Missing Iowa Man's Body Recovered After Three Years on Killer's Admission | Crime Alert 05.26.26

After three years of searching, Iowa authorities recover Jesse George's body at the rest stop where his killer works. 85-year-old takes down would-be kidnapper in Oregon. California burglar gets caught between a wall and a hard place. Sydney Silvagni reports. 

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Speaker 1: And agonizing three year missing persons mystery in Iowa has

Speaker 1: transformed into a grim homicide investigation after law enforcement unearthed

Speaker 1: a clandestine grave. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, alongside

Speaker 1: the Missouri Valley Police Department in the Harrison County Sheriff's Office,

Speaker 1: announced a major breakthrough in the disappearance of thirty five

Speaker 1: year old Jesse George, who first went missing on June

Speaker 1: twenty ninth, twenty twenty three. According to an official news

Speaker 1: release from the Iowa DCI, investigators acting on critical intelligence

Speaker 1: excavated a remote property located four miles northwest of Missouri

Speaker 1: Valley on April fifteen. There they uncovered human remains that

Speaker 1: the Iowa State Medical Examiner positively identified as Jesse George,

Speaker 1: ruling the official cause of death a homicide. On Monday,

Speaker 1: state agents officially arrested fifty two year old Joseph Langfort

Speaker 1: of Missouri Valley, charging him with first degree murder and

Speaker 1: abuse of a corpse. He is currently held in the

Speaker 1: Harrison County Jail on a one million dollar cash bond.

Speaker 1: Court filings unveil a grouse some in calculated timeline surrounding

Speaker 1: the murder. George was last seen alive with Langford near

Speaker 1: a camper on Fourth Street in Missouri Valley on the

Speaker 1: morning of June twenty ninth, twenty twenty three. Documents show

Speaker 1: Langford later admitted to others that the two men had

Speaker 1: engaged in a violent argument inside that camper. At approximately

Speaker 1: four thirty am that same morning, Langford urgently requested a

Speaker 1: friend's assistant to move a vehicle parked directly in front

Speaker 1: of the camper. Crucially, court filings note that Langford was

Speaker 1: armed with a rifle and aggressively blocked his friend from

Speaker 1: entering the trailer, ominously stating, somebody's gone, They're not coming back,

Speaker 1: and I'm going to prison. The cover up intensified later

Speaker 1: that day. Court records indicate that Langford and his sister

Speaker 1: drove the camper to an Interstate twenty nine rest area

Speaker 1: where they were both employed, using their access to thoroughly

Speaker 1: scrub and clean the interior. However, a report was made

Speaker 1: to local law enforcement regarding the suspicious trailer. When law

Speaker 1: enforcement arrived to inspect the camper, they observed visible bullet

Speaker 1: holes puncturing the exterior sighting and discovered traces of blas

Speaker 1: blood inside. Forensic testing later matched that blood directly to

Speaker 1: Jesse George. Despite the forensic hit, the body remained hidden

Speaker 1: for years until Langford's own admission sealed his fate. Court

Speaker 1: filings revealed that about a year after the crime, Langford

Speaker 1: admitted to a friend that he had killed George, and

Speaker 1: later confessed to a coworker that he had shot the

Speaker 1: victim multiple times inside the camper before burying his body

Speaker 1: behind the very rest area where he worked. An autopsy

Speaker 1: has since confirmed that George was shot multiple times. Langford

Speaker 1: is scheduled for his first court appearance on May twenty seventh.

Speaker 1: More crime and justice news after this In rural Medford, Oregon,

Speaker 1: authorities are praising the sheer bravery of an eighty five

Speaker 1: year old resident who took down an armed attacker. According

Speaker 1: to the Jackson County Sheriff's Office, forty two year old

Speaker 1: Matthew Arnda, a transient from the area, was indicted by

Speaker 1: a grand jury on ten heavy charges following a terrifying ambush.

Speaker 1: Investigators say Ronda allegedly posed as a utility worker in Leiden,

Speaker 1: Wait for several hours, targeting a twenty five year old

Speaker 1: woman working as a caregiver at a local mobile home park.

Speaker 1: When the victim arrived, Aronda attacked her with a taser

Speaker 1: and physically assaulted her. That's when an eighty five year

Speaker 1: old neighbor heard the woman's frantic screams. Instead of staying inside,

Speaker 1: this elderly good samaritan rushed out and directly confronted the

Speaker 1: arms suspect. His interference gave the young woman just enough

Speaker 1: time to break free and sprint to her car, but

Speaker 1: Ronda didn't back down. He turned the taser on the

Speaker 1: eighty five year old hero before chasing the woman with

Speaker 1: a large hunting knife. She managed to lock herself inside

Speaker 1: her vehicle, but as she tried to drive away, Ronda

Speaker 1: allegedly leaped onto the hood of her moving car. He

Speaker 1: fell off during her escape, breaking his leg in the process.

Speaker 1: Deputies deployed canine units and tracked Ronda to a nearby

Speaker 1: bush where he was hiding in agony. We have the

Speaker 1: actual police bodycam audio from that intense arrest. Take a listen,

Speaker 1: Heads out, you're gonna get bit by cane ied. Heads out.

Speaker 1: Crawl out here, now, crawl out your now, crawl out

Speaker 1: your now, crawl out now leg. Following that dramatic capture,

Speaker 1: Aronda was booked on ten charges, including attempted kidnapping, assault, stalking,

Speaker 1: in the unlawful use of a GPS tracking device. He

Speaker 1: remains in custody as the Sheriff's office continues its investigation.

Speaker 1: Now to Selena's, California for a story that gives a

Speaker 1: whole new meaning to the phrase getting caught red handed.

Speaker 1: It started as a typical morning for Selena's police officers,

Speaker 1: who are finishing up a grueling overnight shift. They decided

Speaker 1: to stop by Brugie Coffee Company for a quick morning

Speaker 1: caffeine fix. But while waiting inside the shop, they noticed

Speaker 1: something bizarre faint muffled calls for help. It turned out

Speaker 1: those cries were coming from twenty nine year old Isaac Valencia.

Speaker 1: According to police, Valencia had allegedly fallen at least twenty

Speaker 1: two feet from the roof of an adjacent movie theater

Speaker 1: the night before, landing right into the narrow gap inside

Speaker 1: the wall separating the theater from the coffee shop. He

Speaker 1: had been wedged there, completely immobilized for roughly ten hours.

Speaker 1: Locating him was a massive challenge. When fire crews arrived,

Speaker 1: they first tried to breach the coffee shop wall, only

Speaker 1: to hit solid cinder block and cement. They had to

Speaker 1: shift tactics, cutting a massive hole through the adjoining exterior

Speaker 1: wall to finally pull Valencia out. The entire rescue operation

Speaker 1: lasted two and a half hours. Valencia was checked by

Speaker 1: medics on the scene and promptly booked into the Monterey

Speaker 1: County Jail on burglary charges, with bail set at ten

Speaker 1: thousand dollars. Selina's police later praised the officer's sharp ears,

Speaker 1: noting that most people probably would have just ignored the noise,

Speaker 1: chalking it up to an old building settling. For the

Speaker 1: latest crime and justice breaking news, be sure to tune

Speaker 1: in tomorrow on your favorite podcast app with this crime alert.

Speaker 1: I'm Sydney Silvanik.