Arrest made after double slaying in Mason City

MASON CITY - Two people were killed and a third is accused of a slaying early Thursday in Mason City's Highlands neighborhood.

Peter Veal, 30, of Lake Mills, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder. He is being held in the Cerro Gordo County jail.

He is the brother of Ruthann Veal, who is serving prison time in a 1993 murder in Waterloo.

Peter Veal is accused of killing Melida Kavars and Caleb Christensen, who police say were found dead inside at 2:15 a.m. Thursday at 1620 N. Hampshire Ave.

Police were called to the neighborhood for a report of a shooting. Peter Veal was spotted about 15 minutes later near 12th Street NE and North Carolina Avenue, police said, and arrested after a brief foot chase.

Several neighbors said they were shocked by the allegations of violence in the neighborhood.

The house where the bodies were found is on North Hampshire Avenue near 17th Street NE, which is a block from the southwest corner of Highland Park Golf Course. Christensen had owned the home since 2004.

Neighborhood resident Gloria Paulsen said her dog, Greta, acted as if she heard something from the direction of Christensen's home when Paulsen let the dog outside at 2 a.m.

'She was very, very upset,” said Paulsen, who said the dog immediately ran to the north side of her yard. 'She had her hair standing up on her back, yeah high.”

Mason City Police Lt. Rich Jensen they do not think there are any additional suspects. He wouldn't say whether Peter Veal knew Kavars or Christensen.

The Iowa State Medical Examiner's Office will conduct autopsies.

Ruthann Veal, 38, is housed at the Iowa Correctional Institution for Women in Mitchellville for stabbing Catherine Haynes to death at Haynes' Waterloo home in 1993. A 2015 obituary in the Globe Gazette newspaper list her and Peter Veal as siblings.

At the time of the slaying, Ruthann Veal was a 14-year-old runaway. She was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.