Plymouth County Authorities Investigate “Suspicious Death”
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County authorities are investigating what they refer to as a “suspicious death.” At about 4:00 p.m. Wednesday afternoon, the Plymouth County Communications Office received a call about a person found dead in his
home at 34782 Highway 3 of Le Mars. Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo confirmed the deceased is 57 year old, John Koley. Van Otterloo says a family member found Koley dead in the kitchen area of his home.
Crime scene tape has been placed around the Koley residence. Van Otterloo says Koley’s body was taken to the State Medical Examiner’s office in Ankeny where an autopsy is scheduled for Friday morning.
The Plymouth County Sheriff says the condition of the home leads them to believe the death has suspicious circumstances.
The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Crime Scene Team is assisting Plymouth County with
the investigation. Van Otterloo says the federal agency of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (A-T-F) has also been contacted.
Koley is a property owner with several buildings located in downtown Le Mars, as well as he owned various land parcels throughout Plymouth County.
Car Crashes Into Home Causes Explosion
MAYSVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Investigators say speed appears to have been a factor in a fatal crash that sent a Ferrari plowing into a Maysville home and sparked an
explosion and fire that destroyed the home.
Scott County Sheriff Time Lane tells the Quad-City Times that the late Tuesday night crash killed the sports car’s driver, 58-year-old Kelly Phillip Dewulf, of Wheatland. One person was in the home at the time of the crash, but was able to escape unharmed.
Investigators say skid marks leading from Maysville Road through a ditch and into the home mark the path of the runaway car. Parts of the vehicle littered the front and back yards, including tires and the rear hood. When firefighters arrived, the house was fully engulfed in flames.
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Hotel Employees Not Being Paid
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) – Federal investigators are looking into complaints from several employees of the Clarion Hotel & Convention Center in Cedar Rapids that they have not been paid in weeks.
Television station KCRG reports that the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division is investigating the complaints.
Choice Hotels, which franchises Clarion Hotels, says the Cedar Rapids hotel has been dropped from its system and can no longer operate under the Clarion name. The hotel has also been removed from Choice Hotels’ central reservation
system. A statement from Choice Hotels says guests with existing reservations will be contacted and given the option to relocate to another property.
A message left Thursday by The Associated Press with the Cedar Rapids’ hotel’s general manager was not immediately returned.
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Trial Set For Boarding School Director
KEOKUK, Iowa (AP) – The trial has begun for a former boarding school director who is accused of sexually and physically abusing several children who attended the now-defunct school in southeast Iowa.
The Hawk Eye reports that testimonies began Wednesday at South Lee County District Court in the trial of Benjamin Trane, who owned and operated Midwest Academy in Keokuk. Trane has pleaded not guilty to sexual abuse, sexual exploitation and child endangerment charges.
A state prosecutor told the jury that while Trane didn’t directly abuse all the children, he set policies in which students were given prolonged detention in small isolation chambers, denied healthy food and forced to sleep on the floor.
Trane’s attorney will begin presenting the defense’s case Tuesday.
Trane faces a sentence of 17 years if convicted of all charges.
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