Shirley Carter, 68, was found shot twice on the kitchen floor of her rural Lacona, Iowa farmhouse on the morning of June 19, 2015. Her husband Bill had dropped her at the house after their morning coffee and left to haul corn; their son Jason discovered Shirley and called his sister before dialing 911. The scene was initially staged to look like a burglary — drawers pulled out and papers scattered — but valuables, including Shirley’s purse with cash and credit cards and an envelope containing a large sum, were left behind, prompting investigators to treat the staging as a possible effort to mislead and to focus on a personal motive.

No arrest was made for over two years. In 2016 Bill Carter filed a wrongful death civil suit against his son Jason; a December 2017 jury found Jason liable and ordered him to pay $10 million to Shirley’s estate. Days after that civil verdict, Jason was arrested and charged with first-degree murder. His criminal trial in March 2019 ended in acquittal after jury deliberation of a few hours. The criminal acquittal means the killing remains officially unsolved.

Did anyone in Lacona know of tensions in the family or other facts that might explain who staged the scene or why Shirley was killed?