How NOT to Get Lucky in the QC
A Florida man was jailed over the weekend for allegedly exposing himself and attempting to solicit sex from a waitress at a Bettendorf restaurant.
Steven Bryant Smith, 54, of Clearwater, Fla., was charged in Scott County Court with misdemeanor public intoxication and prostitution. He's scheduled to be arraigned Nov. 29.
According to an affidavit filed in Scott County District Court, on Friday, Mr. Smith asked the front-desk clerk at the Holiday Inn to call an escort service and get him a woman for $200.
On Saturday, police were called Bennigan's restaurant - adjacent to the Holiday Inn at 909 Middle Road - shortly before 10:30 p.m. after a waitress allegedly saw Mr. Smith with his pants undone and exposing himself, the affidavit states.
Although Mr. Smith said nothing to the initial waitress, he offered another waitress $200 to go to the hotel with him to "get naked," the affidavit states.
Police say the man appeared drunk and had a blood-alcohol content of 0.14.
Mr. Smith was taken to Scott County Jail. He went before a judge Sunday, where he was appointed a lawyer. He remained in jail late Monday on $2,000 bond.
Police Still Looking for Killer
Figured they would have given up onthis one by now. Some real sick bastarrd was responsible for this one and I think I actaully befriended Angie last year. Nice older woman.
Angela Marie Hennes went missing for 10 days in January. Her body then turned up in a farm field off Seven Sisters Road, in rural Scott County. Face down in the fetal position, her body had been badly burned.
Toxicology reports show she had no drugs or alcohol in her system. The last anyone saw her was when she was leaving her apartment on an unusually warm January day.*
Did anyone see anything? Scott County Sheriff’s investigators are asking, as they slowly, maddeningly piece together evidence that will one day reveal a killer.
“We haven’t given up,” Sheriff’s Capt. LeRoy Kunde said.
New information comes in daily, Kunde said. But what is really needed is a witness to blow the case open, someone who may have seen the
41-year-old Davenport mother of two sons at some point between Jan. 3 and Jan. 13, 2007.
In the hopes of sparking a memory, the Scott County Sheriff’s Department released more information about the case this month.
According to investigators:
Hennes had a troubled past that included drug problems and engaging in prostitution to help pay for the habit.
She could often be seen walking along 4th, 3rd and 2nd streets between her residence at the Ledo Apartments, 411 W. 4th Street, and Myrtle Street. Often, her boyfriend could be seen walking with her or on the other side of the street.
But there was much more to her as a person, Kunde said.
“She got caught up in a bad lifestyle,” he said. “But everyone who knew her, everyone we’ve talked to, has described her as cordial, polite, likeable.”
It is evident, he said, that Hennes had the capacity to have done much more with her life.
Sheriff’s Maj. Mike Brown said that Hennes’ burned body was found about 4 p.m. Jan. 13 in the 15000 block of 100th Avenue, also known as Seven Sisters Road. A vehicle’s tire tracks were also discovered.
Before it was blocked off, he said, the area was sometimes used by prostitutes and their customers.
“The pathologist said she had been dead two maybe three days at most,” Brown said. “But she had been missing for 10 days. What we want to know is what she was doing and who she was with those other seven or eight days.”
He added that Hennes’ cell phone went off the day she disappeared, which was Jan. 3.
Gerald Bolt, the farmer who discovered Hennes’ body on his property, estimated at that time that he had last checked his property on Jan. 10, a Wednesday.
“Her boyfriend said he last saw her about 9 p.m. or so,” Kunde said. “He said she was heading to the grocery store. He thinks he may have seen her get in a vehicle later.”
Jan. 3, a Wednesday, was a warm day for the month with the high reaching 50 degrees. The low was 31 degrees. The next day, Thursday, was even warmer with the mercury hitting 52 degrees.
It was unusually warm the next week with highs mostly in the 40s and 50s. It wasn’t until the day her body was found that the high temperature remained below freezing. Yet, there had been traces of snow on several of those days.
For a time, investigators were concerned she had been killed by someone just passing through, possibly a long-haul truck driver.
