Two Davenport police detectives are now in Virginia to question two Davenport men who were captured near Richmond on Monday night. They’re wanted in connection with the disappearance of another Davenport man last week. 37-year-old Charles Nixon vanished last Friday and a large amount of blood was found in his room by a housemate.
Davenport police Captain Dave Struckman says samples of the blood are being tested. Struckman says it’s definitely evidence of someone being injured at the scene based on the amount of blood. Nixon’s vehicle was also missing and Struckman says other evidence indicated someone may not have left the house voluntarily. 35-year-old William Smith and 50-year-old Steven Dietz were tracked to a home in Yale, Virginia, and after a stakeout, were taken into custody following a brief car chase. The car they were captured in belonged to Nixon.
Captain Struckman says it’s a high priority case but the blood analysis and other elements in the investigation take time. He says “This isn’t C-S-I. We aren’t able to go from the scene right to the station and pull up on a computer a picture of the person the blood came from. We are at the mercy of the laboratories. We have to get the evidence collected properly, have it submitted through the proper channels, then wait for them to do the analysis.”
Smith, Dietz and Nixon are all wanted on various warrants in Iowa. A badly burned body was found Saturday near Mount Vernon, Illinois, which police are investigating.