HARLAN, Iowa — Months after the release of my best-selling book, DIXIE’s LAST STAND: WAS IT MURDER OR
SELF-DEFENSE? I visited the hometown of Dixie and Scott Shanahan and gave a pair of PowerPoint book presentations in the same community where Dixie’s momentous 2004 murder trial occurred. wildbluepress.dixie
Thursday’s presentations at the Harlan Community Library was a trip down memory lane. Back in 2003 and 2004, I covered the criminal court proceedings involving Dixie Shanahan for the Omaha newspaper. I worked there before joining Gannett Wisconsin Media as an investigative journalist in late 2012.
Many who came for my talks bought a copy of DIXIE and several people also purchased one of my other true-crime books, BLOODY LIES: A CSI SCANDAL IN THE HEARTLAND and BODY OF PROOF: TAINTED EVIDENCE IN THE MURDER OF JESSICA O’GRADY. wbp.bz/bop
Two of the two key law enforcement figures involved in the western Iowa investigation of Scott Shanahan’s murder mystery attended Thursday’s book presentations: retired Sheriff Gene Cavenaugh and current sheriff Mark Hervey, then the chief deputy for Shelby County.
I told the crowd that my primary motivation for writing DIXIE’S LAST STAND was to highlight a murder mystery investigation where a smaller department with few resources was able to do a fabulous job.
I reminded the crowd how Sheriff Cavenaugh and his agency unraveled the Scott Shanahan mystery within a few short months of first becoming aware that Dixie’s husband had vanished from his life-long home in Defiance, the sleepy little town 12 miles up Route 59 midway between Harlan and Denison.
For the first time, I revealed that the day is probably nearing for Dixie Shanahan’s release from the Iowa Women’s Prison in Mitchellville. Dixie has been in Mitchellville the past 11-plus years.
In June, Dixie was denied parole, however, the board decided that it would reconsider Dixie’s case within the next couple of months, provided she undergo a psychological evaluation. For this reason, I believe it’s highly probable Dixie will be released yet this year, or for sure, in 2016, provided Dixie has no additional disciplinary problems at the prison.
Retired Sheriff Cavenaugh, who arrested Dixie for murder on Oct. 20, 2003, also agrees.
“Yes, I believe Dixie will get out of prison, sometime maybe this year possibly … I think she’ll come back to Shelby County, go live with her husband (Jeff Duty who she married in 2004), in the same house, in Defiance, Iowa, and I hope she has a better life for herself, I really do. Like I said, it’s a tragic situation and I hope for the best for her.”
I served a small amount of time with Dixie and think she is one of the nicest most caring person. She suffered so much abuse and i know thay she was afraid and so tired of the pain. I will be so happy to hear of her release.
Dixie Shanahan should not be released from prison until she has served the mandatory 35 year minimum, because she knowingly killed her husband, then covered up the crime for more than a year, first lying to everyone Dixie and her first husband Scott were associated with, then forging his name on checks and essentially spending his $150,000 inheritance on herself. Dixie’s attorneys can point fingers and say that Scott was abusive throughout the couple’s nearly 20-year relationship, but if this was true, Dixie should have had enough common sense to have her husband reported to the police, then file a permanent restraining order and a divorce and move back to Texas, vowing never to return. Instead, on August 30, 2002, as many people know by now, Dixie shot Scott in the back of the head as he slept; then, during the course of her trial, Dixie cooked up a story that, on the morning of Scott’s murder, when Dixie didn’t wake Scott up to say goodbye to their oldest child (Zachary) before he left for school, Scott supposedly started brutally punching Dixie and that Scott allegedly came back with a shotgun, pointing it at Dixie’s stomach (at the time, Dixie was pregnant with the couple’s third child), and threatening to kill her. If *any* of her allegations of abuse were true, this should have been, as I mentioned up front, grounds for divorce and having Scott put in prison for a very long time.
I too was an abused wife.people don’t understand the abused persons mind. After being abused as much as they abuse you. Your mind shifts your thoughts are different. You aren’t you. you are a totally different person. You think of surviving in a bad bad world. You feel worthless. You feel like you have no respect. You hurt cry and go to work with 2 black eyes. Don’t someone that isn’t abused dare think they know what it’s like. Because you will never ever know. Yes,Dixie shouldn’t of pulled that gun,but it’s so easy to want to. You just want the abuse to STOP. You want one day not to be kicked ,hit punched bite. So I don’t agree with the sentence that Dixie got.And never say you know what it’s like unless you live it day after day. Minute after minute.So all you abused women I know what it’s like and I love you. Pray for you. And hope you get help. But if you don’t I’ll understand because I didn’t.