A fourth victim has now died in a savage beating that initially left three people dead in a rural Iowa county last week.
Linn County officials said they found Romondus Cooper, 44; Keonna Ryan, 26; and Amanda Parker, 33, dead in an outbuilding in the northern part of the county on Wednesday, KCRG reported. A fourth person, 34-year-old Brent Brown, was badly injured and flown to a hospital for treatment. He died from his injuries on Friday.
Luke Truesdell, 34, was already charged with the first three murders and has now been charged with Brown’s death as well. He is expected to appear in court on Monday on the latest charge.
Investigators say that Truesdell admitted beating the victims with a metal pipe. According to a criminal complaint against him, KCRG said, Truesdell hoped that a movie would be made about the murders.
KGAN reported that investigators are trying to determine Truesdell’s connection with the victims, but the crime was not believed to be random. The station said that Parker was living in the outbuilding and that Brown’s father owned it. But investigators, including Linn County Attorney Nick Maybanks, aren’t saying much about the crime so far.
“First of all, I want the public to know that they’re safe, that this was an isolated incident that occurred, albeit a very unfortunate one and tragic one at that,” Maybanks said. “Also want the public to know that this case is being made of a high priority and that it’s been assigned to top prosecutors in our office and that we intend to do everything it takes to get justice for the four victims.”
The prosecutor said it’s the first quadruple murder on record in the county.
Maybanks said his office will be pursuing life sentences for each of the murders if Truesdell is convicted.
