A (4:00)

While former Sheriff Whitlatch waited for the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, DCI to come and help, the local investigators shifted their focus to their only witness, Tom's wife, Dawn. She was their best hope of identifying Tom's murderer. So that night at the hospital and the next day as well, investigators pressed her for more details. The conversation deputies had with dawn at the hospital was recorded, and while we weren't able to access the tape, the sheriff's office did share the transcript with us. So we've recreated parts of that interview so you can hear what happened in Dawn's own words.

B (4:37)

The time is about nine minutes after 11 or 23:09. And today's date is September 30, 1991. I'm at the University of Iowa Hospitals. And your full name?

C (4:47)

Dawn Michelle Mather.

B (4:49)

Okay. Can you explain to me what happened tonight?

C (4:52)

Okay. My husband and I were watching television, and we heard the dog barking, and I assumed it was my dad who was always dropping by. And this guy came, came in, and he had a gun. And he says, this is a hold up. This is a stick up. Get down on the floor. So my husband got down on the floor, and the guy had no clothes on except tennis shoes. And at first I thought he was wearing a, like, pantyhose or something over his face, you know? But I don't know whether he took them off or it was just my imagination that he was wearing them because later on he didn't have them on. He got my husband down, told me to come over. He gave me some rope and told me to tie my husband up. And I tried to tie my husband up, but obviously I was fairly upset and wasn't doing a good enough job at it. I guess he just told me to go sit away from my husband a little bit. And he tied my husband up, tied his hands back behind his head like they do, you know, on the police shows. And then he tied his feet up and made him kind of inchworm down the hall into the bedroom and made me go into the bedroom. And then he, you know, he had a gun. And he kept telling us that, you know, do what he says or I'll blow your head off, or I'll kill you or I'll shoot you, or different variations of that. And after he got us back into the bedroom, he told my husband that he was going to rape me and make my husband watch.

A (6:19)

Dawn goes on to describe in detail how the man forced her to take off her clothes and. And what he made her do after. But no matter what sex act he tried to force on her or make her perform, Don said that he was not able to perform.

C (6:36)

He couldn't get an erection. So he told me to roll over, and I did. And he used. We had some clothes laying around the bedroom, used those to tie me up. And then he took my husband back out into the bedroom. He told me not to move or else he'd shoot my husband. And then my husband started screaming and yelling, and I started screaming, don't hurt him. You know, please don't hurt him. And started trying to get free, and I managed to get free. And I started to run up or down the hall out to the living room, and my husband yelled, run, run. So the way out the house is. Our bedroom is in the back. And then the hallway goes out toward the living room, which is in the front of the house, and there's an entryway into the garage about halfway in between. So I just ducked out that way through the garage and ran for help to the neighbors across the way.

B (7:29)

Okay, the articles he tied you up with, do you know what specific articles those were?

C (7:34)

There was a. He tied my hands with a sweatshirt, and he tied my feet with. I think it was either a shirt or it might have been a towel, a sweatshirt.

B (7:44)

Do you remember what collar it was?

C (7:45)

It was white. It's the Mickey Mouse sweatshirt, is what it is. It's white and has Mickey Mouse wearing red, and it says St. Louis on it.

B (7:54)

Now, have you ever seen the subject before?

C (7:56)

Uh, never.

B (7:58)

Has he ever looked like anybody else that you.

C (8:01)

I. I don't remember ever seeing him before. I don't know.

A (8:06)

I may.

C (8:06)

I work in a photography studio, and it's possible that he's seen me or stopped by or, you know, something along those lines, but I don't have any memories of ever dealing with him in any way.

B (8:18)

Can you describe him? Starting at his head, he had kind.

C (8:22)

Of sandy blonde hair. Unfortunately, I Didn't really look at his face a whole lot except to notice that he didn't have the anything covering it. I didn't really see any distinguishing marks or anything. He wasn't real muscular. His muscles were not defined in any way, you know, like people who work out or whatever. I didn't notice any tan lines or anything. He was apparently a natural blonde. His tennis shoes were white with little red stripes on them.

