Day tours of the famous Villisca Ax Murder House will not be held this week, so that the staff, family and friends of the museum’s operator can mourn his death. Darwin Linn owned the house where eight people were killed on June 10^th, 1912. Linn died Friday. He’d purchased the home in 1994 and restored the building to its near original condition in 1912.

Joshua B. Moore, his wife Sarah, and their four children lived in the home nearly a century ago. The family and two neighbor girls who were staying with them were found bludgeoned to death with an ax. To this day, their deaths remain unresolved.

Darwin Linn also operated the Olson-Linn Museum in downtown, Villisca, which features pictures and artifacts about the town’s history. He offered tours of the museum and the Ax Murder House, which was added to the National Register of Historic Places, in 1998. He eventually opened the house to overnight stays.

A woman and child riding on a personal watercraft were injured Friday evening, when their vessel was hit by another PWC on Carter Lake. Authorities say a 5-year old boy and a 42-year old woman were struck as they were on the craft, at around 5-p.m.

A private boat brought the victims to the shore. The woman and child were then transported to the Nebraska Medical Center, where they were being treated for what were believed to be non-life threatening injuries.

No other injuries were reported, and additional details about the accident are not yet available.

A spokesman for the Iowa Army National Guard says community homecoming ceremonies for three Guard units mobilized as part of Operation Enduring Freedom will be held on Monday, July 18th and Tuesday, July 19th at Cedar Falls and in Coralville. The Guardsmen are currently undergoing medical clearances, briefings on federal and state benefits to which they are now entitled as combat veterans, equipment turn-in, and the completion of administrative documentation at Ft. McCoy, Wis. and will return home to Iowa as soon as those tasks are completed.

Homecoming ceremonies will be held for Companies B and C, 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. The ceremony for about 100 soldiers from Company C starts at 11:30 a.m. at the UNI Dome in Cedar Falls. Nearly 110 soldiers from Company B will be welcomed back beginning at Noon, in the Marriott Conference Center in Coralville.

The homecoming ceremony for 95 soldiers from Company E, 334th Brigade Support Battalion and selected Soldiers of H-H-B 1st Battalion, 133rd Infantry, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division, will be held at 11:30 a.m., at the UNI Dome.

The units arrived in Afghanistan in November 2010, where the Soldiers provided full-spectrum operations in a combat theater, including lethal and non-lethal capabilities, support to Afghan National Army and Police units, and assistance to humanitarian relief initiatives.

The Iowa State Patrol reports one of three Nebraska men who was injured during an accident Saturday afternoon in Mills County, has died. 60-year old Michael Eppenbach, of Ord, NE was a passenger in a pickup that was struck by a semi, as the vehicle was making a U-turn on an Interstate 29 exit ramp. Eppenbach died from his injuries at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. The accident happened about two-miles south of the Glenwood exit on I-29 southbound, at around 12:23-p.m.

Officials say a 2006 Ford F-150 pickup driven by 60-year old George Mills, of Raymond, NE, was on the ramp from the 32-mile marker northbound, when he attempted to make a u-turn and go southbound on the top of the ramp in a head-to-head construction zone. His pickup was hit on the driver’s side door during the u-turn, by a northbound 2002 Mack semi. The driver of the semi was not identified.

Mills, and Michael Eppenbach, and 36-year old Jeffrey Eppenbach, of Waverly, NE, were injured in the crash . All three men were taken to Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, with Jeffrey Eppenbach having been flown by LifeNet helicopter from the scene. The other two men were transported by Glenwood Rescue.

The accident remains under investigation.

A Minnesota man who was critically injured when he was struck by one or more vehicles July 6th near Shelby, has died from his injuries. 31-year old Mosadaq A, Aden, of St. Paul, died Friday, at the Nebraska Medical Center.

Aden was hit by an unknown vehicle or vehicles at around 3-a.m., as he was walking on an Interstate 80 ramp. The State Patrol says the driver left the scene of the crash without stopping, but they acknowledge that person may not have known they struck an individual.

The man was previously listed in critical condition after suffering a crushed pelvis and severe head injuries during the accident. He had been making his way across the country from Las Vegas to St. Paul, by with whatever transportation was available to him, including hitchhiking.