows covered with turn down a side street. They sheet metal — in Beirut, 'South Motel gave up as I neared a Lebanese Lebanon, the Bekaa Valley. army checkpoint. Like all the hostages, I spent The next day, I just got up as much of my time blindfolded and usual and went to keep a 7 a.m. chained. Some were beaten. 'fling' tennis date with AP photogra- Some were psychologically pher Don Mell. I don't know abused. Several died of sickness why. Maybe too many chances or neglect — murder just the taken successfully had made me same. deadly too sure of my safety. The physical and verbal abuse It didn't last. was, of course, hard to take. But By Rick Smith As I stopped to drop Mell off it was less difficult for me than NTERSTATE 80, AMANA after the game at his apartment for some of the others. Six years INTERCHANGE — Room a few hundred yards from mine, in the Marine Corps and 15 I260 is the last room on 'the the Mercedes reappeared. The knocking around the world for right. The hallway to it stretch- men, armed with pistols, leaped the AP — Asia, Africa, the Mid- es so long that the ceiling ap- out and yanked open my car dle East — had taught me to take pears to lower, the walls to nar- door before I could move. whatever came along, good or row, the memory of the motel Mell was lucky. They wanted bad. The first time I was beaten, clerk's smile to dim as you go. me. He was left at gunpoint, by two armed and vicious It seems a remote place, a room standing at my car as my un- guards, as I lay chained by of last resort. shaven young captors shoved me hands and feet and blindfolded, I On the early Friday evening into their car. offered no resistance — just tell- of Sept. 12, 1980, Roger Atkison It would be almost seven years ing myself over and over "Do and Rose Burkert were lucky to before I would be a free man get Room 260. A convention of again. In that time, I was moved • Turn to page 5A: Anderson funeral directors had jammed the Holiday Inn almost full. Actually, for an illicit week- end fling, Room 260 was per- Broccoli chemical stems fect. It was nicely removed from Roger and Rose's home- town, St. Joseph, Mo.; from his cancer, new study finds wife; from her little daughter; from responsibilities. WASHINGTON (AP) — Re- foraphane, and that it works by Roger, 32, and Rose, 22, had member when your mother in- causing cells to expel cancer- driven three hours to the Holi- sisted that you eat broccoli? causing toxins. day Inn from Kahoka, Mo., Well, scientists say they've "This is the first time a com- where Roger had spent the last proved that mother knows best. pound of such high potency has week away from home install- Dr. Paul Talalay of Johns Hop- been isolated from vegetables ing telephones for General kins University School of Medi- and has been shown to acceler- Telephone Co. and sleeping cine said in a paper published ate the detoxification process" in nights with his mistress, Rose. today that studies in his lab cells, he said. show broccoli is rich in sulfora- Arriving at the motel about 7 phane, a chemical that works as Talalay said his team isolated p.m. that Friday, the couple ap- a powerful anti-cancer com- sulforaphane from broccoli, then parently figured on a quiet pound in laboratory mice. fed it to a group of mice. When night of rest and lovemaking. cells in the mice were examined At some point during the eve- Scans of the 1880 murders of Roger Atkison A number of previous studies have shown that a diet rich in after five days, the scientists ning, room service made a de- and Ross Burkert, redrawn from an Iowa Division of found that the chemical had trig- Criminal Investigation sketch. cruciferous vegetables, such as a livery. Either Roger or Rose gered enzymes known to neutral- moved their car from a handi- broccoli, brussels sprouts, cab- Gazette graphic by Greg Good ize carcinogens within cells. capped zone sometime after 9 bage and cauliflower, can lower the risk for cancer of the bowel, p.m. Rose may have stopped found anything more bizarre." Research will shift to the long- stomach and breast. But just briefly in the motel's bar. At Room 260, there was no term cancer-fighting effects of • Serial killer not tied to COMING UP how those vegetables caused the There were three phone calls: sign of a forced entry, no sign the chemical, Talalay said. How-, Amana murders, 10A • Monday: A murderer