On a cold January weekend in 2015, the community of Osceola, Iowa, was shaken by the disappearance of two local men. Noe Flores Rascon, a 27-year-old White/Caucasian male, and his acquaintance, 22-year-old Erick Reyna, were reported missing on the evening of Saturday, January 24th, having not been seen since the previous night. A friend of the two men initially filed the report, which was later followed up by one of their sisters.
The search for the missing men came to a grim conclusion on Sunday, January 25, 2015. Their bodies were discovered inside a vehicle in a rural area of northern Clarke County. Both men had died from gunshot wounds, and their deaths were officially ruled as homicides by the State Medical Examiner.
The investigation, a joint effort by the Osceola Police Department, the Clarke County Sheriff's Office, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation, quickly led to several arrests. Richard Ryan Lamb Carson, a 38-year-old resident of Osceola, was charged with two counts of first-degree murder for the deaths of Rascon and Reyna. Authorities stated that Carson was an acquaintance of both victims. In addition to the primary suspect, three other individuals from Osceola were implicated in the crime. Lynn Ranean Sutton, 47, Tracy Kay Johnson, 43, and Christopher Martin Elben, 42, were each charged with one count of accessory after the fact, for allegedly assisting Carson after the murders had occurred. It was noted by law enforcement that the suspects were all known to them from previous encounters.
As the legal proceedings began, details of the events leading to the double homicide started to emerge. According to court documents, a female witness reported that Carson had spoken about beating up two friends and taking them to the county to abandon them. Carson himself admitted to investigators that he had been involved in an altercation with Rascon in a vehicle outside a residence in Osceola. He claimed that during this confrontation, a gun was produced and discharged. In his defense, Carson asserted that the shooting was an act of self-defense. While a motive was still being investigated, law enforcement officials recovered the murder weapon. The suspects were taken into custody without incident, and authorities reassured the public that they believed this to be an isolated event. Richard Carson later pleaded not guilty to the two counts of first-degree murder.
