116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
COLD CASE: Unsolved murder of Willie Brocks spans career of Cedar Rapids investigator
Brocks, killed nearly 25 years ago, loved martial arts, daughter says
Sep. 15, 2024 5:30 am, Updated: Jun. 7, 2025 3:16 pm
This is the fifth installment in an occasional series about cold case investigations in Cedar Rapids and Linn County.
CEDAR RAPIDS — In the early morning of Nov. 27, 1999, Matt Denlinger, who was fresh out of the Cedar Rapids Police Academy and on patrol with his field training officer, received a dispatch call about a “person down” in the city’s southeast quadrant.
“All we knew was a person was down and not breathing” on 15th Street SE, Denlinger, now an investigator with the Cedar Rapids Police Department, told The Gazette. “It was 7:13 a.m. The call came from a couple of ladies who were driving by that area on the way to work.”
When they arrived, the man was face-down in the grass between the sidewalk and street in front of 412 15th St. SE. The training officer rolled him over and couldn’t find a pulse. It was clear the man already was dead. Then they saw a small hole in his clothing — he had a gunshot wound to his upper abdomen area.
“There was nothing at the scene to help us” with identifying a suspect, said Denlinger, who is part of the department’s three-person Cold Case Unit. “Nobody was out at that hour.”
Denlinger said this call was a “bit overwhelming” for him just being a month out of the academy. He was relieved to have an experienced officer with him, and also the commanders who were called out to the scene, along with the crime scene unit and detectives.
One of the responding officers recognized the dead man as Willie Junior Brocks, 49, of Cedar Rapids. Brocks was known to some of the officers as a “drug user and petty thief” who drove his bike around the neighborhood.
“Brocks and his common-law wife, Brenna Griffith, had been in the neighborhood since the 1970s,” Denlinger said.
Now nearly 25 years after the murder of Willie Brocks, no killer has been arrested despite investigators chasing tips and rumors and developing theories. However, investigators are still chasing leads and have identified a person of interest who may lead them to the shooter.
Who was Willie Brocks?
Griffith, of Cedar Rapids, now 68, told The Gazette she met Brocks in August 1977 and they started a long-term relationship a few months later. They stayed together for 17 years and had six children.
“He was the only man that stuck to me,” Griffith, who started laughing as she recalled their life together while standing last week near his grave at Oak Hill Cemetery. “He was a good-looking man. A lot of fun. We would go out dancing together, usually at Shake Your Booty” — a disco club.
“Everybody loved him. He was good-hearted and kind. He was known for making (decorative) bikes,” she said.
Brocks was a “proud” Arkansan, who grew up and lived there in Camden before coming to Iowa, said his eldest daughter, Nell Brocks, 45, of Cedar Rapids. She was with her sister, Nashay Brocks, 39, and Griffith last week at the cemetery.
Brocks’ grave is unmarked because the family couldn’t afford a headstone when he was murdered. Nell said she was working on getting one.
Nell has fond memories of her dad. He took karate lessons and loved martial arts. He would get her and her siblings to watch with him all the martial arts movies of Bruce Lee.
“He wanted to teach us to protect ourselves from the time we were 4 or 5 years old, Nell said. “I remember us holding boards for him and him breaking the boards with a kick.”
Nell also recalled bad times with her dad after he got involved with drugs. Unfortunately, she followed a similar path. She got involved with her boyfriend at the time, who sold drugs, and she went to federal prison in Minnesota for over nine years.
“It was the best thing that happened to me because it saved me,” Nell said. “I found myself and it helped me be a stronger person. They helped me with life skills I didn’t get at home.”
Nell said after getting out of prison, she went to Arkansas to visit family and tried to learn more about her father, which helped her repair her own life. She now has a steady job and is writing a book in hopes of helping others.
Griffith said she and Brocks had many good years together before he got involved in drugs. He had worked in construction in Arkansas and Texas. In Cedar Rapids, he worked as a painter and did maintenance work at rental properties.
Griffith broke up with him because she didn’t want to risk losing her kids over his drug activities. Brocks went to prison for selling drugs to an undercover officer in 1994, and wasn’t released until 1999.
Griffith never got back together with him. He was killed six months later.
Most of the charges filed against Brocks since 1981 were for traffic violations, public intoxication and some drug offenses, according to court records. The more serious charges filed were for delivery of a controlled substance and selling crack cocaine to an undercover officer, in 1993.
Possible leads
Denlinger said Brocks, after getting out of prison, continued with drugs and was “couch surfing” with friends or acquaintances. After he was killed, police learned he was living in a garage off an alley, not too far from where he was fatally shot.
Denlinger’s job on this case was to help canvass the neighborhood, but police found little information about the crime. Two residents at 420 15th St. SE said they heard a man yelling for help and then heard one gunshot about 5 a.m. that day. They also reported hearing a car speeding off, which nobody else had reported.
Another neighbor, near Fifth Avenue and 15th Street SE, said he got his newspaper off the porch about 5 a.m. but didn’t see anyone at that time. A woman at the same address said she heard arguing between 6:45 and 7 a.m. She then heard two shots 15 minutes later. But that time frame isn’t consistent with when the victim would have died, Denlinger noted.
