Man whose family was linked to sensational murder found dead in Madison County pond
In a bizarre twist, search-and-rescue divers recovered the body of Leonard Wolfe, 86, of Windsor Heights, from a pond Thursday a short distance from where the body of another man was dumped by his ex-wife and son in a high-profile murder 43 years ago.
The pond in rural northeast Madison County was on land owned by a trust in Wolfe's name. The county sheriff's office said in a Facebook posting that deputies had been called to investigate reports of a potential drowning there.
The site at 105th Street and Wildrose Lane sits just over a mile from Maffitt Reservoir, where, in October 1979, a fisherman found the floating body of Kenneth Donald Teer, the 42-year-old on-and-off-again boyfriend of Leonard’s ex-wife, Doris Wolfe. Teer had been bound with electrical wire and weighted down with concrete. An autopsy concluded he had died from gunshot wounds or drowning, according to court documents.
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Madison County sheriff's Sgt. Jason Barnes said Friday that deputies don't suspect foul play in Wolfe's death, but have scheduled an autopsy.
Doris Wolfe and sons Lane and Randy, 20 and 24 at the time, were charged with murder in connection with Teer’s death. At trial, witnesses testified Teer became violent during a dispute in the living room of Doris Wolfe's home on Southeast Fifth Street in Des Moines.
At the time of the shooting, Doris Wolfe and Teer had been in a relationship for eight years, but they broke up after she accused him of stealing from her, according to Des Moines Register reports on the 1980 trial.
Des Moines attorney Rick Olson, who represented one of Wolfe's sons in the trial, said the case was in big news in Iowa at the time. It was held in Council Bluffs after a judge granted a change of venue.
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“I believe it was the first televised trial in the state of Iowa,” Olson said. “There was the allegation that the boyfriend was abusive to mom. And then the brother, Randy, he testifies against his brother Lane and his mother in exchange for a lesser charge.
“The prosecutor’s allegation was that they waited (for Teer) and they shot him several times, then they tied him up with a telephone cord and wrapped him up and dumped him in the reservoir,” Olson said. “But she had been beaten, there was no question about that.”
Randy Wolfe was subsequently granted immunity for testifying against his mother and brother. His mother, who admitted during testimony that she shot Teer, and Lane Wolfe were convicted of second-degree murder in separate trials, according to court records. Both were ordered to serve 25 years in prison.
Lane Wolfe died in 2018. Randy Wolfe, a drummer and Iowa Rock and Roll hall of fame member with the Des Moines band Princemen, died in 2021 of cancer. Both sons worked for their father at Leonard Wolfe Masonry. They were preceded in death by their mother and a third brother.
Staff writer Francesca Block contributed to this article.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Body of 86-year-old man found in pond in rural Madison County