who effect wasn't clear. two to or from Rose's baby sit- of struggle. Chairs had been po- ever, "our prediction is that sul- • Iowa tracks killers, 10A was murdered — the case of Now, Talalay said, it appears foraphane will block tumor for- ter back home, and a third, • "Strangers" feared, 11A sitioned as if the killer or kill- never identified. ers had insisted on a chat be- John Rose. that at least one anti-cancer in- mation in animals and gredient in the vegetables is sul- presumably in man." For the guests in neighboring wall, the sheets and the carpet. fore the fatal blows. • Tuesday and Wednesday: The murders of two single young rooms, the night was a peaceful The backs of their heads had In the bathroom, toothpaste women — the cases of Michelle one. They heard or saw noth- been split open by multiple had been splattered around, TODAY'S CHUCKLE ing unusual. They saw no sinis- blows from a sharp, ax-like im- and blood stained the sink Martinko and Vicki Klotzbach. INDEX ter person or persons slipping plement with a 3'A-inch blade. where the ax-wielder washed • Thursday: The disappear- In these confused times, in or out the motel's back exit The weapon likely was a roof- up. A message was scrawled on ances of three married women the only people you can see Advice 6C Iowa City 17A that was close at hand. er's hatchet, or maybe even the bathroom door in white — the cases of Jane Wakefield, eye to eye with are optome- Automotive 3F Iowa Today 13A Births 14A Life/Leisure C some kind of machete. motel soap, then wiped almost Lynn Schuller and Denlse trist. indecipherable. Bondy 2B Log 1SA 'Hitchcock scene' A few of Roger's fingers had Fraley. Books 2C Lottery 14A The dead couple's belongings Roger and Rose were lying been severed from raising his • Friday: The disappearances Bridge 4C Milestones M were rifled, and money stolen. TOMORROW Money B side by side, face down, in hand to protect his skull. of two boys — the cases of Guy City Briefs .. 20-21A But this — what soon came Classified F Movies 5C Room 260's double bed at 1 p.m. "Alfred Hitchcock could not Heckle and Johnny Gosch. have come up with a better to be known as the Amana Ax Crafts 7C Older 8C the next day, when the maid • Saturday: Murders in the NCAA madness People 9A crime scene than this," says Io- Murders — likely was no rob- Crisscross 4C opened the unanswered door. underworld of drugs — the Crossword 13F Pol. Notes 5A wa County Sheriff James Slock- bery, says Sheriff Slockett. Nor Check out Iowa teams He was in undershorts, she was this a random killing. This cases of John Wall and Ron Look for pairings and analy- Deaths 14A Real Estate E fully clothed. Both were partly ett, who places the time of Novak. Oeupree 2A Sports D death at about midnight. "... was revenge, he says. sis of both NCAA men's and under the covers, and the TV • Next Sunday: Families of the Editorial 6-7A SuperQuIz 4C (What) with the morticians' Detective Jim Wright of the women's basketball tourna- Farm 7B Travel 11-12C was on. Blood and pieces of murdered and missing tell how convention there at the motel ments, plus a package on the Health 10C TV list 5C their brains were splattered on that day, you couldn't have • Turn to page 10A: Ax murders they cope with unsolved cases. boys' state tournament. All in Home E Weather 8A the bed's headboard, on the Sports in Monday's Gazette. Horoscope 14F Wuzzles 4C 10A The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Sun., March 15,1992 Iowa tracks serial killers By Rick Smith "There were similarities be- Gazette staff writer tween them," says Meyer. "They John Robert both were close to the same age; Wayne Hansen owa has not gone untouched Gacy J r . by the serial killer, or at least both were Des Moines Register Raised in Lived In Pocahontas I the serial-killer-in-the-mak- MURDERE paperboys; both disappeared on Waterloo ing. a Sunday morning at the same Infamous sex killer John time of the year." Wayne Gacy Jr. tops the list, MISSIN says Steve Conlon, special agent Computer watch with the Iowa Division of Crimi- Iowa has been a pioneer nal Investigation (DCI) and Io- among states in creating a high- change, but generally, the basic emerge if a murderer or rapist wa's point man in the fight tech attack on serial killers. has offended more than once, against serial crime. 