Cold Cases in Sioux City, Iowa | Iowa Cold Cases (2023)

Cold Cases in Sioux City, IA

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Missing Person
Maurice Kneifl
58 YOA
Sioux City, IA
February 14, 1983

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homicide
Kevin Clark
26 YOA
1514 Villa Avenue
Sioux City, IA
December 8, 1991

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

Homicide
Betty Swetnam
73 YOA
1610 West 19th St.
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
December 31, 1993

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

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

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

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

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

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

Homicide
Wilbur Brown
47 YOA
603 West 5th St.
Sioux City, IA
Sept. 14, 1997

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

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

On Tuesday morning, May 26, 1998, sometime between 9 and 9:45 a.m., Patricia Anne “Pat” Jauron, 45, was viciously stabbed several times in the rural Sioux City home she and her husband, Eugene “Gene” Jauron, had vacated six months earlier.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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