Ethel Mae Franken

Background

Ethel Mae Franken, 33, was described as a recent mental patient. Police believed she had killed her husband and their three children before killing herself.

Ethel Mae Franken’s husband was Darrell Franken, 37. Their children were Troy, 13; Valerie, 11; and Dustin, 7.

The Franken family lived in Aplington, Iowa, a town of 900 about 30 miles from Waterloo.

The offence

On January 18, 1983, police found five bodies shot to death in the bedrooms of the Franken family home.

Butler County Medical Examiner Dr. Garry Teigland said:

“The scene would be compatible with her having shot her husband and the children” and: “She was closest to the gun” and: “The mother was lying in bed with the gun on the bed” He also said: “The father was lying within 8 to 10 feet of the bed, or less” and: “All of the bodies were in bedrooms, as I recall. One of the children was in bed in one room, two others were in an adjoining room on the floor”.

Teigland said each victim was shot with a small-caliber handgun.

Local authorities were contacted after the family failed to show up for classes at the elementary school across the street from their home.

Investigation

Investigators and a lab crew gathered clues at the family’s home.

Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Chief Gerald Shanahan said investigators and a lab crew were gathering clues at the family’s home.

Police Chief Tom Lines, 22, said he discovered the bodies and that investigators had told him not to talk about the incident:

“We knew they were missing” and: “I can't say any more than that because (state investigators) told me not to talk about it”.

A neighbor who asked not to be identified said residents of Aplington were “real shocked”:

“It's hard to believe”.

Police believed the mother shot her family and then shot herself.

Other details

Ethel Mae Franken was scheduled to have an appointment with a psychiatrist in Waterloo.

Dalene Tjabring, a close friend of the family, said she went to the home Tuesday morning to take Mrs. Franken to Waterloo for the appointment:

“We had been at a Christian Women's Club dinner together on Monday and that's when she asked me if I would take her to the doctor Tuesday” She said she found no response: “I went up to the house and no one answered” and: “I just didn't feel right”.

Acquaintances said Mrs. Franken had been under psychiatric care for several weeks and had been hospitalized for several days at a time in the psychiatric ward at Allen Memorial Hospital in Waterloo, the same hospital in which autopsies were scheduled.

Teigland said the deaths could have occurred Monday night. He based this on the fact that all victims were in night clothes and that Franken went to work at the John Deere plant in Waterloo Monday. Plant officials said Darrell Franken had taken Tuesday off.

Neighbors described the Franken family as:

“good hard-working people with nice kids”.

The shootings were described as the largest multiple homicide in Iowa since six members of a Delmar family were killed in a murder-suicide in December 1980.

Timeline

• January 18, 1983 — Ethel Mae Franken, 33, shot her husband Darrell Franken, 37, and their children Troy (13), Valerie (11), and Dustin (7), then shot herself in Aplington, Iowa; police found the five bodies about noon Tuesday after a friend tried to call and the three children failed to show up for classes.