‘I knew exactly who did it’: Iowa parents speak out about domestic violence after their daughter’s death

By KCCI Staff

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    WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa (KCCI) — Jan. 18 still haunts Terry Allen. It was the day his daughter, Kristie Allen, never showed up for work.

“I texted her and I said, ‘call me,’ and no call,” Terry Allen said. “I said at 1 o’clock I am going to break into the back of your house if you have not called me.”

The call never came. So Terry Allen kept his promise. He kicked in the back door of his daughter’s home in Windsor Heights.

“I went into the bedroom, and I found her on the floor,” Terry Allen said. “I could see that she was beaten, and I knew that she had been dead quite a while.”

Kristie Allen’s dinner from the night before was still on the stove. Her car was gone.

Police arrived on the scene.

“I knew exactly who did it. Absolutely. She had asked him to leave the house. She was breaking up with him for a week or two, and he just wasn’t leaving,” Terry Allen said.

Police began a manhunt for John Wilson, Kristie’s boyfriend of three years.

“The DCI [Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation] officer came in and said we’ve got him and we both said great. And he said, ‘he’s dead.’ And Anna [Kristie Allen’s mother] said ‘great.’ I did not say great. Now he’s such a chicken that he’s avoiding even fessing up to what he did and paying the price,” Terry Allen said.

Police say Wilson took his own life at a relative’s house in Waukee after he killed Kristie Allen.

“What a monster,” Anna Allen said.

Not long after the horrific crime made the news, the Allens noticed a growing memorial outside their daughter’s home that started with one woman.

“She did not know Kristie. She was holding flowers. She introduced herself. She said her name was Paulette. That she had been a victim herself of domestic abuse and had lived in a violent domestic household as a child. She was crying. We’re crying. I was so touched by the flowers,” Anna Allen said.

Word spread and the tribute grew. Survivors of domestic violence showed their support through flowers.

“They just came from everywhere,” Anna Allen said.

The Allen family made sure that Kristie Allen’s obituary called attention to domestic homicide. Several women saw the obituary and showed up to the funeral even though they didn’t know Kristie Allen.

“Women that came through the line and would give me a hug and then whispered in my ear that they were there because they too were a victim of domestic abuse, and it ended up being seven women who told me that. I was flabbergasted. What was so appalling to me, not only did my heart go out to each and every one of them, but they whispered it. This is not something that should be a secret,” Anna Allen said.

The Iowa Attorney General’s Office says 375 Iowans have died in domestic abuse murders since 1995. 35.4% of those people were killed by a dating partner, 45.4% were killed by a spouse and 19.2% were killed by a cohabitator. Almost one-third of offenders committed suicide.

“It’s heartbreaking and it happens all too often,” Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird said.

Bird says that Iowa law currently treats dating violence like regular assault when there is no cohabitation or a shared child. She urges lawmakers to change this loophole.

“I think it’s important that we go after this kind of violence because it often erupts into something worse,” Bird said.

John Wilson did have a violent past, dating back decades. In 1995, court records show he struck his grandmother and threatened to kill her with a knife. In 2010, he was charged with harassment for showing up to a business to threaten his ex-wife.

“None of us knew that he had any violent tendencies,” Terry Allen said.

The Allens say Kristie never told them about any violence. They don’t believe Wilson hurt Kristie Allen until she tried to kick him out.

The Allens say that while the pain often leaves them speechless, they will never stay silent about domestic violence. They want to share Kristie Allen’s story so other victims can get out alive.

“She was a wonderful person and we’re going to miss her terribly,” Anna Allen said.

If you or someone you know is experiencing domestic abuse there is help out there.

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