10-year killing spree ended in ar- Moines and after a failed abduc- behavior of the offender will re- rest in 1984, Hansen, 44, con- tion of an 11-year-old boy in Bet- Conlon has devised a comput- main fairly consistent," he says. says Conlon. Gacy was living in Waterloo in er-tracking network at the DCI, 1968 when he was convicted of fessed to picking up 17 prosti- tendorf. (Hatcher happened to be tutes and topless dancers, flying the "uncle-in-law" of the man called the Violent Criminal Ap- Conlon says most murders in So far, he has not been able to sodomy and sent to an Iowa pris- prehension Program (VICAP), conclude that one Iowa murder on for two years. Eight years them into the bush in his air- killed in the Amana ax mur- Iowa are committed by people plane and hunting them down ders.) He hanged himself in pris- which helps identify relation- who know the victims. Cases are is connected to another using VI- later, then 36 years old and liv- CAP. One day he will, he says. like wildlife. on in 1984. ships between murders, both more easily solved, he says, ing in Des Plaines, 111., he admit- The program has helped point ted to killing 33 young men and Hansen is serving a life sen- Then there are the disappear- solved and unsolved. An offshoot when the killer can be found in ances of Des Moines paper carri- of the program tracks rapes. the victim's background. out dissimilarities between cases boys after forcing them to have tence plus 461 years in the feder- thought similar, he adds. sex with him. One was an Iowa al prison system. ers Johnny Gosch and Eugene Conlon says the idea behind It is precisely that relation- runaway, Conlon believes. Martin. It's not unthinkable that the networks is that people tend ship, though, that often is absent Gacy is on death row in Illi- Killed Iowa man both were abducted by the same to do some things in the same in cases involving repeat mur- In addition to minding the nois, currently at Menard Cor- man, officials say. way, whether they are pheasant derers and rapists. computer network, Conlon and rectional Center, Menard, 111. One little-known serial killer, "It's certainly a possibility, hunting, cooking breakfast or others at the DCI have been on Next there is Robert Hansen, Charles Hatcher, ultimately did but I don't know," says Eugene murdering people. VICAP, which along with oth-. the road in recent years inter- says Conlon. Raised in Pocahon- admit to the 1981 killing of a Meyer, spokesman for the Iowa "One time a victim may be er state networks is tied in with viewing serial killers arrested in tas, Hansen spent two years in man in the Davenport area. He Department of Public Safety. He manually strangled, and the next the National Center for the Anal- other states. No unsolved Iowa' an Iowa prison for arson before was arrested twice that year in calls the disappearances Iowa's time there may be a ligature in- ysis of Violent Crime at the FBI, murder has been solved that moving to Alaska. There, when a Iowa, after a knife fight in Des greatest unsolved cases. volved. Some minor things may should begin to see patterns way, says Conlon. Ax murders: Investigators speculate whether slayings were revenge or random Serial • From page 1A St. Joseph, Mo., Police Depart- ment, who spent long hours on killer not the investigation, agrees with that analysis. "It was someone who knew tied to one or both of them," says Wright. "My opinion, after 29 years in the business, is that it was just some gruesome kind of murders a vindictive type of homicide." By Rick Smith ome things simply happen" Similar ax murder coincidentally. But that is a conclusion inves- i < '*•» S That's how investigators tigator Bob Horton, sergeant of explain this: that the "uncle-in- detectives for the Galesburg, 111., law" of the man axed to death at Police Department, isn't so sure the Amana Holiday Inn the. about. In his mind, he has the night of Sept. 12, 1980, was still- case solved. active serial killer Charles Horton says the man who Hatcher. axed Roger and Rose to death Hatcher, a lifelong criminal, was the same man who axed " '•/r:::z:.:\... was listed officially as having es- traveling salesman William Kyle caped from the Norfolk, Neb,, to death 2'A months earlier in a Regional Mental Health Center Galesburg motel. four days after the ax murders'." Horton's candidate for the But Iowa County Sheriff James murders: itinerant Raymundo Slockett says Hatcher had Esparza, a native, walked away from the center be- with a long prison record, a vio- fore the murders. Still, Slockett' lent streak, and addictions to al- says, Hatcher likely was not at cohol and heroin, who was liv- the Amana motel that day. ing in Davenport at the time. Hatcher, who lived in Iowa at : Esparza, according to Horton, fV. v least during parts of 1981 arid was seen in the Galesburg motel 1982, later admitted to the FBI

