The woman from the western Iowa town of Defiance who’s accused of murdering her abusive husband and hiding his body in a bedroom for more than a year was freed Wednesday. Dixie Shanahan had been in jail on bail of 150-thousand dollars. Donations of literally nickels and dimes from people in Shelby County, along with donations from people across the country, and two-thousand-dollars from Shanahan’s family in Texas, helped pay the 15-thousand-dollars needed to set Shanahan free. In Iowa, people can be set free by paying ten-percent of the bail set by a judge. Shanahan’s attorney says the 36-year-old woman will be spending time with her three children, ages seven, five and eight-months. Her children had been in protective custody, but the state released the children to Shanahan after her release from jail.
