The new Iowa Cold Case unit has given families hope they could finally find out what happened to their loved ones. The latest tool in that effort are playing cards with cold case information on them that are going to Iowa’s prisons and jails.
Haley Elliott was at the announcement of the cards and talked about how tough it is not to know what happened to her aunt Ruthie Kingery-Pohlmeie. “We don’t know anything. How many people were involved? Why did you choose her? What led up to this, and how did you know her? I don’t understand how there’s nobody who knows anything. There’s got to be someone out there who knows what happened,” she says. “It wasn’t just a body or a random person. It never was. She was my aunt, a friend, a sister, and a daughter with a beautiful soul.” Kingery-Pohlmeier was found dead outside a Des Moines bowling alley in April of 2004.
Brandi Weber Elliott says the playing cards offer more hope that they will get some answers in the case of her grandparents, Bill and Kay Wood. “Hope that getting fresh new eyes on our cases is just what they need. Hope that more people will come forward with more information they have. And in the future, we will have justice for William and Grandma,” she says. Elliott read a letter from her mother. “Someone knows what happened and who did this. Please step up and get us answers where we can find my mom, and we will let the DCI cold case handle who did this,” Elliott says. Bill Wood’s body was found in the couple’s burned out home in rural Norwalk in 2011. The autopsy showed he had been shot several times. A red pickup the couple owned was found at an apartment in Kansas City, but Kay Wood has never been found.
Realtor Ashley Oakland was shot to death inside a model townhome in West Des Moines in April 2011. Her case has not been solved. Her brother Josh Oakland hopes the card effort works to bring information to the Cold Case unit. “We’re really excited about what this opportunity presents for not only our family but for all of the other victim families that are here with us today. This new group is highly motivated, and we’re excited to see what they can get done.
Iowa’s Attorney General says other states have had success with the playing guards generating new information and solving cold cases in other states.