What should have been one of the happiest days of 12-year-old Alta Marie Braun’s young life ended in one of Iowa’s most heartbreaking unsolved murders.
On August 20, 1917, the Le Mars schoolgirl spent the evening enjoying the Yankee Robinson Circus carnival that had come to town. She rode the merry-go-round with friends, bought a small bag of candy, and began the walk home after stopping to visit neighbors. She never made it back.
The following morning, two women discovered what they first believed was a discarded mannequin lying in an alley near the Illinois Central Railroad tracks between Cedar and Howard streets. Instead, they found the body of Alta Braun. Authorities said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled with her own torn underskirt after a violent struggle.
Alta’s father, Chris Braun, had reported her missing after finding her bed untouched. Investigators quickly retraced her final hours, learning she had spent the evening at the carnival before walking toward home along Cedar Street. Witnesses later recalled hearing someone running near the railroad crossing that night, and spilled candy found nearby led investigators to believe Alta had either tried to flee her attacker or had been dragged into the secluded alley.
The investigation drew widespread attention. Early suspicion focused on workers with the traveling circus, and law enforcement followed the show to nearby towns looking for leads. One circus employee was later arrested, but authorities found no evidence linking him to the crime, and he was released. Alta’s father believed the killer was someone familiar with Le Mars and urged the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation to assist. Despite reward offers and months of investigation, no one was ever charged.
Alta had been born in Colorado Springs before her family returned to Plymouth County. Friends and family remembered her as a cheerful girl who loved school and her younger sister. Hundreds attended her funeral, and she was laid to rest beside her mother in Akron. Tragically, Alta’s stepmother died just four months later, and the family continued to endure years of hardship.
More than a century later, the murder of Alta Marie Braun remains one of Iowa’s oldest unsolved homicide cases. While countless theories have surfaced over the years, the identity of the person responsible has never been determined, leaving a case that still haunts the history of Le Mars.
Source: Nancy Bowers, Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases.
