SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Police have identified a man whose body was found last week inside a Sioux City apartment used by transients. The Sioux City Journal reports that the body of 61-year-old Daniel Harden was found Dec. 1 inside the apartment building. An autopsy used to identify the body ruled Harden’s death as a homicide. Investigators have said Harden appeared to have been beaten and had likely been dead for about a week when his body was found.

The apartment is part of a complex where 33-year-old Solomon Blackbird was shot on Nov. 1. He later died. Police have said the two deaths did not appear to be related.

(Radio Iowa) – A second former employee of a Denison credit union has been charged with embezzlement.  The former manager of Consumer Credit Union, Janine Keim of Denison, was indicted on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Sioux City of embezzlement by a credit union employee and making false statements. Keim is accused of working with former head teller at the Denison institution, Brenda Jensen, also of Denison, to misallocate funds from 2012 to 2018. Jensen pleaded guilty in October in federal court to embezzlement and awaits sentencing. Keim’s arraignment hearing has been scheduled for December 16th in Federal Court in Sioux City.

DES MOINES – The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office report Iowa’s six presidential electors will meet Monday, December 14 at 10:30 a.m. at the State Capitol to cast their votes for President and Vice President of the United States. Governor Kim Reynolds will preside over the meeting and Secretary of State Paul Pate will distribute and collect the electors’ ballots. Iowa law requires electors to cast ballots for the candidates who received the most votes in the state.

(Noon News) – Police in Glenwood report two men were arrested on numerous drug charges, Wednesday, following the execution of a search warrant at 207 N. Locust Street, in Glenwood. Authorities say 27-year old Patrick Clayton Giesting, and 33-year old William Dean Meredith, both of Glenwood, were arrested. Each was charged with Felony, Gathering where controlled substances are used. Giesting was additionally charged with: Possession of a controlled substance/methamphetamine; Possession of Marijuana; Unlawful possession of a prescription drug, and possession of drug paraphernalia. His bond was set at $8,300.

Meredith was additionally charged with Felony Possession of Meth/3rd offense. His bond was set at $10,000.

DES MOINES, Iowa — The trial for a man charged with first-degree murder in the July 2018 death of 20-year-old University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbitts has been moved once again. KCCI reports court documents filed Wednesday in Poweshiek County indicate that Cristhian Bahena Rivera’s jury trial will take place May 17 in Scott County. The trial had been scheduled for Jan. 25. According to court documents, the trial delay is in accordance with an order from the Iowa Supreme Court to postpone trials due to the pandemic.

Mollie Tibbetts

A pretrial conference scheduled for Jan. 12 is continued to April 14 and will be held at the Poweshiek County Courthouse. The trial has already been delayed at least three times from the original date in April 2019.

Tibbetts, a psychology student at the University of Iowa, went missing after going for a jog in her hometown of Brooklyn. Investigators say Rivera stalked Tibbetts while she was out for a run in July 2018 in Brooklyn, Iowa, and stabbed her to death. After a massive police and volunteer effort to find Tibbetts, authorities say, Bahena Rivera led them to her body, which was found Aug. 21, 2018, in a cornfield.