Thomas Woodard and Michael Dutcher: Iowa inmates, 28 and 39, steal hammer, bludgeon nurse and officer to death
ANAMOSA, IOWA: Iowa officials have now identified the suspects and victims of the Anamosa State Penitentiary fatal attack that happened on Tuesday, March 23 morning. According to officials, Michael Dutcher, 28, and Thomas Woodard, 39, were identified as the inmates responsible for the assault that killed two staff members and injured another inmate.
Around 10:18 am on March 23, authorities were sent to the Anamosa State Penitentiary after two inmates attacked staff and other inmates in the prison’s infirmary, seriously wounding a nurse and a corrections officer. Security restrained the inmates as officers tried to save their lives, but it was too late. The two staffers succumbed to their injuries as Dutcher and Woodard tried to escape. Authorities said in a statement that inmates Dutcher and Woodward attempted to cut through bars on a window in a breakroom using a metal grinder when staff stopped them.
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During a press conference on Wednesday, March 24, Beth Skinner, director of the Iowa Department of Corrections, identified the victims of the attack, as nurse Lorena Schulte, 50, who was serving the penitentiary since 2007 and correctional officer Robert McFarland, 46, who served the penitentiary since 2008. The inmate wounded during the assault was identified as McKinley Roby. "Two wonderful people had their lives taken for simply trying to do their jobs here at Anamosa," said Skinner, who called the attack on the two public servants an act of "pure evil."
All three victims suffered blunt force trauma to the back of the head, but Schulte and McFarland died from their injuries. Roby was brought to the University of Iowa Hospital where he remains currently. Officials have stated that hammers were used to cause injuries to the victims. Dutcher and Woodard were able to check out the tools used in the attack and attempted escape from a prison tool shop, while they were attacking the two deceased victims, Roby tried to come in between to save them but got attacked as well. Richard Rahn, a special agent with the Iowa Department of Public Safety's Division of Criminal Investigation explained that the duo had stolen two hammers and a mechanical grinder from the prison workshop and the break room in the Anamosa infirmary under the guise of repairing some equipment.
The investigation further unfolded that another prison employee, Lori Mathis was located in an adjoining room of the unit where the attack took place. She walked across the hall and into the breakroom where she was clutched by Dutcher with Woodard present. Mathis was warned that she would be next if she did not cooperate with them. Mathis was held against her will for a period of time before she was released and Dutcher ran out of the break room. While they were inside, they allegedly broke a windowpane and tried to grind down metal bars on the window in a failed attempt to break out of the prison. Rahn said that the inmates had been planning the escape for quite some time and it was not a spontaneous act.
Both the inmates were charged with two counts of first-degree murder, one count of attempted murder and one count of second-degree kidnapping for their role in the assault. If convicted, first-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence without the possibility of parole.
Dutcher was currently serving a 50-year sentence with a provisional release in April 2057 and Woodard was serving a 25-year sentence with a tentative release date in March 2029.
Governor Kim Reynolds said the state was grieving the deaths of "two public servants who were attacked while on duty at the Anamosa State Penitentiary." "My prayers and deepest condolences are with their families, friends, and colleagues as they begin to cope with this senseless tragedy,' she said. 'We will exhaust every available resource to deliver justice to those who committed this act and bring a sense of closure and peace to the victims’ families."