After Celebrating At Her 21st Birthday Party, She Was Discovered Close To Death Along A Highway Under Mysterious Circumstances: It’s Been 25 Years Since Her Murder And There Are Still More Questions Than Answers In Her Cold Case

Bre Avery Zacharski |

Nov 19, 2021

Iowa City, Iowa. Laura Van Wyhe lived in Iowa City, Iowa, along with her 14-month-old little boy Sam and her mom.

Laura was no longer in a relationship with Sam’s father, Donald, but they were still close, and on October 25th, 1996, she made her way to a party that Donald’s family was throwing her to celebrate her 21st birthday.

At around 6 that evening, Donald came along with his brother to pick up Laura and Sam so they could head to the party that was being held in Bonaparte, Iowa, at the house of Donald’s mom.

Everyone made it to the party, including Laura, at approximately 7:30 p.m.

The party was over at around 11, and since there wasn’t enough room for Laura and Sam to sleep over at Donald’s mom’s house, they left with Donald’s sister Sarah and her family to stay the night at their home in Kahoka, Missouri.

It took about 30 minutes for Laura, Sam, Sarah, and Sarah’s family to arrive in Kahoka. Sarah and her family made up their living room for Laura and Sam to sleep in, and everyone went to bed.

Just hours later, a truck driver headed along Highway 136 in Kahoka spotted something just off the shoulder of the highway that did not appear right to him.

He pulled his truck over, got out, and began walking towards what had caught his eye, never expecting it to be a young woman, but that’s exactly what he found.

Facebook; pictured above is Laura

If true crime defines your free time, this is for you: join Chip Chick’s True Crime Tribe.

It was Laura lying there, and though she was not conscious, she was breathing. He was able to call for help at a local gas station, and when he hurried back to the highway, a police officer had already arrived on the scene.

At first, this officer thought perhaps the truck driver had been the one to hit Laura, but it quickly was determined that was not what had happened to her at all in those early morning hours of October.

“According to police records, the scene did not show the typical signs of a vehicular-pedestrian collision,” a Facebook page created by Laura’s friend Anne Champion explained.

“As an officer stated at the inquest, “There wasn’t much blood at the scene where she was lying. We were perplexed—you’ve seen animals struck by a vehicle and being propelled down the road and there is usually debris from where they were struck. In this case, there was not a lot of blood nor was there any debris at the scene. It is my belief, from my years of investigations, that she was not hit at that spot, she was struck somewhere else and put at that spot. I don’t believe the truck driver hit her.”

“He further stated, “The jacket she was wearing was clean–no sign of wear and tear–no sign of any debris on it and no blood was found on it,” as you would expect if she had been wearing it when hit by a truck. Nor were there signs she had dragged herself to that spot.”

“When she was found, she was lightly grasping a water bottle, which was sitting upright—in her left hand—which is improbable, at best, if she’d just been struck by a truck. Moreover, the truck was examined for signs it had been involved in a collision, including testing flesh found on the flaps, and none was found (the flesh was not human flesh).”

Bill45 – stock.adobe.com

There were multiple strange things about what Laura had been found wearing and what she had around her that gave the police pause.

Laura had two pairs of pants on her, one of which was too big for her, and she also had on a black jacket that she did not own.

The jacket itself was a curious thing, because Laura had lost such an enormous amount of blood from a wound on her head that the shirts she was wearing were soaked, yet, the jacket had no blood on it.

Additionally, the jacket was basically in pristine condition, which is odd, because if Laura had been hit by a car, that jacket would have been torn up in some way. The pants Laura had on did have rips in them, however.

Police suspected that someone had put the jacket on Laura after she sustained her injuries, given the condition of the jacket.

Inside the right pocket of that jacket was an opened-up pocket knife, and in the rest of the jacket pockets police found a paper plate with rice on it that had been folded, a jar, and some cockleburs.

A baby blanket was also found at the scene, along with a pile of cockleburs, but there were no cocklebur bushes close to where Laura had been found.

Laura’s shoes were also located, but she was not wearing them; they were lying near her.

“According to police records, despite the drastic injuries to her legs, including multiple breaks and punctures of the skin, and a “deep abrasion of the skin” on her right foot, there was no blood on her shoes,” Anne noted in a Facebook post. “Was she wearing them when injured?”

