The county attorney who was spearheading the still-unsolved murder case of a five-year-old northern Iowa girl was ousted in Tuesday’s election. Floyd County Attorney Marilyn Dettmer, who had been handling the murder case involving Evelyn Miller, lost her re-election bid as part of a three-person race. Dettmer, a Republican, finished third to independent candidate Jesse Marzen, who had almost 700 more votes than Dettmer.
Many of Dettmer’s critics have accused her of being too easy on criminals and offering too many plea bargains. One of those cases involving a plea bargain dealt with the death of Jesse Patchin of Waterloo. James Raymond of Clarksville last week was found guilty of first-degree murder in the case. That’s after another man, Charles Gallmeyer, plea bargained in exchange for testifying against Raymond. Gallmeyer admitted in testimony to helping Raymond stab Patchin to death.