Murder victim, attacker argued before slaying

Moments before she died, Tawny Tomberlin was sitting in a red pickup with the man she'd been trying to get away from for months.

When the discussion became an argument, and she tried to end it by going inside her brother's mobile home, Christopher Vogt, her ex-boyfriend, decided to kill her.

“She tried to go back into the trailer to try to defuse the situation, and it sounds like that's when he produced the rifle and went in,” Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said.

Vogt, 42, of rural Marengo, burst into the home about 7:30 p.m. Friday and fired several times, Gardner said. He killed Tomberlin, 43, with one shot, and wounded her brother Duane Tomberlin Jr., 48, and James Campbell, 27, who is Duane Tomberlin's son-in-law. Neither man's condition was available Saturday night, though Gardner said they were able to speak to deputies who arrived on the scene.

Several witnesses saw Vogt drive away from Vernon Heights Mobile Home Court, a sleepy neighborhood on Mount Vernon Road just off Highway 13.

Deputies tracked Vogt using his cell phone's signal, and found him dead inside his pickup on a farm lane near Mount Vernon about 11:30 p.m. Friday.

“He had shot himself with his rifle,” Gardner said.

Casey Hoff, 23, who lives a couple lots away in the trailer court at 7100 Mount Vernon Rd., said he saw Vogt and Tawny Tomberlin arguing in the parking lot before the shooting, and ran to the scene before Vogt left.

“He said if I called the cops he was going to kill me too,” Hoff said.

Many people in the neighborhood said they did not hear the gunshots, in part because of the constant noise from the rumble strips on Mount Vernon Road.

Tomberlin and Vogt both came from Iowa County. Friends and neighbors said Tomberlin left Vogt over the summer. She moved in with her brother a couple months ago, Hoff said.

“She'd been trying to get away from him for a long time, I know that,” Hoff said.

Vogt is listed in the phone book as living with his parents, John and Carol Vogt, on a farm west of West Amana. The one-story gray farmhouse sits on a rise half a mile north of the Iowa River. Eight cars and trucks were parked out front Saturday, and the house was full of people, but the family declined to comment.

Vogt had a history of violence. He'd been convicted of harassment, assault and felony second-offense stalking over the past decade. In September, he was charged with domestic assault in Iowa County and a no-contact order was filed. Assistant Iowa County Attorney Louis McMeen declined to comment, and Iowa County Sheriff Rober Rotter could not be reached.

Tawny Tomberlin's parents died in 2003 and 2008. She had two siblings - her brother Duane, and Lisa Tomberlin, also of Cedar Rapids.

KCRG-TV9's Justin Foss contributed to this story.