Witnesses Tie Zinzer to Forrest on Night of Slaying

ZINZER, BELCHER, FORREST, BOYD, ULM, BOTTS, JOHNSON, SMITH, OLSON, BACHMAN, KOUBA

Posted By: Marilyn Holmes (email)
Date: 3/8/2013 at 12:27:22

The Grinnell (IA) Herald-Register; May 14, 1981

WITNESSES TIE ZINZER TO FORREST ON NIGHT OF SLAYING

By John Breemer
News Editor

TOLEDO--A night of barhopping around a "circuit" of Marshalltown nightspots preceeded the strangulation slaying of Penney Sue Belcher Forrest, 18, of Grinnell early Nov. 30, 1980, prosecutor Robert Blink told a Tama County District Court jury Tuesday.

Several witnesses testified that they saw Forrest leave one of the bars at closing time with Jeffrey Allen Zinzer, 23, the man accused of killing Forrest.

Beverly Boyd of Phoenix, Ariz., formerly an employee of Slick Sully's Emporium in Marshalltown, told the jury of eight women and four men that Zinzer and Forrest had been at the tavern twice during the night--once at 9:30 p.m. Nov. 29 and again at 1 a.m. Nov. 30.

Others corroborated Boyd's testimony.

Blink, an assistant attorney general who is prosecuting the first-degree murder trial along with Tama County Attorney Jeffrey Corzatt, said in his opening statement that material found in Zinzer's van tied the defendant to the dead woman. Those items, Blink said, included fibers, human hairs, bloodstains and a button from Forrest's coat.

STAINED JEANS

A later search of Zinzer's residence in Ferguson turned up a pair of his jeans with bloodstains on them, Blink told the jury.

It was not until April 3 of this year, the date of a pre-trial hearing in Des Moines, that Zinzer admitted Forrest had been in the van, and that "we had a little tussle," Blink said.

The prosecutor said the state would prove that the strangulation took place in the van.

"The ... body of Penney Sue Belcher Forrest was nude from the waist down," Blink said. "Her sweater and blouse had been pulled up, and her coat was over the body. She was hidden by brush."

Forrest's mother, Karen Belcher of Grinnell, later identified her daughter's body, which was found at about noon Nov. 30 in a rural area near the Marshall-Tama county line.

Belcher and her husband Jasper testified Tuesday that Penney Forrest had left the couple's Grinnell home at about 1:30 p.m. Nov. 29 with an acquaintance, Robert Ulm of Grinnell. She previously had lived for a short time with Ulm, the Belchers said.

Jasper Belcher testified that his daughter and her husband, Rick Forrest, were estranged, and that Penney Forrest's 3-year-old son Nicholas is now living with the Belchers in Grinnell.

Other witnesses testified that they saw Forrest and Zinzer separately in several Marshalltown bars the night before the slaying.

MONDAY PROCEEDINGS

Tuesday was the first day of testimony in the Zinzer trial. On Monday, a jury of eight women and four men was empaneled to hear the case in District Judge J. Vern Robinson's court.

Robinson ruled that the use of television cameras would be allowed during the trial, but he restricted the use of still cameras to the rangefinder variety. That eliminated single-lens reflex cameras, the type most commonly used by newspaper photographers.

Newspapers set up a pool arrangement so that those who had only single-lens reflex cameras could also be supplied with photographs.

Witnesses are being sequestered during the trial, which is expected to last into next week. Altogether, 13 witnesses were held Tuesday, many of them telling of how they saw Forrest and Zinzer during their movement around what Blink described as the "circuit" of Marshalltown bars.

So far, no alleged motive for the slaying has been revealed. Blink referred only to the "tussle," Zinzer reportedly said he had with Penney Forrest. She was last seen entering the van in which she was allegedly killed, Blink told the jury during his opening statement.

ARRIVED AT BAR

David Botts of Marshalltown, an acquainance of Forrest, testified that he had met her at Slick Sully's Emporium between 4:30 and 5 p.m. Nov. 29, and that she had arrived at the bar with a "a Bob somebody." She then accompanied Botts to his residence where she "cleaned up," and the two of them went later to Mom and Dad's and The Cave, both Marshalltown bars.

