Authrorities Mum on Strangulation Death

FORREST, SMOUSE, BELCHER

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/2/2013 at 16:04:19

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Dec. 4, 1980

AUTHORITIES MUM ON STRANGULATION DEATH

County and state authorities remained tight-lipped at midweek, refusing to release details surrounding the strangulation death of Penney Sue Forrest, 18, of Grinnell.

Her body was found at about 1 p.m. along a dead-end road near Montour close to the line between Tama and Marshall counties.

It was estimated that Forrest was killed at about 11 p.m. Saturday.

Tama County Attorney Jeff Corzatt declined to comment on the case, although he said that no arrest warrants had been issued as of Tuesday afternoon.

Dr. Charles Maplethorpe, the Tama County medical examiner, listed strangulation as the cause of death on the victim's death certificate.

ENTERED CAR?

Hank Mayer, assistant chief of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), also said no warrants had been issued. He would neither confirm nor deny a report that Forrest was last seen Saturday entering a car, driven by a man whose identity has not been made public, and that she was supposedly on her way to Marshalltown to seek a job.

"We're proceeding with the investigation, but right now it's the status quo," Mayer told The Herald-Register.

Mayer would not reveal the results of an autopsy conducted on the body Sunday night in Cedar Rapids, nor would he say when further details of the crime would be revealed.

"I would anticipate that we'd have soemthing (to announce), but how near in the future remains a question," the assistant DCI chief said.

An informed source said that Forrest's body had sustained "multiple abrasions," bruises about the neck, an apparent wound to the abdomen, and a fractured hip. There were no gunshot wounds.

An unidentified farmer found the woman's fully clothed body in a ditch three miles north of Montour. A jacket was found nearby, authorities said.

LIVED WITH PARENTS

Forrest's current address was listed as the home of her parents, Jasper (Bud) and Karen Mae Belcher, at 604 Pearl St. here. She reportedly had been separated from her husband Richard E. Forrest earlier this year. Richard Forrest lives on Rte. 2, Brooklyn.

The victim's son Nicholas, 2, remains in the custody of the Belchers.

Funeral services for Penney Forrest were scheduled for 1:30 p.m. Thursday at the Smith Funeral Home here, with the Rev. Sam Reaves of the Assembly of God church officiating. Burial will be at Hazelwood Cemetery.

She was born Jan. 11, 1962, in Des Moines, moving to Grinnell in 1970. She attended junior high and high schools here.

Her marriage to Richard Forrest took place on Jan. 12, 1979, in Grinnell.

Survivors include her parents; her husband; her son Nicholas; three sisters, Robin May of Indianola, Shirley Parrott of Ft. Jackson, S.C., and Phyllis McIlrath of Des Moines; and a brother, Jasper Belcher III of Tucson, Ariz.