Two confessed to killing Marengo man, search warrants indicate

Search warrants returned in Iowa County District Court state that Curtis Bailey's common-law wife and her son confessed to killing Bailey during a struggle.

But the two - Denise Frei, 42, and Jacob Hilgendorf, 19, of Belle Plaine - said Jessica Dayton is the one who hit Bailey in the head, causing his death.

Iowa County deputies found Bailey, 33, dead at his Marengo home at 1:50 a.m. July 19. The preliminary cause of death is given as blunt force trauma to the back of his head, according to a search warrant.

In the warrants, investigators say Frei and Hilgendorf confessed to the murder.

They also told police that they and Dayton, 19, of Belle Plaine, attempted to wrap Bailey's head with plastic wrap after the murder.

Frei told police during an interview that she had tried to kill Bailey on July 3, injecting him with insulin with a mechanical injector she had stolen. She said one of the injectors remained in Bailey's house; police later found it in a drawer.

Dayton, a waitress at Bailey's Lincoln Cafe in Belle Plaine, had not confessed to any role in the murder, according to the search warrants.

Frei and Hilgendorf told police that Hilgendorf and Dayton left Bailey's home and went to friend's home near Amana after the murder. Hilgendorf changed clothes and vehicles and came to the Iowa County Sheriff's Office about 8 a.m. to be interviewed.

Frei and Hilgendorf said the three of them removed the murder weapon and several other items of evidence from the home in an attempt to conceal the crime.

Investigators stated in the warrant that they have recovered bloody clothing, shoes and bloody plastic wrap.

Hilgendorf had bite marks on his body, according to a search warrant.

The warrants had no information on Dayton's interview with police, except that she called a friend, Denise Templeton, after leaving the Sheriff's Office.

She warned Templeton not to allow police to search Hilgendorf's vehicle, which was parked in her garage. Dayton told Templeton if that happened, “they would all go to prison for a long time,” according to the search warrants.

When Dayton came back to the sheriff's office for a second interview, she too had changed clothes, according to a search warrant. The clothing and shoes Dayton wore the night of the murder haven't been recovered.

Police have not recovered Hilgendorf's clothing, according to a search warrant.

Hilgendorf wouldn't consent to police searching his Ford Explorer, saying it contained drug paraphernalia. Police said that from the outside, they saw a glove that appeared to have blood on it, an object wrapped in a towel near the console area and a dark-colored bag in the back.