FORT DODGE, Iowa — A Fort Dodge woman hit by a car while crossing the street Oct. 18th, has died. The Iowa State Patrol confirms she was 72-year-old Wen-Hsing Drew. A crash report says Drew was hit when the driver of a Ford Bronco was turning left after stopping at a stop sign. It happened at the intersection of 6th Avenue North and North 29th Street in Fort Dodge.

The report states there are no painted crosswalks in this intersection. The crash is still under investigation.

(Radio Iowa/KJAN) – Saturday is the second National Drug Take Back Day. The head of the Iowa Office of Drug Control Policy, Suzie Sher, encourages everyone to take part. “You can bring back any unused or unneeded medication to this event, any expired prescriptions or extra medications you have in your medicine cabinet at home, it’s a great time to clean out those cabinets and have a safe and anonymous way to properly dispose of those medications,” she says. Sher says there are two national take back days every spring and fall. “It’s a proper, safe way to dispose of those medications. It keeps them out of the hands of people who might either intentionally or unintentionally get a hold of those medications,” Sher. She says more than five-thousand (5,077) pounds of unneeded medicine was turned in at the first event in April.

Sher says if you miss the event this Saturday, there are other ways to properly dispose of the medication. “Iowa has 400 or so permanent drug take back sites. They’re in every county, in pharmacies, in law enforcement centers. You can go to the D-P-S website. We’ve got a map,” she says. Sher says the permanent sites offer a good option year-round. “And those are anonymous, you can go safely dispose of your medications, and they’ll take care of it from there,” she says.

A reminder too, that the Atlantic Elks Lodge and Atlantic Police Department are teaming up this year for “Drug Take Back Day.” The event will take place Saturday, Oct 26th from 9 am to 11 am at the Atlantic Elks Lodge, with a drive through drop off in front of the Elks lodge at 411 Walnut St next to the police station.  Nationwide, Saturday’s National Prescription Drug Take Back events will operate from 10:00 a-m until 2:00 p-m at designated sites across Iowa. You can also get rid of vaping devices and e-cigarettes as long as the batteries are removed from the devices.

For more information or to find a site near you, visit: https://www.dea.gov/takebackday

(Radio Iowa) – Scientists say they’ve developed a first-ever vaccine that’s designed to protect cattle from a potentially-deadly tick-borne disease that’s common in Iowa. Bovine anaplasmosis infects the red blood cells of cattle, and researcher Roman Ganta says the vaccine promises to be a tremendous game-changer. “It will change the way people raise cattle, raise meat, and milk production,” Ganta says, “as well as improve the wellbeing of many cattle farmers, especially in third world countries, besides in the U.S. how the industry is impacted.” Ganta, a professor of veterinary pathobiology at the University of Missouri, says the vaccine is performing exactly as hoped in trials.

“We found out that the animals, all the cattle that we tested, remained healthy,” he says, “whether the infection is coming from a mechanical route, which is the standard way many cattle get it in a cattle ranch, or by tick transmission.” There is no widely-available vaccine for the disease, which is blamed for causing nearly one-billion dollars in losses worldwide every year. Ganta says bovine anaplasmosis, also known as yellow bag or yellow fever, can lead to severe anemia in cattle, and in some cases, death. “We tested close to a thousand animals,” he says. “The infection prevalence is very high, which is about 50% of the cattle. It varied significantly from one cattle ranch to the other, but the fact remains that this disease has remained a high problem.”

Ganta says the vaccine will need to receive U-S-D-A approval before it can be used. He says if the testing and approval process goes well, he’s optimistic it will be available to cattle producers by 2030. The Iowa Beef Industry Council says Iowa’s cattle industry contributed nearly nine-and-a-half BILLION dollars in business activity to the state’s economy in 2023, including accounting for more than 32-thousand jobs.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A woman from Red Oak was arrested Thursday night on a Montgomery County warrant. According to Red Oak Police, 40-year-old Chandra Christine Baggett was taken into custody in the 200 block of 1st Avenue at around 7:40-p.m. She was wanted on a warrant for Harassment in the 3rd Degree. Baggett was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.

DES MOINES, Iowa — [KCCI] – The U.S. Marshals Service arrested a fugitive they say has been on the run for almost two months after cutting off an ankle monitor. Investigators say 25-year-old Kyle Boutchee was located at an apartment off of School Street around 2 p.m. Thursday. According to reports, he jumped from a second-floor window to get away from authorities. Boutchee was taken into custody at 10th Street and Keosauqua Way.

The Marshals Service says Boutchee was initially sentenced to more than five years in prison for being a felon in possession of a firearm. That was in 2020. He was furloughed in May and placed on house arrest. Then, on Aug. 28, officials say he cut off his ankle monitor and disappeared.

