Cedar Rapids Mystery Finally Solved
Maureen Brubaker Farley’s murderer has been identified after 50 years of hiding in plain sight.
--
The autumn season hadn’t yet hit Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and teenagers Kevin Coppess and Danny Lineweaver had one thing on their minds; they wanted to hunt. They’d taken their guns down to the woods and come across a woman asleep on top of a car in the ravine just off Ely Road. They didn’t want to disturb her, so they slung their rifles over their shoulders and continued on their way, not giving the sleeping woman another thought. However, later that day, they headed back the way they came, not realising what they were about to discover.
The sleeping lady hadn’t moved in the hours they’d been gone, and the two boys decided to take a closer look. The colour of the woman’s skin likely gave away her condition, and the boys ran home, returning later, dragging Danny’s mother back to the car.
Maureen Brubaker Farley was a vivacious 17-year-old, originally from Sioux City, Iowa. The oldest of seven, Maureen would often look after her siblings while her parents went out in the evenings. Promises of monetary gain meant the children liked their sister looking after them, and they were devastated when Maureen announced she was moving to Cedar Rapids, over four hours away.
“She was born on July 4th. Everybody said she’d be a firecracker. She was. She was a wild child out of all of our 7 kids,” Maureen’s mother, Anne Brubaker, said.
At 15 years old, Maureen had married David Farley and moved to California. More recently, however, David was serving a prison sentence in Anamosa State Penitentiary. Maureen had decided to move closer to her new husband and set up residency in a rented room just outside the main streets. Maureen also got a job as a waitress at Weida’s restaurant in the town, to pay rent and fuel money to visit David.
When Maureen didn’t turn up to her shift at the diner on the 20th of September, her manager called the police. The young woman was dependable, and it wasn’t like her to miss work. Four days later, she was found by the boys.
The missing person report and the unidentified body soon took on a single investigation, with detectives quickly realising…
