A Cedar Rapids woman faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute meth in 2024. She traveled to Arizona to pick up drugs and was nabbed in Oklahoma on the way back to Iowa.
Trish Mehaffey Crime & Courts Sep. 25, 2025 5:13 pm27d ago
A Cedar Rapids woman faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute meth in 2024. She traveled to Arizona to pick up drugs and was nabbed in Oklahoma on the way back to Iowa.
Emily Andersen Crime & Courts Sep. 26, 2025 7:16 am26d ago
An Iowa City man was arrested Thursday at Bread Garden Market in the Iowa City Pedestrian Mall, by three plainclothes men who — in a bystander video of the incident — identified themselves only as “federal agents.”
Crime & Courts Sep. 26, 2025 7:14 am26d ago
Dakota Van Patten, 19, of Cedar Rapids, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole for the kidnapping and strangling of 20 year-old Melody Hoffman of Marion, on Feb. 18, 2024. The jury deliberated for about three hours.
Crime & Courts Sep. 25, 2025 8:05 am27d ago
Dakota Van Patten repeatedly told police he had no knowledge and wasn’t involved in Melody Hoffman’s assault and strangulation in February 2024. He wouldn’t be able to “live with himself” if he killed someone, he told investigators.
Crime & Courts Sep. 24, 2025 3:09 pm28d ago
A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Tuesday after police say he fired a gun into the air to scare four people.
Crime & Courts Sep. 24, 2025 2:54 pm28d ago
An Iowa City couple and their son have been arrested after a police investigation into two massage parlors owned by the couple, where police say employees were providing sex acts to clients.
Crime & Courts Sep. 24, 2025 2:59 pm28d ago
A North Liberty woman arrested last year in Minnesota after crashing a car with the dead body of her ex-girlfriend inside has been convicted of murder by a Hennepin County jury.
Crime & Courts Sep. 24, 2025 7:42 am28d ago
A state medical examiner testified Tuesday 20-year-old Melody Hoffman was strangled from behind by her attacker and likely died within minutes on Feb. 18, 2024.
Crime & Courts Sep. 23, 2025 7:26 am29d ago
Dakota Van Patten took 200 selfies of himself wearing Melody Hoffman’s glasses after she was killed Feb. 18, 2024. An investigator found the photos on his cellphone during the investigation.
Crime & Courts Sep. 22, 2025 4:34 pm30d ago
The Iowa City Police Department is investigating a shots fired incident that happened early Sunday morning, according to a press release from the department.
Crime & Courts Sep. 24, 2025 5:11 pm28d ago
Marion police investigators testified Friday about how traffic cameras and cellphone data helped them piece together what happened to Melody Hoffman, who was kidnapped and killed in February 2024.
Crime & Courts Sep. 22, 2025 7:35 am30d ago
Karina Cooper, Ryan Cooper’s wife, was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for her involvement in her husband’s death in 2021 in rural Traer.
Crime & Courts Sep. 19, 2025 4:21 pm33d ago
A former CEO of a telecommunications provider in northern Iowa was sentenced Friday to three years and two months in federal prison after he stole more than $600,000 from the company he worked for, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Iowa.
Crime & Courts Sep. 19, 2025 4:23 pm33d ago
A Cedar Rapids man was arrested Thursday after police say he started a trash can fire and several smaller fires at Greene Square park while carrying a sword.
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