Defiance helps raise money to spring woman accused of murder

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.