Iowa moms boyfriend nearly got away with murder until a zipper changed everything

Renowned forensic pathologist Dr.Michael Baden confirmed a grieving family’s suspicions and put a guilty man behind bars after spotting an unconventional clue that an initial examination had overlooked: a zipper imprint. Iowa mother Ilene Gowan was found dead and frozen in a roadside ditch on February 26, 2023.Although police suspected her on-again, off-again boyfriend Ivan “Sam” Brammer, and there were multiple abrasions on Gowan’s body, an initial medical examiner could not determine what caused her death, and police couldn’t charge him with murder. Desperate, Gowan’s family reached out to Baden for a second opinion.

The first episode of Fox Nation’s “The Baden Files,” titled “The Zipper,” details the pathologist’s involvement in the curious case. Gowan, 60, was last seen on surveillance footage leaving her job at Sugar’s Lounge and Diner in Council Bluffs and getting into Brammer’s Ford F-150 on February 12, and then again on traffic camera feeds the next morning.Her body appeared to be awkwardly slumped inside the vehicle.The woman was wearing the same clothing that she wore in the parking lot footage when her body was found, with the exception of one missing shoe.

Her cellphone and purse were also missing. According to an affidavit reviewed by Fox Nation, her personal safe, which had about $1,200 inside, was also missing.On February 15 of that year, 61-year-old Brammer deposited $1,200 into his bank account.Ten days later, he took his truck to a salvage yard and had it destroyed.In March, Council Bluffs Police charged Brammer with theft and abuse of a corpse. Gowan had multiple injuries on her body, including multiple contusions and abrasions of the head, an L-shaped laceration on her head that was not considered life-threatening and a broken tooth.A toxicology report showed only caffeine, nicotine and a prescription drug in her system.

Assistant State Medical Examiner Kelly Kruse listed her cause of death as “unknown...