CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – The body found near Amana Lily Lake over the weekend has now been identified as that of a Marion woman. Investigators say Melody Hoffman, 20, was found Sunday morning near the picnic area of the lake. A man from Hiawatha, McKinley Louisma, 23, is in the Linn County jail on charges of first-degree kidnapping and conspiracy to commit forcible felony.

Court filings detail what investigators say happened after Louisma picked Hoffman up at 11:00 p.m. Saturday. Investigators used data from Hoffman’s iPhone and Apple watch to piece together the story. They determined Hoffman was at Morgan Creek Park in Linn County when her Apple Watch recorded her heartbeat intensify before “it either stopped or the device deactivated.”

Louisma told investigators he and another unidentified person bound Hoffman’s wrists with duct tape, put her in the trunk of the car, and drove to several locations until they reached Lily Lake in Amana. Louisma admitted Hoffman begged to be let go, was beaten, and had numerous stab wounds. The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office says the preliminary cause of death was strangulation.

Court documents show Louisma was part of two previous investigations involving accusations of violence. One was in Manchester involving sexual assault. The other was in Cedar Rapids claiming Louisma attacked a man, causing serious injury. Louisma was out on bond when investigators say he kidnapped Hoffman.

According to the family, a Memorial Account has been established for donations at Collins Community Credit Union under “Memorial for Melody.” Family members are also accepting donations via Venmo using the account @memorial-for-Melody. Family members say the donations will be used to help pay for funeral services.

DES MOINES, Iowa [KCCI] — The Iowa Democratic Party says more than 19,000 voters requested presidential preference cards by their Feb. 19 deadline — and they’re still working through the final numbers. The cards are a response to changes on the national primary calendar in the wake of slowly reported results in Iowa in 2020. It’s the first time the Iowa Democratic Party is casting their presidential preference ballot through mail.

The party began sending out the preference cards on Jan. 12, and the last batch of cards will be mailed out on Monday. They should arrive within 24 hours, according to the IDP. Iowa Democrats have until March 5 to return their cards. Cards that are postmarked by March 5 will also be accepted. The party said it encourages cards to be returned through the mail rather than be dropped off at the Iowa Democratic Party headquarters or local county party offices.

The Iowa Democratic Party said they will begin the tabulation of preference cards around March 1. Results will be released on March 5, 2024, commonly known as “Super Tuesday.” The exact time of the release will be shared closer to the date.

Iowa Democrats held their caucus on Jan. 15, but did not vote on their pick for a presidential nominee.

(Elk Horn, Iowa) – The Exira-Elk Horn Kimballton School Board met Monday evening. According to the meeting minutes provided by Business Manager, Board Secretary/Treasurer Mallory Meyer, during their session, the Board approved action items on their agenda that included:

• A Contract Amendment with INVISION Architecture, LLC.
• 2023-24 Athletics Sharing Agreement with the Audubon Community School District
• 2024-25 School Business Official (SBO) & HR/Business Office Specialist Sharing Agreements with the Audubon CSD.
• A 2024-25 Clinical Experience Placement Agreement with Morningside University.
• The Board accepted a RFP (Request for Proposal) for Auditing Services for FY24-28.
• And, they passed an FY 2025 Budget Adjustment (Guarantee) Resolution

In other business, the Exira-EHK School Board passed the first reading of a policy adoption for policies related to Artificial Intelligence, and Responsible Technology Use & Social Networking. They held and approved after the first and final reading, a policy review with regard to Policy pertaining to Parent and Family Engagement District-Wide.

The Exira-EHK Board also approved the hiring of Associates: Nichole (Nicki) Brown, Margaret Haley, and Angela Immel.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowa’s Attorney General, Insurance Commissioner and A-A-R-P State Director are holding stops across the state to try and educate residents about scams. A-A-R-P director, Brad Anderson, says the latest scam uses A-I to fool elderly Iowans. “A criminal impersonates a grandchild and uses artificial intelligence to impersonate that grandchild’s phone, or even the grandchild’s voice,” he explains, “and calls a well-intentioned grandparent and then scams that grandparent out of thousands of dollars.”

This is a new version of what are called imposter scams. “Imposter scams, according to the F-T-C had been the dominant scam in Iowa for nine years running. Nine years running, and that beats out credit-based scams, it beats out investor scams, online shopping scams,” Anderson says. Insurance Commissioner, Doug Ommen, says they hope to update Iowans on the issue. “Our effort in this tour is really to get out into communities to talk to people about what it is they can do to spot a scam. But also, once you’ve reported a scam, what you can expect from law enforcement in dealing with that,” Ommen says. He says his office has worked with securities broker dealers and investment advisors in our state for years to help with scams in these areas.

“Our laws allow those financial professionals to report financial exploitation. And that allows us then to make sure that individuals that are being targeted for a romance scam or a charity scam or a gift card scam or any of the number of scans that scammers tried to perpetrate on Iowans — we can we can intervene and make every effort to stop that.” He says their new Department of Insurance and Financial Services has people working with the banking industry and the credit union industry to bring them into this effort to protect older Iowans. Attorney General Brenna Bird says the scammers don;t care how old you are, they just want to get your money.

“We’ve seen people lose their life savings to a scam and that is absolutely heartbreaking. We want to do everything we can to try to help and we always try to get the money back if we possibly can,” Bird says. She says getting the money back is not easy, especially if the scam is run from a foreign country. “Many scammers are overseas. But there are also scammers right here in the state,” Bird says. “And those folks can be very dangerous when they come to pick up their ill gotten gains in person. It makes me very concerned. So we urge Iowans if you think there might be a scam, please call law enforcement, please call our office and we will do what we can to help.”

Bird says nationwide ten billion dollars was stolen in 2023 by scammers, and that’s just the scams that were reported. The three are calling their tour the “Stop the Scammer Roadshow” and held the first one in Des Moines Tuesday. They will also make stops in Ames, Carroll, Cedar Rapids, Coralville, Council Bluffs, Newton, Creston, Davenport, Dubuque, Fort Dodge, Johnston, Marshalltown, Mason City, Mt. Pleasant, Ottumwa, Sioux City, and Waterloo.

Go to iowafraudfighters.gov to find out how you can sign up.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A woman from Red Oak was arrested Tuesday evening on an assault charge. According to the Red Oak Police Department, 27-year-old Tori Shanelle Bergerson, was arrested at around 6:25-p.m. in the 2400 block of N. 8th Street, for Domestic Abuse Assault/1st offense. Bergerson was being held without bond in the Montgomery County Jail. Red Oak Police were assisted in handling the incident by deputies with the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office.