the day of the Kyle murder, and s that he committed four murders, was at the Veterans Affairs Med- x ,V - " "' • and had killed 12 other people ical Center in Iowa City near who were never identified. Amana the day of the Amana Gazette photo by Chris Stewart The Iowa Division of Criminal murders. Iowa County Sheriff James Slockett believes the killing of Roger Atkison and Rose Burkert at this Holiday Inn was a revenge murder. Investigation knows about; Horton also believes Esparza They were murdered Sept. 12, 1980, during an illict rendezvous at the motel. Hatcher's travels but hasn't tied' committed a similar murder in him to any unsolved murders. 1970 in Meridian, Miss. at the Amana motel the day of asked that her new married a St. Joseph private detective Hatcher was convicted of mur- Horton failed in long inter- the murders. (See story on this name not b e printed, remains a now retired. He said recently dering two St. Joseph, Mo., chil- views with Esparza to secure a Editor's note: page.) strong-believing Baptist. that he was able to find out little dren: a 12-year-old girl in 1982 confession, and the suspect ulti- and an 11-year-old'boy, who h e ' Gazette staff writers Rick Slockett concedes that the bar- She says her family had noth- to shed light on who committed mately died in the mid- in tender and the serial-killing rela- ing to do with the ax murder in the Amana murders. admitted in 1983 to having killed Iowa City. Smith and Jeff Burnham in 1978. He was 55 years old interviewed dozens of people tive most likely are diversions in Amana. He did have more success in Slockett calls detective Horton the case. During that period of her mar- securing double-indemnity life when he hanged himself in pris- "a good man, with a lot of good over a period of three on in 1984. months for t h i s eight-part He keeps coming back to this: riage to Roger, he and she, s h e insurance money for Marcella ideas," and admits the two mur- that Roger and Rose died be- says, would spend weekends that the insurance companies His killings are the subject of der cases, so close together in series on unsolved l a w a 1989 book, "St. Joseph's Chil- enforcement cases. Both cause someone had had enough baby-sitting at a home of church had not rushed to pay. time, have much in common. of lies, cheating or sharing a members who had to be away. Court records from Iowa dren," by St. Louis Post-Dis- Both happened in motels on in- writers found that nearly patcher writer Terry Ganey. The everyone they contacted was mate. She and Roger did that the week- County District Court, in a terstates, without a forced entry Roger Atkison's brother, Lar- end before Roger's murder, and wrongful-death lawsuit Marcella or a struggle; money was taken anxious to talk about the cases, in hopes that ry, an architect north of Kansas she was baby-sitting without filed against the Holiday Inn for and toothpaste splattered in City, Mo., talked recently as if him the weekend of the murder. poor security, indicate that Rog- both; a "Do Not Disturb" sign solutions finally would be found. his brother had been murdered Roger had called to say he was er's estate included payments of was left dangling outside each If you have information last night. staying over in Kahoka, Mo., un- $49,287, $20,320 and $71,000 from motel door; both involved ax-like about any of the cases, "It's incredible to us that a til his phone installing job was insurance companies. bludgeonings to the back of the please contact the law murder.of this magnitude could completed the next week. The lawsuit ultimately was head, he says. go unsolved," says Larry. Contrary to what Sheriff Charles But there are dissimilarities enforcement agency handling settled out of court for a sum the Hatcher the case. Larry, and his wife, Elizabeth, Slockett says, Marcella empha- parties agreed to keep private. Admitted in the cases, too, note