Hopeful For Break in Forrest Murder

FORREST

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/2/2013 at 17:01:19

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; Dec. 11, 1980

AUTHORITIES HOPEFUL FOR
BREAK IN FORREST MURDER

Although no warrants had been issued as of Wednesday morning, sources close to the investigation of the Nov. 30 strangulation death of 18-year-old Penney Sue Forrest of Grinnell said authorities are hopeful that a break in the case will occur soon.

Gerald Shanahan, chief of the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), would not confirm reports that the investigation is focusing on Marshall County and that several DCI agents working on the case were in the Mrshalltown and Ferguson areas at midweek.

"There's really nothing I can talk about now," Shanahan said, adding that he was "still under a request" from the Tama County attorney's office to keep a publicity lid clamped on the murder probe.

Shanahan did say, however that he was "optimistic" about chances for an arrest in the case. He would not say whether he thought such an arrest was immient.

The DCI chief also said he was aware of a telephone call made Friday to The Herald-Register by a man claiming to have been with Penney Forrest at 2 a.m. Sunday--three hours after the time of death earlier estimated by Tama County Medical Examiner Dr. Charles Maplethrope.

Tht caller's identity has still not been determined.

Tama County Attorney Jeff Corzatt on Wednesday said that he had no new developments to announce in the case.

Corzatt also declined to comment on a report in the Dec. 8 edition of The Herald-Register that the medical examiner had been prevented from conducting a close examination of Forrest's body. Maplethorpe had said that his estimate of the time of death was inaccurate because he was "about 10 feet away" from the body.

An informed source had told the newspaper that Maplethorpe had been kept from a closer inspection of the body because the DCI had not yet arrived, and because there had been some friction between the medical examiner and the county attorney's office.

"I can't confirm that," Corzatt said Wednesday, "Standards of the National District Attorneys Association, the Iowa Code of Professional Responsibilty, plus a U.S. Supreme court decision say that attorneys in cases can't comment until those cases are completed."

The information concerning the medical examiner "bears upon the investigation" and therefore cannot be discussed, Corzall said.

"Ethically and legally, I simply can't comment at this time," the prosecutor said.

Penney Forrest's body was discovered at about 1 p.m. Nov. 30 along a dead-end road close to the line between Tama and Marshall counties. Although initial reports indicated that her body was fully clothed, subsequent information indicates that she was nude from the waist down.

Although an autopsy was conducted later that evening in Cedar Rapids, results of the postmortem examination have not been made public. Maplethorpe, however, has ruled the death a strangulation, and sources said the body also showed evidence of "multiple stab wounds."