“But those were not 18-wheel tracks we found,” Brown said. “I don’t think you could get an 18-wheeler in there and then get it out again.”
Besides, he said, something that big on that road would have looked out of place.
“The big questions are: Where was she those other seven or eight days,” he said. “Who was she with? Where were they all that time? What were they doing? And did anybody see them?”
If she was not being held against her will, then did she know her killer? Did she trust him? And why was she killed?
The Sheriff’s Department has not released the cause of death. As Brown explained, they want to be able to hold something back so that “wannabes” can be weeded out when they call, and they do. They also want to be able to verify any information that may be given to them by the killer when, not if, he is caught.
Hennes’ family
Hennes leaves behind family in the area. One of her sons, Matthew William Hennes, 24, lives in Davenport, and her other son, Daniel Jacob Priester, age 9, is being raised by his father Daniel Priester of Bettendorf, according to Scott County court records.
She is also survived by her parents, William and Linda Hennes, of Davenport; brother, Jeff Hennes; grandmother, Doris Ricketts; and many aunts, uncles and cousins, according to an obituary previously published in the Quad-City Times.
The obituary also stated Hennes was born Nov. 4, 1965, in Omaha, Neb., attended Davenport Catholic and public schools and graduated from high school in 1985. She went on to attend Scott Community College.
Hennes’ family has declined to comment on the case.
Sheriff’s investigators, with help from Davenport and Rock Island police, have questioned many people on both sides of the Mississippi River. But they have not been able to zero in on one suspect.
A dangerous profession
Those who engage in prostitution or pick prostitutes up for sex are taking a huge risk, said Davenport police Capt. David Struckman.
Calling it a “profession of desperation,” Struckman said that prostitution is often used to pay for a drug habit.***
“But it’s dangerous because most of the time you don’t know who you’re dealing with,” he said. “The prostitute doesn’t know who’s buying her services; and the person buying the services doesn’t know the medical or criminal history of the person they’ve picked up.”
Will the person paying for services get rolled, or will he pay for only so much and take advantage of the girl and demand more and do more, Struckman asked.
And then there is the chance of contracting a disease that can be carried to others.
It is not a victimless crime, Struckman added.
“If you take it at prima facie value, a man has paid a woman for a sex act,” he said. “It’s an agreement between two people for consensual sex. That’s one thing.
“But think about all the ramifications. What is she using the money for? What crimes might be involved around it? There could be a pimp somewhere, which is another crime. It just gets deeper and deeper and deeper.”
Thomas Geyer can be contacted at (563) 383-2328 or [email]tgeyer@qctimes.com[/email].
FIGHTING CRIME IN DOWNTOWN DAVENPORT
Security cameras are being set up around a 15-block area of the central city. Police patrol cars have the capability to tie into the cameras and record videos of crimes occurring.
That project is continuing, said interim Police Chief Don Schaeffer, adding that the cameras are being placed on public and not private property.
Former Police Chief Mike Bladel, who helped spearhead the use of cameras, said it would have been nice had they been set up earlier.
“Our personnel are aware of the issues,” Bladel said, adding that the department has been able to continue the focus to reduce street and vice crime in the downtown area.
Davenport police have fought the drug and prostitution culture in the downtown area over the years.
For the past several months, officers have been targeting the downtown area, and it has made a noticeable difference, officials said.
SEVEN SISTERS ROAD REMAINS CLOSED
A portion of Seven Sisters Road, where Angela Hennes’ dead body was found in January, remains closed to public access.
The Scott County Board of Supervisors approved a resolution to downgrade to “C” status part of the road, also called 100th Avenue, in March. Gates and no trespassing signs have since been put up on the road between Telegraph Road and West Locust Street.
A farmer found the burned remains of Hennes’ body in a field off the one-lane road, just outside Davenport city limits.
Area farmers complained to the county board that for years the stretch of road attracted “people and their girlfriends” as well as garbage and other unwanted items.
$5,000 REWARD
There remains a $5,000 reward for anyone with information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever killed Angela Marie Hennes.