B (8:53)

Now did you recognize. Would they possibly be like mics, Reeboks, ponies? Are you familiar with the way those look?

C (9:00)

Not really. I didn't recognized them as beat up old red and white tennis shoes. I didn't really notice a brand name, but I wear glasses and I took my glasses off. So after he brought us back into the bedroom. So I can't even see your face clearly from where we're sitting. So unfortunately.

A (9:23)

Dawn said the man was a white guy with long sandy blonde hair that fell to bout his collar and he looked to be in his late 20s, maybe early 30s. He was clean shaven and she guessed that he was maybe six feet tall or so. Now he didn't talk with any kind of accent that she recognized, so her assumption would be that he was someone from the Midwest like her. But for all the talking he did, giving them directions and making threats, dawn pointed out that he never used their names. Dawn said the only weapon he had was the gun, which she thought he must have brought with him because he, he had it as soon as he entered the house. And as far as she knew, at least at the time she was there, he didn't take anything. Perhaps looking for anything that might have left trace evidence, investigators pressed her, asking dawn what the intruder might have touched. He hadn't been wearing gloves according to her account, so this line of questioning seemed promising. And thinking back over things, she told them that he could have touched the front door where he came in and maybe the bedroom door when they went in there. She don't remember seeing it, but she guessed that he would have had to touch those doors at some point. And she suggested that he could have also touched the dresser in the closet because that's where the clothes were that he ended up tying her up with. She recalled that after she tried to tie up Tom, the assailant put something down or picked something up off a buffet table that they had in the living room. And then he ended up tying up Tom, his, himself. With Don's details guiding them, investigators moved through the farmhouse piece by piece. They collected multiple items of evidence, most notably a bloody Knife sitting on the chair next to Tom's body in the living room and the ropes that were used to bind him. They took the bedspread from the primary bedroom, along with cuttings from the bed itself. They also swabbed the closet door for the presence of blood and collected several latent prints, though the evidence log doesn't specify from where. On the buffet or hutch, as it's referred to in the evidence logs, they found a full box of.22ammo, possibly what Don could have seen him reaching for, but clearly he hadn't taken any. And Tom was killed with a knife, so they didn't really know quite what to make of that. Actually, they weren't sure what to make of her story about the assailant having a gun at all, since Tom was killed with a knife. Or at least that's what they thought until they found a final piece of evidence hidden behind the couch in the living room. Behind that was a.22 casing. And an autopsy the next day revealed what investigators hadn't realized at first. Tom actually died from a gunshot wound to his head from a.22 caliber bullet, not the slice to his neck, which just raised more questions for investigators. Tom's injuries were so extensive that it was hard not to wonder why someone would assault him so violently. And then, I mean, it wasn't even just the single slash to his neck that Tom suffered. Cedar County's current sheriff, Warren Wethington, said there were others as well.

D (12:30)

There's some marks that I would consider possibly defensive wounds on his face. If I remember right, there was a cut, I think, on his left jaw above the large wound.

A (12:45)

The large wound Sheriff Wethington mentioned was the deep gash just above Tom's Adam's apple. According to the medical examiner's report, the cut was so deep, it could have been fatal on its own. But still, the assailant chose to shoot Tom. Was he just angry that Don was getting away and his planned whatever it was was ruined, or was there some personal emotion fueling his rage on Tom? The latter was a little hard to believe the more they learned about Tom Mather.

B (13:16)

He was liked in the community. I mean, his father was well liked, and Tom was the two. I mean, he just. I guess nobody disliked him. You know, he was just an easygoing kid.

A (13:29)

This was echoed by Tom's cousin, Katherine Siegel. She grew up visiting her older cousin regularly and has fond memories of their time together.

E (13:38)

He was such a bright light and always had a great sunny disposition. And he would walk into my grandma's house with a big old smile on his face and give us big hugs. Very warm and welcoming.