Boutchee is now being taken to the Polk County Jail.

DES MOINES, Iowa [WHO-TV] — Police say a man who sought treatment for a gunshot wound at a Des Moines fire station Wednesday afternoon, likely shot himself and charges are pending in the incident.

Officers with the Des Moines Police Department responded to Des Moines Fire Department Station #4 at 917 University Avenue after a 43-year-old man showed up around 3:00 p.m., suffering from a gunshot wound to the arm. DMPD spokesperson Sgt. Paul Parizek said the man told officials he had been shot in a drive-by shooting in the 1200 block of 9th Street.

Officers did find a scene in the roadway and the investigation led officers to a residence in the 1200 block of 10th Street. Sgt. Parizek said a handgun, which was later determined to be stolen out of Indiana, was located outside the residence.

Investigators found evidence that the drive-by shooting the man claimed was the source of his injury did not occur. The gunshot wound to his arm was likely self-inflicted, said Sgt. Parizek.

Police have learned the man who was injured is a felon and is prohibited from possessing a firearm. He remains hospitalized, but charges are pending.

DMPD has not yet released the man’s name.

DAVENPORT, Iowa (KWQC) – The Davenport Police Department has opened a death investigation after a body was found in the Mississippi River.

Thursday at approximately 1:03 p.m., the Scott Emergency Communications Center received the report of a body found in the river on the LeClaire Park riverfront, according to a media release from police. Upon arrival, police and fire said they found the body of an adult woman in the river.

The medical examiner investigator indicated the body appeared to have been “in the river for an extended period of time,” according to the media release. An autopsy has been scheduled to determine the identity and cause of death.

This incident remains under investigation, police said.

(Dexter, Iowa) – The Iowa State Patrol has released the identity of a pedestrian who was struck and killed while walking on Interstate 80 south of Dexter in Madison County, Thursday morning. Authorities say there were two pedestrians walking along I-80 westbound near mile marker 98 at around 7-a.m., when one of them – 45-year-old Mandy Wendland, of Omaha, NE – entered the traveled portion of the interstate, into the path of a 2020 Ford Transit van and was struck.

Wendland came to rest in the north ditch west where she was struck. The van, driven by 25-year-old Mercedes Gambrall, of Grimes, stopped on the north shoulder of the west bound lanes, west of the impact site. Mandy Wendland died at the scene.

DAVENPORT, Iowa – A Burlington man was sentenced today (Thursday) to 151 months in federal prison for receiving and distributing child pornography.

According to public court documents, law enforcement received a CyberTip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that Edward Allen Billheimer, 64, had uploaded files containing child sexual abuse material. Law enforcement located electronic devices at Billheimer’s Burlington residence and a search of those devices revealed approximately 100 videos and 400 images of child sexual abuse material, including content of toddlers and infants.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Billheimer will be required to serve a five-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system. Billheimer was also ordered to pay $3,000 in restitution. In addition, Billheimer will be required to register as a sex offender.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Burlington Police Department.

DES MOINES, Iowa – A Fort Dodge man was sentenced today (Thursday) to 20 years in federal prison for attempted enticement of a minor. The U-S Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa says, according to public court documents, 38-year-old Mitchell Keith Russell initiated a Facebook chat with a person that Russell believed was a 13-year-old Altoona female. For over three weeks in March 2024, Russell engaged the minor in sexually explicit discussion.

Russell repeatedly requested the minor create and send him sexually explicit photos of herself and sent the minor sexually obscene videos. Ultimately, Russell arranged to meet the minor at an Altoona motel to engage in sex acts on March 26. When Russell arrived at the motel, he was arrested by the Altoona detective who had been posing as the 13-year-old Facebook user.

Russell committed this crime while he was a registered sex offender and on state parole. Russell was convicted in 2015 of sexual abuse in the Iowa District Court for Humboldt County, for engaging in a sex act with a 15-year-old minor; Russell was in his late 20s when he abused that minor. Russell was required to register as a sex offender as a result of that conviction.

After completing his term of imprisonment, Russell will be required to serve a seven-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Altoona Police Department.

This case was brought as part of Project Safe Childhood, a nationwide initiative to combat the growing epidemic of child sexual exploitation and abuse launched in May 2006 by the Department of Justice. Led by U.S. Attorneys’ Offices and the Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Project Safe Childhood marshals federal, state, and local resources to better locate, apprehend and prosecute individuals who exploit children via the Internet, as well as to identify and rescue victims. For more information about Project Safe Childhood, please visit https://www.justice.gov/psc. For information about internet safety education, please visit www.usdoj.gov/psc and click on the resources tab.