Page 8 - Clear Lake Mirror Reporter E-Edition 3-23-2016

Local NewsPage 8 • March 23, 2016
GONE COLD
from page 1
about his daughter’s disappearance.
KWWL Radio reported on the story,
and a Bureau of Criminal Investiga-
tion agent was sent to work with the
family.
Initial reports stated Julie was
last seen that Friday afternoon, walk-
ing on Bremer Avenue on her way to
work as a waitress at the Sir Lounge
in Waverly’s downtown business dis-
trict. Chief Wickham would later
announce he’d also heard reports that
Benning had been spotted in a shoe
repair shop Friday at 5:05 p.m. to get
a pair of shoes she’d left there.
On December 12, Julie’s 19th
birthday arrived, but there would be
no celebration without her.
A Beautiful Life — Gone
A missing person search that
sometimes extended to other states
produced no clues to Julie’s where-
abouts until Thursday, March 18,
1976, when Roscoe Hulbert — a But-
ler County road maintenance worker
— found her muddy body, nude and
decomposed, in a roadside ditch along
a quiet country road about a mile
northeast of Shell Rock, Iowa. Julie
had been stuffed into a culvert, where
her body remained all winter long in
the cold and dark, until spring rains
washed her out and into the ditch.
“She’d been there a long time,”
said then-Butler County Sheriff Mar-
vin Barth.
An autopsy report established
cause of death as “homicidal violence,
caused by injury to the throat area.”
A 1975 graduate of Plainfield
High School, Julie Benning lived
on a farm near Clarksville with her
parents and four younger sisters,
but had been staying with her aunt
and grandmother, Malita Benning
and Mrs. Emil (Frieda) Benning, in
northwest Waverly while employed
in Waverly. She’d barely dated at all
in high school, had no date to prom,
no date for Homecoming. Shorter
than many of her classmates, the 4’
11” teen’s only real concerns were oc-
casional acne and a slightly crooked
eye, but being self-conscious never
kept her from being a friendly, talk-
ative and bold extrovert. She’d been
gutsy enough to jump the fence at a
rock concert and chat it up with The
Eagles‘ lead singer, Glenn Fry. She
and her sister Lori went to dinner
with the London-based English rock
band Foghat, and for a time Julie also
corresponded with the drummer who
played for singer Tanya Tucker.
She’d been active in Band, Cho-
rus and Declam, and quickly made
friends with students from Allison
and Dumont and other area schools.
Detasseling corn in the summer wasn’t
so much as work as an opportunity to
ride the bus and get to know other
kids. The outgoing teen simply had
no enemies, and officials struggled to
come up with a motive for her mur-
der.
As a senior at Plainfield High
School, Benning had sharply criti-
cized the taking of human life and
life imprisonment. In a May 8, 1975
school newspaper editorial, Benning
wrote: “Murder is a horrible crime to
commit and, of course the offender
must be punished, but does that mean
he should rot in prison until he dies?
I don’t think so . . . nor do I think
any person has the right to say some-
one should never be let out of prison,
or give them the death penalty.” She
urged her readers to “Put yourself in
their shoes — the convicts are still hu- sketches portraying the likeness of
mans, too. I hope people will be will-
ing to help them and lend support in
convicts’ efforts to rehabilitate them-
selves.”
Six months later, the outspoken
teen was dead, though a high school
editorial hardly seemed like a motive
for murder, particularly given the
months passed since its publication.
On Saturday, March 29, 1976
at about 8 p.m., Butler County At-
torney Gene Shepard received an
anonymous letter postmarked March
27 from Oelwein, Iowa. Authorities
didn’t say how or where the note was
found, but said officers wanted to
look further into information con-
tained in the note.
O n
Tu e s d a y
morning,
Sept. 7,
1976, less
than six
months
after Ben-
ning’s body
was discov-
ered, the
Lisa Peak nude, beat-
en body of 19-year-old Marie “Lisa”
Peak was found in a ditch a quarter
mile north of Waverly’s city limits
six miles from where Benning’s body
was found. Peak had been sexually
assaulted, and, according to autopsy
findings, died of suffocation and a
broken neck. None of Peak’s clothes
were found at the scene. Peak, the
daughter of Knoxville veterinar-
ian and former city councilman Dr.
Frank Peak and Mary Peak, had just
returned to the Wartburg College
campus in Waverly the day before to
begin her sophomore year with plans
to major in journalism. Peak had told
friends she was going shopping Mon-
day afternoon but never returned to
the campus that night.
Investigators cited a number of
similarities in the Benning and Peak
slayings, and FBI criminologists were
consulted to determine if the same
person murdered both young women.
Both Benning and Peak were at-
tractive and described as “outgoing” or
“popular.” Both disappeared in broad
daylight. Benning was purported to
have last been seen in a shoe store, and
Peak reportedly was going to pick up
a pair of shoes. Both women’s bod-
ies were found nude, but due to de-
composition, authorities never said
whether they were able to determine
if Benning had been sexually molest-
ed. Both women also had interests in
journalism and enjoyed reading about
and writing mysteries.
Questions also emerged as to
whether the Benning and Peak mur-
ders had any connection to another
area homicide four years earlier.
