Arlene Gehrke, 58, a church organist in the Buckeye, Iowa, area, was robbed and shot in the back of the head on September 4, 1976. The execution-style killing initially appeared to be an isolated act of violence in rural Iowa, but investigators later found it fit a wider pattern.

Authorities eventually connected Gehrke’s death to Allen Leroy Anderson, a fugitive whose summer–fall 1976 travels involved stolen vehicles, credit-card fraud, robberies and multiple murders across several states. Most victims linked to Anderson were shot in the back of the head with a .22-caliber weapon; investigators recovered a .22-caliber revolver from Anderson after his October 28, 1976, arrest. Anderson was charged with first-degree murder in Iowa and was publicly identified as Gehrke’s killer, though surviving accounts differ about the final disposition of the Iowa prosecution.

Gehrke’s case became one piece of a nationwide investigation that used stolen vehicles and credit-card records to trace Anderson’s movements. Did anyone in the Buckeye area remember Arlene Gehrke or see suspicious activity around September 4, 1976?