Elected officials at the statehouse are publicly expressing their sympathies to an eastern Iowa legislator whose sisters were found murdered in a suburb of Pittsburg last Friday. Representative Mary Wolfe’s 44-year-old sister, Susan, and 38-year-old sister, Sarah, were found shot to death in the basement of the home they shared.
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad offered his “deepest condolences” in a public statement this morning.
“At this difficult time, we’ll keep the Wolfe family in our thoughts and in our prayers,” Branstad said.
Mary Wolfe of Clinton was first elected to the Iowa House in 2010. Moments of silence were held this afternoon in both the House and Senate. Representative Chris Hagenow of Windsor Heights offered up a prayer of “special protection” for the entire family.
“Heavenly father, grant peace and comfort to Representative Wolfe and her family as they go through a horrible time in their life,” Hagenow prayed.
Senator Nancy Boettger of Harlan led senators in prayer.
“Lord, we come before you with heavy hearts today for our friend and colleague in the House, Representative Wolfe, as she and her family are dealing with extreme grief,” Boettger said. “We ask that you would surround them with loving friends and your love, that they can feel your presence and be encouraged and uplifted by it.”
Senator Rita Hart is from Wheatland, which is in Clinton County. She said a funeral for the two Wolfe sisters will be held Friday in Clinton.
“I’m sure that all of you will join me in expressing our deep and heartfelt sympathies to Mary; to her mother, Pierrette; to her father, Jack, and to Mary’s five remaining brothers and sisters,” Hart said.
Representative Wolfe, an attorney, works out of the family law firm in Clinton and her sister, Susan, had worked there, too, until a recent move into her sister Sarah’s home in the Pittsburg suburb of East Liberty. Susan Wolfe had been working as a teacher’s aide at a school nearby. Her older sister, Sarah Wolfe, moved to the Pittsburg area several years ago after she finished medical school. She was a licensed pediatrician and psychiatrist, as well as an assistant professor at the University of Pittsburg. Police say the two women each died of a single gunshot wound to the head.