On June
15, 1971,
the partially
clad body
of 14-year-
old Valerie
Lynn Klos-
sowsky of
Waverly was
found on a
bVriadlgeeriethKreloe smsoilwesskwyestcurnoedfekeDr ebnavnerka,
Iowa. The Waverly-Shell Rock Junior
High School student also had been
strangled.
In the months after discovering
Julie Benning’s body, officers in the
murder investigation released artist’s
how Julie Benning may have appeared
on Nov. 28, 1975, the day she went
missing. Gloria Aleff and Associates
of Waverly prepared the drawings as
a public service, and the press released
them for distribution — along with a
story by Assistant City Editor Lamont
Olson — in attempts to refresh the
recollections of anyone who may have
Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter
seen Benning on that date.
The Bremer-Waverly Law Center
issued another public appeal asking
anyone who may have seen Benning
to contact officials. Officers noted
that though the artist’s conceptions
were not actual photographs, they
were “excellent likenesses” to the
young Waverly woman.
Some statements made in the ar-
ticle, however, directly conflicted with
information provided in later years to
Iowa Cold Cases. For instance, early
in the investigation, Sir Lounge opera-
tor Jean Weston said she began to feel
uneasy when Julie didn’t show up for
work that day.
“I’d taken her home after work
Thanksgiving night, and when she got
out of the car, Julie said ‘I’ll see you
tomorrow night’,” Weston told Olson.
“When she didn’t come the first night,
I thought maybe she’d planned to take
some time off and I had just forgot-
ten. But when she missed two nights, Damage was estimated at over $50,000 as the result of a fire Monday morning at 232 Glen Cove Drive. The Lon Fjetland
I talked with my husband and he said family safely evacuated from the home and Clear Lake firefighters quickly contained the fire to a basement bedroom. The cause
‘call her folks’.” of the fire is still under investigation.-Photo shared by Clear Lake Police Department.
Iowa Cold Cases later learned
that Benning had indeed shown up Fire causes substantial damage to home
for work at the Sir on Nov. 28 as
scheduled, and her presence there
witnessed not only by fellow employ- The Clear Lake Fire Department The owner occupants of the responded with four companies with
ees but lounge patrons as well. Chief was dispatched to a reported home fire home, the Lon Fjetland family, had 15 firefighters and was assisted by the
Wickham told the paper he knew Monday, March 21, at approximately safely evacuated prior to the fire de- Ventura Fire Department with two
Miss Benning and occasionally talked 9:08 a.m. partment’s arrival. companies and five firefighters. Also
to her, but never did see her with any- The Clear Lake Police Depart- Firefighters entered the home assisting was the Clear Lake Public
one in particular. ment and Fire Department responded and quickly contained the fire to a Works, Clear Lake Police Department
In Olson’s story, Wickham, how- to 232 Glen Cove Drive. Upon ar- basement bedroom of the home. Ven- and Alliant Energy. There were no
ever, made one strikingly disturbing rival heavy smoke was showing from tilation of the smoke and heat was ob- injuries, but the family did lose a pet
comment. “I knew she hitchhiked an the basement and garage area on the tained with positive pressure fans. bird.
awful lot,” he said. The blatantly un- single story home. Major damage was contained to
true statement not only contradicted the basement bedroom, with water Offices closed
what family and friends knew about Guilty plea entered and smoke damage throughout the on Good Friday
Benning, but somehow seemed to in- by man involved in basement level of the house.
fer the teen’s death could have resulted high speed chase The cause of the fire is still under Clear Lake city offices, along
from hitchhiking the night she went investigation. with the Clear Lake Mirror-Reporter
missing. Even Weston’s statements to A North Iowa man accused of Damage is estimated to be over office, will be closed Friday, March
the press contradicted the chief ’s com- leading law enforcement on a 100 $50,000. The owner did have insur- 25, in observance of Good Friday and
ment. mile per hour chase has pled guilty to ance for the property. the start of the Easter weekend. Of-
“She hardly ever took a night off. his charges. Sentencing is scheduled The Clear Lake Fire Department fices will re-open Monday, March 28.
I don’t think she had a date in all the for May 4 in Cerro Gordo County
time she worked here,” Weston said. District Court.
“In fact, I said to her: Julie, you’re Dillon Rasmussen, 22, of Mason
only young once, get out and have City entered a written plea of guilty Buying or Selling a Home in
some fun once in a while.” Weston to charges of eluding and first offense the Clear Lake Area?
said Julie had shrugged her shoulders OWI. He was arrested Feb. 16 after
and said “I don’t have any place to go.” allegedly fleeing a traffic stop by Clear Trust one of these Real Estate Professionals
About Julie Benning Lake police near the Mason City Air-
The DCI and the FBI remain port. The pursuit ranged from 45 to
committed to resolving the three Wa- 100 mph along Highway 122 and In-
verly murders and continue to work terstate 35 before Rasmussen crashed
diligently with local law enforcement at the Thornton exit.
partners to bring the perpetrators of
these crimes to justice for the victims Shrine Circus in
and their families. MC March 28-29 302 Main Ave., Clear Lake
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