A (13:53)

By all accounts, Tom seemed like an all around good guy who lived an unassuming life. He worked a steady custodial job at the University of Iowa, where he used the campus gym to lift weights. Everyone we spoke to told us that Tom had some kind of unspecified learning disability. His cousin Catherine thought that it might have been dyslexia, but it didn't affect his social functioning or the way he moved through the world. He and dawn had just celebrated their one year wedding anniversary the month before, though they'd been together for years before that, and from what investigators were told, it appeared to be a happy, affectionate relationship. The two didn't have a ton of time to spend together. Tom worked nights, dawn days, but that actually was about to change. Until then, the main time that they had together was on the weekends and then that window of time on weekdays after Don got home and before Tom left. That's when they would eat dinner and watch their favorite shows together. Exactly what they were doing. On Monday, September 30, investigators talked to those who knew the couple, family members and friends, especially their closest friends, Amy and Dave Baronik. The Baronics hung out with the Mathers all the time, calling, going out to bars on the weekends, staying home and playing cards. They'd known each other for a long time and were extremely close. I mean, Dave had even been Tom's best man at their wedding. And both Amy and Dave said that the couple seemed happy and every time they were together, they were playing around like five year olds wrestling with each other. And Don's brother told deputies that they were constantly kissing in public. But despite everyone saying the couple was pulling picture perfect and happy, there was something about it that investigators just didn't completely buy. Early on, they couldn't disprove anything anyone was saying, but it was the things Don was saying and doing that made them suspicious, starting all the way back on the night that Tom died, When police began collecting statements from neighbors, EMTs, and friends who had responded to the house where dawn had found refuge. They all seemed to have had encounters with dawn that they felt were awkward or strange considering what had just unfolded in her home. Investigators know that shock and trauma can scramble language, distort time, and fracture memory. But even with that understanding, parts of Dawn's behavior stood out to them. Mary, the neighbor, said that dawn whimpered and she told police that she didn't think this was from fear, but more from the cold and running. And she Remembered dawn as calm and unemotional. The EMT that rode in the ambulance with dawn also found her behavior unusual. He said that she spent the trip to the hospital talking about things unrelated to the attack, feeling like the black sheep in her family, having a meaningless job, even shopping catalogs. He described her as almost bubbly. Now, some people did note tears, but in the reports, it says that she was kind of crying. And at the hospital, when a deputy finally told her that Tom was dead, he said that she had a burst of grief that lasted only seconds. At Tom's funeral, his cousin Catherine said people noticed a similar pattern.

E (17:20)

And I do remember people just watching dawn carefully, which shouldn't come as a surprise to you, but, you know, they were watching her very carefully. And the problem is that, like, everybody griefs and reacts to shock and grief differently. So I try not to judge how people are behaving in situations like that, because grief takes many, many forms. But I think that people were a little surprised that she was kind of a little more upbeat than you would expect at the reception. But again, that's not indicating of much of anything because people react so differently. But I do remember seeing her there, and she was going around and talking to people and kind of socializing and. But the whole thing was just. It was just so shocking.

A (18:09)

So, like Catherine said, everyone reacts differently to trauma. When something traumatic happens, one person might cry, another might laugh, Someone else might just be numb. But trauma or not, Dawn's reactions weren't the only thing that raised red flags for investigators. Mark, Mary, the EMTs and investigators all noticed one puzzling detail that they believe didn't fit her story.

B (18:36)

You know, she allegedly ran about better than 50 yards on gravel road. So I'm sure her feet were examined, and they didn't show any injury at all on her bare feet.

A (18:53)

So all that knowledge and suspicion is bubbling under the surface when investigators hear a wild story from Tom's name. Newspaper delivery man named Harry. We're going to have an actor read the police report where Harry's account is summarized.

F (19:11)

Harry indicated that he delivers USA Today newspapers and that the last time he saw Tom Mather, Tom looked more noticeably depressed. Said they always have kind of a greeting when they see each other and they ask one another, how's it hanging? And Tom said it was hanging pretty low. Harry said, what's the problem? And Tom says, I think my wife and her fiance are trying to kill me. And those are the words that Harry used was fiance. He said, tom says, I'm a dead man.

A (19:40)

They drilled in with Harry. Are those your words or Tom's? And it turns out Tom's words were a little different, but still troubling.

