Post by Scumhunter on Apr 26, 2016 9:03:17 GMT -5
(Above: Jay Grahlman with daughter Jaymie Photo credit: iowacoldcases.org)
From The Des Moines Register website (desmoinesregister.com):
Jay Grahlman and his 6-year-old daughter, Jaymie, died from injuries suffered in a late-night fire set at their Cedar Rapids home on April 5, 2003. Also in the home at the time of the fire were Jay’s girlfriend, Vickie Reed, 32, Reed’s daughters, Kylie Reed, 9, Nicole Reed, 7, and Grahlman’s youngest daughter, Ida Mae Grahlman, 3.
Reed said that she pulled Jay and three of the daughters to safety but couldn’t find Jaymie. Once Jay realized Jaymie still remained inside, he ran back into the burning home to search for her. While searching, he sustained second- and third-degree burns over 37 percent of his body. Firefighters found Jaymie alive but unconscious early the next morning in the home’s bathtub. She lay stretched out on her back, face up, almost as if she’d peacefully gone to sleep in the bathtub and not heard the screams all around. She and her father died within days.
Family friend and neighbor Brian Zirtzman — a 39-year-old man with an IQ of 67 — was later charged with two counts of first-degree murder and one count of first-degree arson but acquitted by a Linn County jury after witnesses testified that Zirtzman had likely been coached before going to police with a memorized confession “too complex” to be made by a man with an IQ that falls in the bottom 1 percent of adults. Zirtzman became a suspect when officials discovered he’d set two fires in his early teen years.
Prosecutors said Zirtzman set the fire so he could save the family, whom he visited frequently. That plan went awry when the flames spread too quickly, they told the court.
Anyone with any information about Jay and Jaymie Grahlman’s unsolved case is asked to contact one of the following individuals or agencies: Cedar Rapids Cold Case Unit Investigator J.D. Smith at 319-286-5619; the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation at 515-725-6010 or email dciinfo@dps.state.ia.us; Division of the State Fire Marshal at 515-725-6145; Linn County Crime Stoppers at 319-272-7463.
Full Article: www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/crime-and-courts/2016/03/27/gone-cold-jay-and-jaymie-grahlman-killed-2003/82262836/
Article with additional information: iowacoldcases.org/case-summaries/jay-and-jaymie-grahlman/
Thoughts? This is obvious a tragic case. Here Jaymie was dying and her father, like any father would, went in the house to try to save her, but tragically they both died instead. I guess one can make the argument Zirtzman is the culprit and was simply acquitted/"got away with it", but I too find it hard to believe a man with a 67 IQ can give a detailed confession.
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