Undated — The woman who founded a website about missing Iowans and unsolved Iowa murders says three years into the project, her stepfather died in an explosion. Jodi Ewing says her stepfather — Earl Thelander of Onawa — was renovating a home when it exploded and he died in 2007 from severe burns. Ewing says the explosion was caused by thieves who stole 20-dollars-worth of copper from propane gas lines in the home.
This case is among over 400 so-called cold cases in Iowa. Ewing’s website — www.iowacoldcases.org — tells the victims’ stories.
Ewing started the website 20 years ago while she was working for a newspaper in Sioux City and was getting calls from families asking her to write about their loved one’s case.
