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Mason City witness murders

Also known as: 1993 Iowa murders, Dustin Honken, Angela Johnson

Active

1993–1993

Region

Mason City, Iowa, USA

State

IA

Kind

Serial

Status

Executed

Victims

5

In 1993 Dustin Honken, who was facing federal methamphetamine charges in northern Iowa, set out to eliminate witnesses against him. In July he and his girlfriend, Angela Johnson, took Greg Nicholson, a former associate cooperating with investigators, from the Mason City home he shared with Lori Duncan and her daughters Kandi, 10, and Amber, 6; all four were killed and buried in woodland outside town. That November Honken killed Terry DeGeus, another potential witness. The victims were missing for seven years until Johnson drew a map for a jailhouse informant in 2000. Both were convicted in federal court and sentenced to death; Johnson's sentence was later reduced to life, and Honken was executed on July 17, 2020.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Greg Nicholson · July 25, 1993

  A former associate of Honken's who had begun cooperating with investigators and testified before a federal grand jury.

• Lori Ann Duncan · July 25, 1993

  A Mason City mother of two who had no involvement in the drug trade.

• Kandace "Kandi" Duncan, 10 · July 25, 1993
• Amber Duncan, 6 · July 25, 1993
• Terry DeGeus, 32 · November 5, 1993

Timeline of locations

1. July 25, 1993
   Duncan home, Mason City (Abduction, approximate area)

   Honken and Johnson took Greg Nicholson, Lori Duncan and her two daughters from the Mason City home where they lived, days before a hearing in Honken's drug case.

2. October 2000
   Woodland outside Mason City (Recovery site, approximate area)

   The four were killed and buried in a wooded area outside Mason City; DeGeus was buried a few miles away. Investigators found the graves in October 2000 using a map Johnson had drawn for a jailhouse informant.

3. October 14, 2004
   U.S. Courthouse, Sioux City (Court / trial)

   A federal jury in Sioux City convicted Honken on all 17 counts in October 2004 and recommended death, the first such federal verdict in Iowa in four decades. Johnson was tried separately and sentenced to death in December 2005; that sentence was vacated in 2012 and replaced with life without parole in 2014.

4. July 17, 2020
   U.S. Penitentiary, Terre Haute, Indiana (Prison)

   Honken was executed by lethal injection at the federal prison complex in Terre Haute.

Sources

• 1993 Iowa murders (Wikipedia)
• Dustin Honken (Wikipedia)
• Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 executed (VOA / AP)
• Iowa drug kingpin who killed 5 set for execution Friday (NBC News / AP)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.