Finally some news on this one , Barbara Lealyn Lenz, who vanished from Woodbine, Iowa on May 6, 1989, has a conviction in her case. Robert Davis (62) was found guilty by a jury of second-degree murder in late March 2026 for Barbara's death, prosecutors saying he assaulted and choked her during their relationship and she had told others she was afraid of him.
The Iowa Cold Case Unit and the attorney general's office helped bring the case back up, and Davis was sentenced to 50 years in prison on May 22, 2026, so he’ll serve decades behind bars. This was the first arrest in the case and the conviction finally gives Barbara some closure, esp after all these years, tho her body was never found and many questions remain, but the court process is done and the sentence stands, didnt expect this to wrap up like this.
Barbara Lealyn Lenz was 31 and a mother when she vanished from Woodbine, Harrison County, Iowa, on May 6, 1989. She had been visiting her hospitalized mother in Missouri Valley and reportedly planned to travel to Omaha that day to see her three-year-old daughter Lindsy, who was living with Barbara’s former boyfriend.
Family checked Barbara’s apartment after she missed visits; the scene suggested an interrupted routine. A coffee pot was on and half-full, laundry was partially folded, her purse and keys were inside, her vehicle remained at the residence, and her pets appeared uncared for. No one heard from her after May 3, and the family formally reported her missing on May 17, 1989.
Investigators focused on Barbara’s two-year relationship with Robert Allen Davis, which family and witnesses described as increasingly violent. Witnesses said Davis had strangled Barbara, at times rendering her unconscious, threatened to kill her if she left, and on one occasion injured her face with a sharpened boot spur. Davis told police he dropped her at her apartment on May 6 and later said she phoned from Omaha, but records showed she never reached the place he named. A witness also said Davis and his brother buried something near Davis’s residence shortly after Barbara disappeared.
What happened to Barbara after she was last seen in Woodbine remains unknown. Did anyone in the area have contact with her around May 6, 1989, or know of locations investigators might have missed?