Slockett continue to wrestle with the sizes she did not know that Rog- to 16 and Larry Goepel, special agent knowledge that at least one sce- er had a girlfriend or that she slayings for the Iowa Division of Crimi- nario of the ax murders places had joined him in Kahoka, Mo., Still sorting clues nal Investigation, who also the murder and announced that suspicion on Roger's wife, Mar- by midweek. Sheriff Slockett admits he's [BE HCNDOfrf iOV worked the Amana case. a former boyfriend would be re- cella, or her family, the Hatch- "It surprised me when I found not sure what it will take to L - POLICE The Galesburg killing, for one, sponsible if she were ever mur- solve the case of the Amana ax ers. out," says Marcella. "I did not I HO 3338 had homosexual overtones ab- dered. At the time of the murder, know of this girl. I didn't even murders. He's in the process of sent from the Amana axings. Ab- The one-time boyfriend passed they say, Roger's marriage was know she existed. I don't know chewing over 14 volumes of in- sent from the Galesburg case paperback version is titled "In- a lie detector test and had a good on the rocks. He wanted a di- of any of my relatives who knew vestigative data in the case as he nocent Blood." was the partial message left be- alibi, notes Slockett. vorce. Marcella, a he was doing that." enters the best of it into his de- hind in soap. In a recent interview, Ganey Then there was the bartender born-again Baptist, Marcella has partment's computer system. said Hatcher displayed a cun- at the Holiday Inn, who had had only barely come to believe There's the witness who ning that let him elude identifi- Revenge motive? been working at the motel and managed to keep "It was someone that someone in thought he saw a third person cation for many years. If arrest- Telephone installer Roger At- living in his pickup out in the Roger in the mar- love with Rose and riding with Roger and Rose ed, he would act bizarrely, feign kison, says Slockett, had a pen- parking lot. The day after the riage by using the who knew one or revengeful of her when they stopped for gasoline an inability to talk, and often chant for improperly installing murder he vanished, leaving a Bible, they say. both of them. My affair with Roger on their way to Amana; and an- would land in a mental hospital telephones at the homes of cer- paycheck behind. His truck was Three things opinion, after 29 might be the per- other who thought he might instead of jail. tain women. The tactic would later found abandoned in Iowa stick in the minds son who committed have seen a car following them Hatcher finally was caught af- get him back in a house for a City. of Larry and Eliza- years in the the murders. out of Missouri. ter the staff at a mental ward in second chance to make an im- Investigators discovered that beth: the day be- business, is that She notes that And there's the one partial fin- St. Joseph realized the newest pression. It worked with Rose he had gone to North Carolina fore Roger's mur- it was just some Rose had a child by gerprint, maybe a killer's, lifted patient matched the description Burkert. And she wasn't the and joined the U.S. Army. By the der, Marcella another man, and from Rose's personal property at police had of a fleeing murderer. first. time they got on his trail, he was stopped at their gruesome kind of once had had a for- the murder scene. The print has Among the four murders Atkison's sexual dalliances with the Army in Germany. On- home and, unchar- a vindictive tvpe mer boyfriend give been sent across the country, Hatcher admitted to was that of turned a pool of potentially ly when he returned to the states acteristically, her a wedding without success, in hunt of a James Churchill, 38, of the Quad vengeful boyfriends and hus- did investigators interview him. broke down crying. of homicide. " ring. match, says Slockett. Cities. Hatcher stabbed Chur- Marcella doubts bands into possible murder sus- Slockett says it took nine tries "Did she know Detective In the end, he's left with the chill, described as a small man pects. before investigators concluded something was go- her serial-killing fleeing bartender, the serial-kill- with the mental capacity of a Over the years of the investi- the bartender finally passed ing to happen?" Jim Wright uncle, Charles ing uncle, the deceived wife and child, in June 1981 