Bellevue Murder

BUDDE

Posted By: Anne Hermann (email)
Date: 8/13/2009 at 07:38:52

Maquoketa Sentinel-Press
March 7, 1997

Bellevue area man believed slain
By Barb Kellams and Lowell Carlson

A rural Bellevue man who went to make a late-night check on lights in a machine shed on his parents’ farm is dead and authorities are treating the case as a homicide.

The body of Marty Budde, 31, was found in a remote wooded area of Jackson County several miles south of Bellevue after a search, the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department reported in a news release issued Friday morning, March 7.

An autopsy was being conducted Friday by Dr. Paul Koob, Jackson County Medical examiner, and Dr. Thomas Bennett, Iowa state medical examiner. Results of the autopsy were not available as of noon and authorities would not speculate on a possible cause of death.

Sheriff’s deputies, Bellevue police and investigators from the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation were probing the case. They were divulging little information about the possible slaying.

Budde, a constructions worker and a life-long Bellevue area resident, was reported missing by his family Thursday morning March 6, authorities said.

Bob Meier of rural Bellevue apparently was the last person to see Budde alive.

In an interview Thursday, March 6, Meier said Budde was driving him home shortly before midnight Wednesday after the two had had a “couple of beers” together at a Springbrook tavern with another friend, Mark Meier.

As the two were driving north from Springbrook toward Bellevue on county road Z-15, they passed a farmstead owned by Budde’s parents. Wayne and Verna Budde. The farmstead is about a mile southwest of the junction of Z-15 and U.S. 52 south of Bellevue.

Meier said Budde noticed that lights were on in a machine shed on the property. He said Budde told him he would return to the property and check the lights after dropping Meier off.

“Marty dropped me off probably sometime around 11: 45 p.m. and drove back down the road to check on why the lights were on in the machine shed,” Meier said. “He said they shouldn’t be on.”

He said Budde’s wife, Kathy, called him at about 6:10 a.m. Thursday to report that her husband hadn’t come home and to ask if Meier knew of his possible whereabouts. She said he was missing,” Meier said. Meier said he and another friend of Budde, Virgil Kilburg, a nearby farmer, went to the farmstead but did not see Budde or any signs of foul play at the house.

Authorities later searched the property, however, and found blood and hair outside the rear entrance to the house, according to Gary Purtilo, Iowa Department of Natural Resources officer who was among the first officers on the scene.

The Buddes resided in a mobile home at 22865 407th Ave., about a mile southeast of the farmstead.

Sheriff Russ Kettmann on Friday declined to confirm or deny Meier’s report. He also declined comment on reports that Budde’s body and his black Ford pickup truck were found at the dead-end of 167th Street, several miles southeast of the farmstead.

The 167th Street location is the site of a predawn fire on Feb. 2 that destroyed a rented house occupied by three people. The state fire marshal’s office has been investigating the fire as a possible case of arson.

Authorities also would not comment on whether there may be any connection between the fire and Budde’s death.

Budde, a Bellevue High School graduate, married Kathy Klein last September. He was employed by Tom Scheckel Construction of rural Bellevue.

Kilburg, who was a groomsman in Budde’s wedding, said he had seen Budde earlier Wednesday.

“You couldn’t ask for a more kind-hearted man,” he said. “He was like a brother.”