A Warren County man convicted of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a woman in 1978 has died in prison.
The Department of Corrections says 82-year-old Richard Steltzer died August 10th. Steltzer was convicted of first-degree kidnapping and second-degree sexual abuse for assaulting a woman and leaving her tied to a tree. He had filed at least five appeals of his case.
One appeal came after a new Iowa law in 2005 allowing DNA testing of evidence in crimes and Steltzer sought to have the clothing of the woman tested. The evidence from the case could not be found and the district court dismissed the appeal.
Steltzer appealed again saying the evidence was purposely destroyed. The Iowa Court of Appeals ruled in 2016 there were limits on how long evidence is kept and there was nothing to indicate that the evidence in this case was purposely destroyed.