FORT DODGE IA—
Greg Howell of Fort Dodge had his demons. Crack. Cocaine. Heroin. And police say often times to pay for his drugs he would rob drug dealers.But his family says he never deserved what he got. "We used to snowmobile race. We used to go to Minnesota every Sunday. Race drag sleds. I mean we just had a blast," says Greg's brother Frank.
Frank Howell remembers the good times. But he knows his brother had a dark side, the drugs that played Jekyll and Hyde with his personality, and probably led to his death. "I told him, I said you need to slow down," Frank says, "You got a family. You got a good family. You need to grow up. He wanted to be a kid. He lived a fast life."
It was right around Christmas time in 2005 and Greg Howell had just come back from a big score, driving cross-country to buy methamphetamine in California to sell here. "As far as I know they did," Frank says, "And from what I've heard on the streets that it was high quality stuff. People were paying double what they pay around here. Everyone wanted it."
But Howell's family believes he got greedy and stole from the wrong person. "I think he was set up," Howell's ex-wife Julie Howell says, "The last time I saw him he said he was going to come into a lot of money that night. I think his friends set him up." Frank agrees. "I think he dabbled too much into it and I think he might have stole from the guy that put the money up and his buddies, his friends, set him up and offed him. It's wrong," he says.
Police admit they have nothing. No clues. No witnesses. Nothing. "Mr. Mowell was with some friends. He had gotten a call and was going to meet another person. The friends do not know who that person was that he went to meet. That was the last time any of his friends had seen him," says Lt. Kevin Kruse with the Webster County Sheriff's Department.
Howell's family says Fort Dodge Police ignored their pleas for help and the department just wrote off the disappearance as another missing druggie. "Do your job. Do a better job. Do something," Frank says, "We couldn't even get them over to take a missing person report. I mean, c'mon...this is a person. Don't matter what he did in his time. He was a person. He was a brother. He was a dad. He was a son. I mean, they could at least try."
Without help from the police, the family tracked down drug dealers and friends of Greg's. They eventually found his car but police weren't able to pull any clues from it. They also tracked down leads. "Just all the information we got, whether it be hearsay or just people on the streets we had to go talk to. Walking through quarries for hours at a time. People saying he's buried over there. I mean, it's pretty hard thinking you're looking for your brother's body," Frank says.
The family has given up on finding justice. They believe Greg was killed but they doubt the killer will ever be found. Right now, they just want to find the body. They say Greg paid for all the wrong he did in his life and deserves to rest in peace. "You know, it's not right. 'cause he's a human being," Frank says, "Don't matter what he did."
We did contact the Fort Dodge Police Department. That's the agency that originally handled the investigation. Assistant Chief Kevin Doty tells us that, "Probably we should have tried to dig more," and that as a result of our story they plan to re-open the investigation into Howell's disappearance.
To learn more about cold cases around the state log on to: iowacoldcases.org
