Iowa man disappears on the day a jury finds him guilty of killing his wife

OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) — Police were searching for an Iowa man who failed to show up at his first-degree murder trial on Friday, the day a jury found him guilty of killing his wife.

A judge issued an arrest warrant for Gregory Showalter Sr. of Ottumwa after he missed the reading of the jury verdict, according to the Ottumwa Courier.

Showalter, 63, had been out on bail since August 2021, when a judge allowed him to post 10% of his $250,000 bond as long as he attended court hearings and wore a GPS monitor. He had been charged with first-degree murder and other offenses in the strangulation death of his wife, 60-year-old Helen Showalter.

Prosecutors argued that Showalter killed his wife on July 31, 2021, and then dumped her body along the Des Moines River near Ottumwa. Her body was found floating in the river the next morning.

Jurors reached a verdict just after 1 p.m. Friday and Showalter’s lawyer said he called his client and told him to come to the Wapello County Courthouse. When Showalter didn’t arrive, his attorney contacted the judge as well as officers, who checked his home.

While police searched for Showalter, the judge ordered that the verdict be read, citing Iowa court rules in cases where a person on trial is voluntarily absent. The jury found Showalter guilty of first-degree murder, abuse of a corpse, willful injury causing serious injury, and domestic abuse assault by strangulation or impeding blood circulation.

The judge also canceled Showalter’s bond.

Ottumwa Police Lt. Jason Bell said when police went to Showalter’s home, they found a woman outside who said she was his friend. She said Showalter had given her keys to his vehicle “and made a comment about not needing those keys anymore.”

She thought he was going to walk to the courthouse and didn’t know where he had gone.

Police tried to locate him by finding his cellphone but a phone carrier said it had been turned off about 1:30 p.m. Friday.

The judge didn’t address whether Showalter was still wearing the GPS monitor.

The judge set a sentencing hearing for Oct. 16. In Iowa, first-degree murder carries a mandatory term of life in prison without the possibility of parole.