Ogden, Devene 1927-1956

OGDEN, TIMBERLAKE, RICHARDSON, YEAGER

Posted By: Janet M Schuldt (email)
Date: 9/13/2020 at 13:39:48

Ottumwa Daily Courier, Ottumwa, Iowa Tuesday, December 4, 1956

Former Ottumwan Killed At Clinton

CLINTON. DeVene O. Ogden, 29, Clinton, was killed when he drove his car off a highway at high-speed Monday night in what Sheriff Marvin Bruhn described as an “apparent murder-suicide attempt.”

Sheriff Bruhn said a passenger in the car, who identified herself as Donna Timberlake, 33 escaped serious injury in the accident.

Women Hospitalized

The car plunged down a 30-foot bank and came to rest upside down in about four feet of water. The Timberlake woman was found on the highway after the crash. She told authorities she could not recall whether she was thrown from the car or jumped. She was hospitalized with severe cuts and shock.

Dr. L. O. Riggert, the coroner, said the Timberlake woman told him she and Ogden were married about four years ago. In Des Moines, however, a woman who identified herself as Mrs. DeVene O. Ogden, told newsmen she and Ogden separated about four years ago but had never been divorced. She said that so far as she knew he had not remarried.

Ogden, formerly of Ottumwa, worked as a carpenter here and the Timberlake woman worked in a downtown store. Sheriff Bruhn said the Timberlake woman told him she and Ogden came to Clinton about a year ago from Moline, 111., but had been estranged recently.

After the accident she told authorities this story:

Ogden met her when she got off work about 9 p.m. Monday, forced her to enter his 1950 Packard sedan, and begged her to end the estrangement as he drove out Second Avenue Road. When she refused his request for a reconciliation, she said, he shouted, ‘I’ll kill us both", and gunned the car to a high speed. The crash followed.

Grappling Hooks Used.

Ogden’s body was not found for a couple of hours. It finally was located by grappling hooks at the bottom of Mill creek near the spot from which Ogden's wrecked car had been removed. Dr. E. O. Riggert, the coroner, said the death was due to drowning.

Ogden was born on February 19, 1927, at Martinsburg. His father was the late Gerald M. Ogden. His mother the former Dorothy Richardson, now Mrs. Dorothy Yeager of Ottumwa.

Other survivors are a brother, Herbert O. Ogden of Ottumwa. There are four children. Andrew Ogden and Geanna Rae Ogden of Des Moines, Jerry Lee Ogden, and Rickey Dean Ogden of Ottumwa.