Ionia, IA Area Cold Cases

Name

Julie Benning

Age

18

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

She had a quick smile and a zany laugh. She was bright, beautiful, spunky, and ambitious. She loved getting out to meet people and making things happen. She loved live music and the weekly top 100 countdown. Her creativity spilled over into every aspect of her life; she not only designed and sewed her own dresses, but painted landscapes and portraits of all things closest to her heart.

Agency

Iowa

Name

Tammy Nitcher

Age

2

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

First, it was 2-1/2-month-old tammy in january 1972. Two months later in march, 2-year-old sarah. Fast forward four years — and to another state — to 3-month-old crystal. And finally, almost a year to the day after crystal’s death, the youngest of them all — misti, just 5 weeks old.One by one, helen nitcher’s daughters all died under mysterious circumstances.Patterns got missed. Medical examiners struggled with inconclusive autopsy reports. But helen c. (née tenery) nitcher, later known as crystal price, had two dead daughters within 2-1/2 months — in iowa, that is — until nitcher relocated and the pattern repeated in abilene, texas.Two more dead infant daughters followed.News reports on the four girls’ successive deaths also had a strikingly familiar ring; officials reported all three infants, as well as the 2-year-old, dead on arrival.The mother’s explanations for the short-lived lives were conflicting at best; the stories varied depending on the city and state where the obituaries appeared, leaving astute readers as mystified as iowa and texas medical examiners, who never could quite pinpoint exact causes or manners of death.Iowa coroners had no way of knowing nitcher left iowa after her first two daughters’ deaths, only to have two more infants die in texas. And texas officials apparently were unaware of the two previous iowa deaths.

Agency

Iowa

Name

Sarah Marie Nitcher

Age

2

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

First, it was 2-1/2-month-old tammy in january 1972. Two months later in march, 2-year-old sarah. Fast forward four years — and to another state — to 3-month-old crystal. And finally, almost a year to the day after crystal’s death, the youngest of them all — misti, just 5 weeks old.One by one, helen nitcher’s daughters all died under mysterious circumstances.Patterns got missed. Medical examiners struggled with inconclusive autopsy reports. But helen c. (née tenery) nitcher, later known as crystal price, had two dead daughters within 2-1/2 months — in iowa, that is — until nitcher relocated and the pattern repeated in abilene, texas.Two more dead infant daughters followed.News reports on the four girls’ successive deaths also had a strikingly familiar ring; officials reported all three infants, as well as the 2-year-old, dead on arrival.The mother’s explanations for the short-lived lives were conflicting at best; the stories varied depending on the city and state where the obituaries appeared, leaving astute readers as mystified as iowa and texas medical examiners, who never could quite pinpoint exact causes or manners of death.Iowa coroners had no way of knowing nitcher left iowa after her first two daughters’ deaths, only to have two more infants die in texas. And texas officials apparently were unaware of the two previous iowa deaths.

Agency

Iowa

Name

Valerie Klossowsky

Age

14

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

On tuesday morning, june 15, 1971, the partially clad body of 14-year-old valerie lynn klossowsky of waverly, iowa, was found on a creek bank under a bridge on a lonely country road three miles west of denver and about 10 miles southeast of waverly. An autopsy indicated the waverly-shell rock junior high school student had been strangled sometime late sunday or early monday.

Agency

Iowa

Name

William Meadows

Age

36

Cause of Death

Shooting

Info

Town marshal william lawrence meadows, 36, was shot and killed on monday, january 23, 1961, while investigating a burglary in progress at the hartmann packing plant in plainfield, iowa.Meadows, who’d worked his family’s farm for years and also volunteered as a scoutmaster, had barely stepped through the packing plant’s front entrance just after 2:15 a.M. Before being shot through the heart by what authorities believed to be a high-powered 30-30-caliber deer rifle. Meadows died instantly.

Agency

Iowa

Name

Rhonda Knutson

Age

22

Cause of Death

Homicide

Info

Early on monday, september 7, 1992, rhonda anette knutson was murdered while working the 9 p.M. To 5 a.M. Shift at the phillips 66 convenience store in williamstown, iowa, in chickasaw county.The store manager found knutson’s body monday morning around 4:45 a.M. In a room near the back of the store.The williamstown store was open 24 hours a day and located six miles south of new hampton on u.S. Highway 63 and one-quarter mile north of highway junctions 63, 18, and 346.An autopsy concluded knutson died after being bludgeoned to death, and there were no signs of sexual assault.

Agency

Iowa