Des Moines police solve 24-year old murder

Des Moines police say they’ve solved a 24-year-old murder case. Two men were arrested yesterday for shooting A.W. “Bud” Wingler to death on February 3, 1977. Des Moines Police Sergeant Bruce Elrod met with reporters yesterday afternoon. He says the case is a classic example that homicide investigations are never closed until an arrest is made. Wingler, who owned a Des Moines construction company, was shot several times, and was found dead, in his car. Elrod says the detectives had very little to go on at that time.Elrod says cops believe the motive was robbery, as Wingler was wearing some expensive jewelry and was known to carry large amounts of cash.In 1989, an inmate at the state prison in Anamosa gave a Des Moines cop information about the murder but the county attorney declined to press charges. This past December, Wingler’s daughter met with cops and asked if the new county attorney would press charges. Fifty-two-year-old Gary Thrasher of Des Moines and 53-year-old Deny Brown of Rimrod, Arizona, were arrested yesterday.