Victims’ families support cold case unit created by Iowa AG

“I used to be 20 years outdated when it occurred,” Brocks stated.

Brocks’ mom, Brenna Griffith, stated her ex-husband, Willie “Junior” Brocks, 49, had simply been launched from jail about six months earlier than the deadly taking pictures on Nov. 27, 1999.

Each ladies consider somebody noticed the taking pictures, however that individual could also be afraid to come back ahead.

They each now have hope as a result of Investigator Matt Denlinger and retired investigators J.D. Smith and Ken Washburn, who’re the Cedar Rapids division’s Chilly Case Unit, are actively pursuing results in resolve the 25-year-old murder.

Brocks’ household, alongside two different households — one from Cedar Rapids and Vinton and one other from Bremer County — had been at a information convention Tuesday on the Cedar Rapids Police Division the place Iowa Lawyer Common Brenna Chook made a go to to discuss her workplace’s new statewide chilly case unit. The unit was first introduced final month in Polk County.

Shawna Hunziker, of Vinton, and her mom, Teresa Walton, of Cedar Rapids, shared a letter with Chook about what occurred to their liked one, Josh Wellman, 35, on Nov. 12, 2015, when he went lacking in Cedar Rapids.

Within the letter, Hunziker, Josh’s sister, stated she noticed him for the final time that day and shortly misplaced hope after realizing the “police division was struggling to seek out solutions for us. Years glided by with solely questions.” His physique was by no means discovered and no person has been arrested.

Then in 2019, Denlinger and the opposite chilly case investigators contacted them and stated they had been reopening his case, Hunziker stated. Since that point, they’ve had “steady communication” with the investigators who’ve been open to “collaborating with us as now we have supplied them with concepts and knowledge to assist us discover Josh.”

“Chilly instances can simply be forgotten and swept underneath the rug,” Hunziker stated. “Matt and his group have made it very clear that the Cedar Rapids Police Division won’t overlook about our household or Josh.”

She hopes the brand new statewide unit will present the identical stage of assist to different households that they’ve acquired from the Cedar Rapids Police Chilly Case Unit.

The opposite household in attendance was that of Julie Ann Benning, who was 18 when she went lacking after going to work in Waverly on Nov. 28, 1975. She remained lacking till March 18, 1976, when a Butler County street upkeep employee discovered her bare physique in a ditch alongside a street, a few mile from Shell Rock.

She had an damage to her throat space and the reason for dying was murder, in keeping with an post-mortem. No arrest has been made in her dying.

Steve Ponsetto, a retired Iowa Division of Legal Investigation particular agent, who’s main the statewide chilly case unit, stated this unit received’t be changing any one of many different businesses which have their very own items, resembling Cedar Rapids.

He and Chook stated they hope the statewide unit will present a contemporary set of eyes to the greater than 400 chilly instances throughout the state and that it’s going to assist focus efforts and provides departments the wanted sources to pursue any unsolved homicides, lacking individual with suspicious circumstances or unidentified human stays instances.

Chook, through the Tuesday information convention, stated there’s a minimum of one chilly case in almost all of Iowa’s 99 counties. The funding the legislature accepted — $536,000 — simply began July 1, she famous. The workplace is within the means of hiring three investigators for the unit.

A number of regulation enforcement businesses and departments had been represented on the information convention, together with the Johnson and Linn county sheriff’s workplaces; Cedar Rapids and Waterloo police departments; Linn County Lawyer’s Workplace; FBI; and Iowa State Patrol.

Cedar Rapids Police Chief David Dostal stated this was a “monumental step ahead” for the state to associate with regulation enforcement departments to offer them the sources to pursue these instances, particularly the smaller ones that don’t have the employees and time to commit to chilly instances.

Dostal stated Cedar Rapids began its chilly case unit in 2010, and when Denlinger joined in 2016, he began pushing to work on extra instances. The investigators have solved 4 chilly instances:

• Michelle Martinko, 18, killed in 1979, solved in 2018 with the arrest and conviction of Jerry Burns.
• Dennis First, 64, killed in 2007, which led to the arrest this yr of Curtis Padgett and his conviction in Might.
• Brian Schappert, 22, killed in 1989, solved in 2019. Two suspects had been recognized by means of new witness interviews and prison historical past data, however each suspects had died.
• Maureen Brubaker-Farley, 17, killed in 1971, solved in 2021 after evaluating DNA from the crime scene with DNA collected from a suspect’s grownup baby. It was decided George Smith killed her, however he died in 2013.

After the information convention, Denlinger stated he’s hoping to be a useful resource to the statewide unit and assist them with recommendation or share classes he has discovered alongside the best way.

He stated the Cedar Rapids division has been capable of present its chilly case unit with the required assist, sources and know-how to work on these instances, however the smaller departments don’t have these benefits, so he hopes the statewide unit will be capable to fill that void.