Anyone with information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, should call, Scott County Sheriff’s Maj. Mike Brown said, adding that what may seem unimportant may be the clue that breaks the case.
Anyone with information should call the Scott County Sheriff’s Department at (563) 326-8628 or Crime Stoppers of the Quad-Cities at (309) 762-9500.
Davenport Prostitute Murdered
Davenport police are investigating the suspicious death of a Davenport woman and say she may have been the victim of a homicide.
Agnes McFedries Kennedy, 51, of Davenport, was found about 8:30 p.m. Saturday December 22 lying unresponsive in the alley in the 1800 block between West 7th and West 8th streets, Davenport. A couple returning to a residence near the scene discovered the body, police said.
Kennedy was unresponsive when emergency personnel arrived. She was transported to Genesis Medical Center, West Central Park, where she was pronounced dead.
"Due to the suspicious nature of the death and many unanswered questions, the death is being investigated as a homicide," Davenport police Capt. David Struckman said in a press release Sunday, Dec. 23. An autopsy was conducted Monday in Ankeney, Iowa, but results weren't immediately available.
We are in the process of gathering physical evidence, interviewing associates of the victim to determine her activities (Saturday) and attempting to contact any other persons who might have knowledge regarding the events that resulted in the death of (Kennedy), Struckman said.
Kennedy, the daughter of well-known Quad-Cities auctioneer Scotty McFedries, had numerous minor brushes with the law over the past few decades.
She had been found guilty of such charges as driving while barred, theft, failure to maintain control, speeding, registration violation, prostitution, driving with a suspended license, harassing a public official, operating a vehicle while her license was suspended and failure to maintain a safety belt.
"We know of her past. That has a lot to do with who she hangs out with," police Capt. David Struckman said Monday. "We have a person of interest we're looking for, but that's all he is right now, a person of interest."
Agnes McFedries Kennedy was known as "Aggy" to those who knew her while serving time in the Scott County jail.
"She was in there for different reasons including prostitution and stuff but she was really a sweet lady" said Misty Siek a former inmate. According to Siek, Kennedy was a prostitute to make her living.
"She was always careful tried to be safe andI know it's not the best thing to do to get money but she said she wasalways careful."
Siek was shocked when she heard the news that the body of the lady she first made friends with while in jail was discovered in an alley laying in the snow Saturday night.
Did she ever say anybody wanted to hurt her?
"No not really, she did say she had a couple of John's that were pretty rough with her" responded Siek.
"She doesn't live in that end of town where her body was found I don't think. She had the wrong idea of how to get money butI don't think anybody deserves to die like that."
In February 2005, the gentle-natured and soft-spoken Ms. Kennedy was interviewed by a reporter with The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus about her life as a prostitute. The article used a pseudonym for Ms. Kennedy.
At 26, with three kids and a minimum-wage job, she couldn't pay her bills and Ms. Kennedy said she made the ultimate moral compromise. She went from working as a junior high school teacher's aide to working in a so-called "massage parlor" that in fact was a front for prostitution.
For the next 20-plus years, the life of prostitution came with a price. Though she eventually married, it didn't last. Some of her children, now grown, hated her, she said.
In the 1980s Ms. Kennedy was married for a time, but she continued to work until 4 a.m. at a massage parlor while her husband played Mr. Mom. "That didn't last long," she said.
And she'd been in jail numerous times for strings of prostitution arrests. The latest came in June 2006. She served 30 days in jail. Her longest sentence was two years in jail for prison.
"The social ramification of my behavior has been devastating to my family," she said in the interview. "If I would have known full circle what I know now, I would have stayed at my nasty minimum-wage job. I can't make yesterday better. I can't change it."
Ms. Kennedy believed prostitution was a victimless crime. "If you eliminate prostitution, you put a lot of people in harm's way because there is no place for people who are sexually frustrated to turn," she said.
Following the interview nearly two years ago, Ms. Kennedy said she'd continue to be a prostitute "until men don't find me attractive anymore."
