The autopsy of Melody Hoffman, 20, of Marion, showed blunt force injuries all over her body, along with five stab wounds and numerous cutting marks on her back. A medical examiner also said Hoffman may have been pregnant at the time of her strangulation or recently had a miscarriage, which could be a possible motive for the Hiawatha man on trial for kidnapping and murder.
Police were called at 7:28 a.m. Tuesday to the restaurant at 1316 First Ave. NE, where witnesses reported a person robbed the store with a handgun and fled.
A deputy attempted to stop a vehicle driving 92 mph in a 55 mph zone near F.W. Kent Park. The driver, who is 15, fled for about 7 miles before crashing, a news release states.
McKinley Louisma, in a police interview, said his co-conspirator held a gun to his head and started beating a Marion woman and then strangled her.
Two teenagers who were accused of breaking into West High School in August and holding down and stabbing another teen have pleaded guilty to burglary.
The Cedar Rapids Police Department is investigating an armed robbery that happened Tuesday morning at a Wendy’s, according to a news release from the department.
A Cedar Rapids man was sentenced to 25 years in prison for fatally shooting Mohammad Tawfik, 22, also of Cedar Rapids, in January 2023. The two men were arguing over a drug deal they set up.
A Cedar Rapids man, already convicted for sexual assault in Linn and Keokuk counties, was sentenced last week to another 10 years for an assault in Marion County. The judge ran the 10 consecutively to his other 25 years for a total of 35 years.
Dr. Keith Bell of Austin, who claims to be a “world renowned sports psychologist” and “the father of swimming psychology,” is suing the Solon Community School District in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Iowa.
The Iowa Supreme Court has reversed a $97.4 million verdict against an OBGYN clinic in Coralville — undoing what was believed to be the largest medical malpractice judgment for a birth trauma in state history — and ordered a new trial.
McKinley Louisma’s phone also shows messages exchanged with victim
Iowa’s state librarian has been arrested on a charge of disseminating obscene material to a person he believed was a 14-year-old boy.
An Iowa City woman has been charged with three traffic misdemeanors in the death of an Iowa City cyclist in September, according to a news release from the Johnson County Attorney’s Office.
A Marion police investigator testified Thursday the Hiawatha man charged with killing Melody Hoffman in February had a torture photo in his phone. It shows the woman with a bloody nose, duct tape over her mouth and she appears to be crying.
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