Paul Michael Brule, 30, was found dead behind his Council Bluffs home on the morning of July 25, 1998, in what investigators initially considered a possible suicide but which family members immediately believed was a staged homicide. Brule, who lived at 2118 Sixth Avenue and received weekly $10,000 lottery payments, had spent the previous evening with friends and siblings before returning home sometime after midnight.
According to family members, Brule was last seen alive near midnight when he left a friend’s home after an evening of drinking. He told his brother and friends he loved them before leaving—something he routinely said to his loved ones. His younger sister arrived home around 1:30 a.m. and saw no sign of him. Another sister returned from a paper route around 4:30 a.m. and also noticed nothing unusual.
Later that morning, Brule’s father and two sisters discovered his motorcycle on its side in front of the house and found his body in the backyard near a tree. Brule was found on his knees with a nylon clothesline rope tied around his neck, his body slumped forward. Police responded at 10:54 a.m. and confirmed he was not breathing. His estimated time of death was placed between 1:45 a.m. and 7 a.m. Investigators found no note or evidence pointing clearly to suicide, though the case quickly slipped out of the public eye.
Brule’s family never believed he died by his own hand, and years later new information surfaced from a tipster who reported specific details about what allegedly took place that night. The source claimed that an individual punched Brule on the back porch and repeatedly slammed his head and neck between the sliding glass door and its frame until he appeared lifeless. The tip alleged that two others then helped move Brule’s body into the yard and staged the scene to resemble a suicide.
Armed with this information, Brule’s sister reached out to Iowa Cold Cases, pleading for help in seeking justice for her brother.
Paul Brule was born on December 9, 1967, in Crookston, Minnesota. He graduated from Thomas Jefferson High School in 1986 and worked as a laborer. He was remembered by family as generous, loving, and devoted, using his lottery winnings to help support his parents, siblings, and grandmother. Funeral services were held July 28, 1998, at McCurdy Funeral Chapel, followed by burial in Garner Township Cemetery.
He is survived by his parents, Michael and Linda Brule; sisters Michelle Stephens and Jamie Brule; his brother, Shane; his grandmother, Edith Briggs; and numerous extended family members. The case remains unsolved, with loved ones still hoping for answers more than two decades later.
