Fourth victim of fatal shooting near Marion dies

Quadruple murder suspect due back in court Monday

A man who authorities said was beaten with a metal pipe near Marion has become the fourth victim of a fatal attack since last Wednesday, and the suspect is now charged with four counts of first-degree murder.

Brent Anthony Brown, 34, was seriously injured in the shooting and hospitalized. His father, Lon Brown, who previously told The Gazette he owns the property where the attack took place, said last week that tests showed his son had no brain activity.

On Sunday, Linn County Sheriff Brian Gardner said in a news release that Brent Brown was pronounced dead Friday by the Johnson County Medical Examiner.

His body will be taken to the State Medical Examiner’s Office in Ankeny, along with those of the other three victims — Keonna Victoria Ryan, 26, and Romondus Lamar Cooper, 44, both of Cedar Rapids; and Amanda Sue Parker, 33, of Vinton. All suffered blunt force injuries to the head and other injuries to the body.

The suspect, Luke Wade Truesdell, 34, of Marion, was being held on $4 million bail after being charged with three counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder of Brown .

Truesdell now faces four counts of first-degree murder and is scheduled to make his first court appearance Monday on the updated charge. Authorities said in a criminal complaint that Truesdell gave several reasons for the attack, including that the murders could be made into a movie.

Linn County sheriff’s deputies responded shortly before 4 p.m. Wednesday to 3699 East Otter Road near Marion after a witness discovered four people with bleeding head wounds in an outbuilding on the property, according to a criminal complaint.

Truesdell was found at the crime scene and admitted to deputies that he hit the four with a metal pipe, the complaint states. The pipe, with blood and hair on it, was collected by investigators.

Relatives of the first three victims either could not be reached or declined to comment last week. The relationships between them and the accused attacker have not been disclosed.

One of the victims, Parker, had two jobs, one at a Subway restaurant and one at the Olde Brick House Pub in Lindale Mall in Cedar Rapids, according to Shay Colwell, general manager at the Olde Brick House. She said she has known Parker since the pub opened last September.

“She was a very joyful and happy person,” Colwell said. “She was a wonderful worker, a good colleague. We call each other family, so she’s become family here.”

Parker often talked about her family, especially her nieces and nephews, and spent most of her breaks playing Monopoly on her phone. She didn’t have a car, but usually got rides to work from her co-workers, according to Colwell.

Parker had not been working at the Olde Brick House on the day of the murders.

“I had just left the restaurant to go home for the day. When I got home I had a bunch of texts on my phone, probably around 5 o’clock. Everyone was saying her house was on the news. Then it started spinning. I later found out that one of them was actually her,” Colwell said.

Investigators identified Parker as being from Vinton. Her connection to the property where the attack took place has not been described by authorities.

An online gofundme.com fundraiser in her name had raised more than $9,000 as of Sunday afternoon. The page’s organizer said funds raised there will go to Parker’s family.

The Gazette’s Emily Andersen and John McGlothlen contributed.