A 59-year-old Minnesota man is facing a first-degree murder charge in the 1995 shooting death of a 37-year-old Waterloo woman whose body was found along a rural creek bank by turtle hunters more than three decades ago. Kelly Grant of Bertha, Minnesota, was arrested Thursday in connection with the death of Angela Renee Buck, in a case that had remained unsolved for 31 years.
Buck’s body was discovered on August 11, 1995, in the 900 block of Pilot Grove Road east of Waterloo, lying along the creek bank near a bridge, according to KCRG. Turtle hunters stumbled upon the scene and alerted the Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office, which responded to find a deceased woman at the location. The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office determined Buck died from a gunshot wound, and her death was ruled a homicide, as reported by WHO 13.
No arrest had been made in the 31 years since, the station noted. Former Black Hawk County Sheriff Michael Kubik said in a 2008 account that Buck’s case was among those that still weighed on him, according to Iowa Cold Cases. That same account notes investigators once looked into a possible connection between Buck’s killing and the murder of Connie Jo Choate Bodensteiner, but authorities later determined the two cases were not related.
Decades-Old Case Breaks Open
Black Hawk County Sheriff’s deputies and agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation arrested Grant on Thursday, with assistance from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Todd County Sheriff’s Office, according to a statement from the Iowa Attorney General’s Office carried by EIN Presswire. The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office had worked with several agencies over the years to investigate leads, including the Iowa Attorney General’s Office Cold Case Unit and the Black Hawk County Attorney’s Office, per KWWL.
A criminal complaint cited by KCRG’s report indicates Buck and Grant had been together the night before and into the early morning hours of August 11, 1995, at a home in the 300 block of Cottage Street in Waterloo. The complaint states Grant and another man forcibly removed Buck from the home and into a vehicle before driving away. Based on witness observations, statements attributed to Grant, and shifting accounts of his whereabouts, the complaint concludes that Grant participated in Buck’s kidnapping and murder on or around that date.
Investigation Continues
Grant is charged with first-degree murder, according to the press release detailing his arrest. Authorities say the investigation remains ongoing and have not released additional details at this time. As with any criminal case, a charge is merely an accusation, and Grant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty, the Attorney General’s Office statement said.
The arrest echoes other long-dormant Iowa cold cases that have recently produced charges. In June 2025, years of DNA testing led to an arrest in a nearly 42-year-old Iowa cold-case murder, according to the Des Moines Register. For Buck’s family and the Black Hawk County community, Grant’s arrest comes after more than three decades without a resolution.
