CHEYENNE — Within an hour of identifying a vehicle believed to be connected to the murder of a 28-year-old woman in a Sioux City, Iowa, park, license plate reader technology last week led Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers to arrest the suspect on suspicion of first-degree murder.
Irosy Iotis, 46, of Sioux City, was arrested Aug. 31 without incident driving westbound on I-80 after license plate readers picked up his vehicle in Nebraska, according to Sioux City Police Chief Rex Mueller.
After spending hours sifting through surveillance video at the park, local businesses and residences, a suspect vehicle was identified.
Then police “turned to the license plate reader network and were able to determine that the whereabouts of the suspect vehicle was at that time in western Nebraska apparently leaving our area,” Mueller said during a Friday press conference announcing the arrest.
Coordination with law enforcement agencies in multiple states, along with the FBI, led to Iotis’ vehicle being stopped without incident, he said. It was after the stop that the Sioux City Police Department quickly secured an arrest warrant for Iotis, who was driving the vehicle.
Iotis continues to be held in the Laramie County Detention Center in Cheyenne without bond and with a Friday status hearing set for his case, according to court records.
Mueller acknowledged that the use of license plate readers (LPRs) has become an explosive political and social issue in communities across the nation, and that includes Wyoming. He also said it was an invaluable tool in advancing a first-degree murder case in his city.
“For those who you know have lost a family member, I would ask you if you’re going to wish that we had leveraged every bit of technology available to us to look for the suspect who killed your family members?” Mueller said.
“We continue to view LPRs and surveillance cameras as just that — a tool that needs to be regulated, that needs to be audited, but needs to be utilized,” he added. “I can’t tell you where we’d be in this case if we didn’t have that technology to fall back on.”
Sioux City Police Detective Sgt. Nick Thompson added that it was “within probably an hour” of identifying a suspect and vehicle “that he was taken into custody, thanks to the LPR technology.”
Body Found
The investigation began on Tuesday of last week, Aug. 31, at about 6:45 a.m. when a Sioux City police officer on a routine patrol found the body of Shaunacie Peters in a parking lot at Riverside Park in the western part of the city, Mueller said.
Because it’s still an active investigation, the chief and another detective declined Friday to give much information about the case, including a possible motive, whether any weapons have been recovered, or if there may be other suspects.
Asked how it was determined Peters was likely murdered, Mueller said it was apparent from the scene “that this incident was likely a homicide.”
“This incident is still very much under investigation,” the chief added. “Just because an arrest of a suspect has occurred, I think there’s a lot of work ahead.”
Thompson added that this case so far has been “what we call in law enforcement a ‘whodunit case,’” adding that some “of the initial leads we got turned into dead ends.”
Along with the Wyoming Highway Patrol, the chief also called out the cooperation of the Laramie County Sheriff’s Office and Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation.
Greg Johnson can be reached at greg@cowboystatedaily.com.
