In the quiet town of Spencer, Iowa, a sense of unease began to ripple through the community on January 13, 2003. Sixty-two-year-old Karen Kay Duncan, a dependable manager at a local Subway restaurant, failed to arrive for her shift. Her uncharacteristic absence prompted concerned co-workers to take action. One colleague drove to the trailer court where Karen resided with her husband, Harold Arthur Duncan, in their motor home.
Seeing the couple's van parked outside did little to quell the growing worry. A call was made to another co-worker, and together they decided to involve their landlord.
When the landlord's knocks on the door of the motor home went unanswered, the police were summoned. A Spencer city police officer, unable to get a response, gained entry through a window. The scene that confronted the officer was grim. Karen and Harold were both found sprawled on their bed. Karen, who was face down, had been shot twice—once in the front and once in the back—and was pronounced dead at the scene. Harold, lying face up, had a severe gunshot wound to his face but was still alive. In the hallway of the motor home, investigators discovered a shotgun, and an open box of 12-gauge shotgun shells was found in the cockpit area.
Harold was immediately transported to a local hospital before being transferred to a facility in Sioux City for further treatment. It was there that he was interviewed by an agent from the Division of Criminal Investigation and admitted to shooting his wife twice before turning the gun on himself. His journey for medical care would continue to a hospital in Omaha.
The investigation swiftly moved forward, and on January 29, 2003, Harold Arthur Duncan was charged with the first-degree murder of his wife of forty-three years. In a pre-trial stipulation, Harold admitted to firing the two shotgun blasts that resulted in Karen's death. Despite his defense's arguments of diminished responsibility and self-defense, a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder following a trial. In 2004, Harold Duncan was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of his wife. He remained incarcerated until his death in a prison hospice unit in January 2021, at the age of 89, from complications related to COVID-19 and other pre-existing medical conditions.