F (19:50)

I asked him why he was depressed. He thinks someone's going to kill him. He didn't say why. He says, I think my wife and someone is trying to kill me. And that was the quote Harry gave us from Tom Mather. Harry said, I told him, I don't believe you. And Harry says, I told him, get out of the place. Talk to a professional or detective to talk to. Harry said that Tom told him that he had told everyone that he worked with at Carver Hawkeye arena, and they didn't believe him. Harry also mentioned that Tom told him the same day that he mentioned he was depressed, that she wanted the insurance change to her name. Harry said that he never saw Tom again.

A (20:29)

It sounds like the best Harry could remember. This interaction with Tom happened about a week before his murder. And while investigators obviously couldn't verify that Tom said those exact things to Harry, they were able to verify that thing about Tom changing Don to his insurance beneficiary. Tom had life insurance policies totaling more than $57,000. Dawn told them the insurance agent visited about every six months. And during the last visit, they had changed the beneficiary from Tom's mom to her. But if insurance money was a motive for dawn to kill her husband, it certainly wasn't fast cash. The insurance company delayed payout while dawn remained a suspect. She eventually sued and collected just over $42,000 in June 1992. But it's not all that unusual for a wife to be the beneficiary of her husband's policy. And Tom's friend Dave didn't think Don would kill Tom for money. He said that Tom gave her anything she wanted. And by the way, investigators knew that dawn came from a family of means. I mean, her father was an optometrist with a thriving practice in Des Moines. So if money wasn't the motive and Tom really was afraid of his wife plotting to kill him with someone else, what was a week into the investigation, rumors were flying. Investigators heard that Don was upset about Tom changing his work hours. Him moving from working nights to days meant a pay cut and a new routine, which, if the other rumor they started hearing was true, could mean less time to carry on an affair. Now, none of these affair rumors came from anyone close to the couple. Investigators just received some third hand reports that Tom and Don had been at a bar the night before his death. And the rumor was that Tom argued with A blonde haired man, Don was hanging around. But even in the small town, no one could name this mystery man. So with all the gossip swirling around, investigators did what they often do. A week after Tom's death. They asked Don to take a polygraph. She did, and she failed. Questions about whether she knew who shot Tom or if she had any role in planning his death registered as deceptive. When investigators confronted her, dawn broke down and said, quote, well, they'll just have to prove it. Then she walked out. She hasn't spoken to investigators since. Detectives kept their suspicions about dawn under wraps, at least publicly for the time being, because the truth was, no matter what their gut was telling them, the physical evidence was telling them something else. There were unidentified prints collected from the Mather home. And I know everyone says now that they're suspicious of the fact that Dawn's feet weren't cut up more, but at the time, it seems like nobody even bothered to confront her about this. There's nothing in the case file and transcripts that we've seen. And when our report Porter asked former sheriff Whitlatch if Dawn was ever questioned about this, frustratingly, the answer was, I don't know. They also couldn't locate a gun in the home or anywhere else that matched what Tom was killed with. And in all their canvassing of the neighborhood, they actually had a number of conversations with locals, including neighbors and people who drove through the area, some of whom relayed a number of stories about an unidentified man who was in the area the night of September 30th. For example, one witness reported seeing a tall, slender man in tan overalls near the Mather home.

B (24:09)

We had reports of people seeing a man walking from the cornfield north of the farm curtilage, I mean, buildings, and carrying a round cylinder object on his shoulder towards the house. And we can never identify who that person was or what he was carrying or where he went.

A (24:33)

Another report came from the Mathers closest neighbor. This was actually the first house that dawn had run to for help. But when no one answered the door quick enough, dawn said that she ran to the next house that was Mark and Mary's. But as it turns out, that first neighbor was home. She was just too scared to answer the door. But about an hour after dawn had come looking for help, this same neighbor said that she saw a blondish lighter haired man wearing jeans approach her back porch and like, rattle the door handle. Terrified, she grabbed her son and ran to the bedroom and called the sheriff's office. Now, investigators didn't ignore these leads Starting on the 30th, they conducted an exhaustive overnight search with a 4 mile radius of the Mather farmhouse, looking for anyone who fit these descriptions. 50 law enforcement officers from about 10 different agencies, search dogs and a helicopter were brought in. But as Tom's cousin Catherine explained, a manhunt in Iowa during corn harvest season proved to be difficult.

