AnnaElise MaryEtta Edgeton, an 18-year-old woman from Cedar Rapids, was found late on the morning of January 13, 2018, inside her apartment at the Shamrock Apartments at 316 Jacolyn Drive SW. Police and medics had been called for a welfare check; an autopsy by the Iowa State Medical Examiner later determined she died of a gunshot wound. Loved ones memorialized her life in local obituaries and tributes in the days that followed.
Investigators soon focused on a break-in at the apartment.
On April 19, 2018, police arrested 19-year-old Kyler Jacob Junkins of Marion and charged him with first-degree murder and first-degree burglary, alleging he broke into Edgeton’s home and shot her. Within a week, three more people were arrested in connection with the case: 18-year-old Allen Miller, a 16-year-old girl, and a 17-year-old boy, all accused of conspiracy to commit a forcible felony tied to first-degree burglary and accessory after the fact.
In June 2019, Junkins took a plea deal, admitting guilt to second-degree murder; court records and news reports indicate he was later sentenced to 50 years in prison and ordered to pay $150,000 in restitution to Edgeton’s estate or heirs. Reporting at the time also noted that he had already been in custody on unrelated charges when arrested in the case. The arrests of the three additional suspects were announced that April; the juveniles’ names were withheld by authorities, as is customary.
Earlier that spring, before the arrests, her mother had publicly pleaded for help finding her daughter’s killer, describing how the family was still reeling; by then, Edgeton had only recently married. Those appeals gave way to developments as the investigation progressed to charges and, eventually, a conviction and long prison term.
