116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
COLD CASE: Investigator still struggling for clues in 15-year-old Cedar Rapids girl’s disappearance 24 years ago
Last person to see Erin Pospisil was convicted last year of killing his neighbor
Jun. 8, 2025 4:45 am, Updated: Jun. 9, 2025 7:15 am
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This is the eighth installment in an occasional series about cold case investigations in Cedar Rapids.
Erin Pospisil was 15 years old when she climbed into the backseat of a “black or dark colored” vehicle in the 1500 block of Second Avenue SE on June 3, 2001. She has never been seen again.
She planned to go to her friend’s house that night, but needed a ride. Her brother’s friend, Curtis Padgett, said he would take her. When her friend wasn’t home, Erin purportedly told Padgett she would get a ride with the people in the dark colored car — possibly a Chevrolet Cavalier — that drove up.
Her family and Cedar Rapids Police have relied on that story because there is nothing to disprove it.
This case remains unsolved after 24 years, as of this month. A body hasn’t been found, but if Erin is alive, she has never contacted family or friends and police have found no credible sightings of her. Erin would be 39 years old today.
‘Street smart’
Her family has always believed Erin, a freshman at Metro High School, must have known the driver or passengers in the Cavalier because while she may have been just 15, she was “street smart” and not naive.
Erin was an outgoing, rebellious, opinionated teen with “big ideas,” both her stepmom and mother told The Gazette.
“She was into everything,” said Carolyn Pospisil, Erin’s stepmom who now lives in Council Bluffs. “She had a lot of different social groups and friends. She wanted to be an actress or a musician. She was a typical teen who didn’t stay with one thing too long. She would love something and then move on.”
Erin always wanted to do whatever her older brothers, Eric and Jim Pospisil, did, and Eric let her hang out with him and his friends.
“She was a smart girl, but didn’t like school,” Carolyn said.
Christine Canfield, Erin’s mother who lives in Palo, said her daughter had a good sense of humor, liked to play video games and loved the holidays, especially Halloween.
“I think she liked the holidays because we all got to be together,” Canfield said.
Erin lived full-time with father, Jim Pospisil, and Carolyn, but she spent a lot of time at Canfield’s home. They would play video games and talk. Canfield would join the Pospisils for the holidays.
Canfield said she last talked to Erin the day before she went missing. They didn’t talk about anything specific and Erin didn’t mention any issues or being upset about anything that might have made her want to leave home.
Carolyn said she and Erin talked for the last time during a phone conversation just before Erin left their house on June 3, 2001. Carolyn wasn’t home at the time and Erin’s dad worked different shifts and was home sleeping or may have been at the store when Erin left.
Erin asked Carolyn for a ride to her friend’s house at 1507 Second Ave. SE, but Carolyn said she couldn’t do it until 9 p.m. Erin said she didn’t want to wait. Later, after Erin didn’t come home the next day, Carolyn found out Padgett offered her a ride.
Cedar Rapids Police Investigator Marty Devore, who was assigned to the case on June 11, 2001 and has continued over the years to follow leads, said he interviewed Padgett the next day after learning he gave Erin a ride.
A possible suspect
Padgett has been a suspect in the case because he was the last person to see Erin that night, but investigators didn’t have any other evidence of his involvement.
Padgett told Devore when they got to the home of Erin’s friend, Brit McCune, nobody was there. He planned to take Erin back to her house, but the Cavalier pulled up at the curb. Padgett said the car came driving the wrong way on Second Avenue, which was a one-way street at the time.
Erin approached the car and seemed to know the driver or passengers, Padgett told Devore. She then told Padgett she was going with them and got into the backseat.
Padgett said Erin had a blanket with her because the seats in his car were dirty or torn and Erin didn’t want to sit on them. Padgett said she took it and he didn’t have it.
He also gave a description of what Erin was wearing that day — a T-shirt and beige overall shorts.
“I didn’t think Curtis was misleading me,” Devore said. “He cooperated and his version made sense back then. Erin knew a lot of people, so it wasn’t unusual that she would know the people in the car.”