E (25:35)

Corn stalks can go pretty high, I mean like 8, 9ft high. And you're talking about like a wall of corn rose for as long as you can see that's over your head. So it's very difficult. I think that was causing also a challenge for law enforcement because when trying to search for the person that did this, they were running through cornfields at the peak of the growing season.

A (26:04)

But it wasn't just a mystery man they were looking for. There was also a mystery car that was in the area around the same time. A man on his way to work reported that he spotted a light colored, possibly gray Chevy type car in the same area at around 9pm the night of Tom's death. When the witness approached in his vehicle, the car turned its lights off. And interestingly enough, police found tire tracks in curtilage north of the Mather property. Then there was a local woman who told police that she was home at around a quarter to six that evening when she saw a dark blue two door vehicle, possibly a Grand Am, drive east past her house, which was awfully close to the description of a shiny blue Pontiac Grand Am other witnesses saw between 8 and 8:30pm sitting in the Mather driveway. Those witnesses saw a white man and a woman walking toward the Mather home. And they said that the woman had been wearing a mint green or perhaps like turquoise colored dress. Now, on the surface, this sounds like the kind of detail investigators live for. An unfamiliar car showing up right before a homicide, it practically begs to be treated as a high value lead. But here's the part that gets glossed over. According to the Des Moines Register, at the time of Tom's death, there were more than 5,000 similar blue cars registered in the state of Iowa. So even if the sightings were accurate, it didn't exactly narrow the playing field. Our team got a chance to look at the case file, and it was clear that investigators spent a lot of time and a lot of energy tracking down that car, or at least trying to, and trying to match the tire tracks to possible suspect vehicles, but they came up empty. No plate, no driver, nothing. But police didn't take that to mean that the mystery car and the mystery man didn't exist. Actually, they were kind of certain he did. Former Sheriff Whitlatch puts it like this.

B (28:05)

So if the wife gets killed, you would suspect the husband and vice versa. So she was a suspect, remains a suspect, but we don't have any positive proof and we're reasonably sure she didn't do it alone.

A (28:23)

Over the first year of the investigation, that became the working theory that dawn was responsible for Tom's death with the help of a man. That could account for Dawn's strange behavior and the evidence and sightings that pointed to an unknown man. Former Sheriff Whitlatch tried to nod at this in an interview with the Quad City Times back in November 1992. He was talking about the lead of a man and a woman in the Mather driveway and he said, quote, we have our guess who the woman was, but I'd rather not say who. More than 34 years later, the former sheriff is still a bit cagey when it comes to saying who he was talking about. But the reports we saw show that they were clearly looking at Dawn. And if she was involved, it's obvious that they actually had a theory in those early days about who could have helped her. Can I tell you my least favorite part of parenting? And I knew this was going to be my least favorite part before I ever even had my daughter. Mealtime. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks in between. I mean, I'm someone who gets one good meal a day if I'm lucky. I just wasn't built for planning out five plus meals and snacks a day. And maybe it sounds small to you, but it grinds me. So I went looking for a solution and I found Little Spoon. They deliver real food for babies, toddlers and big kids straight to your door. So mealtime actually feels easy. Decision fatigue over and mealtime can be on the go without getting fast food. That is parenting gold. These are organic meals and snacks for babies, toddlers and big kids. Purees, finger foods, hidden veggie plates and more. All safety tested for 500 plus toxins. Convenient and best part under $8 per serving less than you would pay for a smoothie. Little spoon is the mealtime hack parents can't stop talking about. Try their no Prep nutrient packed meals and snacks for babies, toddlers and big kids. And get 30% off your first online order at littlespoon.com deck30 with code deck30 at checkout. That's L-I T T L E S P O-O-N.com and don't forget to use our show's code for 30% off your first order.

