In the quiet, rural landscape of Riverside, Iowa, the life of 54-year-old Sharon Gerot, a female resident, came to a sudden and violent end on Sunday, May 1, 2011. On that spring afternoon, she was outside her home on Deer Run Drive, engaged in the mundane task of mowing her lawn. It was an ordinary day that would soon take a horrific turn, shattering the peace of the small community. Emergency services received a distress call around 3:43 p.m. reporting a shooting.
When officers from the Washington County Sheriff's office, the Washington City Police, and the Iowa State Patrol arrived at the scene, they discovered Sharon's body lying outside the residence. She was pronounced dead at approximately 4:04 p.m.
The immediate investigation into her death quickly led to a suspect, her 70-year-old live-in boyfriend, Thomas Lee Hansen. He was promptly arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with Sharon's death. An autopsy conducted by the State Medical Examiner's office confirmed the tragic details: Sharon Gerot had died from a single gunshot wound to the head. The Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation was brought in to assist the Washington County Sheriff's office in piecing together the events that led to the fatal shooting.
In the days following the incident, Thomas Lee Hansen made his initial court appearance. A judge set his bond at a steep two million dollars, cash only, reflecting the serious nature of the charge against him. Represented by the State Public Defender's office, Hansen waived his preliminary hearing. Legal proceedings continued, and by August of that year, his bond was reduced to one point four million dollars. Court records from an appeal filed in 2014 confirm that Hansen was tried and convicted for the murder of Sharon Gerot. The appellate court documents recount that on that fatal day, Hansen retrieved a handgun from the garage, walked through the house to the patio doors, and fired the shot that killed Sharon as she mowed the lawn.
