Arrest made in 1983 Sioux City homicide

SIOUX CITY — For more than 41 years, family and friends of Terri McCauley continued to hope that someday authorities would solve the mystery of who had killed her.

On Sunday, they were notified that an arrest had been made in the 1983 homicide case.

That news was still sinking in Monday afternoon.

"I don't think it really hit until today, until the news and the release was made. Just the steps leading up to this have been very, very surreal. Sitting here now, it's like this is a dream. Is this really happening? And here we are," Josh Taylor, McCauley's nephew and family spokesman said at a news conference in Sioux City.

A Woodbury County grand jury filed an indictment Friday against Thomas Duane Popp, 62, charging him with first-degree murder for the death of the 18-year-old McCauley, whose body was found Oct. 6, 1983 in a wooded area in Sioux City.

Popp was arrested Saturday in Lakeview, Washington. He was being held in the Cowlitz County Jail in Washington, where he awaits extradition to Iowa. He was scheduled to make his first appearance in court Monday afternoon.

Because the case is pending, Woodbury County Attorney James Loomis, who had requested the impaneling of the grand jury, declined to comment further on the case, including what information led to Popp's indictment and arrest.

McCauley's family also declined to comment on the legal aspects of the case or when authorities informed them there had been a break in it. Instead, they were happy the hope they had carried for so many years was being fulfilled.

"You know, after 41 years you definitely start to lose hope," Taylor said. "I think more recently, we kind of felt like, hey, maybe there is, there is some hope to see something finally happen."

McCauley, a mother of two, was last seen alive getting into a white Chevrolet Nova in a Sioux City parking lot in the early morning of Sept. 26, 1983. Before getting into the car, McCauley told the two friends she was with that she was going on a date. The white male driving the Nova headed north on Omaha Street and then west onto West Eighth Street.

A man walking his dog found McCauley's partially clothed and decomposed body near 33rd and Pavonia streets days later. McCauley had been shot in the face with a 20-gauge shotgun. Her shirt and shoes were found near her body.

Three months later, while investigating a case in which a man had fired a shotgun into a former girlfriend’s house, police connected a white Nova, a 20-gauge shotgun and other evidence to establish a suspect in McCauley’s case.

Though circumstantial evidence seemed to point to the Nova’s driver, an exhaustive search of the vehicle produced no proof McCauley had ever been in it. Prosecutors decided against proceeding with charges against the original suspect at the time because they wanted more concrete evidence that could help ensure a conviction.

Years later, police resubmitted DNA evidence to a laboratory in hopes advances in technology would provide new leads, but it did not.

McCauley's family was left wondering if anyone ever would be held accountable for the death of the young, outgoing Omaha Tribe member who loved her children and family.

"We won't ever know what Terri could have been," Taylor said. "Terri could have been a very successful Native American woman in our community. That unfortunately was stolen from her. You kind of go down the what-if today. She would have been a grandmother. You think about all the stuff that you know she's missed."

The family expressed its gratitude for the ongoing efforts by police and the county attorney's office to investigate McCauley's case.

Trisha Rivers, the Great Plains Action Society's Siouxland projects director, said Popp's arrest is a win for the Native American community. She called the thousands of unsolved cases of missing or murdered Native Americans, especially women, a plague on communities on and off the reservations. In recent years, the Great Plains Action Society and groups like it have increased public awareness campaigns about the problem.

"We will continue to support and advocate not only for this family, but all families that have been negatively impacted by this crisis," Rivers said. "We would like to thank the Native community and all of the allies that came together and continue to push for justice for Terri McCauley."

Her case, Taylor said, shows how advocacy can help solidify relationships between the Native American community and law enforcement to find answers for families like theirs.

"Terri's case is just one of many," Taylor said. "And this, I hope, brings hope to those families that, 'hey, one day their loved ones will get an answer as well.'"