Carolyn said she didn’t know Padgett well. He was friends with Jimmy, but they weren’t close.
“He wasn’t asked to hang out with the boys. He would just show up. Sometimes, they wouldn’t answer the door after Erin went missing.”
One time, Erin’s sister, Amber Pospisil, wouldn’t let Padgett in the front door of the house. He ran around the outside of the house to another door and tried to get inside before Erin’s brothers refused to let him in, That was the last time he came around their house, Carolyn said.
Everything left behind
If she had planned or wanted to run away, Devore said it was unusual that Erin didn’t take anything with her. She didn’t take a purse, clothes or her “day planner,” which listed all her friends’ and relatives’ phone numbers.
Devore said back in the early 2000s, not everyone had a cell, including Erin, so having those numbers was probably important to a teenager.
After Erin went missing, Carolyn didn’t believe she ran away because Erin never went anywhere without her day planner or her backpack, which she usually carried.
The next morning, when Carolyn realized Erin wasn’t home, she went to McCune’s house, thinking Erin had stayed there. Nobody was home, so Carolyn left a note for Erin to call her. McCune later called, and told Carolyn Erin wasn’t there and hadn’t been there the night before.
McCune, who said she had known Erin for about a year, told investigators she didn’t know Erin was coming over that night. She also told Devore she didn’t know Padgett.
“That’s when I realized my kid was missing,” Carolyn said. “I started making phone calls to family and friends. I didn’t realize how many friends Erin had until I found her day planner.”
Carolyn didn’t report Erin missing until after she contacted Canfield, and learned she hadn't seen her that day.
Carolyn filed a missing persons report and was told an officer would contact her, but no one did. She said she felt like the police were blaming the family for Erin leaving, insinuating there must have been an issue with a family member.
Nothing had been going on to make Erin leave home, Carolyn said. And if Erin had been upset about something, her family would have known because Erin could be “very vocal.”
Carolyn disclosed to police that about a month before she disappeared, Erin had been mad about something at home, but it was more of a teen “tantrum,” she said.
Police listed Erin as a runaway and refused to change the status until the family could prove otherwise, Carolyn said. It wasn’t until after the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation became involved in the case that Erin was listed as a missing person.
Carolyn starting putting up flyers around the neighborhood, and she went back to the police department twice before anyone would talk to her.
Investigation starts
That’s when Devore was assigned to the case. He talked to Carolyn at 7:30 p.m. on June 11.
The investigator immediately started contacting Erin’s family members, friends and following any leads.
“I’ve done a lot of work on this case, possibly more than on any other cases like it,” Devore added.
He credits Carolyn for immediately contacting police and staying on top of it over the years. She did some interviews with media and created a Help Find a Child.org website with information about Erin.
Carolyn said she also continued to knock on neighbors’ doors and even knocked on the door of Steve Gravelle, a reporter for The Gazette. Gravelle didn't reveal his job until the next day, when he asked Carolyn for an interview.
“He was the first person that listened to me and heard what I had to say,” Carolyn said.
Gravelle’s article was published June 23, 2001 and tips started coming in, but none of them led to credible information about what happened, Devore said.
Erin usually told someone where she was going, and that day she’d said she would be back in an hour. She also has never contacted any friends or relatives since June 3, 2001.
“Now you can text or call or the family might have GPS on their teen’s phone, but back then not everyone had a cellphone,” Devore said. “There also was limited surveillance (in neighborhoods). Homes didn’t have ring cameras or other devices at the time.”
Sightings reported in Cedar Rapids
Devore said there were “sightings” of Erin reported in the Pospisils’ neighborhood of Wellington Heights after she went missing, but no one could give specific locations. With so many flyers hanging up, Devore said it would be difficult to believe she was still in the area and no one recognized her.
“Unless she didn’t want to be found,” Devore said.
There were tips reported to police that Erin had been taken to Chicago for a gang-related drug debt, but that was just a rumor that “got bigger” as people told it, Devore said. He contacted Chicago police precincts in a neighborhood where she was rumored to have been taken. Flyers were hung in the neighborhood — in the area of Cabrini Green, once a public-housing project area — on the north side of the city.