at a remote gation, Slockett has come to be- polygraph testing. Larry now asks. Hatcher, who she her family, maybe a jealous boy- spot on the banks of the Missis- lieve that nearly everyone in St. In the end, the bartender said Larry and Eliza- characterizes as friend or angry husband, and sippi River near Rock Island, 111. Joseph, Mo., who knew Roger he fled because he feared that beth are quick to note, too, that "sick and evil," had anything to dead Raymundo Esparza. Ganey notes that young boys and Rose well, knew that Roger his lifestyle and his pickup home Marcella stood to cash in on life do with the ax murders. were among Hatcher's criminal was cheating on his wife, and would implicate him in the mur- insurance policies. She says once her uncle was Killer 'had enough'? targets. But Hatcher was in cus- that Rose had spent several days ders. And they can't get out of their arrested in St. Joseph in August tody, never to leave it again, five with Roger in Kahoka, Mo. mind that chairs were pulled up 1982, two years after the ax mur- Galesburg detective Bob Hor- weeks before the first of two ab- The telephone company crew Case 'diversions' to the beds at the motel-room ders, she was the First to ask ton, sure Esparza is the Amana ducted Des Moines paper carri- Roger was working with and murder scene as if people who detectives if he might have been killer, wants to make it nice and ers, Johnny Gosch, disappeared Rose's baby sitter also made it Charles Hatcher also compli- knew one another were engaged involved, somehow to get back at tidy for Slockett. on Sept. 5, 1982. known back home that the two cated the investigation. At the in conversation. the family. Maybe, says Horton, the mes- Ganey says Hatcher told the were going to spend the weekend time, he was an active serial kill- "Somebody, more than one But she concludes that he sage written in soap on the FBI that at times he would be- in Amana. Anyone seeking re- er, and victim Roger Atkison's person, sat there and talked be- would not have known anything Amana motel door, then wiped come "overcome with a craving venge likely could have found "uncle-in-law." Slockett says fore they did it," says Larry. about the family's affairs then out, was from a guilt-ridden Es- to kill." It didn't matter who the them, says Slockett. Hatcher had walked away from a because the family had rarely parza trying to put detectives on victim was. Among the murder probe's en- Nebraska mental institution and seen him over the years. his trail. "He was a lost soul and was tanglements was that Rose h a d apparently was seen in Omaha Wife: Affair a surprise After Roger's murder, Marcel- "Maybe he had had enough. responsible for some of the most walked into the St. Joseph Police during the time frame that Roger's wife, Marcella, who la hired her own investigators, Maybe he was trying to get us to terrible kinds of crimes some- Department in the weeks before would have made him able to be still lives in St. Joseph and one of whom was Herald Martin, help him," says Horton. body ever witnesses." The Cedar Rapids Gazette: Sun., March 15,1992 11A Investigators fear strangers who murder But only a few be. Where do investigators go, fining moments for the investi- for instance, if a prime suspect i6 gators who work them. cases remain declines to talk to them, declines If you don't have Iowa County Sheriff James a lie detector test; if a friend or physical evidence and Slockett looks up from his big puzzles long MURDERE relative supplies an alibi; if desk in his cramped office in there are no eyewitnesses; if the you can't disprove an Marengo, in his folksy depart- By Rick Smith crime scene leaves virtually no alibi, you don't have ment-in-a-house. Gazette staff writer clues, no fingerprints, no body anything. You can't Fourteen thick red binders — MISSIN hairs, no blood or semen. the investigative chronicle of the nsolved. A mystery. Eastern Iowa law en- "If you don't have physical ev- prove your case. Amana ax murder case — stare idence and you can't disprove an back from the bookshelf in front U forcement officers are far Denver Dillard, from eager to admit that a mur- alibi, you don't have anything. of him. der or disappearance has slipped You can't prove your case," says Linn County attorney One senses that where other from the front of the file cabinet Linn County Attorney