Ivan Samuel Brammer and Ilene Gowan. (Images: Council Bluffs Police Department)
A man who allegedly got rid of his truck days after his ex was seen “awkwardly slumped” in the passenger seat has been charged in her death. Ivan Samuel Brammer, 61, faces a count of murder in the second degree out of Pottawattamie County, Iowa.
Police said that the daughter of Ilene Gowan, 60, reported her missing on Feb. 15, saying she had not been seen or heard from since Feb. 13.
“Gowan’s deceased body was located on February 26, 2023, in a roadside ditch in the area of 152nd Street and Old Mormon Bridge Road, near Crescent, Iowa,” officers said.
Brammer was initially charged with abuse of a corpse and theft in the second degree in connection to the disappearance, but prosecutors did not seek a homicide charge until this month.
Sgt. John Fucht of the Council Bluffs Police Department told Law&Crime on Tuesday that the initial autopsy from the medical examiner’s office returned no cause of death.
Several months later, they obtained a second opinion from a different doctor, who determined Gowan died of asphyxiation.
Brammer landed on law enforcement radar because he was Gowan’s ex-boyfriend and erstwhile roommate.
Speaking to family, friends, and co-workers, police determined the relationship was on-and-off and “volatile with much verbal fighting and alcohol involved.” One relative said Brammer was not nice and did not treat Gowan with respect.
It was alleged that they seemed to get along when they were sober, but things became bad when they drank. Gowan allegedly said that Brammer choked her during a loud argument.
A week before her disappearance, she had been kicked out of her and Brammer’s apartment.
“Gowan told them both Brammer was holding her personal safe until she provided him $300 in cash,” the affidavit stated. She told two witnesses Brammer would not let her have her safe until she paid him. She eventually got the safe back.
Brammer allegedly feigned ignorance of what happened to Gowan.
For example, Brammer told cops he picked up Gowan the morning of Feb. 13 and drove her to a home just off Railroad Highway, where she was staying with an acquaintance, according to the affidavit. Then he returned home, he allegedly said.
“This was proven to be a false statement, and each interview after, when presented with inaccuracies in his previous statement, Brammer would change his story to conform to the facts presented,” police wrote.
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Surveillance video from city cameras and private businesses showed Brammer leaving the city for about an hour on Feb. 13, between 9:28 and 10:28 a.m., according to the affidavit. Phones records indicated he and Gowan were in the area of the city of Carter Lake at that time.
“From 8:30 a.m. to 9:28 a.m. Gowan is walking, acting normal in all respects and uninjured sitting upright on the passenger side of Brammer’s truck while traveling,” police said. “When Brammer’s truck is seen on camera return to Council Bluffs at 10:28 a.m., it appears something is different with the way Gowan is sitting or positioned in his truck. At multiple locations with different angles and views, it appears Gowan is awkwardly slumped in the passenger seat. Passing the Frank and Kanesville intersection at 10:56 a.m., she appears to have not moved or changed position.”
When Brammer ruled into a Sherwood Drive address at 11:06 a.m., Gowan was no longer visible in the truck, police said.
According to the affidavit, both phones went off the network — turned off or put on airplane mode — at 10:59 a.m.
Later, after arriving home, Brammer was allegedly in and out of the passenger and driver-side doors of the vehicle. It did not appear that Gowan was there at this point.
“[Brammer] carries unknown items from inside his truck and the back of the truck to a trash dumpster located on the southeast corner of the apartment’s parking lot,” police said. “He then secures his truck and walks into his apartment building approximately 15 minutes after arriving.”
Officers said Brammer’s and Gowan’s phones were still together, now in an area of the home.
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Cops claim he omitted relevant information to misdirect the investigation.
In an interview on Feb. 24, Brammer allegedly asked cops to drive to the area where he claimed to go after turning onto Railroad Highway at 11 a.m. on Feb. 13. He claimed that he dropped Gowan off on 205th Street and drove away slowly. He hoped to see her walk toward a house, so he would know where a certain person lived. Police redacted that person’s identity. In this account, Gowan “just stood there watching me leave.”
Brammer’s behavior became erratic in the days after Gowan’s disappearance, officers said.
On Feb. 19, he allegedly threatened suicide. On Feb. 22, he made a threat to kill someone, police said.
“In the threats incident, [redacted] states he received a phone call from Brammer who said ‘Say another word [redacted] is going to pay for two funerals’ and disconnected the call,” police wrote. Gowan was still missing at this time, and the target of the threat suggested that Brammer knew about her being dead based on the comment about “two funerals.”
Officers also claim he eluded police during a traffic stop.
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