D (30:45)

Every true crime story has one thing in common. Nothing is as it seems, and no podcast knows that better than Chameleon. I'm Josh Dean, and my podcast Chameleon explores hidden identities concealed by con artists and scams. So mind blowing, it'll have you questioning everything you know. If you're ready to uncover the biggest lies in history, listen to Chameleon wherever you get your podcasts.

A (31:17)

When investigators considered who the man in those sightings could have been, the first person they focused on was Tom's best friend, Dave Bronik. When investigators interviewed Dave, they dropped a bomb on him out of the gates. They told him that they had information that Tom believed Don wanted to kill him. And he told investigators that he was surprised Tom hadn't shared that information with him, because they talked about everything, and Tom never said a word. And then he admitted to something very honest that I think took police aback. There's actually a transcript of this conversation that we're going to have two actors read.

F (31:57)

See, a lot of people talked about. There's. There's rumors all over about affairs. Affairs that she might have had affairs. Who would she have had an affair with? Boy, oh, boy, that's a good question. That seems funny to you? Yeah, it does, because my wife would tell you this as quick as anybody else, that if there was someone to have an affair with, it would probably have been me. Okay. Okay. It was just a thing. When we all went out, it was a big joke. Okay. But I think dawn and me took it seriously because there was conversation one time about it, and I sort of just looked at her, and I said, it's too bad that I didn't meet you before I met my wife. And we chuckled and laughed about it, but I don't know of anybody outside of just the four of us. You know, Tom even knew that, you know. So she vaguely approached you or spoke about it? No, actually, it just came up in general conversation between my wife and her. Were you guys alone or. Well, it actually started out in conversation just between the wives. I got the impression it came up in the car when they were driving back from work. I wasn't there, and then later, it was just sort of like they chuckle every now and then. And it finally came out in general conversation. Okay. You know, it's like if, you know, something would happen to Tom or something happened to my wife, you know, it's like, you know, we could get together or whatever, you know, as a joke.

A (33:16)

Mm. Dave said this conversation happened six to eight months earlier. And he blew it off as a joke. Apparently satisfied with the response, the investigator asked Dave if there were any other men in Dawn's life. Dave said no. He insisted that Don loved Tom and offered no alternative names. So investigators shifted their attention to Dave's firearms. He admitted to having three. Three weapons. His late brother's.22 Ruger 10.22 rifle, a single shot.22 rifle, and a six shot.22 revolver loaned to him by his friend Chris Piper. All three could possibly fit their murder weapon. Now, what stood out in Dave's interview is what didn't happen. Even after telling Dave in the interview that he was their only suspect, investigators didn't press him about his relationships with Tom and Don. And there were no challenges to his casual dismissal of the months long joke about Don wanting him. Investigators did interview his wife, Amy, though maybe they were saving the tougher questions for her. And her interview was as surprisingly honest as Dave's. According to the transcript, she told them Dave and Dawn got along real good and that David dawn would jump Dave in a minute if she wasn't with him. Amy recalled conversations with dawn about the possibility of Dave and Dawn having each other if something were to happen to her or Tom. But even as Amy cast doubt on her husband, she handed him a lifeline in the form of an alibi. She told investigators that they were home that evening. Amy was in the bath while Dave was watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. She estimated that she was in the tub from about 7:40pm to 8:40pm and she could hear the TV from the bathroom. What she couldn't say, though, was that she ever saw Dave. Amy told investigators that she never left the bathroom, therefore she never physically put eyes on him watching television. However, both of them said that the way they'd found out about the incident and had known to go be with dawn was because Dave's mother had overheard a call from dispatch on the police scanner and she rushed over to tell them. This account would make it hard to believe that Dave could go to the Mathers, kill Tom, get home, clean up, and be sitting down watching Ninja Turtles like nothing happened. And if he did that, for what? Besides the jokes among friends, police could never find a motive. And as far as we could tell, Dave and Amy are still together to this day. Oh, and by the way, according to the police file, none of the guns that that Dave voluntarily turned over were a match to the weapon that killed Tom. We reached out to both Dave and Amy, but they declined to comment. The thing I really couldn't piece together in Regard to investigators suspicion of Dave is how they got there in the first place. I mean, sure, there's some eyebrow raising stuff once him and Amy are interviewed, but, like, what even brought it to that? Because police went into those thinking that Dave was a suspect. Now, Amy says in an interview that when they both arrived to see dawn, right as EMTs were getting there, before anyone could settle around her, dawn immediately grabbed and hugged Dave. He returned the hug and told her everything was going to be okay. So maybe One of the EMTs saw that and thought it was odd. But even if that is what happened, it's not what sent them off in this direction. There's nothing in the case file to suggest why Dave was their only suspect. And when our reporter Regine Wright asked former Sheriff Whitlatch if he remembers why they looked so hard at him, she wasn't able to get a definitive answer.

