Member-only story
Strangled and Dumped in Her Own Car: Family of Diane Schofield Still Hope for Justice
It has been nearly 50 years, but forensic evidence may still exist to catch the perpetrator.
It was July 10th 1975, and a parking lot sweeper for a restaurant in Des Moines, Iowa had gone outside to discover a foul smell coming from a vehicle. The lot was used to store rental cars due to its proximity to the airport, and the worker was concerned about what might have been left inside the 1966 Rambler.
When the emergency services arrived, little could prepare them for what they discovered as they pried open the trunk: the badly decomposed body of a young woman.
The Polk County medical examiner was able to identify the woman as 21-year old Diane Marie Schofield, and it looked like she had been dead several days before being dumped in her own vehicle.
An autopsy revealed she had been strangled to death with a strip of towel and had been bound at the hands and ankles with twine, the Des Moines Register reported.
Police Chief Wendell E. Nichols said the murder didn’t seem to be related to robbery, since Diane was still wearing a $200 wristwatch and several turquoise rings. She was also still clothed in her green halter top and jeans with just…