Anyone with information on the death is asked to call the Davenport Police Department at (563) 326-7979 or Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities at (309) 762-9500.
There was no picture in any of the news stories. There was an older woman I saw out many times who was not to my liking so I never picked her up. This may have been her.
Officials reluctant to link deaths of 2 prostitutes
Two known prostitutes have been killed in Davenport in less than a year, prompting some to believe a serial killer is stalking those who walk the streets. It also gives the police the chance to take a break from their regualr activities and pursue a real criminal, or criminals as the case may be.
Authorities are reluctant to make such a judgment, though, considering the dangerous lives of prostitutes. "Right now, there is no indication the two (slayings) are related," Maj. Mike Brown of the Scott County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday. "It's a high-risk lifestyle," Scott County Attorney Mike Walton said. "If someone has contact with many strangers, there's always potential for danger."
On Saturday, the body of Agnes McFedries Kennedy, a self-described lifelong prostitute, was found in an alley along the 1800 block of West 7th Street.
Davenport police Capt. David Struckman said the 51-year-old's death was being investigated as a homicide, because of its suspicious nature and many unanswered questions. No new information was released Wednesday in the case.
The badly burned body of Angela Marie Hennes, 41, was found in an isolated farm field in the 15000 block of 100th Avenue on Jan. 13. She had been strangled. Her death remains unsolved, with a $5,000 reward being offered for information in the case. Her friends said that sometimes Ms. Hennes worked as a prostitute -- statements confirmed by her three arrests for prostitution.
In both cases, police are working to establish where the women were and whom they were with before they died. That can be difficult, because it wasn't uncommon for both women to go for a period of time without contacting friends or family because of their lifestyles, Mr. Walton said.
In Ms. Hennes' case, police are looking to fill the gap of time from Jan. 3 until she was found 10 days later. "That 10-day span hurt our investigation," Maj. Brown said. "We're still needing leads from the public." Maj. Brown said investigators believe Ms. Hennes' prostituting had "a strong connection" to her death.
Both women served time in jail for prostitution and other offenses.
In Davenport, when police conduct stings, it's not uncommon for women arrested for prostitution also to be carrying crack pipes. It's the combination of drug use and constant contact with strangers that leaves prostitutes vulnerable, Mr. Walton said.
"Getting in and out of cars with men they don't know to do drugs or have sex leaves them in a situation most people are never in," he said.
In an interview with a reporter for The Dispatch and The Rock Island Argus in February 2005, Ms. Kennedy -- who was identified by a pseudonym in the story -- said there aren't any safety nets protecting prostitutes. She said she had been seriously hurt three times in her then 22-year career as a prostitute.
"I guess I look pretty confident because most of the time people won't mess with me," she said.
She said it scared her to know some people think one less hooker is a good thing. "Nobody wants to be a missing (prostitute) that no one misses at all," she said.
Mr. Walton he was unsure if Ms. Hennes' and Ms. Kennedy's deaths were related, but that the cases would be compared for similarities, including the manner of death or any unusual aspects of the crimes.
"Obviously, that's something that would be looked into," he said. "At this point, it's premature to say because these two women were murdered that it was a serial killer."
Prostitutes are considered the most at-risk targets of serial killers.
In May 2006, Larry Bright, 39, pleaded guilty to seven counts of first-degree murder and one count of drug-induced homicide in Peoria County. He confessed to killing eight women who engaged in drug use and prostitution during a 15-month period in 2003 and 2004. He has been sentenced to life without parole.
In recent years, Washington, Florida and British Columbia have also had a series of murders of prostitutes.
Maj. Brown said after consulting with profilers with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, local authorities don't believe Ms. Hennes was killed by a serial killer, although they didn't rule it out.
He said Wednesday he doesn't believe the deaths of Ms. Hennes and Ms. Kennedy are related.
Anyone with information in either case is urged to call the Davenport Police Department at (563) 326-7979, the Scott County Sheriff's Office at (563) 326-8628, or Crime Stoppers of the Quad Cities at (309) 762-9500.
