Bertha man arrested in 1995 Iowa cold case homicide

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A Bertha man has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder in connection with a 1995 homicide in Black Hawk County, Iowa.

Kelly Joseph Grant, 59, of Bertha, was arrested October 16 by Black Hawk County Sheriff’s deputies and agents with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Todd County Sheriff’s Office assisted in the arrest.

Grant is accused in the death of Angela Renee Buck, 37, of Waterloo, Iowa, whose body was discovered by two turtle hunters on August 11, 1995, along Poyner Creek near Pilot Grove Road, about five miles east of Waterloo.

According to court documents, deputies responded to the scene at approximately 10:40 a.m. An autopsy determined Buck died from a gunshot wound, and her death was classified as a homicide.

Investigators determined Buck had been at a residence in the 300 block of Cottage Street in Waterloo during the late evening of August 10 and early morning of August 11, 1995. Several people were at the residence, including Grant.

Court documents state witnesses described a confrontation involving Buck, Grant and another man in which Buck was physically assaulted. One witness reported seeing a person matching Grant’s description and the other man forcibly remove Buck from the residence and put her into a vehicle before driving away.

Buck’s body was discovered hours later.

In January 1996, an associate of Grant contacted law enforcement and reported that Grant had indicated he and the other man had killed Buck because they believed she had stolen from them. According to the complaint, Grant allegedly told the associate that Buck “wouldn’t be doing this to anyone else again.”

Grant was interviewed by investigators in 1996 and again in 2001. During those interviews, he denied involvement in Buck’s death but provided changing accounts of his whereabouts and his connection to the other man, according to court documents.

In a March 2025 interview, Grant told investigators he remembered stopping at a house in the Sumner/Cottage Street neighborhood around the time of the homicide. He described a woman who appeared to be under duress and resembled Buck, along with several men at the residence. Grant said he drove the group to another location in Waterloo and received marijuana in exchange for the ride. He continued to deny involvement in Buck’s death.

Court documents state investigators also developed information in 2025 about a possible motive involving the belief that Buck was providing law enforcement with information about drug activity in the neighborhood.

The Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Office said multiple law enforcement agencies had investigated leads over the years in an effort to identify the person responsible for Buck’s death.