Iowa City mourns following murders
Authorities say woman, four children killed in Iowa City homeBy NAFEESA SYEED, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
POSTED: March 25, 2008
Article Photos
Fact Box
Past SlayingsHere is a list of some of the worst mass slayings in Iowa history since 1970.
1973—Four teenagers from Sioux Falls, S.D., were shot to death at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve in Lyon County. Three brothers, David, Allen and James Fryer, were convicted.
1975—Leslie and Jorjean Mark and their two children who shot to death on Halloween night as they slept in their rural Cedar Falls home. Leslie Mark’s brother, Jerry Mark, 32, was convicted of the crime.
1981—Bonnie Gilbert, 34, and her five children were shot to death at their home in Delmar. Her husband, Gene Gilbert, 28, was implicated in the slayings and committed suicide at his father’s home in South Dakota.
1985—Dale Burr shot his wife, Emily, at their home in Hills, bank president John Hughes at his office and a neighbor, Richard Goody, at Goody’s farm. Burr then shot and killed himself.
1987—John and Agnes Dreesman, their two grown children and three grandchildren were found shot to death in the Dreesman home in Algona. Police believed one of the children, Robert, killed the others and them himself.
1991—Five people were shot to death at the University of Iowa by Gang Lu, a disgruntled student who later killed himself.
1993—Three adults and two children were shot to death and buried in a field west of Mason City. Two people, Dustin Honken, 33, and Angela Johnson, were convicted on federal murder charges in the drug-related slayings and sentenced to death.
1993—Jolene Forsyth, 39, three of her children and two children she was baby-sitting were found shot to death in Forsyth’s Norwalk home. Her estranged husband Rick Forsyth was found in the home critically wounded with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head.
2001—Leticia Aguilar, 31, her five children and businessman Ronald Fish, were found dead in their Sioux City homes. Aguilar’s boyfriend and a former employee of Fish’s, Adam Moss, was convicted of the slayings.
2006—Michael Bentler, 53; his wife Sandra, 47; and their three daughters, Sheena, 17, Shelby, 15, and Shayne, 14, were shot to death in the family’s home near Bonaparte. The Bentlers’ son, Shawn Bentler, was convicted of five counts of murder.
2008—The bodies of a mother and four children were found in a home on Iowa City’s east side on March 24, 2008. Police were still trying to determine what happened to the father, who was recently indicted on federal embezzlement charges.
— The Associated Press
Authorities were scrambling to identify the remains of a body found in the family’s van, which was destroyed in a fiery, single vehicle crash on Interstate 80 around the time police discovered the five bodies in their home.
Sgt. Troy Kelsay said police wouldn’t know until after an autopsy if it was Steven Sueppel’s body in the van, although he added, ‘‘If I was a betting man I would be comfortable betting a fair chunk of money on that.’’
‘‘It fits the time of the accident,’’ he said. ‘‘He is the only person unaccounted for.’’
Court records show that Sueppel was indicted by a grand jury last month on charges of stealing about $560,000 from the bank where he worked.
Kelsay wouldn’t release the names of the victims found at the family’s home, but he confirmed they were Sueppel’s wife and children, ages 3, 5, 7 and 10.
Legal documents show Sueppel was married to Sheryl Sueppel, though her age was not immediately available.
Kelsay said autopsies on all the bodies, including the one from the van, were scheduled for Tuesday.
The matter began when dispatchers received a call at 6:31 a.m. on Monday saying officers needed to respond immediately to a home at 629 Barrington Road on Iowa City’s east side. The caller then hung up.
Officers arrived to the unlocked house, then entered and found the five bodies inside.
Police didn’t specify how the family was killed. Initial alerts said there had been a shooting at the home, but Kelsay said further investigation shows the deaths could be the result of some other trauma.
The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation and the FBI were assisting in the investigation.
Member Comments
View Comments: | 1-1 | Post a comment
|
trpub
|
|
|---|---|
|
03-25-08 3:31 PM
|
Get the facts straight before claiming to print all the horrendous murders in Iowa. There’s a very important murder omitted. Easter Sunday April 1980 three people were murdered execution style in Tama. I know because my brother and sister were two of the three victims. Mark Allen and Roseann Marie Curtis were murdered by Charles Cullor. Charles also murdered his ex-wife and left his two young children to wake up looking for Easter eggs to find three dead bodies! Their own mother was one of the dead! The horror lives on for the Curtis Family and those two youngsters who are now grown. Yes, it was 28 years ago, but it seems like yesterday to us who loved those who are no longer here. Thankfully the folks in charge of this investigation did a bang up job. Mr. Cullor will die behind bars. He will not be allowed out to kill anyone else.
|