Denver people dream the d r e a m s of lot- to either of those unsettling sta- Dillard. tery wins in the middle of the tuses. That truth can make an ob- insides of plastic gloves. night, Slockett dreams in occu- The slip likely has yet to hap- server wonder, what with crime • DNA testing of a person's pational terms. pen if investigators are still so frequently the topic of news hair or body fluids can positive- He sees the fingerprint com- keeping a tight lip. stories, television shows and ly identify a perpetrator where puter scoring a hit, matching Mum's the word, for instance, movies, if today's worst crimi- long-used blood comparisons some creep with the o n e partial in Eastern Iowa's most recent nals easily can school them- could not. fingerprint lifted from the unsolved murder — that of selves in the a r t of crime. • A computer data base is be- Amana crime scene. The mur- Thomas Mather of Springdale in Meyer scoffs at any suggestion ing built to find similarities be- derer is arriving in handcuffs as September. that murderers are getting more tween murders and rapes in Io- he wakes up. That was driven home last sophisticated. wa and across the country. "I want to solve it," says month when Mather's wife, What has become more sophis- Slockett. "Just to think some- Dawn, filed a lawsuit, saying an ticated, investigators say, is the But not forgotten thing like that could happen in insurance company would not technology that can be used to someplace like Iowa County." pay a $50,000 life insurance nab criminals: Still, Waukon barber Ken The DCI's Conlon calls himself claim on her murdered husband. • A computerized fingerprint Krambeer's biggest fear is a cor- the eternal optimist. He likes to Why? Because she should be in- identification system today can rect one: Unsolved murders, like think, whether it is tomorrow, vestigated as the murderer, the check a fingerprint against thou- his sister's in 1991 in Des or next year, or the year he dies, insurance company implied. sands on file in a matter of min- Moines, ultimately do land on that one day many of the un- Cedar County Sheriff Keith utes, a process that would have the back burner. solved cases will be solved. Whitlatch had no comment required years in years past. But if an unsolved murder "But certainly that's not going about that. As late as last week, • Fingerprints today can be hits the back burner, that to be true," he says. he would say only that the Math- found in places never imagined doesn't mean it is forgotten. "Some will remain mysteries er murder could have been com- before: on bodies and from the Unsolved murders remain de- forever." mitted by a crazed stranger, a rural robber or someone ac- quainted with the victim.

Fear of strangers But one thing is certain about the Mather case. It illustrates perfectly a basic, if obvious, truth about all homicide investi- gations: Murder is committed ei- BY P ther by someone who knows the BACK victim or someone who doesn't. The former is easier solved than the latter. "That's always our biggest fear," says Eugene Meyer, long- EASTERN IOWA'S time Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) a g e n t and spokesman who now holds that latter title with the Iowa Depart- ment of Public Safety. "Anytime you begin a murder investigation and you have that convenience store clerk shot, or that female you find in a ditch someplace who was murdered and sexually assaulted, the first thing that enters your mind is, 'I hope that this just isn't someone GARAGE SALE who was wanting a ride, or her car. broke down, or who got picked up off the street,'" he says. "Because the minute you have ' Zu \ w that situation you don't have that relationship between the of- fender and t h e victim. And the 51 dLlll|l/lOfcw4»a places to go with that become severely limited."

