Elizabeth Syperda, 22 years old, was last seen on July 16, 2000, at her apartment in Mount Pleasant, Iowa. Almost immediately, her estranged husband, Michael Syperda, was suspected of having harmed her. The relationship between Elizabeth and Michael was extremely abusive, with Elizabeth having left him just a month before her disappearance.

With no sign of Elizabeth, the case went cold. However, seventeen years after her disappearance, Michael Syperda was charged with first-degree murder, despite Elizabeth's remains never being located.

In this episode, we discuss Elizabeth and Michael's relationship, his unrelenting abuse, and his eventual murder trial.

If you have any information on the whereabouts of Elizabeth Syperda, please contact Iowa’s newly established Cold Case Unit at 800-242-5100, or email coldcase@ag.iowa.gov.

If you are in an abusive relationship, there is help. Check out https://www.thehotline.org for resources.

The Danger Assessment Tool also can aid in identifying risk factors showing an abusive relationship potentially turning homicidal.

https://www.dangerassessment.org/DA.aspx

SOURCES:

• State of Iowa vs Michael Lee Syperda, No. 18-1471, December 18, 2019
• Family offers reward for missing woman, September 24, 2000, Globe Gazette
• Vigil for missing woman marks sad day, May 15, 2001, Globe Gazette
• Mount Pleasant woman missing more than year: estranged husband won’t cooperate with police, July 17, 2001, Globe Gazette
• Jeff Reinitz, Man charged with murder in case of missing Decorah teen, August 22, 2024, Globe Gazette
• Luke Nozicka, Man guilty of killing wife, whose body was never found, June 27, 2018, Iowa City Press Citizen
• Court places man on ‘intense supervision’, November 11, 2000, Quad City Times
• Colorado man charged with killing wife in Iowa in 2000, December 2, 2017, Quad City Times
• Man gets probation in wife-attack case, November 12, 2000, Des Moines Register
• Annual vigil held for missing woman, July 19, 2004, Des Moines Register
• Angela Ufheil, Man faces murder charge, December 2, 2017, Des Moines Register
• Iowa trial begins for woman’s disappearance 17 years ago, May 3, 2018, Des Moines Register
• Sentence, September 10, 2020, Des Moines Register
• Friends, family gather to recall missing woman, July 19, 2004, The Gazette
• Andy Hoffman, Colorado man arrested in cold-case killing, March 3, 2018, The Gazette
• https://www.amestrib.com/story/news/2020/09/08/convicted-murderer-michael-syperda-gets-reduced-sentence-after-appeal/5745914002/
• https://charleyproject.org/case/elizabeth-nicole-forshee-syperda
• Elizabeth Klinge, Eric Hanson, Cold Case Arrest, KCCI 8 News
• Michael Syperda Murder Trial Clips from The Hawk Eye YouTube

Support the show

You can follow Cardinal Crimes on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube @CardinalCrimes

The best way to support the podcast is to follow/like/subscribe, share with friends and family, and write us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Send us an email with your questions and topics/case suggestions to cardinalcrimes@gmail.com.

In this episode, I had the opportunity to speak with Garrett B., a male victim of intimate partner violence. We have heard from victims of intimate partner violence before, but all of those were from a woman’s perspective. In this conversation, we talk about the barriers men face as victims of domestic violence, including not being believed, being laughed at, and not recognizing that they are being abused.

If you are in an abusive relationship, there is help. Check out https://www.thehotline.org for resources.

The Danger Assessment Tool can also aid in identifying risk factors showing an abusive relationship potentially turning homicidal.

https://www.dangerassessment.org/DA.aspx

Research and Resources on Domestic Violence:

https://www.thehotline.org/stakeholders/domestic-violence-statistics/

https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037/men0000222

https://socialwork.gmu.edu/resources-male-victims-domestic-violence

Support the show

You can follow Cardinal Crimes on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube @CardinalCrimes

The best way to support the podcast is to follow/like/subscribe, share with friends and family, and write us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Send us an email with your questions and topics/case suggestions to cardinalcrimes@gmail.com.

In December of 1993, two senior citizens - Gladys Held and Jacob Biretz - were murdered within one day and three blocks of one another, and their cases remain unsolved to this day. Residents of Waterloo, Iowa in the 1990’s were frustrated with what they perceived to be rising rates of violent crime, and specifically crimes targeting seniors. Who murdered these two elderly Waterloo residents? Did the perpetrator go on to kill again?

SOURCES:

• Ann Langel, Nancy Raffensperger, Waterloo woman’s death investigated as a homicide, The Courier, December 10, 1993
• Tim Jamison, Larry Ballard, Ann Langel, 87-year-old man found dead in apartment, The Courier, December 12, 1993
• Heather Clark, It’s official: Waterloo breaks record for most homicides, The Courier, December 12, 1993
• Metro Deaths: Gladys D. Held, The Courier, December 12, 1993
• Ann Langel, Man died of suffocation, report says, The Courier, December 14, 1993
• Jennifer Jacobs, Police, guards give Walnut Court residents secure feeling, The Courier, December 26, 1993
• Ann Langel, Death certificate shows elderly murder victim was strangled, The Courier, December 31, 1993
• Waterloo investigating deaths of man, woman, The Daily Nonpareil, December 11, 1993
• Autopsy on elderly man shows suffocation, The Daily Nonpareil, December 14, 1993
• Colleen Bradford, Man found dead in Waterloo, The Des Moines Register, December 11, 1993
• Debora Wiley, Victims lived, died in different ways, The Des Moines Register, December 12, 1993
• Suspicious death probed, The Gazette, December 10, 1993
• 2nd body found in 2 days, The Gazette, December 11, 1993
• Murder victim suffocated, The Gazette, December 14, 1993
• Waterloo trying to bash image as crime-infested, The Gazette, December 16, 1993
• Police probe woman’s death, The Muscatine Journal, December 11, 1993
• Nancy Raffensperger, Crime: The eight people who were murdered in Waterloo in 1993, The Courier, January 2, 1994
• Ann Langel, Son offers $1000 reward for information on woman’s death, The Courier, January 7, 1994
• Heather Clark, Waterloo crime figures indicate decrease in ’93, The Courier, January 21, 1994
• Jeff Kart, It’s the not knowing: Two murders, one day apart. Still unsolved, the families are having to live with grief and frustration, The Courier, December 11, 1994
• Suzanne Behnke, Elderly targets of recent crimes, The Courier, January 1, 1998
• Jeff Reinitz, The murders of 1993: Death taking its toll, The Courier, December 19, 1999
• Luke Jenneti, Unsolved killings might be related, The Courier, August 14, 2005
• Jeff Reinitz, In 1993, retirees were killed in homes, blocks apart, The Courier, July 29, 2015
• Erin Schulte, Waterloo man, 83, was slain, police say, The Des Moines Register, November 14, 1997
• https://cvcrimestop.com/unsolved-case/gladys-dorothy-held/
• https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/jacob-biretz/
• https://iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/gladys-held/
• Photos used in the YouTube version of this episode are from Google Maps and Zillow

Support the show

You can follow Cardinal Crimes on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube @CardinalCrimes

The best way to support the podcast is to follow/like/subscribe, share with friends and family, and write us a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify!

Send us an email with your questions and topics/case suggestions to cardinalcrimes@gmail.com.