Iowa City Sueppel murders

In the early hours of March 24, 2008, following Easter Sunday, five members of the Sueppel family of Iowa City, Iowa were found dead in their home at 629 Barrington Road. Sheryl Sueppel, 42, and her four adopted children—Ethan (10), Seth (9), Mira (5), and Eleanor (3)—had died of multiple blunt force trauma injuries to their upper torsos and heads. Police recovered two baseball bats at the scene, believed to be the weapons used.

The deaths were discovered after a 6:31 a.m. 911 call placed from the mobile phone of Steven Sueppel, the family's husband and father, a 42-year-old former banker. The caller gave the home address, told the dispatcher to "go there immediately," and hung up without identifying himself. Five minutes later, at 6:36 a.m., Steven Sueppel died when he drove the family minivan into a concrete abutment on Interstate 80 outside Iowa City at high speed; the vehicle burst into flames. Witnesses said the crash appeared deliberate.

According to a timeline reconstructed from voicemail messages and a handwritten note, the family attended Easter Mass at St. Mary's Catholic Church on Sunday morning, and a family friend visited that evening without noticing anything unusual. Starting around 11:30 p.m. Sunday, Steven Sueppel left a series of apologetic voicemail messages for former co-workers and relatives, including one to his father and brother stating his family was "in heaven." A handwritten note left in the kitchen stated that he had killed his wife and children. Messages left in the early morning hours indicated he had attempted to kill himself and his children by carbon monoxide poisoning in the garage, and that he later tried to drown himself in the Iowa River before the killings of the children were carried out.

One month before the killings, in February 2008, Sueppel had been indicted by a federal grand jury on embezzlement and money laundering charges related to $559,040 allegedly stolen from his former employer, Hills Bank and Trust Company of Hills, Iowa, where he had worked as a vice president and controller. He had pleaded not guilty but had told investigators he diverted the funds to a personal account. He was free on bond awaiting an April 2008 trial at the time of the killings.

On March 29, 2008, St. Mary's Catholic Church in Iowa City held a funeral mass for all six family members, including Steven Sueppel, which drew controversy among area Catholics and Catholic scholars given his presumed responsibility for the killings. In August 2008, Hills Bank and Trust filed court documents seeking payment from Sueppel's estate for the embezzled funds and additional outstanding loans.