Laura was rushed to a hospital located in Quincy, Illinois, but she sadly passed away three hours after getting there due to losing too much blood from the injuries she had on her legs and head.

Laura’s death was ruled to be a homicide.

Facebook; pictured above is a black and white photo of Laura

What makes Laura’s case even more mysterious is that she lost a fatal amount of blood, yet, there was not a lot of blood found on the spot along the highway where she was lying when the truck driver found her.

Furthermore, along that spot on the highway stretched multiple fields, which the police extensively looked through trying to find any sign of blood, and they could not uncover any.

It’s been 25 years since Laura has passed, and her case has gone cold. Anne is still fighting for answers, and hoping that a $10,000 reward will generate some tips to finally solve her case.

Anne created a Facebook page that you can follow here, a website you can take a look at here, and a podcast you can listen to here.

Laura’s ex-boyfriend’s family is also hoping that her case will be solved sometime soon. On one of the Facebook posts shared to the Champion For Laura Van Wyhe page, Donald’s sister Kristi wrote, “You are also opening old wounds for lots of other people.”

“My brother was investigated and interrogated and was cleared and released. This was a nightmare for my brother and our family. We would like answers too. They all loved her. They weren’t even allowed to grieve because of defending themselves from accusations. Your article insinuates that my brother was singled out. This was and still is a nightmare for my family.”

“My brother wouldn’t hurt a fly. I don’t think his name could have been mentioned much more than it was in this article. I would love to see this case solved but pointing fingers isn’t gonna bring her back. Innocent people were and still are being hurt. Sorry just my feelings.”

Facebook; pictured above is Kristi’s post

Molly, another relative of Donald’s who was just 5-years-old when Laura passed, shared what she remembered from that fateful day.

“5-year-old daughter here,” Molly began. “You can say I was too young to be a credible witness if you’d like, but I’d like to point out that children as young as 5 have testified in murder trials and their testimony convicted a person of murder. With that being said I’d like to put my own personal experience of that night out there.”

“I remember being so excited to see Laura, she was my first auntie and I loved her so much. I have tons of memories with her before the events of this tragic night. She gifted me an imagination, she made a blackberry bush magical! We went on walks together all the time. I’ve never met another person like her. I remember her getting after me only once because I was “salt and peppering” baby Sam.”

“October 26th, 1996 was no different than any other family party, other than election stuff that I didn’t really understand at the time. I was there for Laura’s birthday party. The cake was a red velvet swirl thing. I remember her feeding Sam in the van on the way home as I drifted in and out of sleep listening to the radio.”

“I remember laying down with Laura, Sam was in the middle of us. She was nursing Sam while I fell asleep next to them. Laura shuffling around woke me up, she told me she had to go get a diaper. I would also like to point out that above you said in the original police report, SKB (this is Sarah) said she found Sam without a diaper on.”

“That adds some validity to what I witnessed. The rest of this is what I assume happened, not what I witnessed but what makes sense to me. It was late October in the Midwest, it was probably about 50-55° and windy. So, she grabs a jacket (I have no ideas where the second pair of pants came from. Maybe she had them in the van inside her tote bag with the other random things) Now she didn’t know she had forgotten the diaper bag in Bonaparte at this point.”

“She goes to check the van, but only finds her tote bag with no extra diapers. I would also like to mention this was not the first time Laura came to stay with us. About a year before she came to stay with us for a week, she was familiar with Kahoka. What happened after that is what everyone wants to know, who hit her? Anne, when we spoke on the phone you mentioned a car of people yelling things at her, was that lead ever followed up on by MSHP?”

“Some more info because it’s never mentioned in the news articles; SKB (Sarah) and TB (Sarah’s husband) have both willing gave DNA to Iowa and Missouri. They also allowed their house and vehicle to be searched. SKB and TB have always cooperated with law enforcement when investigators came to ask more questions over the last 25 years.”

“Truck driver gets cleared because there was no evidence found on his truck, but there was also no evidence found on Bergman’s van or in their home. Laura was our family too. We all want to know what happened.”

“There never was any motive for this family to want to harm one of our own. Not only was there no motive, but she was ALIVE for 3 hours after she was found. Where is the intent for murder? Someone hit her and left her alive. As Sam said to me in a recent conversation “if she had a cell phone back then she’d probably still be alive.”