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Prosecutor: Multiple agencies worked together to bring swift arrests in fatal assault
Third man charged with conspiracy in Marion woman’s death
Feb. 23, 2024 5:21 pm, Updated: Feb. 26, 2024 8:09 am
CEDAR RAPIDS — The investigation leading to the arrests of three men in the kidnapping and fatal assault of 20-year-old Melody Hoffman of Marion this week was one of the “swiftest” that Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks has been involved with during his tenure.
“This was an all-hands-on deck, full-force, deliberative effort to find out what happened to Melody Hoffman,” Maybanks told The Gazette on Friday after a third man was charged with conspiracy in her slaying.
Investigators and officers from the Marion police, Linn and Iowa county sheriff’s offices and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation “worked day and night, digging up leads,” confirming them, and then consulting with Maybanks on the appropriate charges, he said.
McKinley Louisma, 23, of Hiawatha, and Dakota Lyle Van Patten, 18, of Cedar Rapids, were both charged Thursday with first-degree murder, first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. At the time of this deadly attack, Louisma and Van Patten were both on bail for assault charged from last month.
They are accused of kidnapping and killing Hoffman, who died by strangulation, according to Iowa State Medical Examiner’s preliminary report. She also had numerous stab and slash wounds to her body and was bound with duct tape during the Feb. 17 attack.
Logan William Michael Kimpton, 18, who has the same address in Hiawatha as Louisma, was charged Friday with conspiracy to commit a forcible felony. He admitted to investigators that he had been at Walmart with Louisma and Van Patten on Feb. 17 when they bought two machetes and gloves.
When an investigator told Kimpton during an interview that he “chickened out” of participating in the killing, Kimpton said “Damn right, I did,” according to a criminal complaint.
Kimpton also told three other people one or two nights before the killing that he and two others planned to kill someone, the complaint states. These other people didn’t know the victim’s identity.
Kimpton, during Friday’s hearing, also was charged in a separate case with willful injury causing bodily injury and conspiracy to commit a non-forcible felony. He is accused of conspiring with two other men and a woman to assaulting Dakota Holt on Jan. 14.
Sixth Judicial Associate District Judge Russell Keast set a $10,000 cash only bail on the conspiracy charge in the Hoffman case and $10,000 cash or surety on the charges in the separate case.
Details of investigation
Maybanks said Hoffman’s mother, Megan Hoffman, reported her daughter missing last Sunday morning. Melody lived with her family in Marion, and her mother hadn’t seen her since Saturday night when Melody said she was going out with friends.
Megan Hoffman didn’t know if her daughter was with Louisma that night, but Maybanks confirmed Louisma had an “on-again, off-again” relationship with Melody. Louisma later told police he also had another girlfriend.
The Iowa County Sheriff’s Office got involved on Sunday, Feb. 18, when authorities found Hoffman’s body near the Lily Pond at 220th Trail and 38th Avenue in Amana.
Maybanks said Marion police and Iowa County typically request help from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, so those three agencies started talking to witnesses. They tracked activity on Hoffman’s iPhone, which was synced to her Apple Watch, and determined she was picked up by Louisma and Van Patten, in Louisma’s vehicle, around 11 p.m. Feb. 17.
He said investigators learned the three ended up in Linn County’s Morgan Creek Park, just west of Cedar Rapids, because Hoffman’s Apple Watch recorded her heartbeat, which intensified and then stopped, either when she was killed or the watch was deactivated.
“She was either killed at Morgan Creek Park or Lily Lake, but both counties could potentially have jurisdiction because key events took place in both counties,” Maybanks said.
But “key elements, if not all the elements,” of kidnapping and murder occurred in Linn County before Louisma and Van Patten traveled to Iowa County and left the body, he added.
The Linn County Sheriff’s Office then joined the investigation and, having information that Louisma was involved in the crime, the office obtained a search warrant for his car, which was found in Hiawatha, Maybanks said.
Deputies found a bag in the car’s trunk containing Hoffman’s phone case, a white Apple Watch band with blood on it, a towing rope, gloves and clothing Hoffman was wearing Saturday night, Maybanks said.
Maybanks said Louisma came the Marion Police Department after finding out his car had been towed there, and investigators interviewed him.
Louisma told a DCI special agent that he and Van Patten bound Hoffman’s wrists with duct tape while at Morgan Creek Park and placed her in the car trunk, according to the complaint. They then drove to several different places in Linn County before they went to the pond at Lily Lake, where they ripped off her clothes and left her.
Louisma also said Hoffman was physically beaten while she was with him and Van Patten and that she was “begging to be let go.” He didn’t admit to taking part in the beating himself, Maybanks said.
Louisma said he had been in an intimate relationship with Hoffman and was still seeing her when this fatal assault happened but also was involved with another woman.
He told the agent that if they asked Van Patten what had happened, he would probably blame Louisma, Maybanks noted.
Investigators also confirmed through video surveillance that Louisma, Van Patten and Kimpton were together at the Walmart buying the two machetes and gloves before they picked up Hoffman that night, Maybanks said.
Van Patten, during his interview with police, admitted he was with Louisma at Walmart before the killing but didn’t admit to being with Louisma during the slaying.
However, video surveillance from a Kwik Star store in Cedar Rapids showed both Louisma and Van Patten buying cigars after the body was left at Lily Lake, according to the complaint.
A witness told police that Van Patten, while in possession of a machete, admitted he had killed someone and, when asked who he killed, replied, “Melody.”
Van Patten was arrested Wednesday.
Kimpton was arrested Thursday when he failed to appear on the willful injury charge in the separate case.
Maybanks was asked if a motive for the slaying has been determined, but he said he didn’t have to prove a motive as an element of the crimes.
“I think it’s safe to say there is no good reason,” he said. “There is never a good reason for murder.”
Comments: (319) 398-8318; trish.mehaffey@thegazette.com
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