Procession honors trooper killed in NE Iowa crash

Scores of people paid their respects Friday to Trooper Ted Benda, who was killed in a Northeast Iowa crash earlier this month, as his body was escorted to a Waukon funeral home.

The Iowa Department of Public safety provided the escort from the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny to Waukon as people lined segments of the route to honor Benda.

A public visitation will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Tuesday at St. Patrick Catholic Church in Waukon. A public funeral service will be held at 11 a.m. Wednesday at the Waukon High School with Father John Moser officiating, according to the Martin-Grau Funeral Home, which is handing the arrangements. A private burial will follow in Waukon.

Benda, 37, of near Decorah, died Wednesday, nearly a week after the crash. Authorities said he was driving at a high rate of speed about 11:30 p.m. Oct. 14 while rushing to assist the Clayton County Sheriff’s Office with a call when he crashed on Highway 51 about 6 miles north of Postville. Benda was airlifted to Gundersen Lutheran Hospital in La Crosse, Wis., where he died.

Benda, who had been with the Iowa State Patrol since 2016 and before that with the Division of Criminal Investigation since 2005, leaves behind his wife, Holly, and four young children, the State Patrol reported.