Leota Mae Hodges Camp was born on January 20, 1942, in Kirksville, Missouri. She grew up in a close-knit family that valued community and family ties. Those who knew her described her as kind, warm, and devoted to her loved ones. After meeting and marrying her husband, she settled in Des Moines, Iowa, where the couple built a life centered around raising their three children. As a stay-at-home mother, Leota dedicated her days to caring for her children and managing the household while her husband worked to provide for the family.
By the summer of 1967, the Camp household seemed like a portrait of a young family building their future. They lived in a modest home in a working-class neighborhood, the kind of place where neighbors often knew one another and where children played outside without much concern for danger. This sense of safety would be shattered in a single day, leaving an enduring mystery that would haunt the community for decades.
The Day of the Murder
Monday, July 10, 1967, began like any other summer day. Leota’s husband left for work in the morning, leaving her to care for their children. The weather was warm, and life in the neighborhood was calm. Sometime shortly after midday, something occurred inside the Camp residence that would end Leota’s life and leave investigators searching for answers.
According to reports from that time, neighbors may have noticed a visitor at the home—a young man—and possibly a dark-colored car parked nearby. No one could have guessed that this brief sighting might be the last time Leota was seen alive by anyone outside her family.
Discovery by Her Children
It was her children who discovered her first. At some point after midday, they found their mother lying in a small bedroom of their home, bleeding and gravely injured. She had been stabbed, and accounts suggest she may have also been bound and gagged. The exact sequence of events inside the home remains unclear, but what is certain is that the scene left the children terrified and confused…