19 Years Later Murder of Pregnant Waterloo Woman Still Unsolved

Cold cases often make for interesting, often fascinating stories, right? We see/hear unsolved crime stories on TV or a murder podcast, and it's engaging. But usually, when you see or hear these stories, you're so far removed from what happened that it's hard to have a real emotional attachment. That's not so much the case with this unsolved triple homicide in Waterloo.

This homicide cost a woman who was 9-months pregnant her and her baby's life, and her boyfriend was also killed.

January 3, 2003: Waterloo police discover two bodies

January 3 was a Friday in 2003. Normally January Fridays are cold and you're likely to just want to go home after work or school. Sadly, for the family Rhiannon Marie Olsen, their lives would change forever that day.

That Friday, according to a story from Iowa Cold Cases, Waterloo police discovered the bodies of the 22-year old Olsen and 27-year old Alonzo Nakia Quinn inside Quinn’s home at 1001 Hartman Avenue in Waterloo. Sadly, Olsen was nine months pregnant with Quinn’s child. He was to be named Jalen, but he did not survive. The victims were both shot to death. Rhiannon Olsen and Alonzo Quinn were dating, and he was the father of the child she was carrying at the time of her death.

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Olen's family made a call to authorities when they had not heard from her. They called authorities and asked for a welfare check saying she was likely at her boyfriend Alonzo's home. Police and paramedics then made the grizzly discovery.

What happened to lead to the murders? Police got lots of tips

Quinn was described as a drug dealer and police got tips saying that he had a target on his back as a result. The rumor was that drug dealers from Iowa City were after Quinn and a couple of others, after a drug trade that happened months earlier. Those close to the case claimed the Iowa City men terrorized the women who were connected to the Waterloo men, including Olsen. Back in October 2002, burglars broke into her Tremont Street apartment in Cedar Falls and tied her up. Her home was ransacked, but she was uninjured in that incident.

There was one main suspect

After police pursued evidence in the homicide, they felt they had enough to arrest 30-year old David Erroll Willock was a prime suspect in a kidnapping case. He was also tied to other home invasions like the one Olsen experienced the October before her murder. While Willock, who was living in Iowa City, may have had connections to Quinn, he was never charged in the burglary of Olsen's home, and hence he was never saught as a primary suspect in her and Quinn's murder.

Interest in the case has remained high, with Crime Stoppers, as of 2014, still seeking clues and offering a reward in the case.