Northwest Iowa — A new tool that could help solve Iowa cold case murders has a connection to a decades-old case from Lyon County.
Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird announced the tool last month.
Bird says the decks of 52 cards include information on some of the people in the cold cases.
One of the cards will be familiar to many people in northwest Iowa, and specifically, Lyon County. Wilma June Nissen is the deck’s “six of hearts,” according to her daughter, Krissi Atkisson.
On October 4th, 1978, the badly decomposed body of a young woman was found in a ditch southwest of the West Lyon School in Lyon County. Since no one in the area knew who she was, she remained a “Jane Doe” for 27 years. In 2006, some fingerprint records from an arrest in California matched up with those taken from the body, and her name was released. If you have any information on the case, you can contact the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office. Click here for more information about the case.
Bird says a special committee reviewed the more than 400 Iowa cold cases to select the ones to go on the cards.
Bird says they hope seeing the information will bring in some clues.
The Attorney General launched the cold case unit last year. Steve Ponsetto is the lead investigator for the unit and says other states have had some success with using cold case cards.
The Attorney General says various groups involved in solving cold cases paid for the cold case cards.
KIWA Staff Stock Photo