B (37:03)

Just close friend, I guess. He just seemed like his name kept popping up, but it didn't. We couldn't tie him directly to anything.

A (37:14)

It wasn't just the murder weapon or the motive that they couldn't tie to take Dave. Fingerprints and palm prints from the crime scene didn't match him or Amy either. They even tested the finger and palm prints of the friend of Dave's, that friend that had loaned him a gun. But no go. Dawn's footprints were also eliminated. Looking back, it's hard not to wonder if their focus on dawn and Dave kept them from pursuing other early leads, suspects they were never able to identify. For example, dawn said that a stranger came by their house shortly before the murder asking for directions to Wellman, Iowa. Tom was on the phone with his dad at this time, and his dad confirmed that he overheard this exchange. Now, according to dawn, that man didn't look like her assailant. He had dark hair. But if they're going to call Dawn's story into question, why not be suspicious of this guy? Despite trying to do a call out for him to come forward, he never did. More suspicious are the tips investigators got about an argument that reportedly happened between Tom and that unidentified man the night before he died. The few reports in the file are all third hand at best. I mean, since it was a local bar in a small town, it stands to reason that someone there would have been able to identify this guy. Especially if it was Dave, right? Or at least know if this guy was a local. But that never happened. I can't even find anything in the case file to suggest that they asked Don about this after they heard the story, which to me, seems pretty critical, because according to the tips, dawn was present for this fight. Also, if they thought Dave was a suspect, then the sighting of a man and his car in the Mather driveway talking to a woman that police believe was Don doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Dave didn't have a car that matched the description witnesses gave or the tire impression that that police gathered. But police must have still believed in that sighting, because come 1993, they served another search warrant on Dawn's home and seized a stained dress that was a similar teal green color to the one the witness described. The thinking being, if dawn was wearing that right at 8, 8:30, that's just about the time that the murder took place. Maybe it would have evidence on it. Now, there were stains on the dress that they collected, and if it had been me, I would have thought, like this was gonna be it. But after the lab tested those stains, they didn't come up with anything suspicious. And actually, speaking of lab testing, the lab never got much at all. Back in the 90s. None of the evidence tested positive for seminal fluid. The cuttings from the bed, the robe that Mary gave Dawn after she showed up naked on her doorstep, nor the sexual assault kit. But that shouldn't have been surprising, given Don's own account of how the perp couldn't get it up. Swabs taken from the closet door tested negative for blood, and Tom's clothes offered nothing of evidentiary value. There were no latent prints on the knife itself, and even the blood on it didn't get investigators far. Testing confirmed that the blood was type A, the same type as Tom's. But the report didn't specify whether it was a positive or a negative. According to the DCI lab report, that blood type was only shared by roughly 7% of the white population. And that may seem like it would narrow down the pool. But without anything else to tie to a suspect, the knife didn't point investigators toward anyone. But they did have those prints. Tom, Dave, Amy, Dawn. None of them were a match. One of the latent fingerprints recovered was even good enough to enter into APHIS back in 1991. But it didn't match anyone in the system either. And maybe police took that to mean that they never found Dawn's accomplice. But what if it means that Dawn's story is true? That a stranger came into their home that night and committed a random, unthinkable act? Dawn has never been arrested or charged in relation to this crime. Is that because she really wasn't involved. I think I'm the only one who's open to at least asking that question with sincerity.

