Law enforcement later discovered the body of a fourth person who appeared to have committed suicide.
The Iowa Department of Public Safety has reported that it is investigating a triple homicide in the Maquoketa Caves State Park, in the extreme east of Iowa, which would have occurred on the morning of this Friday.
The Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) “were notified of a triple homicide at the Maquoketa Caves State Park campground” at 6:23 p.m. local time (1:23 p.m.), according to a statement. . Subsequently, officers found the body lifeless of a fourth person, Anthony Orlando Sherwin, 23 years old. Sherwin appears to have suffered a self-inflicted gunshot wound and there is no danger to the public.
“It was (found) near the camp a short distance,” said Iowa DCI spokesman agent Mike Krapfl, in statements to the press collected by the newspaper ‘NBC News’. Krapfl has explained that the relationship of the suspect –a resident of Nebraska– with the victims is unknown.
Likewise, the statement has indicated that the State Park has been closed to the public, due to the incident, while investigations are carried out at the crime scene. For her part, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has conveyed her condolences to the families of the victims. She has also been “horrified by the shooting this morning (…) and devastated by the loss of three innocent lives”, as she has posted on her Twitter account.