Iowa Attorney General and families hope playing cards will help solve cold cases

DES MOINES — Iowa’s top prosecutor is adding a new feature in the hopes of flushing out suspects and bringing useful tips to dormant investigations.

Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird, flanked by law enforcement and family members of Iowans whose killings and disappearances have gone unsolved, held up a deck of playing cards featuring summaries of cold cases and victims' photos that will be distributed to inmates within Iowa’s nine state correctional facilities in hopes of turning up new leads in some of the state’s more than 400 unsolved murders.

The decks include 52 unsolved cases from across Iowa, including homicides, missing persons and unidentified remains cases.

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“Each and every case in this deck represents more than just an unsolved case,” Bird said during a Wednesday news conference at the Des Moines Police Department. “Each card is a life, a story and a family searching for answers. We believe these cards will help to unlock the answers and to get leads.”

Bird said the decks are another way “for us to remind Iowans to come forward.”

“Our goal is simple. We want to start a conversation. We want to spark a memory, and someone might recognize a name,” she told reporters. “They might overhear or remember a conversation, or they might even feel the weight of that long-held secret that they never should have kept, and it’s time now for the people with information or who might know something to come forward.”

She said “no family deserved to wait for decades for answers on what happened to their loved one.”

“If we’re able to solve just one case, it makes it all worth it,” she said. “No one should get away with murder.”

Last summer, Bird launched a cold case unit to tackle Iowa's unsolved murders. Lawmakers allocated $530,000 to fund the initiative in the 2024 legislative session.

Several states, from Minnesota to Mississippi, Delaware, Indiana and Connecticut, have distributed playing cards in jails and prisons with photos and information of people whose murders or disappearances have been unsolved for years in the hopes of cultivating new information.

There have been some successes linked to the use of playing cards, said Steve Ponsetto, investigator and lead of the Iowa cold case unit in the Iowa Attorney General’s Office. He said Connecticut has used similar playing cards for about a decade and attributes them to helping solve 20 cases.

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In July 2007, a special deck of cards used by prison inmates helped solve the separate unsolved murders of James Foote and Ingrid Lugo, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. After seeing a victim’s face, an inmate began to brag to the other inmates about having killed him. One of those inmates then tipped off law enforcement.

Critics and groups like the Innocence Project warn that jailhouse informant testimony is notoriously unreliable and can lead to wrongful convictions.

Family members of Iowans who were killed in unsolved murders praised the cards for their potential to generate new leads.

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“I’m really excited about what this opportunity presents for not only our family but for all of the other families that are here with us today,” said Josh Okland, brother to Ashley Okland. “This new group is highly motivated and we’re excited to see what they can get done.

The real estate agent was killed in 2011 in a town house she was showing in West Des Moines.

Brandi Weber is the granddaughter of Bill and Kay Wood. Bill Wood was found in 2011, fatally shot in his burned rural Norwalk home, and his wife, Kay, has been missing since.

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Weber said the cards give her hope.

“Hope that getting fresh new eyes on our cases is just what (these families) need,” she said. “Hope that more people will come forward with more information they have, and that in the future we will have justice for William and grandma.”

Bird said the cards were paid for through donations made by law enforcement organizations across the state.

To submit a cold case tip, contact the Iowa Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-242-5100 or coldcase@ag.iowa.gov.

Comments: (319) 398-8499; tom.barton@thegazette.com