Solving fewer cases .Perhaps the most troubling de- velopment in homicide investi- gations, says DCI special agent Steve Conlon, is the percentage of murders that remain unsolved Gazette photo by Christ Stewart Five Seasons is increasing nationwide. Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Steve That's attributable, in part, to Conlon says the percentage of murders that remain unsolved is the increased number of mur- ders committed by strangers, increasing nationwide. The reason for that, in part, is due to the says Conlon. increased number of murders committed by strangers, says According to crime statistics Conlon. from the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports, the United States aver- ders a year in the 1980s. More Chief Bruce Kern says many of aged 8,920 murders a year be- than 80 percent of the cases were his department's detectives be- tween 1961 and 1965, and investi- solved, according to FBI statis- lieve they "know" who killed the gators solved 91.7 percent of the tics. cases. 18-year-old high school senior in "Murder is still front-page 1979. Don't miss this chance to The number of murders has news in the state, because of our climbed and the clearance rate "But our burden is to prove quality of life here, and thank guilt beyond a reasonable doubt has plummeted since then. From goodness," says Meyer; sell things you no longer need 1986 to 1990, there were an aver- in court," says Kern. age of 21,264 murders a year in Veteran DCI agent Mike Mar- but others do. the United States, and only 69 True puzzles lin of Cedar Rapids says proving percent were solved. A noteworthy revelation, after many of the cases is a function "Stranger murder" can b e the recent talks with dozens of East- of workload. Gazette classified and the Five Seasons Center are teaming up to help indiscriminate gang murder, the ern Iowa detectives, investiga- "There are good suspects in you sell your unwanted or unused items and earn some extra cash... the majority of these cases," robbery turned murder, the rap- tors, special agents and county with a garage sale like no other. ist who kills or the true serial sheriffs, is that, in their minds, says Marlin. killer. only a fraction of the state's un- "It's simply a matter of getting Two recently solved "strang- solved murders remain true puz- more time to work on them." Just $25 gets you a 10' x 10' space with one table (additional tables can be er" cases in Eastern Iowa show zles. More time and labor isn't al- rented for $ 5 each while supply lasts), two free participant admissions to the ways the answer, though. It just how tough these cases can Investigators say most of Io- sale, a Gazette classified garage sale kit, as well as free promotional advertis- be to unravel and how luck can wa's unsolved murder cases — didn't work in the famous Mar- play a key role. which number more than 100 in tinko murder case. Instead, it ing in The Gazette. Plus the big crowds expected for t he sale should give you Luck certainly played a part the last 20 years, says Conlon — only seemed to point out now a great chance of selling your merchandise. in October 1990, after Patrick continue unsolved, with killers difficult an investigator's job can McAmis of Cedar Rapids forced unarrested and unprosecuted, his way into a young woman's because of the demands of t h p If you've got lots of t h i n g s , consider renting an additional booth space. car in downtown Cedar Rapids, U.S. criminal justice system. But hurry, garage sale space is a v a i l a b l e on a first-come, first-served basis. raped her in Cedar Rapids and Of Cedar Rapids' most famous rural Johnson County, and left unsolved case, the Michelle Mar- Closet Systems her for dead on a gravel road tinko murder, for instance, As- Reserve your booth space today! near Solon. sistant Cedar Rapids Police FROM . • McAmis ended up behind bars THIS W for life only because two men To register for the sale stop by The Gazette at 5 0 0 Third Ave. SE, happened to pass in their car, or call 398-5211, Monday-Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. heard the victim's cries and res- cued her. She survived and iden- All checks should be m a d e payable to the Five Seasons Center. tified McAmis. In April 1989, Phet Baccam of Des Moines turned a random Call today! Time is r u n n i n g out! robbery of a Benton County con- venience store into coldblooded murder. His chief undoing was that he told friends what he did, and they turned him in. Over 100 unsolved FIVE In a nation with about 22,000 Installation Available murders a year, Iowa remains a See Our Showroom Display SEASONS^fiS relatively civilized place where CENTER I human life is valued and news of AS LEGENDARY AS THE murder still appalls residsents, PERFORMERS WHO PLAY THEM. says Meyer. It woiks! COLLINS ROAD S Q . 377-9100 Iowa averaged about 50 mur- QflO CDQC Corner til lll.nrs I r»ry H