The murder of Barbara Lealyn Lenz

The break in the Barbara Lenz case did not come from DNA, a confession, or her remains, none of which the investigation ever had. It came from a deliberate cold-case re-investigation that re-examined the original file and re-interviewed witnesses decades later. In July 2024, Iowa Attorney General Brenna Bird launched a statewide Iowa Cold Case Unit, working with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, and the unit brought a focused team to dig through information, meet with witnesses and loosen up leads in the long-dormant Lenz case. Lenz's killing had always pointed back toward her boyfriend, Robert Davis, the last person known to have been with her and the man who reported dropping her at her Woodbine apartment on May 6, 1989, but in 1989 there had not been enough to charge him. The reopened investigation assembled the circumstantial and witness evidence that the original detectives had lacked the framework to bring forward. According to the criminal complaint, Davis admitted to investigators that he had assaulted Lenz several times during their roughly two-year relationship, including incidents in which he choked or strangled her, and law enforcement documented his violent temper. At least two witnesses told investigators that Davis had threatened to kill Lenz if she ever left him, and people who knew the couple described seeing him argue with and assault her; some recalled him making remarks that someone would end up like Barbara. The scene at Lenz's home, her purse and keys left behind, a coffee pot still switched on and laundry half folded, supported the conclusion that she had been taken against her will rather than having left voluntarily. On March 10, 2025, Davis, then 61 and living in Council Bluffs, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder, the first arrest the new Cold Case Unit helped produce. His trial began on March 24, 2026 at the Pottawattamie County Courthouse, and on March 31, 2026 the jury, deliberating less than four hours, convicted him of second-degree murder. On May 22, 2026, a Harrison County judge sentenced Robert Davis to 50 years in prison.