Years Later, Suspect Responsible For Troubling Iowa Crime Remains At Large

Four years after an auto burglar committed one of Iowa’s most heinous crimes, police have failed to bring the suspect to justice.

In late-March 2015, a burglar broke into a truck parked outside the Southridge Senior Residences in Des Moines. Patrick William Gould, 64, told cops that the suspect entered the vehicle around 3 AM by “forcing the drivers side door lock open with some unknown blunt object.”

The suspect then apparently tried to start the vehicle by breaking apart the plastic around the steering column and attempting to “break the switch on the steering column.”

While the burglar failed in boosting his ride, Gould reported that the thief did swipe an item from the truck's bed.

“At this time there are no witnesses nor suspects to the crime,” a Des Moines Police Department officer noted at the time.

A police report valued the stolen property at $1, though that might have been a generous appraisal.