Botts testified that Forrest told him she "was going to go uptown with somebody else." Botts later went to another bar, Tiffany's, where he saw Forrest again "talking with the guys at the bar." He identified Tiffany's as the bar where he saw Forrest speak with Zinzer.

Three Grinnell men, Michael Johnson, Richard Smith and Kevin Olson, testified that they saw Forrest and Zinzer in Zinzer's van following the closing of Slick Sully's. Under cross-examination by co-defense counsel Barry Kaplan, each said that he witnessed no difficulties between the two as they sat in the van, allegedly planning to attend a party at the home of a woman employed at Tiffany's.

The woman, Jan Bachman, acknowledged that she had invited Zinzer and several others to the party at her home at 109 West Grant in Marshalltown. She wrote her name and address on a bar napkin, she said. Zinzer did not attend the party.

That napkin was later found in Zinzer's jeans during the search of his Ferguson home, Blink said.

WEDNESDAY

In Wednesday testimony, a state chemist testified that he removed blood and hair samples, as well as a button, from a van belonging to Zinzer.

Although Wayne Eaton of the Iowa Criminological Laboratory did not testify that the samples matched others taken from Zinzer or Forrest's body, the prosecution said Eaton would be recalled for additional testimony--apparently to offer such a tie-in.

Eaton, who was present at an autopsy conducted on Forrest's body the night of Nov. 30, said he observed "heavy scratch marks, bruises and abrasions around the area of the Adam's apple," supporting the conclusion that death was the result of strangulation.

The state crime investigator added that he saw "numerous scratches, bruises and abrasions" around the dead woman's face, as well as two "rather significant" wounds in the area of the navel. Large scratches on the back and legs were also present, Eaton said.

Despite objections that they would be "prejudicial," photographs taken of Forrest's body, both at the crime scene and at the autopsy, were allowed as exhibits.

The search of Zinzer's van took place on Dec. 4. Eaton said the blue 1979 Ford yielded, among other things, a "fair quantify" of material which proved to be blood. Other items taken from the van as evidence included a gold carpet and a blue blanket.

Richard Searle, a special agent for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI), testified that, after a period of surveillance at the Marshalltown job site where Zinzer was employed as a laborer, Searle and Tama County Deputy Sheriff Bruce Bolin went to Zinzer's Ferguson residence the evening of Dec. 3. Zinzer willingly accompanied the two to the Marshalltown Police Department where an interview spanning more than three hours was conducted.

Although Zinzer initially denied knowing anyone named Penney, he later acknowleged that he had met Forrest, Searle testified. Searle said Zinzer was shown a photograph of Forrest and said he had seen her the evening of Nov. 29 at Tiffany's bar in Marshalltown.

"DON'T REMEMBER"

Zinzer said during that interview that he did not recall Penney Forrest getting into his van. "I imagine she could have got in the [van], but I don't remember," Searle quoted Zinzer as saying.

Tama County farmer Joseph Kouba told of finding Penney Forrest's body along a dead-end road under a cedar tree on his farm. The body was discovered shortly after noon Nov. 30 as Kouba was riding a tractor ahead of some cattle, he said.

Charles W. Maplethorpe, M.D., the Tama County medical examiner, testified that he was called to the scene and, after having ascertained that rigor mortis had set in, initially concluded that Forrest had died at 11 p.m. Nov. 29.

Under sharp questioning by defense attorney Barry Kaplan, Maplethorpe admitted that he later changed his estimate to 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Nov. 30.

"Isn't it true that she could have died as late as 6:30 a.m. Nov. 30?" Kaplan asked.

"Yes," the medical examiner replied.

Maplethorpe also acknowleged that he did not physically examine the body, nor was he aware that the body was nude from the waist down and that her sweater, blouse and bra had been pushed up.

"[The body] was hidden under brush," he said. "I thought it was clothed."

Maplethorpe's initial report indicted that the body was clothed.