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Arrest made in 41-year-old Linn County murder case
An Oregon man has been arrested and will be extradited to Iowa to face first-degree murder charge in the 1983 death of Ron Novak
May. 28, 2025 5:39 pm
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CEDAR RAPIDS -- Ron Novak’s body was found beaten, shot, and frozen in an unheated storeroom of his rural Walker home on Christmas Eve, 1983. On Wednesday, nearly 42 years later, the Linn County Sheriff’s Office announced it has arrested a man they believe was Novak’s killer — or, one of them.
Michael Scott Schappert, now 64, was 23 years old when officials say he broke into Novak’s home and murdered him with the help of at least one other person, who still is unidentified. Now, Schappert is being held in the Multnomah County Jail in Oregon, where he was arrested Wednesday morning with help from the Multnomah County Sheriff’s Office.
Schappert will be extradited to Iowa in the coming days, where he faces a charge of first-degree murder, according to Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner.
“It just kind of feels unreal after all this time,” Novak’s sister, Patti Wilson, told reporters after a press conference Wednesday. “You start to give up hope that maybe there will be an answer.”
Wilson said she was surprised when she got the call from the sheriff’s office Wednesday morning, informing her that an arrest had been made it her brother’s case. She said finally having an update in the case is “surreal,” and that she wishes her mother and other siblings who have passed away since her brother’s murder could have been around to see it.
“It’s been a long time, a long ride for us. I didn’t know if I would ever see this day come. I wanted to so bad, so I very much thank you all. We look forward to the trial. Maybe we’ll finally understand what happened,” Wilson said during the press conference.
The case still is open, as Gardner said investigators believe there was at least one other person involved in Novak’s murder.
“What we are hoping is by naming a suspect, Michael Schappert, it may cause other people to now come forward that maybe weren’t willing to do so previously, or maybe this has jogged their memory some 41 years later,” Gardner said during the press conference. “We are hoping that the public will reach back out to us and provide us more information.”
What happened on that night 41 years ago?
Novak was 24 when he was found, by his brother, on the afternoon of Dec. 24, 1983. He was face down in an unheated room of his house. His hands were tied behind his back, and he appeared to have been beaten in the head and body with hammers and a golf club, which were found in the room. He also had been shot once in the chest.
An autopsy performed at the time identified the cause of death as a combination between those injuries and hypothermia and shock because of the cold temperature in the room.
Novak’s girlfriend had talked to him on the phone at 8 p.m. the night before he was found dead. They had discussed her plans to visit him that evening, and she told police Ron had seemed especially anxious to see her, according to previous reporting by The Gazette.
Don Novak, Ron’s brother who died in 2012, told The Gazette in 1992 that Ron had been concerned that someone was watching him in the days before his murder. His house had been broken into, but nothing was taken.
Less than an hour after the first call, Novak’s girlfriend called again to let him know she wouldn’t be able to visit him because her car wouldn’t start on the bitterly cold night. But Novak didn’t answer the phone.
Dale Laver, a friend of Novak’s, also planned to visit that night, but he changed his mind due to a battery problem with his car. He also tried to call Ron to cancel, but no one answered the phone.
Laver and Novak’s girlfriend were worried because Novak seldom left his house, but they also figured he could fend for himself. According an article published in The Gazette in 1992, Novak was 6 feet tall, weighed more than 200 pounds and was nicknamed “Tarzan”. He also had three guns and two golden retrievers.
Novak was the youngest of seven siblings, three of whom are still living and attended the press conference Wednesday. Wilson said Novak was private and didn’t talk much with his family.
“My brother was a little elusive with us, so we didn’t really hang out together, per se. We don’t know who his friends were,” Wilson said. “We have to rely on those people that know what they know. Please come forward and let’s put it to rest.”
Investigators believe Schappert and others went to Novak’s house that day with the intent to rob him of money and marijuana, Gardner said Wednesday. At the time of the murder, Linn County Sheriff’s Office investigators had been keeping tabs on Novak because they considered him Linn County’s biggest marijuana dealer, according to reporting by The Gazette.
But if the murder was meant to be a robbery, it wasn’t a very thorough one — Novak’s wallet was missing from the scene, but a suitcase containing $32,000 in cash and a duffel bag with $7,650 worth of marijuana were left out in the open in his bedroom. Though, that could have been because of Novak’s dogs. They were locked out of the storeroom where Novak was found, but the killers would have had to get past the animals to get to any other part of the house.
DNA evidence led investigators to a suspect
Investigators were able to identify Schappert as a suspect in the case through DNA found on one of the hammers used to beat Novak and on Novak’s clothes.
The DNA evidence was seized during the initial investigation, and it was recently traced back to Schappert through tests run by DNA Labs International and Parabon Nanolabs, two companies that work with law enforcement agencies on cases involving DNA.
Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks said the companies were able to narrow the DNA profile obtained from the evidence to three brothers through databases of ancestral research DNA, and after further testing, they were able to determine the DNA matched Schappert.
The DNA testing was partially paid for by the nonprofit Season of Justice, which raises money to fund DNA testing for cold case investigations.
Schappert previously lived in Linn County and attended Kennedy High School. Gardner said Schappert’s relationship to Novak is not known, but investigators do not believe they were close.
In the years since Ron’s death, his family and friends have continued to advocate for more to be done to solve the case as DNA technologies continue to be developed.
Marlene Chramosta, a friend of the Novak family, has written several guest columns that have been published in The Gazette over the years, calling for the Linn County Sheriff’s Office to give more attention to Novak’s case. Her most recent column, published on Dec. 23, 2023, encouraged readers to sign a petition for Iowa to pass laws to make cold case investigation information more accessible for the families of victims.
“It’s only been about a year and half since we found out they had the DNA that they were working on,” Wilson said after the conference. “So, it’s been a long time waiting for something to come of that, but I appreciate them being thorough and being sure that whoever they prosecute is going to be the one, and that he pays his price. He got to live his life. My brother didn’t.”
Comments: (319) 398-8328; emily.andersen@thegazette.com
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