Officials investigating suspicious death at mobile home near Iowa City

Officials are investigating the death of a 34-year-old woman near Iowa City, and the woman's home is being processed as a crime scene, Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek said.

Deputies found the body of Sarah Elizabeth McKay inside a home at 18 Expo Dr., just east of the city limits, in the Modern Manor mobile home park about 9:40 p.m. Sunday, the sheriff said.

McKay's boyfriend, Eric Scott Osborn, 26, was at the residence with some of his family members when deputies arrived, Pulkrabek said.

“Eric and Sarah had been in an on-again, off-again relationship for the past two years and were currently residing together at this residence,” he said.

Any charges, he said, would wait until after an autopsy is completed this morning at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. The autopsy will be conducted by the State Medical Examiner's Office and the Johnson County Medical Examiner's Office.

Pulkrabek said a lab team from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation is working at the residence and “processing it as a crime scene.”

Judy Patterson, a friend and neighbor of McKay and Osborn, said she didn't notice anything unusual when she had dinner with the two on Friday night.

“We sat and talked and had sandwiches,” she said. “I went home about 9 o'clock. We played on the Wii, watched TV. They seemed to be in good spirits.”

McKay was born in 1975, graduated from Iowa City High and had a young daughter, Emilia.

“She had a great sense of humor, was extremely personable, intelligent and had a giving heart,” the family said in a statement.

McKay had worked in the billing department at Hawkeye Foodservice for the past year and a half, the family's statement said. She was the youngest of three siblings. She loved the Green Bay Packers and the Iowa Hawkeye football teams, and she enjoyed music and dancing with her daughter.

Funeral arrangements are pending.

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