"Suppel was a potential danger to the community because he wasn't "in his right mind.""

Gee, ya think? After stealing a half million dollars and getting caught, who would be in their right mind?

Seriously, maybe he is looking for officer assisted suicide.
jadensmokes | 03.24.08 - 10:54 am | #

Why, though, do these guys kill families/friends/others before taking the coward's way out, hoping someone will kill them? A murder-suicide plan that stops short of completion?

What warped sense of self enables them to do that?
Nana | 03.24.08 - 11:18 am | #

Pure narcissism. Men like that don't realize that their families are composed of individuals. They believe them to be extensions of themselves.

I bet this guy is dead. Either that, or headed to the bank where he worked. But my money is on dead. Crimes like this always seem to end in suicide.
Steve Huff | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 11:22 am | #

Looks like he is dead, and shot his wife and 4 kids before crashing his van. Very sad.

http://www.press-citizen.com/app...1/80324002/ 1079
Bicky | 03.24.08 - 11:42 am | #

That's probably his van. I'd be really surprised if it weren't. The angle of the crash in the photo at the article you linked makes me think the guy crashed it on purpose.
Steve Huff | Homepage | 03.24.08 - 11:53 am | #

It actually seems he did not shoot his family, per a USAToday article. Rather, they suffered "trauma". May explain the crash as a method of suicide rather than shooting himself as one might of thought.

I live about a mile from this home, and this family attended my parish, though I did not know them personally. Just heartbreaking.
rebecca | 03.24.08 - 2:15 pm | #

http://www.kcrg.com/news/local/1...l/ 16959491.html
IOWA CITY - The Toyota Sienna minivan involved in the single-vehicle crash on I-80 at the 251 mile-marker has been positively identified as Steven Sueppel’s vehicle, which was being sought by law enforcement.

The vehicle’s driver and sole occupant died in the fiery crash. Law enforcement has not been able to positively identify the deceased driver due to the fire.

An autopsy on the driver has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 25. Additionally, autopsies have been scheduled for tomorrow on the five victims from the 629 Barrington Rd.


Any chance the fatality in the van is someone other than Sueppel? Not much, I don't suppose, especially since he supposedly spent all the stolen money on cocaine.

But it can't be a very long step to go from murdering your wife and four children to figuring out how to fake your own death.

I'd better stop--I just about said something horribly macabre, a bit of gallows humor about him, but a mother and her children have died a horrible, untimely death at the hands of someone they trusted, and that gives me pause.
Nana | 03.24.08 - 6:16 pm | #

There was some coverage of this case at http://www.gazetteonline.com and http://www.kcrg.com and http://www.kgan.com ; odds are these three outlets will have more information as the authorities release it.

Al
--
Al ias Always In Flyover Country
AlwaysInFlyoverCountry | 03.24.08 - 7:53 pm | #

The local FOX station here in Des Moines had footage of the family from what looked like a previous story on them adopting these children. I have yet to find anything more on that online.
Bicky | 03.25.08 - 12:13 am | #

Bicky - you are correct. All four children were adopted from South Korea.

Article here:
http://tinyurl.com/2ufj85
Monika | 03.25.08 - 3:44 pm | #

Here's an interesting angle on this story from a Korean adoption group. Apparently all the kids (Ethan, 10, Seth, 7, Mia, 5 and Eleanor, 3) were Korean adoptees. Also ran across race results buried deeply in Google, apparently the father and the two boys liked to run.

When I married my Chinese American husband, his two adopted Korean daughters were 5 & 7 (they are now 23 & 21) so this aspect of the crime really hits home for us.

http://kadnexus.wordpress.com/20...fe-and-himself/
Larkin | 03.25.08 - 3:49 pm | #

Larkin - that is the same article I just posted.. haha.. we must have been typing at the same time.

Also,

I did just come across a photo of Sheryl Sueppel in this news article:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nat...wa- deaths_N.htm
Monika | 03.25.08 - 3:52 pm | #

Monica... great minds and all that.

Here's more news:

They have confirmed the body is Steve Sueppel (though dental records.)

There is speculation that the weapon was a baseball bat.

Jesus, a baseball bat.

Here's the link:

http://www.press-citizen.com/app...1/80325007/ 1079
Larkin | 03.25.08 - 5:33 pm | #

What the hell was going through that guy's head that he would kill his kids with a BASEBALL BAT?! That is absolutely horrifying.
D.P. | 03.25.08 - 5:52 pm | #

Here's a picture of the family from last Christmas.

http://www.press-citizen.com/ app...arams=Itemnr=50

And D.P. I don't know what kind of (I've tried countless nouns here... person, monster, animal, none seem adequate) could kill their children with a baseball bat, and when I look at this picture I know even less.

And all because he blew half a million bucks worth of cocaine up his nose.

It's sickening.
Larkin | 03.25.08 - 5:59 pm | #

It was the older daughter's birthday today. (March 25) The obituary says she was born in 2001, so she would have been seven.