Devore went to the area to look for Erin, but never found anything or any reports of sightings of her.
There was another rumor that Erin had been seen at a Navy recruiting office in Cedar Rapids and at a Pilot Travel Center in Sioux City, but those couldn’t be confirmed.
One person close to the family, in February 2022, said he saw her in a car at a Hawkeye Convenience Store on First Avenue and 17th Street. He followed the car, but never got a license plate number and lost it in traffic. He described the car as a brown Pontiac Grand Am.
Devore pointed out an early 2000 Grand Am and Cavalier are similar in appearance.
This sighting wasn’t reported to police, only to the family who then told police. By the time officers got to the store, it was too late to track the car, Devore said. They did retrieve video surveillance from inside the store, but there wasn’t an exterior camera. The driver of the car inside the store matched the family friend’s description.
Devore also followed any tips sent to him from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit organization that has Erin’s missing persons poster on their site. The organization also made age progression photos of what Erin might look like over the years. The most recent is what she would look like at 35 years old.
Cedar Rapids police have entered Erin’s and her mother’s DNA into two different law enforcement-related databases, in the event her body is found or her DNA is connected to another case or person. Canfield provided a hair root follicle for the test, Devore said.
Bodies of people matching Erin’s height, body type and race have been found in other states — Illinois, Michigan, California and Oklahoma — but none of them matched Erin’s DNA, Devore said.
Carolyn and Jim Pospisil moved to Council Bluffs in September 2002 but continued to look for Erin. Carolyn kept the same cellphone number so Erin could contact her.
‘I want to believe she’s still alive’
Devore said he doesn’t know what happened to Erin. There’s no DNA or crime scene evidence. He can’t disprove Padgett’s account of what happened to Erin, but he also can’t say it’s true.
The case status was changed from “missing person” to “suspected homicide” in 2021, but not because police had new information, Devore said. It was just a procedural change based on the age of the case. Changing its status ensures any evidence will be preserved.
Devore and other investigators are looking at all avenues, including Padgett because he was the last person to see her.
Investigator Matt Denlinger, a member of the department’s Cold Case Unit, said the team reviewed the case when they were working on another cold case investigation of the murder of Dennis First, 64, of Cedar Rapids, who was beaten and fatally stabbed May 11, 2007.
Their suspect in that case was Padgett, so they wanted to be prepared to talk to him, knowing he was the last person to see Erin.
Denlinger said the unit hasn’t worked on Erin’s case because it hasn’t received any new information.
“We will likely revisit Erin’s case in the future if Investigator Devore needs help,” Denlinger said.
Carolyn said Erin’s dad and brothers believe Padgett did something to Erin and that’s why Erin never came home, but Carolyn doesn’t know what to think.
“Part of me wants that to be true, only because it would give us an answer,” Carolyn said, tearing up. “But my heart doesn’t want that. I want to believe she’s still alive. If I could see her and know she’s OK, even if Erin didn’t want to come home, that would be enough.”
She couldn’t say that until Padgett was arrested in First’s death. He was convicted of first-degree murder in 2024 and is serving a life sentenced without the possibility of parole.
His conviction gave Carolyn’s suspicions some “validation that he could hurt somebody,” she said.
Canfield said she will always have hope.
“I keep hoping she’s (out there) for her siblings,” Canfield said. “Her sister (Amber) and brother (Eric) still are having a hard time without her. My oldest, Jimmy, died of cancer a few years ago. I have nine grandkids (including two from her partner) that keep me busy.”
Both Carolyn and Canfield said they feel they have a small piece of Erin because her brother Jim’s oldest daughter looks and acts like Erin.
“Somebody knows something,” Carolyn said. “They may not realize it but it could just be some small detail that helps. I want to thank everyone for keeping Erin’s story out there.”
Information?
If you have information about Erin Pospisil’s 2001 disappearance, call Investigator Marty Devore. To provide information about any other unsolved Cedar Rapids murder, call Investigator Matt Denlinger at the Cedar Rapids Police Department at (319) 286-5442.
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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