“Heaven Is My Home”: Murder of Gloria Slump 1967

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By Nancy Bowers
Written February 2010

On Monday, March 6, 1967, Burlington Railroad employees found the frozen body of 24-year-old Gloria Faye Slump under a trestle over Pony Creek three miles south of Council Bluffs, Iowa.

A trail of blood showed she was dragged to the site from a county road 150 yards away.

Pottawattamie County Medical Exminer Dr. A. L. Sciortino said 24-year-old Gloria Faye Slump had been dead two to three days. She was beaten, stabbed 14 times in the throat with a dull knife or an implement similar to a beer can opener, and left to bleed to death. There were no signs of sexual assault.

Gloria worked at an Omaha, Nebraska, brokerage house. Her coworkers described her as “deeply religious.”

Her parents told investigators that Gloria phoned them and said she had met a “nice guy” and would be bringing him home for a weekend visit, but she did not show up.

Pottawattamie County Sheriff Roy O. Wichael headed up the investigation. Evidence was examined by both the Iowa Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) and the FBI.

On Sunday, March 6 — the day before Gloria’s body was found — an Iowa State Highway patrolman discovered an abandoned car 150 yards east of the Pony Creek trestle.

The car belonged to 24-year-old Jerry E. Neve of Omaha, who was seen with the victim before she disappeared.

Neve was questioned and released by the Pottawattamie County Sheriff’s Office. He also voluntarily took a polygraph at the Iowa BCI. The test showed deception when he was asked about knowing Slump or having information about her death.

Jerry Neve killed himself on Saturday, March 11, 1967, with a shotgun in the backyard of an Omaha residence. His stepfather, Cecil Fellows, told the Oelwein Register that Neve swore he did not murder Gloria and claimed:

“[He] was just being a good fellow and . . . he was so involved he did not know what to do.”

Later FBI testing of Neve’s car confirmed that a piece of cloth found there came from the victim’s clothing.

On Saturday, June 10, 1967, Omaha Police — acting on a tip — found the victim’s coat in a hotel room once registered to Jerry Neve and Herschell L. Gitchell, who at the time was awaiting trial on burglary charges.

☛ Gloria Slump’s Life ☚

Gloria Fay Slump was born April 7, 1942, in Red Oak, Iowa, to Kathleen Ione Williams and Carroll Riggs Slump. She had one brother and four sisters. She attended Grace Bible Institute in Omaha, Nebraska.

Services were held on March 10, 1967 at Mission Covenant Church, and Gloria was buried in Red Oak’s Evergreen Cemetery.

Council Bluffs Police told reporters they found a Bible in Gloria Slump’s apartment. Inside was written in her hand:

“I am a stranger here. Heaven is my home. Danger and sorrow stand around me on every hand. Heaven is my fatherland. Heaven is my Home.”

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Please note: Use of information in this article should credit Nancy Bowers as the author and Iowa Unsolved Murders: Historic Cases as the source.

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References

• ☛ “Coat Found May Be That of Dead Woman,” Muscatine Journal, June 12, 1967.
• ☛ “Coat Linked to Girl’s Death,” Des Moines Register, June 11, 1967.
• ☛ “Cloth in Car From Woman Who Was Killed,” Muscatine Journal, June 12, 1967.
• ☛ “Failed Lie Test,” Carroll Daily Times Herald, March 14, 1967.
• ☛ Iowa Department of Public Safety Division of Criminal Investigation Cold Case Unit.
• ☛ “Man Questioned in Slaying of Woman,” Cedar Rapids Gazette, March 7, 1967.
• ☛ “Man Quizzed In Slaying a Suicide,” Carroll Daily Times Herald, March 13, 1967.
• ☛ “Omaha Police Close Case on Suicide,” Oelwein Daily Register, March 13, 1967.
• ☛ “Questioned, Released in Slaying,” Waterloo Daily Courier, March 7, 1967.
• ☛ “Quiz Suspect In Woman’s Death,” Carroll Daily Times Herald, March 3, 1967.
• ☛ “Say Slain Woman Bled to Death,” Waterloo Daily Courier, March 9, 1967.
• ☛ “Says Dead Man Failed Lie Test,” Waterloo Daily Courier, March 14, 1967.
• ☛ “Suicide Case Closed,” Muscatine Journal, March 13, 1967.
• ☛ U.S. Census
• ☛ “Woman Beaten Before Death,” Des Moines Register, March 8, 1967.