GUILTY IA - Gregory May, 55, slain, dismembered, Bellevue, Jan 2001

[mysteriew]

Prosecutors said they believe May was killed in January 2001 in his Bellevue apartment, but four years of searching failed to find his body. However, just last month, authorities learned of a possible link between the May case and a head found in a bucket at a truck stop in 2001 near Kearney, Mo.

A key witness is expected to be Julie Miller, aka Julie Johnson, who told federal authorities as part of a plea agreement on federal theft charges that DeBruin killed May in the apartment and stuffed the body in garbage bags. She was DeBruin’s girlfriend at the time.

http://www.qctimes.com/internal.php?story_id=1049090&l=1&t=Gateway&c=30,1049090

 

[mysteriew]

A Missouri truck stop owner who found a human head in a bucket of concrete four years ago will testify in the trial of Douglas DeBruin, charged with murder in the 2001 disappearance of Iowa antiques dealer Gregory May.

The head was found at the truck stop Aug. 27, 2001, seven months after May’s disappearance.

"I had almost resigned myself to never finding his remains," Donald May, Gregory May’s son, said from California during a telephone interview Thursday. "The timing is fortuitous. ... It was about to be the first trial without a body in Iowa."

Gregory May, 55, of Bellevue, Iowa, was an antiques dealer who specialized in Civil War memorabilia. He had shared his home with DeBruin, 54, and DeBruin’s girlfriend, Julie Ann Miller, and disappeared in January 2001.

DeBruin faces trial next week on a first-degree murder charge.

Police and prosecutors declined to comment on the discovery of the head.

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Apr/20050410News019.asp

 

[mysteriew]

A woman serving time for transporting stolen goods across state lines will likely face no further charges in connection with the slaying of an antiques dealer.

Miller testified that she helped DeBruin cut up May's body with a chain saw and dispose of the body parts in the Mississippi River. His skull was placed in a bucket of concrete at a truck stop in Missouri.

http://www.kwqc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3433832

 

[OkieGranny]

From April 2009:

http://www.advancabag.com/news spotlight again.html

DeBruin was convicted of first-degree murder in April 2005 after prosecutors convinced a jury that he killed May one night in the home's kitchen and that he and Miller cut up May's body and scattered the parts. His skull was found at a Kearney, Neb., truck stop a few months later, but was not identified until 2005 when a forensic artist reconstructed the skull.

DeBruin is serving his life sentence at the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison. Miller, who was sentenced for perjury and theft, is serving in a federal prison in Waseca, Minn. She will be eligible for release in February 2011.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

I just saw this case on Extreme Forensics television program. It was on the Justice Channel, which is now called the True Crime Network.

It talked about how the doe project was instrumental in helping law enforcement match up the reconstruction of the found head at the truck stop with the case. Thank goodness they did a head reconstruction to solve this.

 

[dixiegirl1035]

New law makes it felony to dismember body

May's children were shocked to learn there was no law in Iowa to prohibit what happened to their father's body.

"At least this law closes that loophole. I'd like to see it carry a stiffer sentence," said Don May, 40, of Santa Monica, Calif. "The fact that they cut up my father's body added another level of horror and brutality to the whole thing."

"It's too late for the May family," Schueller said, "but if this ever happens again, people like Julie Ann Miller will not be able to walk away from it."