A Waterloo man who was badly beaten 10 days ago has died. Police confirm 69-year-old Dennis Washburn died last night at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. Washburn was found by a passerby during the early morning hours of Memorial Day lying in the grass outside the former Longfellow Elementary School in Waterloo.
Police Lieutenant Michael McNamee says it appears Washburn had been assaulted. “We’re still investigating this as a suspicious death, but we’re not ruling anything out,” McNamee said. “We don’t have anything concrete at this point, so we’re waiting for the results of an autopsy and we’ll go from there.”
It’s unclear if anyone saw what happened to Washburn on the morning of May 26. “At this point, we don’t have any witnesses and nobody’s come forward with any information,” McNamee said. Washburn’s daughter, April Washburn, told KWWL-TV that her father had probably been drinking at a nearby bar, but she has no idea why someone would’ve beaten him so severely. “Drunk or not, nobody deserves it,” Washburn said.