Iowa cold case: Council Bluffs man charged with murder 36 years after woman’s disappearance

By Laura Terrell

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    DES MOINES, Iowa (KCCI) — The family of an Iowa woman who disappeared 36 years ago might finally get justice.

Robert Allen Davis, 61, of Council Bluffs, was arrested Monday and charged with first-degree murder more than three decades after his then-girlfriend Barbara Lenz disappeared in Harrison County.

His arrest is the result of an investigation by the state’s cold case unit, launched last summer by Attorney General Brenna Bird’s office to investigate Iowa’s more than 400 unsolved murders. It’s the unit’s first arrest.

Cold case investigators believe Davis is responsible for the death of Lenz, who was 31 when she disappeared in May 1989. She was last believed to be in her apartment in Woodbine. Lenz’s body still has not been located.

Court records say Davis, who was 25 at the time of Lenz’s disappearance, was the last person to see her alive. Days before, Lenz told others she was scared of him, and feared he would “kill her if she ever left.”

A criminal complaint alleges Davis had assaulted Lenz several times during their two-year relationship, including multiple incidents where he strangled her. The documents show Davis admitted in 1989 to assaulting Lenz and having a violent temper.

Lenz’s daughter, Lindsy Baumgart, was 3 years old at the time of her mother’s disappearance.

Baumgart told KCCI she learned of Davis’ arrest late on Monday. He’s being held without bond in the Harrison County Jail.

She says she never thought this day would come. Baumgart says she is in a state of grief but is also grateful to the DCI and Cold Case Investigators.

“It’s very surreal,” she said. “I am grateful for the DCI and the Cold Case Investigation unit. I never thought this day would come.

“It’s honestly something that I have waited for my whole life.”

Lenz’s family says the day she went missing her coffee pot was still on and laundry was half folded on the table. Her keys, purse and car were also still at her apartment.

“Something bad happened,” said Barbara’s brother, James Lenz.

Baumgart was living with her father in Omaha at the time of her mother’s disappearance. She tells KCCI that her mom signed over custody because she feared Davis and his violence toward both of them.

“I was told that my mom was in a not good situation, and it really kind of put her safety and my safety in jeopardy, which is why my dad took protection over me,” Baumgart said.

Davis convicted in separate case

In a separate case involving a different woman, Davis was charged with third-degree kidnapping and third-degree sexual abuse in the mid-1990s.

A criminal complaint from 1996 says Davis assaulted a woman and forced her to have sexual intercourse at a rural residence in Woodbine. The complaint says the woman waited for Davis to fall asleep and then ran from the residence and climbed a fence to escape. One month later, court records show Davis removed the same woman from a home, choked her and then carried her to her car in an attempt to drive her away against her will. The victim jumped from the moving car and ran to the neighbors. A Division of Criminal Investigation agent wrote in the affidavit that the woman sustained injuries to her neck and throat, including significant bruising.

In 2008, a federal jury convicted Davis of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison in that case. Upon release from prison, Davis lived in the Omaha area, not far from where Lenz’s daughter lives with her family. Davis only recently moved to Council Bluffs.

Witnesses tell Iowa authorities Davis threatened that they’d ‘end up like Barbara’

Prosecutors have not yet publicly shared what evidence led them to arrest Davis this week — more than three decades after Lenz disappeared.

Those details are expected to come out during the trial, which James Lenz — ecstatic about the arrest — said he’ll attend every second.

The new criminal complaint does say a witness reported to investigators that Davis and his brother, who was not named in the complaint, buried something in a rural area near Davis’ home shortly after Lenz’s disappearance.

The criminal complaint also says two witnesses told investigators that Davis made comments to them during fights that they would “end up like Barbara.” These comments were made after Lenz’s disappearance.

While she hopes for a conviction, Baumgart says her ultimate goal is for her mother’s remains to be located. A proper burial, she says, will bring her much-needed peace.

“Justice for me would be bringing my mama home,” said Baumgart.

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