“That’s likely an hour later than when the homicide occurred,” Denlinger said. “Another neighbor one block to the west, reported hearing one gunshot about 5 a.m.”
Denlinger said most of the witnesses were off on the times they recalled for police. He didn’t think anyone was attempting to conceal anything — most people aren’t looking at a clock in the overnight hours. Brocks likely died after 5 a.m. but before 7 a.m.
The detectives talked to one woman on Third Avenue SE who said Brocks was hanging out at her house the night before with a friend. This woman said she heard Brocks may have taken money from a couple of “white men” to get them crack. She said Brocks may have just kept the money without giving them drugs. She said the men were driving a gray pickup truck.
“Detectives heard this story several times and each time the source seemed to share the rumors from the same woman,” Denlinger said.
That woman also said she “shooed” Brocks and a younger man off her porch about 2:30 a.m. that morning — Nov. 27, 1999.
Brocks’ cousin, Bernard Browning, said he had been with Brocks the night before at an apartment near 15th Street and Third Avenue SE, according to the police reports.
Denlinger said the detectives, with the help of Griffith and Nelson Brocks, one of their sons, started gathering information about the days and weeks that led up to the incident and possible motives for who might want to harm Willie Brocks.
The first motive may have been the drug deal involving the two white men in the gray pickup, Denlinger said. A second motive may have been a burglary at Nell’s apartment about a week before. Someone broke into her apartment she shared with her boyfriend and their newborn and stole DVDs and a shoe full of change.
Witnesses told detectives they had seen Brocks with a bag of DVDs and it was rumored he had burglarized his daughter’s apartment, Denlinger said.
“Which would make sense because Willie is a petty thief and he’s doing things to be able to feed his drug habit,” Denlinger noted.
That burglary led to speculation that Nell’s boyfriend or some of his “associates” had a motive to kill Brocks. But the boyfriend was willing to talk to officers more than once and cooperated with police.
A man told police on Nov. 28, 1999 — a day after the killing — that he saw Brocks being chased by two men just days before Thanksgiving, Denlinger said. It’s unclear who was chasing him.
Griffith told the detectives that a family member told her that Brocks ran into their residence and hid in the basement a day or two before his murder, according to the case file. Brocks told the family member he was being chased, she said.
Denlinger said Brocks seemed to be concerned he was the “target” of some young men in the area.
Little physical evidence
The detectives were hoping for a break from witnesses who might have information, since there was little physical evidence, Denlinger said. A single shell casing was found on the front porch of 414 15th St. SE, but it’s unclear if it was related to this shooting.
Shell casings back then were not properly handled to test — or even were tested at all, Denlinger pointed out. Now, testing shell casings for DNA evidence is becoming more common. But any DNA found on them isn’t usually enough to create a profile.
The detectives also found shoe prints near the scene, but they later found out those belonged to Brocks and the paramedics, Denlinger said.
Through more follow up, detectives interviewed a young man in jail who admitted to chasing Brocks, Denlinger said. He also said he and another man saw Brocks with a bag of DVDs and they assumed it was the stolen ones from Nell’s home. The young man never caught up to Brocks and denied any involvement in his death.
Brocks being chased by someone before he was shot could fit in the scenario because his green “Salem” cigarette hat was found in the alley just east of 15th Street SE, Denlinger said. Brocks could have been running and his cap fell off before he was shot.
By summer 2000, detectives were following up on some leads they received from inmates at the Mount Pleasant Correctional Facility. Two inmates provided information about the same man who claimed he was present when Brocks was killed.
However, this man denied being present or knowing who killed Brocks.
Cold case review
This spring, Denlinger and Cold Case Unit decided to take another look the Brocks murder. Nell Brocks’ former boyfriend was interviewed again. He has been cooperative and gave Denlinger reasonable explanations why he would not have killed Brocks.
He told Denlinger he had just had a baby with Nell, he loved her and wouldn’t have killed her father over those stolen items. He realized Brocks probably was the burglar, but those things had little value.
Denlinger said the man can’t be eliminated as a suspect at this point. He could have a connection to the suspect or suspects, but he was never nervous about talking to Denlinger or the detectives in 1999.
“There’s another layer to this but I can’t share that right now,” Denlinger said. “I may be able to someday.”
He realizes the public always wants the police to provide more information, but they usually can’t without hurting the chances of prosecution. In the early stages of a crime, investigators won’t know just what happened so they err on the side of caution by releasing few details.
Denlinger said it’s possible, in this crime, that Brocks made somebody angry because he stole from people for drugs.
“Every couch he slept on — he was probably stealing items to sell for drugs,” Denlinger said. “Maybe there were repercussions from a buyer who was in trouble because they tried to sell those stolen items.”
The cold case investigators will continue to work any leads on this case. Investigators do have a person of interest who may lead to the case being solved, Denlinger said.
“I think that person is still in Cedar Rapids and this case will be solved when someone finally decides to do the right thing and come forward.”
Brocks’ family still has hope that someone will be arrested for the murder.
“It will happen. In the Lord’s time,” Griffith said.
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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