D (41:28)

I find it very hard to believe that a stranger is going to enter a house naked. I find it very strange that a person could run a minimum of 100 yards barefoot and naked and not have marks on their feet. I find it very interesting that Don Mathers failed the polygraph test, but hard to believe.

A (41:54)

Strange and interesting aren't the same as impossible. The same way I don't see a motive for Dave. I don't really get what dawn had to gain, at least not with the information I have from the interviews that the sheriff's office did back in the day. Everyone who knew the couple well seemed to think that they were really happy and in love. Love. Dawn did end up receiving that insurance payout in June of 1992, and she went on to remarry in 1996. Since then she has lived a pretty unassuming life, building a career and a family. Now, are there other people who knew a different side of Dawn? Have opinions changed over the years? I don't know. No one who knew her then or now would talk to us on the record. And we've tried to reach out to dawn ourselves for comment about the investigation, but she has not responded. Though even if she did, I wonder if we would get much. I say that because of a comment her dad made to the former sheriff back when they gave her the first and only polygraph.

B (42:58)

He said if his daughter had some learning disability or something. He said if you want to get information from her, you need to get it right away because in a couple days she won't remember anything that happened.

A (43:14)

If this episode makes it to anyone who is willing to talk, reach out. Our reporting doesn't end with this episode. You can email us tipsoudiochuck.com I would also love to hear from people who might know of similar crimes that maybe happened around the Midwest or Beyond in the 80s and 90s. Because until investigators identify the man that brutally murdered Tom Mather, the possibility of a stranger cannot be dismissed, at least not to me. But that's not quite how Sheriff Wethington sees it.

D (43:47)

I think in my opinion, the fact that there's no DNA has been found of anybody that shouldn't be in the house. All the DNA we've found has been DNA of people who belong in that house. And I think that says a lot, too. There's no DNA in that house that would have been a strange man who entered the house naked.

A (44:19)

Sheriff Wethington's point is that if a naked stranger entered the Mather farmhouse, there should be some foreign DNA evidence somewhere. But of the evidence that has been tested, it all seems to belong to everyone who belonged in that farmhouse. But more is being tested as we speak. The Sheriff's office has submitted DNA evidence for new testing, and they're waiting on the results. Sheriff Wethington couldn't share the details about which items were resubmitted, but the office did confirm that they have kept the physical evidence, including the rope that Tom was bound with and the bloody knife. In addition to retesting forensic evidence, former Sheriff Whitlatch believes that there are other avenues to solve this case as well.

B (45:03)

Well, I'd like the public to know that somebody drove by and saw those vehicles, more than one person. And if they can come forward and say who they saw carrying that pipe, well, that would give you a lot to go on.

A (45:20)

Catherine told our reporter that the town hasn't been the same since her cousin died. And even decades later, the unsolved case still haunts former Sheriff Whitlatch.

B (45:30)

Oh, I would love to see it solved because I've had seven murders while I was sheriff and this is the only totally who done it left. So I would like to see it solved. I mean, you know, you look at the pictures of Tom there and nobody deserves to die that way. You know, couldn't find anybody that doesn't like Tom. And so he wasn't being punished for being a big bully or a villain. He wasn't a bar room brawler or something. So, you know, it just shouldn't happen. So, yeah, I'd love to see it solved.

A (46:14)

One thing is for certain. The Sheriff's office is not going to forget about Tom's case.

D (46:20)

We're not going to let it die. We're not going to give up on it. We will solve this eventually. It may not be under my administration, but this case is solvable and it will be solved.

A (46:33)

If you have any information about the murder of Thomas Mather on September 30, 1991 in spring, please contact the Iowa Attorney General's Cold Case Unit. Or if you'd like to remain anonymous, you can call Crime Stoppers at 563-886-6618. There is a reward being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction. The Deck is an audio check production with theme music by Ryan Lewis. To learn more about the Deck and our advocacy work, visit the Deck Podcast podcast. Com. I think Chuck would approve.