Posted by On 24 March 2012, in a farmhouse near Osage, Iowa, 13-year-old Noah Crooks killed his mother Gretchen, a 37-year-old nurse, with 22 rifle shots, then called 911. In 2013 he was convicted of second-degree murder and acquitted of attempted sexual assault. In 2016 he was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison.
Noah Crooks is not the first child killer I have written about, but he is the first to have killed a parent: his mother, Gretchen Crooks.
Noah was just 13. According to some media reports, the motive was that his mother had taken away his “Call of Duty” video game because of his bad grades at school.
The murder
It is 24 March 2012, a Saturday like any other. Noah is at home alone with his mother at the family farmhouse, about 8 miles from Osage, Iowa. Gretchen is 37 and has worked for 13 years as a critical care nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Mason City.
Suddenly something snaps in the 13-year-old’s mind. He is angry, but he does not even know why. He takes his .22 rifle and goes downstairs, intending to kill his mother. Then he goes back upstairs because, he will say, he does not want to shoot her in the back.
When he goes back down, he shoots her 22 times and kills her.
The 911 call
After the murder Noah himself calls 911. He tells the operator that he has just killed his mother, but he does not know why. He feels as if he were crazy, but he knows he is not. In the call he also says he tried to sexually assault her.
The police arrive shortly after 7:30 pm and arrest him without difficulty.
The trial
In May 2013 the jury found Noah guilty of second-degree murder, but acquitted him of assault with intent to commit sexual abuse. Under Iowa’s youthful offender status he was placed in the juvenile system until the age of 18 and held at the State Training School in Eldora.
In April 2016 a juvenile court officer reported that Noah tried to avoid addressing why he had killed his mother.
On 6 May 2016, at 17, Noah was sentenced to up to 50 years in prison, with no mandatory minimum. In 2018 the Iowa Supreme Court upheld the sentence.
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- Radio Iowa – Iowa Supreme Court upholds murder sentence of Osage teen
- We Are Iowa – 50-year prison sentence upheld for teen who killed mother
- Albert Lea Tribune – Osage boy accused of murder also faces a sex-related charge