Interestingly, the family has decided to celebrate the funeral masses of all six of them together, including the father. I'm surprised the mother's family can stand that. But I've never been in their shoes, and God I hope I never am.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com...S/80325053/ 1001
Larkin | 03.26.08 - 12:53 am | #

Just saw the picture of the family. What beautiful children. It's beyond me why her family is down with including him in the funeral...they may still be in complete shock and denial. It's just so fucking awful.

I totally feel ill right now.
D.P. | 03.26.08 - 1:05 am | #

On a side note, 200K-plus seems like a lot of money to spend on individual cocaine use nowadays, even for an addict. In the 80s maybe. But my understanding is that prices have gotten a lot lower. His explanation sounds fishy. I suspect he was either hiding the money away somewhere, or using it for something even more embarrassing than a drug addiction.
Holly | 03.26.08 - 1:28 am | #

Here's something from the Tribune on the cocaine claim:

Contrary to his statements that he bought cocaine with some of the stolen money, authorities said they have no evidence that was true.

Search warrants suggested Sueppel used some of the funds to pay bills and the mortgage. The federal agent coordinating the search warrant stated "it is reasonable to believe Sueppel has other bank accounts he has not admitted to."

A narcissist like that might prefer a dramatic explanation such as drug addiction to the more mundane reality of simply living beyond his means. Or, he could have been hoping to keep the money hidden and recover it later.
Holly | 03.26.08 - 1:38 am | #

Yeah, looks like the FBI didn't buy the cocaine story (from Larkin's link earlier to Press-Citizen):

Court documents in the case asserted that Sueppel used the stolen money to pay for cocaine, but the FBI, which is involved with both the embezzlement and the suicide investigations, doesn't believe that to be true, Steffen said.

"As far as cocaine usage, I spoke with the FBI about that," Steffen said. "They indicated that nothing in their investigation could substantiate that and Steven later recanted that and stated that he brought that up just as kind of an excuse to kind of explain the dollar amount, but that there really wasn't a cocaine problem."

Just greed.
Holly | 03.26.08 - 1:47 am | #

The autopsies have confirmed that the wife and children were beaten to death on their heads and torsos and two baseball bats are believed to be the instruments.

I know that the cocaine thing was a ruse--

(It's not all that hard to just let it slip through your fingers. Look at all the major lottery winners who end up broke.)

--but I did have a moment of black humour when I saw the license number of the family van:

501 BLO

May Sherry Sueppel and her four beautiful children live forever in the hearts of their friends and family.
Larkin | 03.27.08 - 1:35 am | #

I continue to struggle with how Steve is still being described as "loving father", "engaged father", "good person" in news accounts in the local newspaper.

This guy had a great job, at a great bank, had a great wife, and 4 beautiful adopted children.

What, that wasn't enough? He had to embezzle upwards of 1/2 a million dollars and then when caught, couldn't "handle" it so decided to kill his family?

Some of the comments relating to the news articles say things that almost compare this "tragedy" to one of an entire family killed in a car accident.

This wasn't like that! This man beat his wife to death with a baseball bat. He attempted to asphyxiate his children, and then when that didn't work, he took them into the house...and beat them to death with a baseball bat.

Anybody who kidnaps and rapes and kills a young woman is considered a monster...I am not sure why Steve is getting a "get out of jail free" card in this instance (judging from the comments that I have read locally in the newspaper.)

At any rate, another terrible instance of a man who failed miserably at life and took his family with him. May Sheryl and the children rest in peace.
Darby | 03.27.08 - 2:11 pm | #

I hope he is caught and gets what he deserves he killed his kids and wife I hope he gets what he deserves.
Anoynomus | 03.31.08 - 9:34 am | #

Anonymous - well, he gave himself what he deserved when he rammed his family mini-van into a concrete barrier shortly after he called 911.

The van fittingly burst into flames. His remains were identified by dental records within the next day or two.

So...I'd say he got what he deserved, all right.
Darby | 04.01.08 - 12:38 pm | #

I wish this ("Got what he deserved") was the case. The Des Moines Register had a glowing account of the funeral over the weekend.

http://www.desmoinesregister.com...300326/0/ NEWS01

The way the families have responded and the Iowa media have reported, you'd think they were all wiped out in a car accident or something. One woman was quoted as the easiest thing to do in all this was to "forgive Steve." She must be delusional.

Remember the family in Oswego, Christopher Vaughn... pulled to the side of the road and shot them all to death? Remember how exorcised we all were about it? Well, at least he shot them.

This wretched piece of humanity beat them all to death with a pair of baseball bats. Among the items recovered from the house were skull fragments.

Foriveness? What are they putting in the water in Iowa?
Larkin | 04.01.08 - 4:46 pm | #

I tend to agree with Holly--something more with the money must be going on here.

Using a baseball bat to kill your wife and four children indicates to me that Steven had much anger that he was choosing to hide from the world. How truly, truly awful.

How can any amount of money or shame be worth doing that?
Nana | 04.06.08 - 12:04 pm | #