Acea Dean Spiegeler, 34, was fatally shot the evening of February 23, 2024, on the 500 block of Walnut Avenue in Riceville, Iowa. Deputies arrived about 7:15 p.m. and found Spiegeler with a gunshot wound; he was pronounced dead at the scene. Authorities described the incident as isolated and said there was no ongoing danger to the public, and investigators believed Spiegeler and the person who shot him knew one another.

The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner and the Howard County Sheriff’s Office assisted Mitchell County authorities as evidence was collected and the circumstances examined. By June 2024 the person responsible was claiming self-defense; prosecutors reviewed the matter and ultimately decided not to file criminal charges, concluding the state could not disprove a claim of justification. The shooter was not publicly named and no arrest was made.

Spiegeler was born March 12, 1989, in Iowa City, raised in Riceville by his grandparents after his mother died in a car crash, served in the U.S. Air Force and the Iowa National Guard, and was the father of four. Does anyone in Riceville have information about what happened that night?